Fancy Pantsy

I was reading Southern Mom yesterday, and remembered a post I had planned to write, so I’ll do it now.

In the past few weeks, a few people have been snarky towards me about “being green” (not that I ever use that term in real life!!). I was at the supermarket and the cashier said she liked my reusable bags and asked about them. I told her I really liked them, it was convenient to use them and nice not to be adding to landfills. The lady in line behind be sneered “Nice Attitude!”. The cashier did not get it, and turned to her to agree, that it was nice that I was bringing my own bags. I had gotten it though. I had heard the sneer that really meant “Self-righteous b!tch”!!

Then, a few days later, I was buying my latte at Starbucks. While I was getting my drink, a lady looked at it and said “what is that?”. I told her it was a Non-fat De-caf Peppermint Mocha Latte! She said “No, not the drink, that thing it is in”. I told her it was a reusable coffee cup. She sneered “Oh, for the environment you mean?”, gave me a look, and walked out.

I have also read a few blog articles talking about how it is trendy to be green, in a “put down” sort of way.

So, a few things to get straight:

1.  I know I am just 1 person and whatever I do is not going to change the world…but I also know that people add up and if people see what I do, and do it themselves (and I know of 2 people that have started using reusable bags after I did…maybe there are more I don’t know of), and then people see those people and try it and…well…you get it. I know I am in some ways a hypocrite, as for everything I do for the environment, there are other things I don’t do (like turn of the TV that I can still hear is on the in the other room right now. I know I should get up and turn it off). But reality is…the TV is on whether or not I use reusable bags. It is still better for the environment to have the TV on and no plastic bags in my garbage than to have the TV on and a garbage tin full of plastic bags. Doing a little is better than doing nothing.  BRB, I am gonna go turn off the TV…

2. I am well aware it is “trendy” to be green these days, and will even admit that part of the appeal of being green for me is the trend factor (though it started when I started using the Diva Cup, which I started to use not for the environment or because iut is trendy-it isn’t!- but because the traditional alternatives were no longer working for me). I like to do what’s hip. Being green is hip, and has caught on to me. So what? It is not like I am killing baby seals because it is hip. I don’t do harmful things just because they are hip. But I feel no shame that environmentalism appeals to me partly because it is hip. It is a good thing for the world, a good thing for my life, makes me feel good about myself and makes me feel hip. Win-win! (P.S. is it even hip to say ”hip” these days? Should I say “cool”? How about “phat”? Help…I am a failure at being hip!)

3. I will also freely admit that anything I do for the environment has benefits for me too. I may want to be hip, and I may want to reduce my waste and carbon footprint…but I am not enough of a self-righteous b!tch to do things that would cause me true sacrifice or inconvenience. Here is how being green helps me:

Bags:I hated the way plastic bags took over my entire home. they were poking out of every closet, piled up in corners of the basement, stuffed in every crevice of my car, and piled up under my desk at work. Half the time I tried to re-use a plastic bag, I realized (often too late) that it had a hole it in anyways. They ere not strong and I often needed to double bag things at the supermarket or had them break on me in parking lots or on my driveway. The small handles would dig into my palms and hurt, and I could only carry a few at a time.

Reusable bags are neat and tiny and foldable. I have a static number of them and never get more so they are never cluttering my world. They all fit in one bag and take up almost no space in my trunk when I am not using them. They go over my shoulder and I can carry my whole grocery load into my house in one trip using them. They are very strong and sturdy, and I have yet to lose a bag full of groceries in a parking lot while carrying them. Reusable bags do far more for me than for the environment (or so it feels, anyways).

Cups:I drink a lot of coffee, and a lot of water. When I used disposable coffee cups and water bottles, it was gross. I was constantly looking for places to dispose of cups so I could fit a new coffee in my cup holder, and finding moldy old cups in the floor of my car. Empty water bottles as well rolled all over my car. It was a choice of having my car constantly littered with these things, or constantly seeking garbage cans and recycling bins. Far too often my water bottles went in the garbage as there was no recycling bin around, and they were driving me crazy. Having a reusable coffee cup I always keep in my car and quickly rinse between coffees is so much easier, and keeps my car so much cleaner (and fresh smelling) and for water I now use a SIGG bottle. I keep it full in my fridge, grab it every morning on my way out, and refill it with Britafied water every night. Way easier than always needing to make sure I have a case of bottles in the trunk, and disposing of the bottles before there is no room for me in the car!

Girly stuff:No more midnight runs to the drugstore or supermarket. I always have what I need, when I need it. I also prefer the performance of the reusable products, and enjoy that I don’t have to deal with overflowing garage tins and worries about clogging up the toilet at certain times of the month.