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Ah, those two time-honored early January rituals...
- Making resolutions
- Breaking resolutions
It's the stuff of countless (un-funny) punch lines. What's also un-funny is the state of our eco-system. For without millions upon millions of green resolutions, well...the joke is on us.
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When deciding where to start, it doesn't get any more fundamental than the original 3 R's, reduce, re-use, recycle, with a couple more relevant R's tossed in. However, we're not done once we have our own house in order. Far from it. There's way too much eco-blame to go around and that means we introduce a new R: radical. Too often, this word is viewed as a pejorative but the Latin origin of the word radical is the same as the Latin origin of the word root. In other words, a radical is one who gets past the surface and digs down to the root of a situation.
Who's got a shovel?
6 Green Resolutions Anyone Can Keep
1. Refuse
Just say no. It doesn't get any more basic than this: The less we consume, the less we need the other R's. In the words of the immortal Tyler Durden, "The things you own end up owning you." Own your freedom instead.
2. Reduce
We're essentially talking about precycling which, Lloyd Alter explains, "represents the stage before recycling and, unlike recycling, it expends little energy." When you call it precycling or call it reducing, it happens at the point of purchase, and, Alter adds, "entails you choosing the product that comes in the least packaging (therefore diverting waste from landfill) or bringing along your own container or bag. Instead of buying packaged sandwiches, for example, take a lunchbox to work, along with cloth napkins and a reusable water bottle."
3. Re-Use
An old towel becomes a dish rag. A pickle jar is now used to store pens. Maybe you re-use/re-purpose those organic, Fair Trade, shade grown coffee grinds as a dye, a cleaner, or a deodorizer. How you choose to re-use is best left to you individual style. The green point here is view disposal as the very last resort. In fact, even when you're stumped for a possible re-use angle, there's always freecyling. Re-use is the antidote to landfills.
4. Repair
We know all about planned obsolescence: nothing is built to last and that keeps the consumer cycle rolling along. By learning basic, DIY repair skills, you can toss a monkey wrench into that cycle and learn how to use that monkey wrench at the same.
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5. Recycle
With roughly 20 million tons of electronic waste still thrown away each year, it's clear we still need to up the recycling ante. On a smaller scale, if we reduce (see #1) our consumption and re-use (see #2) what we have, we are leading by example and creating less personal waste.
6. Rot
This is sort of nature's recycling program, a process by which natural materials decompose as a result of natural chemical reactions or be aided by fungi, bacteria and insects. We can resolve to rot in 2010 via composting. Apartment dwellers, do not despair. Jenn at Tiny Choices has 4 suggestions for composting:
- NatureMill Indoor Composter
- Bokashi
- Vermicomposting
- Let Someone Else Compost For You
One Extra "R" to Put Us in Touch With Our Inner Radical
Once you've got the basic R's in your sights, you might want to expand your horizons, if you will. The seventh R is for radical. In green terms, radical has become synonymous with tactics like, say, liberating animals from laboratories.
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Well, rather than doing something likely to land you in jail, what would happen if we banded together and pledged to never, ever buy a product that was tested on animals? International animal liberation, you might call it. You can start by compiling a list of cruelty-free products.
Hey, you never know just how radical 2010 might turn out to be.
Happy New You
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