As fashion trends come and go, I hope the attention and act of being green never goes out of fashion, and continues to bloom. It seems to come in waves in America, and perhaps hit populations differently. (Join the discussion.) I still have the vivid memory of my school’s art poster contest for the first Earth Day and the excitment of this campaign effort. Then what happened in the 80’s?? glass bottles and paper bags disappearing.
Working for the Evangelical Environmental Network, whose popular campaign “What Would Jesus Drive?” brought national press attention and conclusion: to be conscious of the effect our choices have, I think doing a good thing for the environment isn’t a religious or secular thing, left or right thing, just a positive thing! (perhaps a positive purple thing .. . like red & blue states mixed, and purple is the complement to green!) Of course it is being a good steward, as Chris Birky post reflects. Neither is it stagnant or ageist. Chicks on the Right post, reminded me of that & of my mother’s lament of how America should have never stopped the vigilant act of recycling encouraged during WWII.
Now of course we have plastic to contend with. If only I could figure out how to make the recycling containers look better! I know of course these are a blessing in disguise, but I wish they were disguised, as they dot my town like giant yellow & blue Lego’s! (Yes, I know yellow & blue make green and many flock to Legoland.) Don’t get me wrong, I am glad we want and do recycle, glad there is a pickup, but just like those acres of rusty collections on country roads, or dumps and auto yards on city streets, it can be an eyesore/eye pollution. I know it is better than the alternative of no recycling, but I confess to lapses of unpeace with plastic blotting the landscape. I resign myself to no such perfect world yet, and who knows, what our curbs will look like in 20 years?
One 219 Green Connect friend developed Eco-Screens to make ugly AC units disappear. Not only a money-saving solution for blending AC’s into the landscape, but also the protection of your investment and reduction of energy costs. You can also make a “fashion” statement with your Eco-Screens with your choice of logo.
We still have, as many have discovered before us, opportunities to be creative recyclers, as seen on popular repurposer shows on HGTV and History Channel’s Picker Sisters, etc., to make things anew- unique and our own, breathing a new life into a possible discard, so you can happily live with it. Yet another encouraging fashion element in being green.