Green Woes

Uggggg, being the go to eco-gal is sometimes hard, I have spent my whole life caring about the planet (I remember going to my first Earth Day Festival with my best friend around age 8) and I still do but sometimes it's hard and I find myself faltering from my own standards.

There are certain things I do daily that are a given, like trying to always avoid plastic grocery bags and using our reusable cloth napkins, but sometimes I find myself lamenting at how long going the eco way will take, and then the guilt sets in and then I feel horrible. Take our #5 recyclables for example, we separate them from our other recyclable plastics because NYC does not accept them (and contrary to popular belief, if you hide them in with the other bottles and jugs, they will be thrown into landfills!) and tote them to our local Whole Foods for proper recycling. Lately I haven't had the energy to wash them out and store them, and while it's been tempting to simply toss I haven't (I am redeemed!). I usually leave them for when my husband is doing the dishes, shhhhh!

My husband and I do admittingly go through our fair share of plastic iced coffee cups/straws but we do recycle them at least (most of the time). It is shocking though when you see a few weeks worth stacked in our recycle bin. Not good. I must change this!

The list goes on...

We recently had a clogged drain, I had bought an eco brand of drain cleaner and felt proud to be using something natural, well....it didn't work. Day after day I followed the instructions and got no results, in fact it seemed to be getting worse! My husband cleared the drain out as best as he could (aka my hair) and still nothing, we eventually purchasing a chemical drain cleaner and poof, problem solved. I felt guilty yes, but I loved that first shower where the water went down as it should! Guilty. guilty. shame. shame. Next time we have a problem, I'll try a different brand, is that a compromise?

Also, LED light bulbs, we've always had an issue using these, we seem to pick the wrong ones over and over, and we did it again, we swung by the hardware store and picked up a few to try, we hated them all, they all produced a hospital like glow, eeeek! I need some eco-fairy to come down and help me with lightening. We are going to return the bulbs to the hardware store and seek some help in choosing the next set.

Being an earth lovin' gal is sometimes very time consuming, and you've got to be willing to put in the extra time or else it's easy to let protecting the environment fall down on your list of priorities. I won't let that happen, no matter what!

So, I've got a renewed sense of saving the planet heroism! I vow to reduce the plastic cups I use, making it a point to bring my own cups as much as I can remember! Baby steps back folks.

I recently read this article and realized it's time to step it up!