Green Shopping

Green Reasons - Ways to Think Before You Buy

In spite of the people in this country who are at any given time not living in the land of plenty, there are so many items that Americans waste.  The amount of food, clothing, furniture, and many other items that are thrown away on a daily basis are filling up our landfills.  The planet is slowly being overtaken with trash and there are alternatives to help clean our environment and make the world a better place for our children. Instead of throwing things away why not give to a thrift store, a charity, or a church group that helps the homeless and those who are less fortunate.  There are many ways to help by providing for families that may not make enough to buy new clothes for themselves or their children. There are many groups that operate online that give people contact with each other through the group to exchange items or post ones they do not need any longer.  Others may post that they need certain items.  Matching up what is needed with those who need it is one way to keep so many items from just being thrown away. Visit flea markets, yard sales, and garage sales for used items that ...

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Green Reasons - Ways to Borrow Instead of Buy

The best way to cut down on the amount of materials it takes to make new things is stop buying so many.  There are literally thousands of ways to borrow instead of buy if you just take the time to sit down and think about how easy it can be. The library is a good place to start.  They have books, Cds, and movies that you can borrow.  You can go to the library and look at the latest magazines.  Instead of having all this excess paper piling up in your home, take a trip to the library a couple of times a week and you will save your home from becoming littered with all the excess magazines and papers, not to mention the money you will save. Newspapers are another way to save.  Almost any newspaper today can be viewed online.  This is another excellent way to keep from having so much extra paper in your home. Rent your tools or borrow them instead of buying.  Unless you do this for a living, the occasional tool for a project can be rented or borrowed and this keeps your home and garage free of many items that are only used occasionally. Instead of having ...

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Why Buy New?

When I was a kid, my favorite books were a series of mystery novels, featuring Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators.  The three investigators were teenagers who went around solving mysteries.  The brain of the trio was Jupiter Jones, who was lucky enough to live in a salvage yard, surrounded by acres and acres of cool stuff.  The boys made money for their detective business by repairing and renovating the junk that was sold or given to the salvage yard.  I thought that that was a cool thing to do, and I’ve been a fan of visiting salvage yards (to give them a more dignified name) ever since. When it comes time to refurbishing your apartment, or furnishing a new home, why spend thousands of dollars on new furniture when you can spend much less money, and save a few trees, by going to a salvage yard and choosing what you need? Oh, the furniture may be more than a little beat up, but chances are that you can repair it with a few tools, and if you’ve got any talent in the arena at all, you could probably even make the item look better than the original!  If you don’t have ...

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How to Stop Impulse Buying and Start Helping the Environment

Impulse buying is a major issue for many people.  Seeing something that seems so great and becoming a victim to clever marketing is at the heart of impulse buying.  Impulse buying, though, has a very negative effect on the environment as many of these impulse buys end up laying in landfills because we never really needed or wanted them in the first place.  Not to mention, buying such things only encourage the manufacturer to make more of them, thus producing more environmental damage.  To do your part, you have to get impulse buying under control. Curbing the Impulse One of the only ways to stop yourself from buying something that you do not need is to think through every purchase you make.  Instead of simply tossing items in your shopping cart, think about each item first.  Ask yourself if you really need the item. You also need to consider what you need versus what you want.  Most often we buy things because we want them, not because we need them.  This is just a waste of money and is the true example of an impulse purchase.  You should be buying things that you ...

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Green and Earth Friendly Plastic Bags

Back in the old days when you went to the grocery store you did not get plastic bags very often most of the time the store would give you paper sacks. Therefore, when people would get plastic bags they would wash them out so they could reuse them. When the manufactures of the plastic bags lowered the cost bellow, the price of paper sacks the stores started giving them out as if they were free. As they did, the problem began. Today we have trillions of plastic bags lying in the dump that will not decompose for hundreds of years. Another problem with plastic bags is that they are made of polyethylene (oil by product). Polyethylene has some advantages and disadvantages. The good thing about it is that you can recycle it. However, not everyone has jumped on the recycle wagon so it has not made that big of a difference in the number of bags going to the dump. The bad thing about polyethylene is that as it decomposes the gases that come off are harming the planet. For this reason, some government officials are trying to ban the bags ...

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