It's been a while since there's been a good discussion top in this forum that wasn't Religious (which we limit), or Political (which we avoid). So I thought I'd start one. I suppose that while this topic could potentially have religious or political themes, I think it's enough outside of the box that we can discuss it without stepping on too many toes and people getting bent out of shape. So here we go........

Example number 2 (and the real reason I'm on a rant right now, I admit it ), Last night we had a cfl (compact florescent lightbulb) burn out. In the process of changing it out, it fell and shattered on the bathroom counter. Does everybody know what's in a cfl? Mercury vapor... A heavy metal fume that's toxic when inhaled. Thankfully in a cfl it's a small enough amount that I'm sure nobody in my house is going to die over it, but still, my husband was pretty overly cautious about cleaning it up. We opened up the whole house (90F outside at night.. stifling) and vented the air. Everything that could have come in contact with it was tossed into the trash, and my husband wiped everything down over about a two hour period. And if that had been the suddenly unfavorable incandescent lightbulb? Shoot, just get a broom and sweep it up.
I understand the point of the energy saving power of those bulbs, I really do, but I don't think that the general population has considered the tradeoff of what happens when both burn out. How much energy does it take to properly dispose of a cfl, assuming people don't dump it in the trash?

At any rate, this opening post is already waaaaay too long, so I'm gonna shut up now and open it up to the rest of you all. What are your thoughts on going green? Do you usually buy 'green' or organic products at the store? Do you have any reservations like I do? Discuss!

I was going to not even log on here tonight...but this is an important topic for me (that in some way is religious...I'll try to tone that part down). I do agree that God made us stewards of the earth and that with sin man/woman has pretty much tainted/destroyed the original freshness of the earth with technology, industry, and manmade synthetic chemicals.

My personal motivation for going green and organic has mainly been because of my health. I moved into an apartment a few years ago that had new carpet installed in it. When I first moved in I had a headache after sleeping and breathing in the new carpet smell (which is actually the fumes of the chemicals used to manufacture the backing and to stainproof it). After months and months of living in that place I experienced something called sick building syndrome....to make a long story short...over the next few years when I rented a place with carpet and that had been cleaned with toxic chemicals I got more sensitive and couldn't tolerate cleaning products or scented/regular everyday products.

I became sensitized to chemicals and scented products and I couldn't tolerate all the stuff I used to before. I had to throw all of my scented products, candles, perfume, lotion away. I also developed an unexplained thyroid condition which I'd never had before.

I was told that some people just have a genetic predisposition for developing this and some people actually are chemically sensitive even if they don't think they are...there are just different degrees....

So I've had to change most of my personal care items...and I do tolerate organic food better than processed. My body actually feels better. I also had to change all of my cleaning products to free and clear and my laundry products to free and clear. People who don't have a health condition probably wouldn't go out of their way to be organic if they didn't need to, but I'm forced to because of my health.
I have to because I don't want to have headaches or sore throats or unwanted respiratory distress.

It seems the world is backwards and everything that was organic and low cost and natural was normal and affordable....but with modern technology and advanced science, chemicals created to make life easier...really isn't helping the earth but hurting it and chemically manmade things are replacing natural because they're somehow cheaper and people have been sort of "brainwashed" by commercial industry into thinking they need these things to live well, look good, smell good, be pretty, etc.

Scented products have actually caused horrible reactions in people with asthma or respiratory conditions. Most homes used to have hardwood floor....then carpet became popular...and now everyone wants a hardwood floor in their home again....

Sometimes I do have reservations in being "green"...as in buying organic produce because it costs so much....but one can get organic produce really cheap at farmers' markets and by shopping wisely. Also eating organic brings "wealth" in the health sense. Eg. buying organic potato chips because potatoes are one of the vegetables that are sprayed with pesticides.

Not everyone is organic for health reasons. I agree there are people who do it for political and ultra-extreme reasons (I'm not one of those).

