going green? or going snob?

like nigel farndale, the author of the article, turn your nose up at eco-snobs, someone slap my wrist for my attitude toward those that aren't as or even striving to be as eco-friendly as me. i'm guilty of my ears perking up to someone in the market line refusing a paper bag while the woman in front of me gladly takes the offered bag. (at my local safeway here in san francisco plastic bags are no longer offered as a means to transport your groceries. it's paper or your own bag.) it's happened so many times. and what about those that walk by the recycling bin in the office and dump their empty water bottles in the trash can? shame on them? or shame on me?

farndale's article hit home with me and now i feel bad. take a read yourself. if you're going green, good for you, but be careful to avoid rubbing it in the face of those surrounding you. like some folks said in the comments of a treehugger.com article, going green should be treated like a religion. if you try to convert someone into changing their ways and thinking differently about the environment, you won't be successful by shoving it down their throat. my mother always taught me to lead by example and actions speak louder than words. in this day and age, those words of wisdom still ring true.

emily bazalon, a writer for slate.com, wrote another view of appearing or teaching a version of eco-snobbery: she fears what her family's purchase of their prius might mean to her children. her article is both witty and realistic.

don't puff yourself up thinking you're all that just because you reuse and recycle or drive a prius. join me in relieving the world of a few eco-snobs, myself included.

green is gorgeous.

super cute and super green tote! use it for runs to the farmer's market or for your lunch and snacks for work.

wear it proudly and constantly.

they're not expensive so buy a couple--stock up for yourself or use as gifts!

it's a shame the proceeds don't benefit a cause but using them instead of regular plastic bags is cause enough!

thoughts on the plastic bag

The push lately has been on recycling plastic bags (from groceries, retailers, etcetera) and to use totes whenever shopping to reduce the waste of plastic bags. But truth be told, some people can't escape the plastic plague -- so they take their old bags to be recycled and get new bags at every store. Therefore the question has been lurking -- is it better to recycle the old bags or to actually reuse them? Comment on this, if you would, but it makes sense to me to reuse old bags until they're no longer usable (ripped, torn, shredded), thus conserving the energy and resources needed to recycle the old and turn them into new. The fewer bags we're sending through factories, recycled or new, the better off we'll be in the long run.

Check out this link from the Grassroots Recycling Network in 2005. They seem to support my opinion on reuse.

Can't figure out how to stop getting bags you don't want or need? Simply make the request. Though store employees have been trained to bag every little item, they're happy enough to fulfill a request for no bag, even if they don't understand it (I have gotten a few funny looks when I've asked for no bag). I was taken by happy surprise this weekend when a checkout person actually asked if I needed a bag for what I was purchasing -- and I didn't.

Yes, yes, bags are only a part of the problem, but everything small thing we can do helps -- figure it this way: if you get 8 bags from the grocery each week on average, and replace those bags with 2-3 totes instead, you're saving 416 bags a year -- that's almost 20 pounds of bags. Multiply that by friends, family, coworkers... you get the idea.