Green Meme
Charlotte’s excellent Green Meme.
1. What do you for the birds and the bees? According to the report, we need to plant a pollinator garden to counteract the effect pollution, pesticides and habitat destruction are having on birds, bees and insects. Bees, for instance, like yellow, blue and purple flowers. I attempt to do things, but I kill plants. Steve, on the other hand, has a lot of stuff in the garden that qualifies. I think.
2. Household products. Chemical or organic? Household chemicals contribute to indoor and outdoor pollution.
Whatever’s convenient, to be honest. However, my soapmaking has yielded a lot of green stuff to clean with. I use soap scraps and the soaps I don’t like to wash dishes, counters, the bathroom, and so on. Sadly, organic laundry and dishwasher detergents don’t work as well as their chemical counterparts. I keep trying, but end up going back to the polluting kind.
3. Do you junk?
I really hate all the junk mail we get. I’ve taken us off credit card offers, and as much junk mail as possible, but I really don’t think the “remove me from the list” services work all that well. We still get stuff.
4. Air-dry or tumble-dry? Line-drying saves money and stops carbon emissions.
Tumble, all the way. But I hate doing laundry and do my part by doing it as infrequently as possible.
5. Old gadgets. Recycle or toss ‘em? According to the report, we have to find a way not to fill up landfills with electronic objects. Charlotte says, “Here’s my current solution: fill up the cellar instead.” I concur wholeheartedly. I have good intentions.
6. Lightbulbs – incandescent or fluorescent? Fluorescent light bulbs use 70% less power and last ten times as long.I hate to admit this, but incandescent. I hate the light produced by fluorescent bulbs.
7. Meat or veg? Meat production is energy inefficient. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat. After about seven years of being a vegetarian, I’m a wholehearted meat eater now. My concession is that I try to buy meat that comes from local sources.
8. Loo paper. Virgin or recycled? The paper industry is the third largest contributor to global warming. If every U.S. household replaced one toilet-paper roll with a roll made from recycled paper, 424,000 trees would be saved. Recycled. Though it’s still bleached and all that. I do wish all those recycled TP companies would skip the bleach.
9. Tap or bottled water? According to Newsweek, it takes a lot of oil to make and ship water bottles, and most end up in landfills. Tap. This whole bottled water craze is one of my pet peeves. First, the materials and transportation that go into it. Second, the fact that most tap water is cleaner. Just get a Nalgene bottle and you’re good to do. And if you must distill, get a Britta. The exception is fizzy mineral water. We usually have a case of that stuff around.
10. Dating – metrosexual or ecosexual? Newsweek says two recyclers are better than one. Dating? What’s that?
Comments
Ah, I forgot the fizzy mineral water. I do drink that. I’m glad you call it fizzy too. When I go to a restaurant and ask for “fizzy mineral water” the waiter usually blinks at me in faux incomprehension then snaps: “Sparkling?!” I still refuse to describe it as sparkling.
I’ve been wondering whether I will stop being a vegetarian. I’m not even a proper one because I eat fish, and all that roast chicken at Christmas was very tempting…
Yes, our landlord has put up a big No Junk Mail sign, so what happened yesterday? I try to push the pram into the building and find my way barred by a mountain of junk mail on the path. Clearly the junk mail deliverer interpreted “No Junk Mail” as “Dump The Lot In Front Of The Door”.
As I said above, I was a veggie for a long time — long past when I really wanted to be one, if I am to be honest. I went to an acupuncturist who told me I had a blood deficiency and needed to start eating meat. I went out and bought a lamb chop for dinner … and it was the most delicious thing I have EVER eaten … That said, I do think about going back, but I don’t think I could do it now.