It’s the beginning of a new series! I get so excited over debuts. I wish that I had had a debutante ball. Ah, well.
My new series is about us enviro-freaks and how far we’ll go to live sustainably. In solidarity, I thought I’d start it off by going over my own eco-transitions that have raised eyebrows. Some of it may be Too Much Information, but you just need to get over it because in some upcoming posts I will be writing about the many ways to reuse your poop.
Onward!
Banned: Paper towels
More room for my Harry Potter books and DVDs!
A friend of mine visited me over the Thanksgiving holiday because neither of us was even remotely close to our nuclear families in the Southwest. While we were eating breakfast, my friend asked me for a paper towel. I told her that my roommate and I have gone paper-towel-less. She looked at me as if I said that I’d gone toilet-paper-less. I was some crazy green monster in her eyes because I used microfiber cloths and washed my hands instead of wiping them on over-thick reams of pulpy paper. I may as well have had a tree growing in my living room, weeping at the roots for its fallen brethren.
The truth is, paper towels take up a lot of room in our apartment. Anyone who’s ever lived in the city knows that space is precious. Microfiber takes 1/100ths of the space of 32 rolls of paper towels. We buy this kind of stuff in bulk because it’s cheaper, too. So we’re just economizing on space and money.
Obsession: Green Smoothies and Farmer’s Markets
I don’t actually go to the Farmer’s Markets, my roommate does to get the best greens for our green smoothies. I flirted with smoothies over the last summer until my blender broke, then I abandoned all healthy eating habits altogether. It’s really all or nothing with me. My roommate looked at me suspiciously about these greenish brown concoctions.
Over the winter break, my roomie got a life-altering flu virus. She says that green smoothies saved her life. And thus our dual obsession began (or was rekindled for me).
Live green...or die!
Everyday we have a Green Smoothie and sometimes we poop green. In any case, we feel like we can take over the world, so watch out.
Banned: Checked and Roller Luggage
My life changed the day I discovered OneBag.com. I was working in France trying to figure out how to pack for my adventure across Europe (Italy-Germany-Spain). Doug Dyment came through with this advice: only travel with one bag.
This was very counter to what everyone else was doing – was it even sane?
It is, man. It so is. I breeze through security. I don’t have to wait in line at baggage claim. I don’t have to worry about salacious notes from TSA agents.
What a loser! (via OneBag.com)
My friend (the same one from above) again thinks I’m crazy. What if I run out of outfits? Well, a) who cares? You travel for the experience not to star in your own fashion show and b) accessorize! One day I promise to show you how if my photographer friend ever calls me back.
How is this green? Thing of all the poundage you’re taking off the plane and how much less fuel the airliners would use if everybody one-bagged it. Also: rollers are frackin’ annoying as hell and sometimes weigh five times as much as my bag (RedOxx doesn’t pay me. I paid them.)
Obsession: Menstrual Cups
So here’s the Too Much Information part. But you know what, ladies and gentlemen (who go out and buy these things), you’d save so much money and so much landfill space from not using pads and tampons.
How much exactly?
“A March-April 2001 article in E Magazine cites waste consultant Franklin Associates’ assertion that 6.5 billion tampons and 13.5 billion sanitary pads, PLUS their packaging, ended up in landfills or sewer systems in 1998.” via Keeper – Facts
That’s like, twice the WORLD’S POPULATION.
In France, underwear is optional.
The benefits are many. I don’t have to think about my period but twice a day when I empty the cup. I can go swimming with out worrying about any embarrassing string. I don’t feel like I’m wearing a wet diaper. I have no risk of TSS. I don’t feel like I’m ripping out my internal organs on light days.
I’m feel so fancy-free!
So those are my OCG manifestations. I look forward to lampooning everyone else’s!
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