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What do you refuse to do for the environment?

manderz

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Mar 8, 2010
Messages
1,539
Yeah, I'm always going to flush the toilet. No guilt here, we have a high efficiency toilet anyway.

I'm not giving up 4 wheel drive. I live in the snow belt, and even getting out of my in town driveway sometimes requires it. Plus, I kayak in the summer, so it's really nice to have something to haul all that crap around easily with. I don't think the difference between me driving a more fuel-efficient car, and my jeep is going to be that drastic anyway, since I drive ~2000 miles a year.
 

TooPatient

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
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10,295
centralsquare|1317096734|3026600 said:
ame|1317085916|3026431 said:
MissStepcut|1317064100|3026043 said:
cup-style device. Tried it, nope nope nope, not for me.
I won't even consider trying it.

I haven't even heard of that! I don't even think I want to know about it.

I heard about it over in the FHH section (a year ago?) and gave it a try. For me, it is actually a lot less uncomfortable than other options. I don't do this for the environment, I just want to be as comfortable as possible at an already uncomfortable time.

Now any sort of recycled or re-usable female products.... EW!
My grandmother and her sisters used re-usable when they were growing up and it sounds just awful. Each of them had 2 so that they could wash one while wearing another.
 

ame

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2004
Messages
10,869
When I was in college there was this little store called the Peace Nook. They sold machine washable reusable pads and tampons. And apparently sold TONS of them. EW. PASS.
 

Joolz

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 24, 2011
Messages
96
Convert to vegetarian. Though I have cut down on meat substantially, I am too much of a foodie to give it up all together.
 

Octavia

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
Messages
2,660
I'm with those who use paper towels, flush the toilet after every use, and leave more lights on than is strictly necessary when I'm home alone. I drive to work (20 minutes each way) instead of cobbling together a public transit route (75 minutes each way). And I fly long distances a couple times a year and don't feel guilty about it. I do love, love, love my DivaCup though.
 

DivaDiamond007

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jun 7, 2007
Messages
1,828
I feel like I have a long list:

- I refuse to give up driving. I live in a city that isn't public-transportation friendly and like being able to hop in the car and go wherever I want whenever I want.

- I refuse to give up paper towels. With two small kids, a husband and a dog there's a lot of messes in my house.

- I use disposable diapers and formula for the baby. We have enough laundry without dirty diapers to wash (ewwww).

- We run the dishwasher several times a week and sometimes don't have a full load.

- I water my landscaping.

- We flush the toilet after every use.

- Compost. Too stinky.

- Freeze in my own home in the winter and sweat all summer. Our furnace is already turned on and the AC is turned on as soon as it's warm in the summer. We also run ceiling fans often.
 

luv2sparkle

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
7,950
I do a lot of the things in the other thread, but I confess, I do them because they save me money. I never think of my carbon footprint, hey, I have 5 kids so that is out the window. My DH drives 70 miles to work, 10 days a month.

I love Charmin. Scratchy one ply toilet paper makes me very unhappy and that is not good for the planet.

I don't even care that much about reusable bags, but I bring my own to trader joe's because it puts me in a drawing for a gift certificate, that incidentally I have never won once in all the years of shopping there. But for the possibility, I do it.

I tried cloth diapers and used them for a while, but went back to disposables.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there it is. Shoot me. I am horrible.
 

yssie

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Aug 14, 2009
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27,242
ame|1317150702|3027078 said:
When I was in college there was this little store called the Peace Nook. They sold machine washable reusable pads and tampons. And apparently sold TONS of them. EW. PASS.


OMG :errrr: :errrr: :errrr:
 

kenny

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 30, 2005
Messages
33,225
Sounds like avoiding diapers has a long tradition.

00diap.jpg
 

Imdanny

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
6,186
I refuse to give up my car. I'd have to walk three miles (and back) from the nearest bus stop (as well as obviously take the bus, including transfers, taking hours to get to some of the places I need to go and can get to in my car in 1/2 an hour).

I've been told by people who live in New York how horrible I (and other car owners are) for having cars and not using public transportation (as if everyone in the US can live/ work somewhere with public transportation :rolleyes: ). And this criticism of my (our) "lifestyle" is from people who live in one of the most polluted places on earth. :rolleyes:

I'm sorry but they can (and do) make hydrogen cars (that cost a small fortune, the "masses" can certainly not afford to all run out and buy one). And then when you ask these same people about it, the excuses are endless. "Oh, hydrogen is flammable (but gasoline isn't :rolleyes: ) and we could (no proof, just assertion) never, oh, we could never, "make" enough hydrogen, blah, blah, blah.