Just because something is green, does not make it nontoxic. Green may mean different things to different people. Is our motive for being green to save the planet? Or is our motive for being green in saving our health? I guess we each have to weigh our choices for when and how we are being "green".

I care about the planet and the CFL bulbs may save the earth and save energy, but they aren't healthy to humans when they break and emit the mercury dust. There has to be a logical balance somewhere. I don't like using CFL bulbs for that reason....I stocked up on the good old fashioned lightbulbs.

Even things like the oil spill in the Gulf (poor wildlife) and the nuclear reactors in Japan just remind me that sometimes man has really made a mess of the earth and is trying a bit late to "rescue" it. Poor earth.

Agree with FK though....some people are definitely trying to make money off of the "green" movement as of course being "green" and "organic" is more in demand/popular these days. Eg. the movie Food Inc. showed that conventional places like Walmart were now stocking organic dairy items because of public demand. But if a person is well-informed and they want the product to be healthy, I don't see anything wrong with it. It's a positive thing.

Whereas, natural foods would be things that are... well... natural. Unaltered by man.

Ah-ha! I knew it! There was no way mayonaisse could ever be considered anything remotely like a natural food!

I'm not a majorly green person. Recycling can be a pain in the neck as my city doesn't actively collect it. Instead I have to save it all up and drive it to the recycling center about 2 miles away. There's no incentive to recycle when it's much easier to just chuck stuff. My parents live in the next city over and purportedly if the garbagemen discover you're throwing out recycling materials you can receive a fine, although I'm not sure how much it is. I gather recycling most of the the time because in order to warrant taking the stuff down to the recycling place there has to be enough of it to take, so there's a corner of my dining room (which we seldom use for dining ) that's become an ad hoc recycling collection point. Every other month I load up the truck and drag it all down.

My reasons for recycling aren't green by any stretch of the imagination. I just think it makes good fiscal sense that if something can be reused and it saves the landfill a little bit of space then that's good efficiency, and I'm all behind that.

I don't like what the green movement has done to NASA, which amounts to cutting its funding and pointing its telescopes at the Earth instead of outer space where they belong, all in the name of global warming research. And I don't like that so much of our lives are focused on man made global warming when in fact it's quite likely that it is a natural cyclical event for the planet that has little (if anything) to do with us. And then the "solutions" given to us by the pro-green people tend to be ironically (and sometimes humorously) non-green, like mercury in CFL lightbulbs, or extremely expensive, like the Prius or Volt (which dies during snowstorms and blizzards when you need it most, apparently ). Like others have said I do try to be a responsible steward of the Earth that God has given us, but I refuse to worship the Earth as a sort of false religion like so many of the green folks unintentionally do. No good will come of that.

I do tolerate organic food better than processed. My body actually feels better. I also had to change all of my cleaning products to free and clear and my laundry products to free and clear. People who don't have a health condition probably wouldn't go out of their way to be organic if they didn't need to, but I'm forced to because of my health.
I have to because I don't want to have headaches or sore throats or unwanted respiratory distress.

Ditto to that. All the good fruits and vegetables, and clean air and everything God made, was made the way it was for a reason. It certainly doesn't need man's improvement. And God made our bodies to survive on what He made. We certainly were not made to eat, drink, and breathe chemicals and toxins and rat poison all day. XD

Chemically manmade things are replacing natural because they're somehow cheaper.

That's one of the key things right there. While the poor people in places like Africa are skinny and look like they're starving, most of the poor people you'll find around here are usually overweight. Does anyone really think it's because the poor are so well fed? It's because the people with not enough money can't afford good food, and so they're forced to buy the junk that makes them unhealthy and overweight. That's the problem my family has always had. I care about my health. I love eating healthy, organic things. But we can't afford to buy those sort of things, and so my family is forced to continue having terrible health. Organic is the way to go. But it's not a way a lot of people can go until the prices are changed somehow.

Scented products have actually caused horrible reactions in people with asthma or respiratory conditions.

