A quick update on my no shopping, no buying March experiment: things are going fairly well, though I slipped up once and bought some locally made artisan chocolates (we were the only people in the shop, and having accepted a free sample, I found there was no getting out of it graciously — not that [...]
Posts Tagged ‘green consumerism’
9 Mar
5 Ways to Fight a Shopping Addiction
This month, perhaps after watching the video above, I’ve gone and done something essentially un-American: I’ve declared March to be a no shopping, no buying month for me. Food and other essentials like toothpaste that allow me to function as a normal member of society are excepted. I’m not a shopaholic to begin with, and [...]
24 Feb
Bulk Binning 101
***Update: don’t forget to label your jars. If you’re tired enough, and it’s late enough, and all your jars are unlabeled because you think you’re that good…well, you might just end up putting farina (cream of wheat) in your bread instead of whole wheat flour. Oops.*** You can shop at the bulk bins even if [...]
7 Nov
13 Reasons You Can’t Afford to Shop
Shopping is an expenditure of time, energy, and money. It’s easy to forget that all of these are limited resources, and choosing to shop is choosing not to do something else, often something more enjoyable and fulfilling. Although shopping may not be the worst thing we can do to the planet, it’s probably the eco-sin we commit most often, with the least amount of consciousness. (Greenwashers, you’re [...]
20 Oct
Cutting Down on Packaging
“Recycling means you’ve failed. You’ve failed to reduce and reuse.” – Gary Hirschberg, CEO Stonyfield Farms If recycling means failure, there’s a whole lot of fail going around at my place. The recycling bag is like the cauldron of plenty. Empty it, wait a few days, and it’s full again. True, recycling is better than tossing, but [...]
10 Oct
Diagnosing My Crowded Closet
Last week, one of my fellow condo dwellers put out a box of clothing by the trash bins. I had a quick rummage through (wouldn’t you?) and discovered that the donor 1) was only a size or two bigger than I; 2) liked the same colors; 3) shopped at Target and was getting rid of [...]
12 Aug
100 Personal Items: Minimalism & Environmentalism
I’ve read a lot of minimalist articles lately. One of the most recent to come to my attention was a 100 personal items challenge. Pretty simple: get yourself down to under 100 personal belongings. (Easier said than done, of course.) Then I read a far more upsetting article: how to get rid of your books. [...]
18 Jul
“We went green last year.”
I’ve come across this phrase on a few blogs, most memorably on a ‘green review’ blog. To paraphrase, the whole thing went something like, “My family went green last year when we switched to all natural personal products.” Excuse me? You did what? The ex-English major in me is freaking out over the use of the past tense. [...]
12 Apr
Going Green on the Cheap
The most common excuse for not adopting greener measures is that they cost more. Organic food often does cost more than conventional, because treating the Earth responsibly means not taking myopic shortcuts for greater immediate gain. However, being green can cut down your bills because it’s actually a movement about reducing. Pretty simple. Use fewer resources, [...]
