I'm...a medium shade of green

(I just read Magjunkie's post on environmental consciousness and this is my super-belated response)

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We try very hard to be green, but it can get pretty...trying, if you would pardon the pun. For one, I have a low tolerance for clutter, so keeping recyclable items in the house has to be systematic and neat or I'd be sorely tempted to throw them all out. Also, being green comes with an extra workload. Yes, extra workload:

- washing and drying used plastic tubs/glass jars instead of throwing them out

- patiently peeling envelopes open instead of ripping them apart, so that we can recycle them for internal use at our workplaces

- sifting through our junk mail to salvage flyers with only one printed side, so that we can use the blank sides as note paper

- recycling old newspapers, magazines, junk mail

- recycling punched out paper - yes those little paper polka dots can be recycled too!

- sorting old bills and letters and bringing them to the office for shredding

- saving cardboard packaging from products that we buy, and flat-packing them for easy storage (we don't have much space in our home and whilst waiting for collection day we can't just chuck all these in the storeroom  - we have none!)

- saving pretty fashion tags for re-use as bookmarks or gift tags

- sorting our recyclable stash into paper, plastics, fabrics

- bringing our own shopping bags whenever situation or cargo permits

- I also avoid buying products with unnecessary, excessive packaging. Have you seen how much plastic and paper some manufacturers use to box up one thumbdrive? Enough to box up 20! My pet peeve, for sure. To be truly green, we can't just rely on recycling alone - we need to cut waste at its source. Why consume what we don't need in the first place?

I think that's about all. I realise I have not done much in conserving electricity and water though. Gotta work on that.