Or allergies. I can remember some times when I had to leave a church, or at least move to another side of the church, just because a woman in front of me was wearing perfume.

Just because something is green, does not make it nontoxic.

Like some forms of mushrooms? XD But seriously, do you mean foods you find in stores that are labeled organic, but actually have pesticides in them? Or are you referring to something else?

Recycling can be a pain in the neck as my city doesn't actively collect it. Instead I have to save it all up and drive it to the recycling center about 2 miles away.

Maybe the "Go Green" pushers wouldn't want you to recycle then. XD They are always telling us to drive our cars less.

~Riella

For as long as I can remember, my family has recycled - paper, plastic bottles, glass bottles, cans. We never did it because of some political thing, we did it because it was the right thing to do.

It's funny, when I was little I'd invite friends over and they thought we were the absolute weirdest for having like 5 different bins to put "trash". Now, they are all on-board with "Going Green", only because it's the latest trend.

I would love to do more but we don't have the time or money right now.

Also, there needs to be a balance. We should look after the Earth, but humanity should always come first.

I think with soil in might be something like added fertilizer and pesticides. And with cleaning products it might be the source of the ingredients (ie plants or man-made chemicals) but I'm not sure. It might also be the way they manufacture them.

Thanks wolfy. That makes sense.

Our neighborhood used to do a recycle bin and the only thing you could put in it pretty much was paper and plastic. We did do that. Then it quit doing it. They've started it up again, but with a better program and a MUCH larger bin. We do participate in this program as well. You can actually do things like pizza boxes and metal cans. We didn't in between due to there being no where around where we could take our stuff that was close. At least that we knew of anyways.

You're not meant to recycle pizza boxes because of the food scraps (melted cheese etc.) Otherwise, recycling is a very good idea. Just don't make 'going green' your idol.

We have a fairly good recycling system here, although it varies somewhat from county to county. At home we get given a main bin, two baskets for tins and plastic milk cartons, cans, etc, and then one for card and paper. These are picked up by the council, but if you produce a lot of rubbish that doesn't fit in the bins you have to get rid of the excess yourself (we're a medium sized family and always manage to fit everything in the bins).

I live in a city at the moment which you'd think would make being green harder, but it's actually a lot easier. There's a local farmers market every week where I tend to buy a lot of vegetables, fruit and cheese and the prices are pretty good. As well as being organic, food from there is also local and rarely travels more than 50 miles. I don't drive and generally walk everywhere, or get a bus. I think using public transport is far more common in the UK, you can get away with not having a car just about anywhere, and in cities it's more sensible not to have one.

Although, at home my step-grandmother is a gardening fanatic and provides us with tons of vegetables all the time for free Despite not being gardening types we're trying to start growing a few things of our own, my mother's managed to keep a couple of pepper plants and a tomato plant going

Warrior, we usually make sure whatever goes into the recycle bin is pretty cleaned off of food scraps. It keeps the bin from smelling in addition to the request from the company to make sure that happens.

I just realized there's a farmer's market on my way home from work. I need to swing by there and see what their prices are. hmmm....

Mass transit in my area of the U.S. stinks. I wish it was better. We live in an area that the water table is too high for a subway and we are so spread out that you pretty much have to have a car. I wanted to buy a hybrid when I bought my current car, but I couldn't afford it. So I bought the most fuel efficient gas model I could. It was a step up from my old car which wasn't bad on gas either. A small step, but still more efficient.

Well my Mom has had some health problems so I've eaten organic my whole life...you are all right about the prices being much higher,but I have found out that local farmers prices are chepaer than grocery stores that sell organics.In a way sometimes unnatural food tastes better,but I don't feel as good after eating it....

With going green I am totally fine with recycling and a few other things,but I feel like people have taken it to far.There is a recycling commercial evey hour,and I went downtown not to long ago and some green teenagers all started asking me to donate $50.00 to save the rainforest.Which for me was too much to ask,plus if I walked up to them it would have been different..because they had a booth set up they just had people get out and come talk to random people...........
I do recycle plastic bottles and our mail.

ooh fun topic !

