How long have you been GREEN?

I've been recycling since the early 80's.

I hope to start composting more and growing more of my own food this year.

 

Since I ate that Burrito at Taco Bell.

Actually, I didn't feel buying a Prius made me more "green". It did make me less wasteful. I've always tried to keep my throwaway habits in check. Here in Edmonton we have a huge plant that recycles our garbage. One of the largest in the world, I'm told. Yes, we have recycling, with "blue boxes" (blue bags now), but even the non-recycling bags go through the plant. They make compost out of the stuff they don't have to bury, and every year they seem to find better things to do with more of the garbage than burying it.

A car, any car, is very hard on the environment. The steel production produces tons of CO2, plastic bodies are made from oil currently, and we all know how environmentally unfriendly that is! The aluminum is energy intensive to refine, and even it produces a lot of CO2.

Contrary to what CNW seems to think, the nickel production for the Prius battery is just the tip of the iceberg! Its' environmental impact is just a "sidebar".

 

We've been recyling since we bought our house in the mid 70s. But I confess it was to help meet the mortgage payments.

 

As Evan points out, "going green" is a gradual process. As we become aware of our impact on our environment, we take actions to attenuate it. (like recycling, using less energy, traveling less etc)

However, like everything else in life, there are milestones. For me, that would be 1995 when I did an EV conversion on a Geo Metro (used no gasoline for 3 years).

 

I was a subscriber to Mother Earth News and raising my own half-acre organic garden in the early 80's. Recycled anything possible.
I've spent most of my life turning down the thermostats and turning off the lights.
Respecting Gaia is something that's been a part of me for quite a long time. I would hesitate to even guess how long.
Driving a Prius is just one more step on the path towards nirvana.

 

The first house I bought was in 1974. The first thing I did was have it insulated.

I bought another house in 1979, and the first thing I did was have it insulated.

I bought my present house in 1984, and right, the first thing I did was have it insulated. I also had a high-efficiency furnace put in, to replace a God-awful furnace that was at most 40 percent efficient. It was an old coal furnace that had been converted to natural gas with a 180,000 btu ring burner, that used to come on and run for half an hour at a time. With the house insulated, and the new 96-percent efficient forced air furnace (80,000 btu's), the new furnace would run for maybe 6 or 8 minutes, and less often than the old one.

I had one gas hog, a Ford pickup truck that I got rid of in a year. All my vehicles have been fuel efficient.

I have replaced all the old-style light bulbs with energy saving ones.

I've been green for a very long time.

Harry

 

I don't consider myself green, per se, and I don't perceive buying a Prius as "going green," but like David Beale posted above, I try to be less wasteful.

• I've brought my own canvas sacks to the grocery store for 9 years and refuse plastic bags but some stores insist.
• We're stingy about heating our house, keeping it at 64 day/ 61 evening during the winter and we run air conditioning a total of 7 - 10 days in the summer. When my high efficiency furnace dies, I'll probably replace it with a heat pump (geothermal).
• My sister describes our house as a "cave" because we only use lights in the rooms we're occupying, except for the darned kids who need to be reminded constantly. We're replacing with CFL's, but I am concerned about their disposal...
• We recycle, but who doesn't? Including batteries, electronics, etc.
• I looked into putting solar panels on our patio, but the payback period in Pittsburgh is almost 18 years!

If I were green, I'd probably do the solar panels anyway. Oh, and I'd compost. So, yeah, basically I'm not green.

 

I've always been a brunette.

 

I've been recycling since the mid 70s

I've been composting from the mid 70s to 1980 (my Mom's house; it was her idea) and started again in the late 90s (my first house).

I've always bought the car with the highest possible MPG I could find.

I've been using canvas bags for shopping since the mid 90s.

I don't have any kids, nor do I plan to.

 

Since 1968 when I joined the Sierra Club, Recreational Equipment Inc, began climbing nordic skiing, recycling, and driving a VW bug that earned 33 mpg.

 

It will be a long road (if ever) before I am living sustainably. I like the following line from the song Kyoto Now: "It's never really what you own but what you threw away and how much did you pay?".

My focus has not been purchasing stuff that is "green" or low "carbon content". It has been on making sure that everything I throw away was unavoidable. Thinking that way makes the purchases of material stuff go way down.

 

pretty much since we lived in my college town, we've been more and more aware of our impact on the world. we're still in the stage where we keep finding things we do that we want to change.

though admittedly, a lot of it is in the interest of being cheap too

 

I don't do either so maybe I'm missing something, but what's green about nordic skiing and climbing.

 

I'm not, but I won't have offspring. I guess they will be greener than my nieces and nephews.

 

Newbie here...only had a Prius for a week but...proud to say have been "green" since 1978 and Sierra Club member. Worked for the National Park Service for 10 years and am an environmental educator.

Proud to be green although as of late it is in fashion. Just so funny how everyone is jumping on board, even Walmart..!.. Yeah right.....

 

Started recycling about 30 years ago.
I'm currently changing all the old light bulbs to the new type.
I changed out all my windows last year the old ones where 30 years old.
Last year I upgraded all my kitchen appliances to energy efficient ones.
Also got a new washer and dryer which are extremely energy efficient in December. Turning off the ceiling fans when not in the room and trying all
different ways to cut power usage.
Two years ago got a new heat pump, air conditioner and air exchanger.
For me it's all about lowering energy costs, and of course my Prius
Dear Prudence.

 

Nordic skiing and climbing are human-powered, not directly dependent on oil. In effect, "we earn our turns" without the assistance of automobiles, chairlifts, gondolas and the like. Climbing (rock, ice, mountaineering) is where you adapt yourself, not equipment and you make every attempt to minimize your impact, or restore what is adversely impacted.