apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

It's funny, I never thought of my family or household growing up as particularly 'green' but we definitely did a lot of things that were green. Manure was always used as fertilizer, we always had a compost bin in the corner of the pasture. Gardens in the summer, collecting cans from the road sides to recycle for spending money. Plus my family was always big on preserving. I think a lot of that, especially the growing and preserving has worked it's way into my adult life now. I value my farming roots upbringing.

King of Arcadia: I'm the same way. In the 80s, it wasn't considered green. In fact, it was more frugal than anything. No garbage disposal, so we composted. Recycling was so we could turn in the cans for the deposit at the local supermarket. We had little money as my dad was a steel worker, so we gardened and canned and froze. It was a family project every summer! Life was a bit more slow paced then, and I wish I could get back there.

I think my entire life has been far more green than the jackasses who think they're awesome for recycling and driving a Prius. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

I grew up in India and while i was growing up..there was minimal plastic around me...cant say that now...we always buy fresh milk everyday (no packaged stuff), beign vegetarians we bought fresh produce grown locally..and most of all my mom cooked all three meals and made sure nothing goes waste...nothig was in excess...we used public transport most of the time...:)..no other choice but for a moped my dad drove ....and last but not the least.. i come from a cit where there is water scarcity so we were taught to conserve and make the most of everything we had....we still are like that just that moving to US i m unable to use public transpot as much i want to...but i follow everything else and more to suit our context

My parents were thrifty immigrants so a vegetable garden and compost was always a part of our life. They hated wasting so everything in our lives revolved around the idea of not doing so. Vacations too were always thrifty. I remember my mom always packing a lunch for us when we took day trips. Eating at a fast food place was so rare that I sort of thought of it as being a treat on the rare occasions we were allowed to go. I guess it was green but I never thought of it as being that way when I was a kid. I have definitely grown to adopt their thrifty (green) ways. I hate wasting too which I think leads to more green practices.

I actually think it's also easier to be 'green' in a rural area. You just don't waste as much and you don't buy as much to produce waste. I mean, like I said, we composted anything that could go in the corner. Even in winter and it was spread in the garden in the spring. We didn't go to town much, so my mom would buy huge bags of stuff like flour and pasta and that kinda thing, so we not only saved on packaging, but fuel to go to town less often. We didn't live near a store, so it wasn't a 'run to the store to get something' life, it was use what you have or go without (in more respects than just food). And yeah, we never got fast food or things like soda in cans or bottled water. We made Kool-Aid, in a (million times re-used) old glass jug. My grandma even tricked us into thinking we were always getting Ms. Butterworths syrup on our pancakes. But in reality, she bought ONE bottle of Ms. Butterworths when her kids were young and even to this day, she is still making her own maple syrup and just refilling that same Mr. Butterworths bottle.

I wasn't raised green at all - quite the opposite! I got into recycling in middle school (I think I did a report on it for science class) and my family thought I was a nutty liberal (they still do, actually). My habits changed when I moved to New Zealand - my friends here are much more environmentally concious - and the city really makes it easy to recycle. I don't feel guilty about the waste from my childhood as I was in fact a child, but I certainly think one can be green, regardless of upbringing. That's what often irks me about people's excuses - you have to start somewhere!

oh, and King of Arcadia - I love your Mrs Butterworth's story. When my husband was a child, he'd visit friends and be jealous that they got store-bought treats, lamenting the fact his mom made delicious home-made cookies, cakes, etc every day!