After all of these years of being what I thought was a conscious consumer I admittedly have not been conscious enough.  Yes, I carry my cloth bags, buy in bulk and have certainly become more aware in my purchases.

Plastic is something that I have attempted to limit in our lives for many years.  I would purchase wood or cloth toys for the kids, buy things that were in paper rather than plastic when it was readily available and ditched plastic within my living space.  I didn’t like the vibration that plastics emitted.  I was attracted to natural fibers and all things natural.

However, over the past few years for a variety of reasons I have allowed plastic to creep back in our lives.  Living in certain places the natural choices have not been as readily available, I forget the cloth bags being a busy Mama or the ultimate excuse plastic is cheaper!  But at what cost in the long term?

Well, over the past couple months this has been on my consciousness.  Maybe it has been the walks along the beach and seeing all the odd plastic remains.  Shoes, plastic oil bottles, deoderant containers, hairbrushes, toothbrushes and a variety of other weird things that have helped me realize that there is way too much plastic in this world. Or maybe it was reading some facts recently in a community newsletter that stated “all the plastic you ever consumed is still on this earth.”  Could also be that plastic is linked to many health issues, some of which are touching me.

Several days my toddler son and I would go walking together and he had this excellent idea of picking up the garbage we saw on the shore.  I thought this is so great that he is doing this and what a little environmentalist he is!  Then one day I had a realization. Isn’t this all going to end up back here or on another shore at some point?  Oh, I get it! We like to pick up garbage and send it to the landfill because it is out of sight out of mind perhaps.

What if we just took all the garbage, especially plastic and just dumped it in front of our homes and see what we are really consuming?  How long is it taking all of this stuff to decompose?  Better yet DOES it breakdown and what happens to the environment or our well being?  Somehow sending it to the dump makes it okay in our consciousness.  We do not have to think about it.

Plastics are having an impact on our health, hormones, and well being.  They are having an impact on Mother Earth’s health, hormones and well being.  So, what can we do to make a difference?

Today I am making a challenge to myself and anyone else who chooses to become a part.  The Freedom From Plastic Challenge begins with you and I.  I am committing to becoming a more conscious consumer and will be choosing things that do not contain plastic as much as possible.  This takes some awareness especially with children involved.  I would like to say I will never buy plastic again.  However, I also realize this may not be the reality for today’s modern lifestyle.  Just becoming more conscious and limiting the plastic consumption can have a huge impact.  After looking around it is apparent in some areas this is definitely a challenge.

Here are a few guidelines to follow:

1. When making a purchase I will opt for only those choices that are free from plastic as much as possible. This includes packaging of a product.  If I can live without or there are alternatives those will be my choices.
   
2. I will continue to reuse the plastic that is here for this transition time in a balanced way.  (ex. using containers for planting or composting scaps etc.)
3. I will contact companies that are using plastic packaging for items that are my preference.  I will ask them to consider eco conscious,plastic free choices.

I will keep you posted with my insights, more facts.  As always I welcome your comments or tips.  I would love to hear your experiences with the challenge.

Here are some plastic facts that might prompt you to become a part of the
Freedom From Plastic Challenge.

• When buried, some plastic material may last for 700 years. (Manufacturers add inhibitors that resist the decomposition process necessary to break down the plastic.)
• Over 46,000 pieces of plastic debris float on every square mile of ocean.
• Although polystyrene foam (commonly known as Styrofoam) is completely non-biodegradable, it is recyclable. If you lined up all the polystyrene foam cups made in just one day, they would circle the earth.
• According to Dr. Miligram, a plastics analyst, “Recycling plastics saves twice as much energy as burning them.”
• Americans use 4 million plastic bottles every hour!-Yet only 1 bottle out of 4 is recycled.
• Americans make enough low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic every year to shrink-wrap the state of Texas. Most of it ends up in landfills.
• Plastics are part of the waste stream: although they account for only 8% of the waste by weight, they occupy about 20% of the volume in a landfill due to their low bulk density.
• In 1988 we used 2 billion pounds of HDPE just to make bottles for household products. That’s about the weight of 900,000 Honda Civics.
• Since the introduction of PET containers in the late 1970’s, the industry has reduced the weight of PET in 2-liter bottles from 67 grams on average to about 48 grams; a 28% reduction.
• It takes 5 recycled two-liter bottles to make enough fiberfill for one ski jacket.
• It takes 1,050 recycled milk jugs to make a 6-foot plastic park bench.
• About nine billion plastic bottles are produced annually in the U.S. about two-thirds of which end up in landfills or incinerators.
• Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W bulb for up to 6 hours.
• 9.1 billion plastic bottles were disposed of in 2002 with only 360 million of them being recycled.
• In Britain we use about 275,000 tonnes of plastic bottles in our homes every year- that’s about 15 million bottles every day.
• It takes about 450 years just for one plastic bottle to break down in the ground!
• An average 323 plastic bags are taken into our homes every year and it takes 500 years to decay when sent to landfill.
• It takes about 25 recycled plastic drinks bottles to make one fleece jacket.
• Only 2.5% of plastic bottles are presently recycled in Europe.
• Plastic bags are made of polyethylene
• Polyethylene is a petroleum product
• Production contributes to air pollution and energy consumption
• Four to five trillion plastic bags are manufactured each year
• Americans throw away approximately 100 billion polyethylene bags per year
• Of those 100 trillion plastic bags, 1% are recycled
• It takes 1000 years for polyethylene bags to break down
• As polyethylene breaks down, toxic substances leach into the soil and enter the food chain
• Approximately 1 billion seabirds and mammals die per year by ingesting plastic bags
• Plastic bags are often mistaken as food by marine mammals. 100,000 marine mammals die yearly by eating plastic bags. These animals suffer a painful death, the plastic wraps around their intestines or they choke to death.