Give the "masses" cars to buy that emit water as emissions and don't plug into a power plant, excuse me, I mean an electrical outlet, and then we might have a choice. But no. And these are the same people who tell me how wonderful, how safe, how necessary, and how inevitable nuclear power is. :rolleyes: Nuclear power. Now there's a "clean" energy source. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I could have a beautiful, state of the art, off the grid house, fully functional, with all appliances, a computer, anything and everything I wanted, powered by solar. And I could have a Honda hydrogen power car (if I lived next to a special fueling station, which I don't even live in the same state with one).

Did I mention the above wouldn't be the least bit economically feasible? But don't tell that to the people who live in the most polluted cities on earth and yet criticize me for not being "environmental". :rolleyes:

I love paper towels, btw. I don't buy them because I consider them a luxury, but that's just me. I happen to be very good at cleaning. I have zero tolerance for sponges that get bacteria/ mold in them, and I would never consider just reusing a sponge for cleaning (I have to boil my sponges, or throw them out). I use "rags" I wash in the washer. That's probably not "environmental". That probably cost a good deal of money. I occasionally treat myself to paper towels. But I just can't bring myself to buy them very often. They're not toilet paper. I don't need them. So I love them when I have them but it's not very often.
 

ksinger

Ideal_Rock
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Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Messages
5,083
Imdanny|1317214207|3027728 said:
I refuse to give up my car. I'd have to walk three miles (and back) from the nearest bus stop (as well as obviously take the bus, including transfers, taking hours to get to some of the places I need to go and can get to in my car in 1/2 an hour).

I've been told by people who live in New York how horrible I (and other car owners are) for having cars and not using public transportation (as if everyone in the US can live/ work somewhere with public transportation :rolleyes: ). And this criticism of my (our) "lifestyle" is from people who live in one of the most polluted places on earth. :rolleyes:

I'm sorry but they can (and do) make hydrogen cars (that cost a small fortune, the "masses" can certainly not afford to all run out and buy one). And then when you ask these same people about it, the excuses are endless. "Oh, hydrogen is flammable (but gasoline isn't :rolleyes: ) and we could (no proof, just assertion) never, oh, we could never, "make" enough hydrogen, blah, blah, blah.

Give the "masses" cars to buy that emit water as emissions and don't plug into a power plant, excuse me, I mean an electrical outlet, and then we might have a choice. But no. And these are the same people who tell me how wonderful, how safe, how necessary, and how inevitable nuclear power is. :rolleyes: Nuclear power. Now there's a "clean" energy source. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I could have a beautiful, state of the art, off the grid house, fully functional, with all appliances, a computer, anything and everything I wanted, powered by solar. And I could have a Honda hydrogen power car (if I lived next to a special fueling station, which I don't even live in the same state with one).

Did I mention the above wouldn't be the least bit economically feasible? But don't tell that to the people who live in the most polluted cities on earth and yet criticize me for not being "environmental". :rolleyes:

I love paper towels, btw. I don't buy them because I consider them a luxury, but that's just me. I happen to be very good at cleaning. I have zero tolerance for sponges that get bacteria/ mold in them, and I would never consider just reusing a sponge for cleaning (I have to boil my sponges, or throw them out). I use "rags" I wash in the washer. That's probably not "environmental". That probably cost a good deal of money. I occasionally treat myself to paper towels. But I just can't bring myself to buy them very often. They're not toilet paper. I don't need them. So I love them when I have them but it's not very often.

I hear ya on this. I live in a state with cities that developed WITH the car, not BEFORE the car. Curse them if you like but they are what they are. OKC is still one of THE most sprawling cities in the US, and because of economic interests (gotta support those oil companies and real estate developers don'tcha know) it has continued down that path. There really is virtually NO mass transit, or none that makes a difference. I drive 17 miles a day one way to work each day. I CAN'T live near where I work. Period. Almost no one here can. And this is giant PE* vehicle country. Driving large distances in a tiny car is thrill-seeking in the extreme. Even a reasonable sized car (I own a Camry) is at a disadvantage when surrounded by almost nothing but HUUUUUGE Dodge Rams and Ford F-350s.

I double-dog dare someone from a densely packed walking city based originally on the local neighborhood as an organizing paradigm, to try to do without a vehicle somewhere out west.

