Published: April 27, 2008 04:39 pm            

You don’t have to break the bank to help save the environment

Our View

I consider myself somewhat of a hippie. Not in the sense of peace-signs, long hair and several-day long music festivals. I mean in the sense of loving nature and the environment.

I was raised on the idea that nature is beautiful. I can go to a random creek and kill hours there simply exploring and watching. I have cared for and owned more animals than I care to admit.

That’s why, when Earth Day came around yet again last week, I was more frustrated than ever about taking a part in turning things around for the better.

Hybrid cars, state-of-the-art energy-saving homes, all-natural clothing and organic foods sound great to someone who may be searching for a way to make their own positive impact on the ever-growing environmental crisis.

But to a barely middle-class girl who finds herself struggling just to make ends meet thanks to exorbitant gas prices, rising grocery prices and ridiculous utility bills, it all seems just out of reach.

I think the idea that changing a lifestyle to better impact the environment is out of reach is a common one for many people who are having a hard time just making ends meet right now. An automatic response to a call for becoming greener is a quick “I don’t have the money for that.”

I don’t have the money to buy a hybrid car or a state-of-the-art energy-saving home, or even the extra cash for organic fruit or energy-saving light bulbs. I can’t afford all-natural cleaning products or all-natural clothes.

And I’m just supporting myself — albeit, on a measly writer’s salary — but myself, nonetheless.

I certainly can’t expect a middle-class person supporting a family of four to be able to afford the same things. With more mouths to feed, higher utility bills and usually larger cars (some large SUVs are filling up at nearly $100 now) to lug the family back and forth, the head — or heads — of a household are no doubt feeling the effects of the slowing economy.

But still, we can’t escape the calls to go green. Television commercials and shows bombard the average consumer with suggestions to “buy this 100 percent organic product” or to go with “so-and-so company, which has taken steps to not put as many ridiculous amounts of pollution in the air.”

But even there, one must be cautious. Many businesses have taken to masquerading as green businesses, only going so far as to make changes so long as it doesn’t effect the bottom line.

It’s hard know where to start or even how to start.

I have made the vow to simply start small. As small as my impact may be, perhaps the impact of numerous average middle-class citizens starting small can be larger than we think.

I realize that many of us remain at the mercy of oil and natural gas prices. Urban sprawl has brought about a way of life that necessitates a vehicle to simply keep a job.

But while we watch our insanity start to slip away along with our bank accounts in the wake of ever-rising fuel prices, we can make a difference in other ways.

There’s always the tried-and-true recycling program. But that has even more importance now, as plastic water bottles begin to inundate garbage dumps and landfills. The trend of consuming bottled water for health reasons has led to one of the worst solid waste situations in recent years.

Around eight out of 10 water bottles don’t get recycled, according to an article published by the Washington Times. That adds up to about 22 million water bottles ending up in the landfills every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Think about the fact that it takes an enormous amount of energy to create and transport these bottles to the consumers, and we’ve got a problem.

Drinking water is no doubt beneficial, but simply switching disposable water bottles – which have been considered to hold toxic chemicals by some scientists – with reusable containers can make an impact and save you money.

Save you money: That has to get your attention.

We don’t have water treatment plants for nothing. Studies have been published that claim tap water has passed the taste test next to bottled water repeatedly. But that makes sense, because many companies simply bottle purified drinking water.

Another relatively low-cost way to make a difference is to purchase reusable totes to carry groceries and other items in. While paper bags may be more biodegradable than plastic ones, paper bags translate into trees cut down. That isn’t really the result we want.

For only a few dollars at the most, you can do your part to help lower the ridiculous number of plastic bags that are used — and ultimately thrown away — each year by consumers.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the craze over organic fruit and vegetables. While fewer pesticides and fertilizers going into something we ingest is always good, the problem remains that these foods are substantially more expensive than the more traditional foods.

Many of these all-natural fruits and vegetables also spoil much quicker than their counterparts, which makes them even less cost-efficient to the average family. An alternative is your local farmer’s market.

While you may need to turn to the grocery store for the more exotic fruits and vegetables, foods like corn, tomatoes, watermelon, peaches, broccoli and squash — among others — are grown within miles from your home.

By purchasing some of your goods from your local produce farmers, you’re supporting the local economy not adding to the costs in energy that it takes to pack and ship goods across the world.

Yeah, I know. It doesn’t seem like much. But I have this funny little thought that maybe — just maybe — if we decide to make just the smallest changes in an effort to make a tiny impact, we’ll be apart of the transition from an Earth in crisis to a sustainable Earth.

And that will take time. But until everyone can afford the hybrids or the energy-saving homes or the all-natural cleaning products, it couldn’t hurt to do what little we can afford to do while facing an uncertain economic situation.

Maybe by doing that, we can make an impact after all.

        

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