by Gary Waters

Created on: November 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 15, 2009

My Blood Runs Green

As Americans join the going green frenzy, we often realize that being green can have economical benefits as well as environmental benefits. In my family being green has always been a way of life, not as an environmental project but as an economical necessity. Every jar was saved as well as every scrap of paper.

Both my maternal and paternal grandparents came from rural farming communities and money was scarce during their early lives. Therefore they learned to make every penny count and everything that came in the house was used and reused.

My grandfather saved every piece of paper that came in his house, including cereal boxes, detergent boxes and junk mail. Every box was cut into smaller note card size pieces and used for messages, grocery lists etc., things we buy note pads for these days.

I have carried this tradition into the twenty-first century. I use the back side of junk mail as printer paper for maps, articles and recipes I print off of the computer. This works great for college students who can use the second side for all sorts of things like class schedules and syllabuses which will be thrown away at the end of the semester.

I have not had to buy paper for my printer in a year or two. Less money out of my pocket and every piece of junk mail get double use before being thrown away.

My mother has talked about the flour sack dresses she wore as a little girl. Little girls did not have Martha White Flour printed across their backsides as you might think, the bags were made with graphics perfect for kitchen towels and little girls dresses.

Flour does not come in sacks anymore but we can reuse may items in the household that usually go straight to the dump after their original use. I take old shower curtains and wash them in bleach and they become perfect paint tarps. When I use to visit my aunt in Charlotte, she had beautiful furniture but covered it with old bedspreads.

She still has that beautiful furniture today because she bought a good sturdy product and took care of it. Her old furniture does not fill the dumps today. I have a quality leather sofa I bought used, which is of good quality and it sits in my living room today.

It's fifteen years old and covered with an old bedspread that collects my spills and the cat hair and is easily washed every couple of weeks. The old bedspread or comforter also gets new life at picnics and as a beach blanket.

The landfills are filled with product packaging these days: juice boxes, water bottles, milk cartons and soda cans. When I was a kid, you bought soda in a bottle with a five cent deposit. Not only was that an incentive to keep the bottle and not throw it out the car window but if you did throw it out, in our neighborhood there was a good chance my brother or I would pick it up. In my brothers case, he would cash it in.

Me, I would trade it in for candy. Some states up north still have a deposit on plastic bottles, an idea we should all adopt again. Remember the key to being green is reuse and recycle.

Learn more about this author, Gary Waters.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.