My husband and I have a great relationship but like all spouses we pick on each others weaknesses when we get frustrated. This weekend he picked on my green weaknesses so I decided to turn it into a blog post. (Love you huney!)
Whether you are green-minded or not you will appreciate knowing that I’m not perfect and I don’t claim to be. While I am The Eco Chic that doesn’t mean that I am always living the perfect green life. I am human and there is no way that I will ever be 100% green. Our current lifestyle just does not allow for me to do everything to the greenest level possible. Like most parents out there I have real life responsibilities such as a career, a family, kids, house work, church, extra curricular activities, and so much more to juggle each day…being green is just one aspect of my life.
Five Things I Don’t Want You to Know About Me:
1. I’m a lazy recycler and I don’t recycle everything. We pay to have our recyclables picked up once a week where we live. I am guilty of letting the recycling gather in the garage until it’s overflowing. I usually wait until my husband decides to take it out to the road. Unfortunately they will only pick up plastic and aluminum. I really let the cardboard accumulate in the garage…for over a month! And hubby will usually get sick of looking at it and take it across the road to the drop off center. Glass…gets tossed because there is no place local to recycle it (easily).
2. I don’t compost. I’ve tried…I made a redneck compost bin from chicken wire 2 summers ago with all the intentions of composting our kitchen scraps. This failed because I never turned the compost bin…so essentially it has become a leaf bin and is overgrown with weeds.
3. I don’t have a green thumb when it comes to gardening. I’ve tried that too…and failed. I expect the garden to be self sufficient and it’s not.
4. I’m not a vegan and I don’t eat organic (all the time). I tried the vegan lifestyle in college for a few years and did ok with it. Then I married a meat and potatoe man. Just adding green beans to a meal is a chore! I do try to buy organic when the prices are competitive and I usually buy apples organic. Hubby doesn’t understand the whole organic craze, nor does he believe the claims. Don’t tell him…but I sneak in several meat-free meals all of the time and he never complains!
5. I use plastic. Even with my understanding of BPA and plastics I still use plastic food storage containers and I allow my children to play with plastic toys.
Why am I telling you all of these things? Because I don’t want you to think I’m a hypocrite. I’m just a human being trying her hardest to be green. While my life may be greener than most it’s certainly not as green as it could be. My goal is not to shame or guilt anyone into changing their lifestyle…my goal is to educate you of your options and provide you with small steps you can take to change your life.
What is your green weakness that you don’t want me to know about you?
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Oh my..I soo guilty of letting recyclables accumulate. Yesterday my husband took about 12 bags of plastic jugs and 2 big bags of cardboard to the recycle center! We have to shove it all in our van and take into the next town so it's a pain in the butt. I try to recycle cans but the bags of stuff start taking over and I have to throw something away…I feel so guilty anytime something goes in the trash though. I think we have the least trash on the block though..everyone elses trash cans are busting at the seems.
I'd love to compost too..I just haven't done it yet, I have a black thumb and we eat meat too..but I still consider myself pretty green. We do what we can right?
Also I heard if there is one thing to buy organic it's grapes..I can't remember exactly why…but I always buy those organic and chicken…
Great post!
Well… I throw out a lot of paper! That is one thing that I think our trash is made out of, paper! And it annoys me to death. This is a great post. We all talk about what we should do, but do we do it? Not all the time.
I also married a meat & potatoes man and I don't shun all plastic either! But I'm not really “all or nothing.” I do what works for us and make gradual changes. I draw the line at family cloth. 🙂
I just used disposables for over a month because of morning sickness. I just couldn't do the cloth diaper thing. Everything about it grossed me out.
Love your honesty! I cannot buy organic as much as I would like. We do try and seem to have more success with it during the summer when we can eat from our garden or get things at our local farmer's market. Our grocery has a terrible selection of organics! My hubs is also a meat and potato guy and not sure that he would EVER go for meatless! The kids and I do sometimes though 🙂
I did the same thing when I was preg w my 3rd & the 1st two were still in cloth. Just the thought of bending over the toilet to scrape poop off was enough to make me vomit.. & then I had to share the same toilet to constantly run to & throw up.. Wasn't happening. But, I did go back to cloth after the morning sickness subsided. (months later)
Wow, I didn’t even know there were places that didn’t have recycling service. I guess I just live in a progressive area? We put all the recyclables into one big bin. Food scraps, papertowels and pizza boxes go in the yard waste bin for the city to compost. I hardly have to throw anything away at all!
Great post! It's always great to hear that other people are doing the best they can, but that doesn't mean that they do 100% of the “good things to do” 100% of the time. And that's ok!
Great post! It’s always great to hear that other people are doing the best they can, but that doesn’t mean that they do 100% of the “good things to do” 100% of the time. And that’s ok!