Recently I read a blog by a young lady that is a daughter of a green living expert.  She talked about how being raised in a green, eco conscious home made such an impact on her life.  Her childhood memories were more than non toxic cleaners, cloth shopping bags, organic and natural foods.  Her mother made a conscious choice to be green.  Their home and lifestyle was a mirror of this.

After reading this article it helped me realize how much my choices truly do matter to the well being of not only myself, but my children, community and the world.  Is your life a mirror of peace, love and positivity?  This is all a part of being green too.  Living green is a lifestyle that will eventually touch every aspect of your life.

Living green means making conscious choices in your life.  When you raise your awareness you learn to live in harmony with body, mind and spirit.  It will more than likely be a process as you follow the path of being green.

You may first find that you are replacing the plastic shopping bags with cloth, choosing organic local foods, using non toxic cleaning supplies, wearing natural fiber clothing, clearing the clutter from your home, using herbs or natural healing, choosing cloth/eco diapers for the children, discovering sustainable toys and more.

Eventually you may find yourself changing jobs, growing spiritually, enjoying peaceful solitude and spending time in nature.  Relationships may change form as you make more positive uplifting choices. You will become conscious of the choices you make and how they impact life on this planet.

So, I hope that when my children grow they will remember my attempts at filling our life with all things green, but most importantly love and compassion.  At times I get discouraged and feel more enlightened choices could be made.  Then I connect with that small, still voice within and remember to have compassion for myself as well.

Being green is a lifestyle of becoming conscious and raising our awareness.  May I encourage you to start where you are and consider the path to living green.

After being awakened by  a two year old toddler at predawn this morning, I lay in bed contemplating what an urban green utopia would be like. It is said that ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ So, what would  an urban green village look like? 

For starters there would be a sense of community and people would help each other  without expecting anything in return. Those that enjoy getting up at predawn might head over and take the toddler out journeying through the nearby woods while a mama with a baby gets a little more rest. 

We would begin our days in meditation and yoga surrounded by a living green space.

The perfectly manicured lawns would be turned into ‘let it all hang out’ garden spaces where most of our food and medicine would be grown.  There would be a perfect play area for the kids to hang out and play freely without worrying about cars or other distractions.  The village would have a natural sustainable wood fence all around to keep the smaller children from wandering off. 

Nothing would be owned by anyone.  We would simply be stewards of what we were given.  We would share openly and cooperatively with others.  This reminds me of the the other day when I went for a walk with my son.  He saw a riding toy in a neighbors yard and just walked right up and hopped on it to play.  I said, “hmm, if only the world were that way and we could have things without owning them, freely sharing with one another without fear.” Of course as soon as my son was convinced to move on, the father of the tots toy came and tugged it quickly inside.

There would be a community kitchen for sharing organic, locally grown foods.  We would also have a private kitchen in our living space for those times that we would like to dine alone. The living spaces, even if they are apartments,  would be simply set up with green eco conscious furnishings, linens, cleaning supplies, flooring, walls and more.  There would be living plants indoors and growing on our balconies.  The roof tops would be green and alive.

There would be solar and other alternatives for power plus the purest water possible.  Our laundry would hang freely blowing in the wind for drying and in the sun for brightening.

Our children would have simple, natural cloth or wooden toys, art supplies and books that help expand their imagination. They would be clothed in nature inspired colors with breathable fabrics running barefoot as often as possible. We all would be living with the rhythms of the earth and in harmony with nature.

We would gather in community dressed in our natural fiber clothes with song, dance and music from a variety of cultures. We would talk story often especially with the elders who would be respected and cared about. The elders would share their wisdom with us in a gentle way without being judgemental or critical. We would make decisions for the village based on consensus.

There would be a village economic system so there would not be as much pressure and emphasis on money. There would be barter and sharing with one another, living in cooperation.

We would travel by foot, bikes, transit or eco conscious vehicles if going a longer distance. Our common needs would be within the village. We would head over to the co-op and community library with our cloth reuseable bags. Then stop by to pick up some raw milk, handmade cheese, eggs and honey (unless we were vegans.)

The village doctors would be the wise ones that would share their knowledge of herbs, foods and natural living for our well being. They would not seek to take our power from us but empower us to take responsibility for our own choices.

Babies would be born naturally in the comfort of the mothers home in their peaceful, tranquil space being surrounded only by those that the family would choose. They would have support of the village as they transitioned into motherhood.

Well, I could go on and on about living green in an eco conscious urban village. I have always had the perspective that you needed to live in a rural area to be green. However, my perspective has been changing.  I realize it is through our conscious choices that we live green regardless of location.

Just one question today though, “where is our village?” In a few days we will be going to an organic farm in Cape Breton. We will be in a co housing, small community situation. I will let you know if we found our village!

If you are ready to create your green utopian home and lifestyle, Gaiam has everything from bamboo socks to alternative energy resources. They are a lifestyle company in Colorado that supports natural living. Let’s build a green village. It starts with you!