Lean, Mean, Green Machine

Lately, I've been interested in becoming more "green." The notion of living a more sustainable lifestyle, reducing/reusing/recycling, and cherishing today's resources to ensure they will be there tomorrow, well, all of those goals are really conducive with my desire to have a simpler, less materialistic, more grounded lifestyle. However, like the famed philosopher Kermit the Frog once said, "It's not easy being green." For starters, recycling...sure, in theory it seems easy, but there's sorting all of the trash, figuring out what can be taken to the local recycling center, which only takes certain items/plastics and not others. Then, there's keeping my kids out of the bins. See, my kids view the recycling bins like they would ball pits at Chuck E. Cheese--which means I sort out the items again and again. After that, it's getting the recyclables to the center, which is a 30 minute drive, one way, from our house, with children in tow. So, needless to say, our recycling endeavors have hit a roadblock.

Then, there's the desire to buy humanely produced, organic, local foods...the hope to fulfill as many of those labels as I can when I purchase an item at the grocery store. But, there's a lot involved. Sometimes, we as consumers have no idea whether or not an animal has been humanely treated in order to give us our eggs or our milk. How do we know if a worker has adequate working/safety conditions producing our crops/coffee/what have you? A lot of organic foods cost more--a lot more. Some people don't have access to inexpensive, locally produced meats and produce. Making informed food choices is not so easy, either.
 There's SO MUCH that can be done--using less water/electricity, buying used items whenever possible, cloth diapering instead of using disposables, growing your own food, writing to congressional representatives over pertinent environmental issues close to our hearts, riding bikes or driving fuel efficient cars instead of taking big SUVs everywhere, buying fair trade coffee and chocolates and produce...as mere individuals/families, it is SO easy to get bogged down with feeling like we need to do it all. I applied to become a Mom Ambassador for Moms Meet, a group of several hundred thousand moms who meet in small, local groups to discuss eco-aspects of parenting, families, pet-raising, and the like. I so desperately want to be more "green," but I think to myself, "Ugh, I'm such a fraud. We aren't even recycling, for God's sake. I'm not green at ALL."
But, the thing is--it's not about doing it all. It's about doing the little things. Little changes add up to something majorly big. I try to buy more used items, or to donate and give away what we don't want/use anymore to compensate for the new things we buy. We are trying to make more informed choices regarding what we eat. We buy more organic foods, we're eating less dairy, I have vowed to either buy locally raised farm eggs or cage-free organic eggs from the store from now on. We make more of an effort to become more involved in our community, to appreciate the outdoors more. Doing the little things is better than nothing at all. One little thing leads to another, which leads to another, and maybe it inspires someone to make a change in their own life, which leads to MORE changes, and suddenly, one little thing turns into something BIG. Little things can change the world. Even if we're not recycling.