Hypocritically Green

[Liliana Gonzalez]

mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">After reading the article above about being environmentally conscious but still hurt the environment,
reflected the way I live clearly.

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">At my house we have a trash bin just for recycled goods, as well another for soda cans. We also stopped
buying water bottles and every family member invested in plastic reusable water
bottles. We try to unplug the electronic appliances when not in use and I'm
proud to say my showers have been shortened to 15 minutes.

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">However, I'm a hypocrite. We constantly buy soda cans, instead of bottles, or giving up soda all
together. Every meal consists of meat (unless you count the 40 days of lent,
where we don't eat meat as much). We use disposable plates, napkins, paper
towels and bowls for every meal, just so we don't have to wash that many
dishes. We wash our clothes in hot water and our showers are always scolding
hot. We have five cars and only four family members, only 3 that can actually
drive, but the one good thing is that all of them are used and well maintained.

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">How should we lower our carbon footprint?

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text-autospace:none"">font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5E5E">·
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Stop
purchasing so many items/products (we have at least 6 bottles of
shampoo/conditioner)

text-autospace:none"">font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5E5E">·
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Try
carpooling with one another if we can't find co workers

text-autospace:none"">font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5E5E">·
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Stop
eating meat so often

text-autospace:none"">font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5E5E">·
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Wash
clothes in cold water

text-autospace:none"">font-family:Symbol;mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol; color:#5E5E5E">·
font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Use
real dishes instead of plastic and buy cloth napkins instead of paper

Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol;color:#5E5E5E"">· "Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Other random things our family recycles is that every Christmas I wrap the gifts in newspaper and random string, or ribbon
laying around the house. It sounds tacky, but it's a way for Liz and I to get
creative. Why would you buy paper only to throw away a few days later? I think
it looks cute.

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">Please save all the gift bags people give you, you can reuse.

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Lucida Grande";color:#5E5E5E"">My mother saves almost every container after we finish using it, coffee, butter, jelly, etc. It annoys
me to no end, but it has come in handy. I think the best solution is to stop
buying over packaged items.

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I didn't know that flying was extremely bad for the environment, but according to the article a family of
four flying once contributes more pollution than a whole year of commuting? I
guess it is cheaper and more environmentally friendly to drive. I fly home 3
times a year...maybe I should carpool more often."Times New Roman""">