Ok, this is my take on eggs. One of my friend's have tons of chickens. She told me the difference between brown and white is that, chickens that have been making white eggs were given a feed that contains a chemical that makes that chicken produce double the amount of eggs. Brown is when the chickens feed is free of those chemicals. So brown, blue, and green are actually natural colors of the eggs. Brown is more expensive because they have not been treated with that chemical.

Light bulbs: personalty I don't like the curly cue light bulbs because of there chemical content AND because the make my face look awful in the mirror when they are used in the bathroom.

Organic: organic means the things used to make that food has not been treated with pesticides. Pesticides ruin the soil and can hurt you. Also organic makes you feel so much better! The same friend with chickens also eats organic and I feel bad when I go home and eat something un-organic after coming from her house. so its just plan better for you.

Going green: very silly if you ask me.

so that is my take on some of these things!

ooh fun topic !

Ok, this is my take on eggs. One of my friend's have tons of chickens. She told me the difference between brown and white is that, chickens that have been making white eggs were given a feed that contains a chemical that makes that chicken produce double the amount of eggs. Brown is when the chickens feed is free of those chemicals. So brown, blue, and green are actually natural colors of the eggs. Brown is more expensive because they have not been treated with that chemical.

Considering that white eggs have been around since before chemicals were "invented", I find that a little hard to believe. I'd be interested to read any reputable source backing that up, though!

I find that story about eggs a little fishy as well, since we have friends who raise organic eggs and some of their chickens have white eggs and some have brown. I was told it had to do with the breed of chicken doing the laying--but I don't have a reputable source to back that up either.

I find that story about eggs a little fishy as well, since we have friends who raise organic eggs and some of their chickens have white eggs and some have brown. I was told it had to do with the breed of chicken doing the laying--but I don't have a reputable source to back that up either.

who really knows?? It's just what I have heard. You never can tell

I have relatives who are farmers as well, and their chickens naturally lay white eggs. They were laying white eggs back in prairie days as well, and, I imagine, since the beginning of time.

Lady Lilliandil, Whoever told you that was probably just getting it confused with white bread.

~Riella

Just because something is green, does not make it nontoxic.

Like some forms of mushrooms? XD But seriously, do you mean foods you find in stores that are labeled organic, but actually have pesticides in them? Or are you referring to something else?

These days "green" is used very loosely and it doesn't mean the same things to different people. They do have certification of what is "organic" for farming/food labeling purposes (not going to get into that in this post).

I mean/am referring to cleaning products. For example: Green Works is a laundry liquid detergent. It might be green and helpful to the earth but it still would not help a person who is allergic to fragrance in it which sometimes is made of synthetic chemicals or it might have other chemicals that affect/may be toxic to a person who is chemically sensitive. Or Windex....Windex claims it is "green" because it supposedly is saying it has a low pH balance and won't harm the earth, but it still has ammonia....which is a chemical and when mixed with bleach has toxic effects on humans.

Another example is PVC (polyvinyl chloride). This chemical is used to make products with plastics soft (eg. window shades, recyclable carpet tiles, cheap duffle/handbags)....it's supposed to be "green" in that it saves the earth--the carpet tile is recyclable, but when it combusts/or is heated the byproduct is a toxic chemical that is a neurotoxin and endocrine disruptor. I have links to studies somewhere I could dig up. I react horribly to products with PVC...lung nasal burning and headaches and I get a nauseous feeling in my stomach.

One time I went to buy an organic comforter....the person selling it said the way it would be technically-all-strictly-all-organic depended on if the sheep were eating organic feed. I laughed at that. I just wanted a wool comforter that hadn't been treated with flame retardant.

Hopefully more people will want organic and the markets will changeover to that and the prices will go down......farmers' markets are great though. I love them.