I may need a tree to be out of

I am just as concerned about the environment as the next person. I have to be. I am stuck between a couple of generations of ecologists.

My mother never throws anything away. She could give Green Peacers lessons on conservation. She reuses paper napkins. She can shower in about a quart of water.
When she was younger and gardening at her best, she was the green-growers counterpart to the Native Americans who used every part of their bagged game. She used every part of everything she grew and she grew everything. We used some things that came up on their own too.

She was ecology when ecology wasn’t cool. Only it wasn’t called ecology. It was just a simple matter of “waste not, want not.”

So then, the generation after me is the recycling generation, although no one of them can hold a candle to my mother. And they should not waste candles trying. Most of them waste a pound to save a pinch, to make use of another old cliché.

Anyway, I don’t have much chance of wasting or polluting my way through life. I will hear about it from one direction or the other.

But from the rest of the world, I just get a lot of mixed messages. The department store sends goods home in paper bags which will biodegrade and not pollute the local city dump. But the grocery store uses plastic so we can save a tree, while the education establishment thinks that paper grows on trees. I remember times when our stack of school papers was as high as the newspaper pile.

So which is it? I can tell you that I haven’t felt enough of the generational squeeze to motivate me to bring my own bags anywhere. Besides, carrying those things around in my car could cause me to use more gasoline and be crazy.

When I graduated from shopping in the “baby needs” aisle at the grocery store, I was able to eliminate one of life’s dilemmas. And should you parents of the diaper set be tree-conscious enough to use cloth diapers, do you really think you should be using all of that water for washing them?

As for recycling, if I am going to sort and recycle garbage, I am going to need more space for all of those bins. That means a new house which means using several trees I guess. Even if I keep the sorting bins in the middle of the garage and put the car outside, I am going to have to rinse out all of the glass and plastic. That means more water.

And keeping the car outside means more gasoline to warm it up and more water to keep it clean.

So just as ecological studies consider the relationships between systems and point out how one action leads to another, the same is also true with the application of certain practices designed to alleviate or minimize those actions. Saving a tree is well and good, but using plastic instead may contribute to the immortality of landfills.

I know all this because I have many times seen the same principle in action when I buy a new dress. It follows that now I need new shoes. And I may need a new bag as well. To my relief, I can choose something other than paper or plastic. Choosing leather ought to help out, right?

So I muddle along. Some days I use paper. Some days I use plastic. Some days I stay out of the stores, but I haven’t been able to do it for any extended period.
But the more I think of it, using plastic might be more to my good than I care to admit.