And yes on the feasibility issue. All this ultra-greenness is really only available to people who have MONEY. I see many many people in my state - which is very poor overall - driving horrible beaters from the local "we can get YOU in a CAR" dealers, because that's all they can afford. They are not thinking about green, they are dealing with basic survival, and in this town, that means a car. You likely can't reasonably make it to a grocery store without one.

PE* - Penile enhancement. AKA - "lard-ass-mobiles" or "rolling doublewides" - my husband's disparaging terms for big bloated oversized vehicles used for daily commutes instead of hauling stuff. There are TONS of those here. Trucks whose beds have never seen a speck of dirt and whose bloated exteriors are buffed with a diaper every day. :rolleyes:
 

partgypsy

Ideal_Rock
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Nov 7, 2004
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6,622
Yeah, well we can afford to do all this now. It will be a moot point about 50 years from now. Then people will wax nostalgic about the 25 mpg cars we used to have, and that they actually used to cut down virgin forests (what are those?) to make paper to wipe their butts with them :tongue:
 

ame

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2004
Messages
10,869
Yssie|1317174083|3027484 said:
ame|1317150702|3027078 said:
When I was in college there was this little store called the Peace Nook. They sold machine washable reusable pads and tampons. And apparently sold TONS of them. EW. PASS.


OMG :errrr: :errrr: :errrr:
Exactly.
 

amc80

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
5,765
MissStepcut|1317064100|3026043 said:
***TMI WARNING**** GENTLEMEN MAY NOT WANT TO READ FURTHER *****

Switch from tampons to any cup-style device. Tried it, nope nope nope, not for me.

Big ditto (um, except for the trying it thing). And using resusable pads. Just...no.
 

ame

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2004
Messages
10,869
That Peace Nook place was a TRIP. Still is even. Smells like dirty hippy and reuseable pads ;-)
 

MichelleCarmen

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 8, 2003
Messages
15,880
TooPatient|1317065247|3026061 said:
Kenny -- around here we can toss paper towels in our compost/yard-waste bin for collection. Even without that, I'm with you on this one.

Same - we use paper towels and they can be tossed in the yard bin. Problem is, we had to set up three garbages under our sink (regular, recycling, and then paper towels) and it just got too crowded. lol

The other things I haven't given up include plastic spoons (for my kid's lunches - I tried using our regular metal spoons but they ended up getting lost and of course one of them was an awesome antique silver spoon we had nicknamed the "monster spoon.") lol And, TP - what's the deal with Charmin? Is it worse than others? We use MD and I buy double rolls.

We have a lot of the green/environmentally friendly light bulbs in our home but that's because the owner made sure we used them. He kept delivering more to us. First, when we moved in, there were some new ones on the counter, then he came over and replaced all that had burnt out, THEN, I came home one day to a home to a depot bag outside the door with yet MORE light bulbs! It's really weird. lol (hopefully he doesn't show up one day doing a light bulb inventory.)
 

amc80

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
5,765
part gypsy|1317227989|3027914 said:
http://www.mnn.com/your-home/at-home/blogs/soft-on-the-bum-hard-on-the-earth

Interesting. I didn't realize that using ultra soft toliet paper is an almost exclusively American deal. Is it our diet or what?

I've always said that even if I'm poor, I'll still be buying Charmin Ultra. My DF always gave me crap about it (pun!) and couldn't understand why I bought it. Then we ran out and I had to switch to the emergency supply of Costco tp. We were at the store and I mentioned we needed Charmin because I'm sick of the cheap stuff, and he said "OH, is that why the to feels like cardboard?" I think it's safe to assume he's sold on the good stuff now.
 

partgypsy

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Nov 7, 2004
Messages
6,622
It's interesting, where in the article, during the recession (2008) sales of the ultra comfort TP went UP 40%. So maybe it is a feeling where, I'm cutting back elsewhere, I'm going to treat myself here. It's an easy luxury to have, because it doesn't necessarily cost much more than the green alternative (the costs are environmental versus cost-wise).
 

somethingshiny

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
6,746
My biggest environmental impact probably lies in my desire to always have the AC running. Even when it's cool out, I want the AC fan on. I like the house very cool and can't sleep if it's over 72. These last few days it's been in the lower 60's, but when evening comes and the house is over 70, the AC fan gets turned on for a few hours before bed.

Also, Clorox wipes. I'm not a paper towel user but I love my Clorox wipes!
 
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