Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Green Christian

I am having trouble finding time to do this blogging thing. Oh well, more time will come.

This post is about me being a Christian who believes in living green! Living green is not typically considered a Christian platform, but I think it should be. It is, of course, not the most important issue out there. However, I believe it does have its place. In order for me to live "green", and I think this holds true for most people, three things have to occur.

Being green has to be:
1. Relatively easy
2. Inexpensive
3. Not time consuming

First why should you live ecologically responsible? First, I believe it is a Biblical concept. We are told many times to be good stewards of what we are given. Living green is a great way to save money and to make things last longer. We are also given the example of not wasting resources - such as the loaves and fishes. I am not talking about rinsing meat trays here, just doing simple things like using table scraps for a compost pile. Also, living green can be better for your health as many man made chemicals have been proven to be harmful to our bodies.

Some of the ways that I live green are recycling, gardening, and composting. I also hang my clothes on the line when possible and make things myself. You are probably thinking that those things don't sound very easy and some of them aren't but they can be made easy.

Recycling: I do this a lot more than I used to, of course my kids are bigger than they used to be. We have a small house but I still found room for two receptacles. One is for paper products and the other is for glass, plastic and metal. I have the receptacles marked for the kids. We have a regular trash can in the kitchen. I instructed my kids on what can go in each and that cans and bottles have to be rinsed and compressed. I was pleasantly surprised at how good at it they are. We have only had a couple of incidents of yucky trash going in the recycling- and those were by my dear husband! I buy the recycling bags at the local center for .25 cents each. I am paying for not having to sort my recycling, I just drop the bags off. You could save even more money by sorting your own. We are still saving money though because having our dumpster dumped is lots more expensive. The receptacles are tucked neatly away in the laundry area. I also keep an empty storage box without a lid under my sink so I can rinse things and throw them under there.

Gardening is my passion. This is easy for me, but it is labor intensive. There are ways to grow a lot of food without a lot of work. You could check out the book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I incorporate food composting with this love. Growing my own food saves resources and is healthier for my family. We have a small garden and it produces enough food for us and allows me the pleasure of giving lots away to family and friends. I keep a compost bucket near the sink and put all produce peels and scraps in it. However, I also put eggshells, paper from egg carton tops (torn into small pieces - I save the bottoms to start seeds in the house), expired grains, and basically any other non-processed foods that the dogs won't get into. Every couple of days I take it out to my pile. Composting is a whole other subject though.

If I can make something myself less expensively and without killing a whole bunch of time I am game. I just recently started making my own laundry detergent. It is fairly simple and only costs about a penny a load. Most importantly though, it works. It is made of mostly natural ingredients and I feel good about using it on my family's clothes. I make most of my own cleansers out of vinegar. Recently, because of Georgia's health issues I have had to use a few stronger things, but for the most part vinegar is good for your family and the environment and it works. I don't make everything or even most things myself, but everything that I make from scratch makes a difference.

Other little things you can do: use tips to make your car more fuel efficient, buy energy efficient appliances, buy things in recycled packaging, buy from farmers markets or from local farmers, buy used... There are many more and lest you think I am some kind of super greenie there is a lot that I don't do. I don't buy $8 toilet paper from the local health food store. I have paper towels - but I am pretty stingy with them and I find if I buy those select-a-size ones they go twice as far. I am really bad to run the water while I wash dishes or brush my teeth - working on that one. I have potato chips in my house and I don't wash ziplock bags. I can't stand that filmy feeling they have. I do have energy efficient bulbs, but I don't always turn them off when I could. I could go on and on about what I could do better, but the point is I am doing something and I am teaching my kids to do something. I am teaching them that we are being good stewards - not saving the world - that is Jesus' job.