Still trying to be green

More than a week has passed now since I embarked on my green adventure, but it is not an overwhelming success yet. Old habits die hard! The main difference between now and 10 days ago is the dominant place my guilty conscience has taken in my life and the amount of questions that has popped up about green living.


I am trying, but half the time I am not even sure what the greener option is. For example we have a slimline dishwasher, so it is smaller than an ordinary dishwasher and according to the manual it only needs half the amount of detergent (20g). This week I needed a new supply of the soapy stuff and the initial choice was obviously an eco brand. But I could only find this in tablet form. Tablets are made to suit normal sized dishwashers, so by using them I would actually be using double the amount of what is needed. Loose granules which I can measure in the correct amount were only available in some fully synthetic chemical option. Now which one is the greener option, using double the amount of the eco brand or the smaller amount of the not so green brand??? Or is this going to be an effort thing again and I need to cut the eco tablets into halves myself?


Likewise at our BBQ on Saturday, which as feared turned out to be a rather wet affair - mostly for my husband who in true hunter gatherer style had to brave the rain and strong winds to provide for the family (= cook the burgers). I had planned to use up some of all the disposable cups and plates that have been sitting in the cupboard for a long time, but again I ended up in a green crisis. Usually it wouldn't be green to use paper plates and I would certainly never have gone out to buy some, but what should I do with all the left overs from my less green past? It would be a complete waste just to get rid of the plates and cups without making use of them, but I can't exactly give a collection of open packs of paper plates to a charity shop. Should I just leave them on the shelf to collect dust? Suggestions anyone? I did end up using some disposables on the day, but I had a bad feeling when putting those in the bin later.

These are the kind of questions they don't answer on all the many green advice websites. There are loads of them, just type 'green living' or something similar in google and you will be spoilt for choice, but frankly a lot of them come out with the same rather generic stuff: recycle, reduce your waste, use your car less, turn down your thermostat, insulate your house, save on water, buy organic, buy local etc.


I wish they would have sections with advice like: 'How to convince your tired 5 year old to walk to ballet class in the pouring rain, when you would all rather go in the car' or '3 easy ways to break old habits, because old habits stand in the way of greener living'


It is not from lack of willing that my green project is progressing slowly, but a lot of the time I am simply stuck in the old routine with out thinking too much about it. For example I still forget to put leftover food in a reusable container rather than cover the plate in cling film. I still reach for the pack of babywipes to clean my son's hands after dinner even though I have put a washable flannel in the kitchen for that exact same purpose.

Maybe I should put post-it notes up everywhere to remind me of the things I should and shouldn't do - or is that wasting paper?

At least I still have 50 weeks to figure it all out, surely that should be enough time to change a few things?!