Confession Number 22: It's Not Easy Being Green

I've written about going green before. No new news on this front, except that I've been feeling a little helpless and underwhelmed in the area lately. We are still doing the normal things that are easy for our family. I still by organic when I can find it and it won't cost me my right arm. We still drive our may run away speeding down the highway with no way to stop it except for slamming into a barrier in a big fiery ball hybrid Prius. I still use my reusable bags at Wal-Mart. However, we are facing a few challenges, too.

Our town lost it's recycling services when the company decided they weren't making enough money to drive an hour once a week to empty our bins. It almost breaks my heart every time I have to throw a milk jug or a cardboard box into the dumpster. It almost makes me want to turn to hoarding all of my recyclables until our city leaders can figure out a new plan. Almost. Okay, not really, but you understand my point. I'm getting discouraged in all of this doing good for the environment business. I'm just about to throw the towel into the dumpster with all of my trash.

Then, a few days ago, my friend Megan, over at SortaCrunchy wrote about her goals for Project Spring Green. Maybe because Megan is one of those people that could say, "Charla jump off this bridge head first" and I would say, "sure thing". Maybe it is because deep down inside I'm still a college freshmen scared to death of my sorority alum dorm director. Maybe it is because it is spring and things are blooming and there are little baby chicks at the farm store and I feel like life has new purpose, but Megan's post inspired me. She challenged all of her readers to set one green goal for spring. Just one. It could be as little as vowing to not use paper plates or it could be as bold as declaring your family toilet paper free. (Yes, there are really people out there who do this, it is called "family cloth" and if you dare to learn more about it, my dear Megan explains it here.  Warning:  It terrified me.  You may have nightmares.) After reading Megan's post, and the comments that followed, I thought, "I can do this. Okay, I can't do family cloth, but I can do something." So, I set two goals for myself:

1- Not accepting any plastic shopping bags anywhere. I'm really good at taking my reusable bags to Wal-Mart, and even Braum's, but to the mall? Never. Not once.

2- Try to buy locally grown produce. Megan's challenge is to carry out your goal through the month of April, thinking by that time the goal will be a habit. I'm not sure I'll be able to do this in April because I'm not sure when our local farmer's market will be up and running, but this is my goal for the summer. I may have to cheat here and there, but the majority of produce should NOT come from Wal-Mart.

So, Kennedy wants to know, what is your Project Spring Green goal?