Not easy bein’ green - Part 2

There are bigger and better ways to ‘go green’ than just by saving plastic bags. Cities are starting to catch up with recycling - which is in hot debate about whether or not it saves any money. Nashville (where I live) now recycles plastics up to #7! Lordy, almost no one recycles #7!

There must be a caveat . . . Yup. They don’t take plastic bags. These have to be the easiest thing in the world to recycle. I swear I could melt a few down on my stovetop in an old pan and make something useful out of it. I’d do it, too, except for the poisonous vapors it would release. And right there on the bag it says ‘please recycle’ and ‘#2’. So why won’t Nashville take them??? We are left to recycle them by . . . (*gasp*) using them again! (Give me a moment, I have to shake that thought off!)

There are big ticket items that can be bought more wisely, too - you know, the next time you’re not in a recession - like fuel efficient cars, energy saver fridges, dishwashers, etc. Personally, I’m holding out for a hybrid mini-van and a fridge that I can open the doors and cool the whole house in the summer.

There’s also a big push towards ‘green construction’, which a friend of mine is certified in. Apparently, often it’s not the materials that are different, but the way that they are assembled, and some methods to reduce waste. But, there are some things that are different.

There are recycled countertops. Beautiful pieces, really, made out of shards of broken (recycled) glass. I’m encouraging my father to get those when he re-does his kitchen. And there are toilets that have two different strengths of flushes. So you can flush according to what you put in there. But I have to wonder if there is also an alarm or a loud, taunting voice. There might as well be one. Like no one’s going to realize that scary loud whoosh of water through the pipes means you just dropped a deuce!

My contractor friend recently added a second story to his own home - and you can bet it’s green. He and his wife just had their first baby a few months ago (sounds like a good time to plan major construction on the house!) So they have been really excited about some of the new products they have found.

I get it. He’s in construction, she’s his wife. But they practically glowed about a spackle that had no volatile compounds and was so safe he could do the walls with the baby right there. This is the right time to put in energy saver appliances, and they are going all out. All the way out to the insulation. Which they swear is an organic foam that fills the cracks completely and won’t let a smidge of air escape. They say it’s so safe you can eat it. And some days they are so excited about it, that I think they will. (I’ll write again and let you know how that works out for them.)

But for any of us not currently adding a second story onto our house, what can we do?

Well, we can save gas by driving less aggressively. Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. We can save money and energy by putting fluorescent light bulbs all through our houses. They don’t burn out for ten whole years. Unless, of course, they pop and die like mine do. We can put recycling in the bin. If you paid just a little more attention, you could keep a huge portion of your trash out of the landfills. Except, of course, if you live in an apartment, which almost no city provides recycling for.

So, see? There’s plenty we can all do to make a better tomorrow. And sometime tomorrow we’ll realize how to get it done.