...or have I?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
I must say I did not know until recently that we had an annual event by this name and for this purpose and I thought April 1st had come early.
A Green Consumer Day is, I guess, all we needed (like a hole in the head). We now have a day where we can celebrate “green consumption” or “greensumption” rather than ordinary consumption. The mind simply boggles.
According to the babble from the inventors, I guess, the annual Green Consumer Day is a day intended to build awareness around how even the smallest actions we take as individuals can help – or harm – the Planet.
While this sounds great and I certainly can agree with the sentiments as to building awareness around how even the smallest actions we take as individuals can help – or harm – the Planet but to then actually go and encourage people to go out and buy green products.
How about encouraging folks to not buy anything, like on the “Buy nothing Day” instead of sending them out for a greensumption trip.
The problems of consumerism and its impact on the environment is an area of major concern in today’s world. Awareness building on the importance of recycling-reusing-reducing should be taken up seriously. And this is part of the explanation as to what this day is supposed to be all about by, I should guess, the inventors.
And, while one can more than agree with that the problem is that they then continue that a green consumer is someone who is very concerned about the environment and, therefore, only purchases products that are environmentally-friendly or eco-friendly. Products with little or no packaging, products made from natural ingredients and products that are made without causing pollution are all examples of eco-friendly products, they say.
This global celebration highlights the problems, says their information, of consumerism and its impact on the environment. This is an area of major concern in today’s global market orientated world. We should focus primarily on awareness raising and the importance of recycling-reusing and reducing waste material.
And then they continue to tell everyone to go out and get involved in greensumption and here I quote them:
On Green Consumer Day, let us encourages individuals at a household level to:
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Buy "green", i.e. products that can be decomposed, reused and are not harmful to the environment. The most important thing is to make a commitment to using less.
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Buy products that use minimal packaging. For example, choose products sold in bags rather than plastics. Packaging uses a significant amount of resources and contributes to our growing waste problem. Plastics are known to take between 20 and 1000 years to decompose.
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Go shopping with your own bag.
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Refuse to be given a plastic if you can carry your own products.
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Reduce, reuse and recycle all waste.
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Reduce. Choose products that minimize waste. Avoid disposable products. E.g a shaving machine instead of disposable razors.
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Reuse. Look for items that you can use for tasks other than that for which they were originally intended. E.g. Glass jars can be used to store jam and cereals.
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Recycle. Most household waste is potentially recyclable. The household contribution to recycling is a critical one involving basic changes in attitudes and habits.
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Compost organic wastes. If you have a garden, create and maintain a compost pile to produce organic fertilizer from vegetable and fruit peels, leftovers, egg shells etc, and thus reduce the garbage that is thrown out.
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Shop with a conscience Give preference to only those products that are recycled, recyclable, reliable, repairable, refillable and/or reusable.
Once again something one can agree with in a general level but do we really need to have a day that “encourages” people to go and shop green. Please...
When I got involved in the “green movement”, only it was not even called thus then, some decades ago, much was said then already about reducing out impact on the Planet. Yes, well before the global warming and climate change agenda and the carbon footprint idea the idea of the environmental footprint existed already.
We made do, we furnished our homes with off-casts and the kids wore hand-me-downs... This is, finally, however, coming back with the people that have gotten involved in the Transition Movement, aside from those that have to do it because of lack of income.
This is the model we should be working with if we really intend to do good to the Planet. Not buying this or that “green” product or gadget. Making do and DIY in most cases, from ideally things that some might consider, must be the order of the day. Not going out and spending US$22 for a glass bottle in which to carry our tap water where one could repurpose a glass Snapple lemonade bottle to do the same job. Or using a tin can instead of buying a pencil bin for US$10 or using some glass jars from produce instead of spending US$15 for a set of two recycled glass storage jars. And while using those we also keep those things that we repurpose out of the waste stream. Let's get some common sense back into the approach of how to be green.
© 2010
