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Why Be Green?

By Elizabeth Rogers, author of The Green Book
Elizabeth Rogers
Like my 8-year-old son, I am always asking the question, "Why?" Why should I turn off my lights in my house? Why should I recycle? Why should I, as an environmentally conscious freak of the universe, really care about any of the things that I am being told make a difference? And why are diapers being poised to destroy the world?

With all these questions I was asking myself, I also started to look at my daily behavior. Then, I took a step back and looked at all of our behavior; all of the small things we do every day—how we move through our daily routine. For example, when I trudge my garbage cans to the sidewalk every week—the blue for recyclables, the green for yard trash, the black for garbage—and I see my neighbors doing the same, we realize that we are all good citizens out of habit. But what would happen if we took it a step further? I think with a bit more information, recycling may take on a whole new light and you might actually start skipping to the curb!

Well, with the all the questions I kept asking, I realized I had to find some answers. Answers that would be easy, accessible and show that if we all started to make small shifts in our everyday habits and routine, we could become part of the solution—answers for the simple things. So I started to think about what we all do every day and why we do those things and what kind of changes—small changes—we could make that would add up to big change.

I found some answers to my questions, to the "whys."