Notice Invisible Wasteful Things

Changing your habits is the most frequently discussed way to go green. "Do this instead of that." But we less often hear about something that is as important: Changing your mindset, the 'lens' through which you see the world. Now, lets not get too philosophical. What does this mean in practice?

Well, for many of us, especially the younger, what we consider normal is very wasteful. We are, so to speak, surrounded by invisible wasteful things. They aren't really invisible, but they might as well be since we don't notice them. I'm talking about things like individually wrapped cheese slices, small boxes of food staples that could be bought in bulk, bottle water, disposable paper plates, etc. And that's just for the kitchen! There are many other areas of life where it's just as bad, like jumping in the car to go somewhere that is in walking distance, throwing away a computer or cellphone after a couple of years, etc.

All of these things might seem fairly benign on their own, but add them all up together, and it is a massive waste. Not to mention that we too often forget to count how a thing was made: A paper plate is small, but thing of all the trucks and chainsaws that went out to cut down trees, transport them for processing, think of all the energy and chemicals required to turn it into cardboard, and then package it and ship it to a store. And then you would use it a few minutes and throw it in the trash?

There are better ways to do things, and once you change your 'lens' and start seeing waste that was previously invisible to you, these better ways will become apparent (or you can read Planet Green and TreeHugger for tips!).

Difficulty level: Easy to Medium