Living

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 It's time to grow up and stop creating so much garbage By Sarri Gilman Herald Columnist Green is the new black. Please don't rush out and get rid of all your pink, because that was last year's new black. Going green doesn't require a wardrobe change. Greening yourself involves more of a transformation of the mind rather than a change out of shoe or sweater color. In some ways, going green is reflected in the new spring fashion colors, but this is more fundamental than a wardrobe change, and more complicated. Think green. This is not just about objects, like recycling paper or plastic, but about limiting or eliminating our need for the object altogether. How do we live without creating unnecessary waste? I'm still waiting to meet the person that can beat my Grandma Kitty at waste management. My Grandma Kitty managed to fit all of her garbage for an entire week in the palm of her hand. It was actually a little Dole fruit can that she used for her trash for the week. I am having a vision of a new reality show, challenging people to set a new record on their personal waste reduction, to beat Grandma Kitty's record. We are waste junkies. We created the disposable society and now we have to uncreate it. Uncreating could catch on as an alternative lifestyle. As an "uncreationist," we are asking three generations of Americans, raised on ever growing heaps of trash, to stop creating waste. This is an inspiring task. I think to accomplish this we need to begin by managing our expectations. I was recently putting together an event and I explained to people that we wouldn't be having balloons. I was met with raised eyebrows from people I consider grown-ups. You would think I had said we were canceling Christmas. I faced the disappointment head-on and explained that balloons are not good for the Earth. If you have ever looked at the inside of a bird's stomach and seen the bits of balloon and other plastic bits they have swallowed, it would be easy to pass on balloons. Balloons are part of our celebration mind-set. But really, do we need these? Can we focus on the joy of coming together without making unnecessary waste? I hate to be the party pooper, but our wasteful trash-the-planet party is over. It's time for all of us to sober up and take initiative in as many ways as we can. We need to hold ourselves accountable. I'm feeling hopeful about the changes that I am seeing. Overnight it seems, people are carrying their own reusuable bags to the supermarket. When the price of these bags dropped from $7 to two for a dollar, no one is leaving our local market with plastic. Whatever it takes to get people on board, we can only go up from here. Imagine the possibilities. I am carrying my green bags, I am printing as little as possible, and I am questioning everything I purchase. My big question is not "do I want you," it's "what will I do with you when I done with you?" Sarri Gilman is a freelance writer living on Whidbey Island. Her column on living with meaning and purpose runs every other Tuesday in The Herald. She is a therapist, a wife and a mother, and has founded two nonprofit organizations to serve homeless children. Send e-mail to features@heraldnet.com.

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