Although, "going green" strategies have gained much popularity in recent years, many people still wonder what the big fuss is all about. The majority of consumers are not ready to make changes.



If people realized that going green is nothing new, then maybe their resistance can be lifted a bit. It shouldn't be called "going green" but, going back to basics.

My family and I have been eco-friendly all our lives. Funny enough though, we didn't do it for the environment, we did it for our pockets. We couldn't afford to be wasteful and abuse on our resources.

Realizing how my parents and grandparents lived, makes me feel that going green is extremely simple. There's nothing new about it. We just need to understand that it is simply learning how things were done in past generations. This can make a big difference in our planet and in our finances.

Growing up, my father will constantly reprimand us for leaving the TV on while not in use, or not turning off the lights when leaving a room. The air conditioning was like gold; it was a sin to leave the outside door open for more than 3 seconds. "The Cheap king," we will call him. We don't call him that anymore. He was right. We need to preserve. Just now, it's not so much about money, but to save the planet.

My mom was just as bad. She refused to buy paper towels, and if she did, a roll will last almost a year. She will actually rince the paper towel and lay it to dry. I'm not lying. I learned how to turn on a dishwasher after getting married. My mother will use the dishwasher to store dishes. She'll reuse glass containers to store left-overs. The cloth dryer was non existant. She will line dry instead. I don't remember ever having disposable cups or plates in our house, not even for party's. Times were tough, and going green was the way to live.

I definitely, didn't continue all their practices. Times have changed, and I just can't see myself not using the dryer, or discontinue the use of disposable diapers. There are some modern things that are just too convenient to let pass by. We can, though, re-condition ourselves to going back to basic practices. "Going Green" is easy. It's just committing to make a couple of small changes in our own household. Just imagine the difference it will make in our environment, if each household in the United States (population of over 300 million) made a commitment to go green in just one way.