Great post, and really good points. Too many people try to go green and waste a lot of resources in the process.
I've recycled for decades, and happily, now that I'm In a rural community in the middle of nowhere, our recycling center is magically less than ten minutes from home. It's far closer than when I lived in the city.
I cook the vast majority of my meals at home, using real food and few packaged ingredients, with any waste being fed to the animals or composted.
I'm aiming for no plastic, but far from there yet, and have a number of multiple use containers that get a lot of use . . . I learned long ago to cook in quantity and freeze individual portions, thus saving time and money.
Most long term storage in my kitchen is in canning jars, which get lots and lots of uses over the years. We also have a vacuum sealer, that does use plastic (often mylar), but saves us money by preventing waste.
My travel cups are stainless steel, and have mostly been gifts. And I use them frequently.
I typically buy clothes used, partly because I hate shopping for clothes in the first place, and partly because I learned in college that the donated clothing in wealthy neighborhoods was nicer and better made than the brand new stuff in most shops and department stores. (I went to college in L.A., and UCLA, where I took several classes, was right next to Beverly Hills, California).
My cars I nearly always buy used . . . let someone else take the showroom loss. I'm just as happy with a well-maintained car that's a couple of years old.
We create very little actual trash. We use, reuse, recycle, compost and donate, to the point that we throw away less than a quarter of what most people do, and often less than even that!
And the things I donate are actually still usable, long term, and not trash. And they do get used.
My parents taught me growing up to purchase the best quality I could afford, and that has stood me in good stead.
By holding out for quality, I replace things far less often, and that does save resources, not to mention lots of space in the landfill.
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The number one thing I have found the quality thing to be true about is shoes. I grew up buying the cheapest Payless shoes possible. They hurt my feet, they fell apart in a year, and I had sciatic nerve problems, but they were cheap and I was poor. Then I went to medical assisting school where we were required to wear white shoes. I had no white shoes - I wear brown and black shoes - so I went to a scrubs store and bought nursing shoes. OH MY GODS. My sciatic nerve quit pinching, my feet didn't hurt, and lo - those shoes are still around like 15 years later (granted, I haven't worn them regularly since I've not been in a job where I wore scrubs in several years, but the point is they got a lot of use for several years and are still intact). Since then, I've changed my ways. I wore a pair of Doc Martens for about five years - am on pair #2 which are about two years old I think. My winter boots are about as old as well. And both are far more comfortable than anything from the cheap store! I have fewer, nicer, kinder to my body, but last a long time shoes. And it's way better!
I totally agree.
I wore cheap shoes for years, and when my former spouse went to a podiatrist, it occurred to me to ask whether my chronic back pain might be related to my shoes.
Yes.
He told me to buy New Balance, and only New Balance, which is all I wore for years. And, while I've always been pretty easy on shoes, they lasted far longer than the cheap shoes I had before.
I've branched out into other brands now, but I still am a stickler for shoes that feel good out of the box. And they last.
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