Confessions of a Counterfeit Recycler

On this past Earth Day I vowed to make some changes in the way my family lives to keep the earth and our home cleaner and healthier for our children.  I am not really a counterfeit recycler ... in fact, I take full advantage of our county's weekly recyclables pick-up.  However, I can do better. I can make a better effort to be GREEN. 

Sometimes I throw my aluminum cans into the regular trash can.  I don't always do full loads of laundry.  I use paper towels and extra soft toilet paper and bleach!  ...and Drano!  And, disposable diapers, but I refuse to apologize for those. I am a mom of a toddler and a newborn and I totally get the time crunch and necessity of convenience.  I balk at the expense of many free-range foods and eco-conscious products but as I learned in the documentary, Food, Inc., a lot of big business, agri-business and food industries are subsidized, making unhealthy choices cheaper than healthy ones. 

I'm going to give you a minute to let that sink in.

What?

Our government subsidizes the corn industry, for example, thereby allowing processed foods to be cheaper than say, an organic apple. 

Food, Inc. is an awesome documentary if you want to be completely turned off your food.  I loved it! No, really, if you want to get a glimpse of the harsh realities of the way chicken, cows and pigs are raised in this country, watch this documentary. In an effort to get my family on a healthier path I needed a big wake up call about where my food comes from.  It motivated me to pay a little extra attention to how far my food travels to my table, is it an agribusiness product, and what it is made from.

I am resigning myself to paying a little extra money for quality and authenticity.  I joined a CSA for this summer.  I am in the process of arranging for home-delivered milk from a local dairy, and locating local beef and chicken farmers.  It doesn't have to be certified organic, but it must be local.  That's my new mantra for food.  

I'm going to make small changes: make recycling more accessible in my house by putting a bin upstairs so I am not tempted to toss cans into the regular trash.  I will cut back on unnecessary use of electricity, turn off lights more often, clean with vinegar , baking soda, and bleach instead of Lysol.  I can buy a gallon and a half of white vinegar at Costco for $3.99, a big savings over environmentally-harsh name-brand cleaners. Even mainstream labels are now making phosphate-free dishwasher detergent. 

Did I mention that I'm composting too? The worm composter deserves it's own posting though, more on that soon.