Those simple things..

Last two days there have been several conversations on green carpet about just everyday stuff.. They led me thinking about, what we want to do, what we actually do and what we think others should do..

First was the conversation with my mom- I was excited to tell her about the blog of Beth Terry about living a Life without plastic, and if we come to think about not buying new plastic, it becomes a huge challenge!! Plastic packaged groceries, various liquids, cosmetic items and packagings, even magazines and toilet paper comes in plastic, letter windows are plastic and so much more!!! Basically, almost every new item comes in plastic packaging, so even if you're not using plastic bags, you still have loads of plastic at home. And I do too- meat boxes, yogurt pots, milk bottles to be just few of them. Ok, I could try drinking only goats milk that comes in a carton pack, but it still has a plastic screw top. Or I could go more often to farmers market and by stuff there without any plastics.
And oh, Gosh, when you look in the bathroom!! My other aim is now to buy solid shampoo that would not come in plastic bottle, Bart's bees seems suggested option. I also found yesterday a place where I can refill my Ecover washing up liquid and fabric softener. Great! But when you think of all that plastic!! Even when buying metallic tube for cream or tooth paste- top is plastic! It's everywhere! I'm not going plastic free all at once, but now I am making myself even more aware of having non-plastic alternatives. I mean- not taking plastic shoping bags is so not enough!

The Second thing which derived from the story on plastic was my mom's worries that I'll go radical in one day and throw away everything I have plastic. She didn't express that out loud, but I know it was behind the suggestion that I shouldn't exaggerate this going "no new plastic". And I said that we also shouldn't underestimate of importance of noticing such things and doing what we can at that moment. This made me thinking- how many people actually think that they are incredibly green to not take one plastic bag in a shop per week, but they would never ever be ready to go out of their comfort zone and give something up or go an extra mile to get greener alternative. It's all in our heads, I know. But I'm still wondering, how people are not aware that they have to do a bit more! Or give up some stuff they can live without not even noticing it sometimes!
Or when people think "I'm green in this, so I can ignore this other thing, let somebody else do their share". Seriously? There are no shares here! There's just one Planet for all of us, and we all ought to take care of it! And at the moment, every person that does more than the other makes a difference. We can't just say- I won't do it because "they" don't. It's the same as in the story where "wife had a bad nights sleep, so she yelled at the husband in the morning; so husband was in the bad mood and yelled at the bus driver; so the bus driver was upsed and yelled at old lady passenger....." and so it goes on. It doesn't justify the driver to yell at her. Or the husband to hell at driver. Or wife to yell at husband! The same thing with the greener habits- just because someone threw a rubbish on the street doesn't mean I'm gonna do the same. And just because million people won't  think twice of buying plastic or artificial or GMO, I'm not gonna do the same.

Third thing- just yesterday there was a talk about good old times when we all had our handkerchiefs! Isn't that a fond memory? Grandpas always had the biggest ones!! But today everybody uses up tons of Kleenex or other paper tissues. And if I didn't have my handkerchief at hand, I used my tissue definitely more than once. But it seems that everybody else is so worried to touch their own blow, that they would sneeze or blow only once in an A5 or A5 size of a tissue. That's ridiculous! And then I read the napkin theme on the blog I love- this MOTHER's going GREEN . I took it as a sign alltogether on green carpet.
So, even though our family was never using loads of paper tissues, I was just talking to my husband about the handkerchief stuff. That with the baby on board we will have to have even more of mess or sneezes or nose blowings or just cleaning a corner of the mouth. So we both agreed to buy a bulk of handkerchiefs to always have enough. And also table napkins for us and also our guests that at our home no one would have to use paper ones. This is our little victory today! Less paper wasted!
But this is also a challenge- I'll have to search for the good, soft ones as they were in my childhood. Because the ones you can usually buy now are either with polyester in them or even cotton ones are so thin and full of I don't know what, that they are very unpleasant to touch your nose. So no I am on the quest!