Earth Day!?!?!

Earth Day - I forgot Earth Day.....arrggggg....sigh....well, in honour of Earth Day past, here is something I had written a year ago for a MOPS newsletter...

Remember those Girl Guide badges we so lovingly hand-stitched on to blue-box-coloured sashes (in order to have the sewing badge among them)? Uncomfortably perched on a wooden chair (because our cat has claimed the computer chair and I am just too lazy to deal with the melodramatic fuss of re-positioning him), I sit here considering, imagining what badges I might obtain if I was Brown Owl‘s “Earth Guides” keener…

Well, before we get to the pat-myself-on-the-back uplifting and positive part, let’s face it: there are, hands down, many badges that would not be sewn on to my little Earth sash. Chuck out hopes of the one-car family badge (we did successfully try until a caravan showed up, a bike was stolen, and first winter with second child hit) – especially since our other vehicle is diesel-guzzlin’. And I am not sure how many wild animals and plants have withered out of existence due to my past hair-dying obsession’s infiltration of some sort of scary toxin into the eco-system, so I definitely would have to forgo on that badge.

Hmmm…what else? All my dirty little eco-secrets are coming out here…Scrap any save-on- food-packaging insignia – I try, I honestly do, but I still purchase yoghurt in mini-containers (why are these more alluring to my toddlers? Why does the exact same yoghurt in a bowl suddenly take on new, unappealing flavour?), lettuce in bags, kidney beans and chickpeas in cans. I once read, in disbelief, of a three-person family that disposed of only one bag of garbage in an entire three-month time (but then, again, I still consider it cheating when he saved all of his waste for a giant art display of the ‘horrific, reckless, and voracious nature of human greed’). Yes, we only recently stopped using phosphate-ridden detergent in our dishwasher.

Well, this is getting somewhat depressing, so let’s focus on what badges would make the cut…

3Rs badge here I come…Not being much of a shopper (okay, despising the very act of it certainly aids in being reductionist in nature) chalks me up for the “reduce” part, and as for the recycling, well, like a good earth-loving girl I dutifully toss my recyclables to the curb and whatever they don’t throw back on my lawn gets taken to some deep, dark, secretive place and turned into something that benefits this planet in some way (I hope). Compostables are chucked into a home-made lid-less stinky bin in the backyard that neighbours are sure to complain about once weather becomes warmer, and clothing that is bi-annually sorted into second-hand-store or rummage-sale boxes finds new homes on other people. Recycle…check….Re-use…check….

Diaper-pin emblazoned badge for honourable use of cloth diapers, and even the laundry badge for replacing bleach with 35% hydrogen peroxide, dryer sheets with dryer balls (which are only used about 2x a year for "emergency use" since when it’s too frosty to plop them on the snow-encrusted clothesline I have a fantastic Ikea drying rack), using apple cider vinegar in place of fabric softener, cold water setting washes and only buying phosphate-free eco-detergent. I could weasel my way into earning the Cleaning badge for using white vinegar, baking soda, and elbow grease for pretty much every mess in the house.

Sigh. Still so far to go in my imaginary attempt to earn as many of these hemp badges (made right here in Canada, within 100 miles of Mount Forest, by legally-aged union workers who drive their hybrids only when it is too blizzardy to bike or rollerblade)…any suggestions???