The first time I heard the phrase "Go Green" I responded proudly "Go White." Coming from MSU, with my brother graduating from our rival U of M, there has been a lot of green and blue thrown around the house in the past 5 years. The only thing I knew about going green was wearing my alumni t-shirt and watching the big game each year. People often hear me state that I bleed green and I'm beginning to think that may have two meanings.
I was late in figuring out about recycling, about plastic seeping into my water, about animals and oil spills. I attended a prestigious, albeit, private, prep school where I focused solely on my own grades. My classes did not include environmental safety, or even health and nutrition. I studied the great classics, I spent my nights learning calculus and physics and recycling only meant returning bottles to get my 10 cents back.
That was probably my first experience with recycling: returning bottles. Michigan has one of the better programs, ten cents per bottle. It wasn't long before I was thinking about what happened to the other bottles that don't require that deposit. Soon enough my hometown was offering recycling services, Monroe is great at this and will take anything that doesn't have food on it(sorry pizza boxes). MSU's campus recycles everything, on campus, and thus, my green education truly began.
Over time, I have incorporated several little habits into daily life to help the world without really feeling the impact. This means I don't feel put out for having a bin dedicated to recycling. I've learned to depend on some of these habits, such as the fresh dairy milk that comes in a reusable and recyclable glass bottle. My first step in turning this house green depends on the family listing everything we are already doing, including prices and reasons for why it is important.
To figure out what we're already doing well, we decided it was important to define what "green" means to our family. I've compiled a list of words and phrases to try to create an idea of what I'm hoping to accomplish.
safe * environmentally conscious * low-impact * sustainable * organic * natural * recyclable * biodegradeable * pet-friendly * safe for pregnant women and babies * pre-recycled * non-toxic * ecological * locally grown * DIY *
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