Turning Blue From Going Green!

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We are doing a fairly good job at our house at being conscience of the environment and our environmental "duties." We recycle, although I have been reminding Art for the last three years that banana peels do not go in our recycle bin. We are aware of how much we water our lawn (it is always too much). We use the energy saver light bulbs, reuse our paper bags and so on and so forth.

On the other hand, SOME DAYS IT DRIVES ME CRAZY! Some days laziness gets the best of me and I think forming these new habits is getting the better of me. I say "new habits" because everytime I get to a point where I feel we are doing alright there is another new habit that we can implement.

A while back I was serving my kids lunch on paper plates. I love using paper plates when I can because they are easy. We all love easy -right? Then I start thinking too hard about it; "Hmmm, is it better to use a paper plate or to wash a real plate? If I use a real plate then I am using more water, but if I use a paper plate then that is something else that is going into the trash. " Not to mention that I then learn that many paper plates have a plastic coating on them that can leech to your food if you heat them in the microwave. I am starting to realize you can become rather irritable over the whole issue.

I got rid of all my ziploc baggies and started storing everything in pyrex and tin foil after learning that using plastic for extreme heating or cooling or any food storage leeches onto the food you eat and is cancer causing. Our refrigerator looked like a shelf in Bed, Bath and Beyond! I was washing more dishes than ever w/ the change over. Oh no! Water wasting!! Not to mention all the time washing - like that is what I want to do all the time.

I finally caved and went on a Ziploc binge! Then I spoke with a dear friend who is way ahead of the curve on all these health/enviro/"green" topics and she talked me down.

I still haven't given up the Ziplocs, I guess it is the rebel in me!