How Not to Be a Consumer

My "tree-hugger" mom was over this weekend helping me pack up boxes in preparation to move. She was appauled at the amount of stuff I throw away on a daily basis and said, "You have to stop being such a consumer! Its all going to end up in a landfill forever!" Well, it got me thinking... Its pretty hard to teach an old dog new tricks. But what can I do to change? Is it enough to just change some of my habits, even if most of the things I use are disposable? So, I decided to investigate a little.

I looked into a website she told me about called Freecycle. Its not as interactive as I thought it would be but its a start. It directs you to your local Freecycle Yahoo Group to join and find out what's available in your area. The idea is, instead of throwing things away when you don't want them, you give them away to someone else. And instead of just offering them to friends and family, you can post them online for the taking. Waste not, want not. I also found that Craigslist has a category specifically for this under their For Sale section. Its simply called FREE.

Ok, now in all honesty thinking about the environment is not going to change how I live my daily life. I'm just too set in my ways--as most Americans are--to make that big of a change and become an earth-rights activist. But, as they say, every little bit helps and if we can do a little then maybe others will follow suit. Here are a few more things you can do to save your world... I picked the ones that would appeal most to the consumer in all of us. The options where we buy more stuff!

1. Replace old appliances (take a look at the Lowes Energy Star buying guide), then recycle your old appliances.

2. Buy a hybrid car.

3. Buy a reusable cup like the new Insulated Iced Venti cup at (my favorite place ever) Starbucks. Available in stores only.

4. Buy cloth shopping bags to use when grocery shopping. Many stores such as Lowes, Dominick's, Target has them in fashionable prints, and Walmart gave 1 million reusable bags away in April!

Visit: StopGlobalWarming.org, Panda.org, BlogAction, PBS, HowStuffWorks, or any of the resources found on Google to find out how you too can go green!