I Come From Foreign

I don’t really buy into the it’s hip to be green movement.

I just didn’t grow up that way.

I mean don’t get me wrong, we didn’t waste. And if living in foreign has taught me anything, it is that America at its core is a wasteful society of disposable one-off things.

So in Trinidad, I grew up green in my own way: eating leftovers, getting things repaired instead of buying new ones, never throwing anything away. EVER. Hey, you never know…

My parents have storerooms of ‘you never know’ type junk. Actually, I think my parents JUST replaced the tv we bought when I was about 8 for a new model LAST YEAR.

Where I’m from, being wasteful is very much frowned upon.

Waste not, want not, and all.

Now that’s my idea of green livin’.

But being green in the U.S. is a different story it seems.

I feel like so much of it is just hype, a passing trend, and I’m pretty sure if I dug deeper into the whole thing (but I’m too lazy–if I wasn’t I’d recycle, no) I’d find that a lot of these so-called green companies are just as bad for the environment as the traditional ones.

I’m editing a book on social enterprise right now that introduced me to the concept of Cause Marketing–basically, aligning your company with a “cause” so as to engender good will and increase sales.

It’s bunch of BS, really. (see big bad Walmart goes green while dicking employees out of health insurance*)

Go read consumerist.com. They out these so-called socially responsible companies on a daily basis.

Anyway, whatever. No more rant.

It’s Earth Day, apparently.

(for realz, check it out)

And while I’m not “green” per se, I am anti-waste.

So what have I done for the earth lately?

Well, I shredded about a month’s worth of junk mail this morning and I kind of felt bad.

I thought that for the most part I had eliminated my paper trail and transitioned to online statements, etc, but some companies haven’t really gotten the message.

Especially, BofA who sends me my bank statement IN BRAILLE every month. Whut?!

So… here’s my teeny eensy way of “making a difference” and “saving myself the trouble of shredding crap.”

I’m actually going to make the effort to call these companies [I hate phones so this is a really big thing you guys] who aren’t listening to me and demand they stop wasting paper and sending me useless junk. And I shall keep on demanding until they listen.

Hey, it’s something. Everything counts right? I, too, can make a difference.

Oh, and here’s an anti-junk mail petition you can sign. Off you go.

Join me and the anti-waste movement! What are you not wasting today?

*After the overwhelming public outcry Walmart dropped the suit against its brain-damaged employee but that’s not the point. Dude, what were they thinking?