What does Crunchy Mean to You?

I’m often appalled by the waste I see in the USA, even as a child I remember seeing people ordering plates and plates of food to leave more than half of it. I found it both compelling and terrifying, it’s been part of my fascination with the USA growing up. A country where, it appears, everything is in excess, where people have the right to order too much and to waste, a country where wasting is socially acceptable.

In recent years blogging has given me more of an insiders view of this country, reading articles about being greener, wasting less, it seems there’s a lot of people in the USA ready to change this and to do their part in reducing and recycling. Like so many things in life it’s easy to let those first impressions site with you. Blogging has introduced me to a lot of crunchy ladies…

What does crunchy  mean to you?

- a misspelling of the best chocolate bar to have on a Friday

- the legs of that soft shell crab you had at the weekend which you’re still not sure if you were suppose to eat or not

- a flip flop wearing, cloth diaper using, strictly vegan, tree hugging organic eating, hippy?

To me it means trying to reduce your impact on the environment and to try, where possible to give back where you can’t help but impact.

This year I challenged myself to be greener, I wasn’t sure what kind of path I would take when I started this but I felt like I needed to be reducing the bags full of rubbish leaving my house every day. If the Americans were jumping on the ‘be greener’ waste less band wagon, it was definitely time that I took account of what I was wasting here in Scotland.

 

This challenge has involved looking at what I’m getting rid of and trying to find alternatives:

Crunchy Success

- Using deodorant bars from lush

- Cloth sanitary towels

- Buying greener cleaning products

- Washing clothes at 30’C – If it’s not dirty wash it at 30, or as my boyfriend keeps saying ‘things stay dirty when you wash them at 30’

Crunchy Fails

- Making your own soap – what a gloopy mess!

- Using green beauty products – so far nothing I’m happy with

- Remembering to take your own bags to the shop

- Reducing the amount of meat I’m eating

 

I’ll be embarking on a journey to try and continue with what I’ve started, documenting my opinions and my successes and failures – I’m sure some thing will take some getting used to.

Are you crunchy?