It’s Easy Being Green

By Vanja Pantic | VOX Staff

Photo by Tracy Jackson | VOX Staff

It seems like everyone is doing it. Everywhere you turn, people are talking about it. Is it really worth it? you ask yourself. It’s global, it’s natural and it’s supposed to make you feel good. Finally, you decide you’re not going to wait anymore. You think you’re ready to make the leap, but how do you do it – how do you go green?

It may seem complicated, but the process is much simpler than it used to be. From making over your room to making over yourself, there are tons of easy, inexpensive ways to go green and benefit the world around you.

Beauty Products and Hygine
Whether you use foundation, eyeliner, eye shadow, lipstick, chapstick, soap, shampoo or mascara, there’s a green product for you.

Mineral makeup, for example, contains naturally occurring minerals like iron oxides, mica powder and titanium dioxide but leaves out the fragrances and synthetics in other types of makeup. The light, airy feel of mineral makeup is also good for your skin because it allows it to breathe and doesn’t clog pores. Brands like Bare Escentuals and Cover Girl make mineral foundations. Physicians Formula, Urban Decay and Revlon have come out with mineral eyeshadows, lipsticks and mascara. Other eco-friendly brands for skin and haircare include Aveda, Burts Bees and the Body Shop.

Food
Green foods range from vegetarian products and organic veggies to cage-free eggs laid by chickens that are allowed to roam freely (like they would in their natural habitat), and grass-fed meats. These foods usually don’t have long ingredients lists, and they don’t contain the chemicals and preservatives that non-organic and non-natural foods contain.

You can find these eco-friendly foods almost anywhere. While Whole Foods is full of natural and organic foods, cheaper stores like Kroger also sell organic products (usually near the vegetarian aisles). Target’s Archer Farms brand also offers organic alternatives.

These foods usually cost more money, but chemically engineered foods can end up costing you more in terms of your health because chemicals aren’t beneficial to your body.

Transportation
Public transportation is one of the cleanest ways to travel. While MARTA may use more gas than your car, the bus and train can transport many more people and run multiple times a day. So you may as well take advantage of it. Biking and walking are also great and healthy alternatives to driving.

If you have to drive, carpool with your family or friends. You won’t have to worry about parking, since carpooling increases the number of spaces available, and you’ll be using less gas!

And if you’re buying a new (or used) car, look for hybrids. They’re eco-friendly because they don’t use as much gasoline and do less damage to or environment. They also have better gas mileage. So, while you may have to pay more out of pocket for that hybrid, it will cost less money in the long-run.

House Repairs and Decorations
Green cleaning products are essentially the same products you use now without toxins in them. Many of mainstream household cleaning products have petroleum bases, which are bad because petroleum is a non-renewable resource that is detrimental to the environment.

Companies like Seventh Generation make their products dye-free, fragrance-free and use vegetable bases rather than petroleum bases. Seventh Generation says this move has saved about 300,000 trees and 640,000 gallons of petroleum. Many eco-friendly cleaning products are also biodegradable, which means that they won’t stick around forever in a landfill polluting our soil.

Water
Tap water may not be the most appealing drink, but it’s one of the most eco-friendly. If you’re like me and you don’t drink tap water, you can still invest in a nice, reusable aluminum or steel water bottle and buy gallons of water to refill it rather than individual servings. You’ll reduce plastic waste this way, and save money!

Another thing to consider is water waste. While it would be ideal to have an endless supply of water, we don’t. (Remember, Georgia is still in a drought!) So, the next time you take a shower or brush your teeth, try to do it quickly, and turn the water off when you’re not using it. Switching to a low-flow showerhead and toilet also conserves water, because you use less of it each time.

Recycle
It seems like a no-brainer, but most people don’t bother recycling. Along with recycling cans, bottles, paper and boxes, you can recycle things you don’t change that often, like cell phones.

According to Oberlin College, 36 billion cans were found in landfills last year, even though they’re recyclable. The Web site for the school’s recycling program says, “If every American household recycled just one out of every 10 HDPE [a type of light-weight material] bottles they used, we’d keep 200 million pounds of the plastic out of landfills every year.” So, get to your local recycling center, which you can find based on the county you live in, and recycle! Most counties, for a small fee, will even pick up your recycling from your home!

Shopping
Take a tote bag with you when you go shopping and skip the plastic bags! Many stores, like Whole Foods and Target, sell really cute, low-cost bags solely for this purpose. Whole Foods rewards you when you don’t use their bags by taking 10 cents off your total cost, and Trader Joe’s rewards customers who bring their own bags by entering them in drawings for store gift certificates.

If you forget your reusable tote, opt for paper bags. You can even decorate the smaller ones and use them as gift bags or lunch bags.

Going green is relatively simple, and every step toward being more eco-friendly impacts the world around us. Once you make the switch, you won’t even notice that you’re doing anything different!