All That Paper’s Got to Go

Day 19 of Daily Footprint Project. The paper recycling basket keeps filling up.

The newspapers, I take responsibility for. Reading the papers in the morning gives me great pleasure, and I am not ready to let that indulgence go. At least, not yet. What troubles me is all the junk mail. Several times, I have discussed with Prad, my intention of registering with Green Dimes. Prad thinks the city already has a similar program, and why pay the $15 to Green Dimes? Well, I went on the city’s website and they do not have such a thing. Still, Prad thinks I have not gone far enough in my investigation. I should be calling and talk to a live body.

The result is, my resolve has waned, and I have given up on the whole junk mail bit. This morning, though, the basket came back into my field of consciousness. Flouting me with its pile of useless junk mail, that serves no purpose at all other than being a source of disagreement between me and husband. Shall I dare Prad and go ahead, pay the $15 to Green Dimes?

Daily Footprint Project
Daily Log
Day #19

Water

personal:
flush toilet 2
wash face 2
brush teeth 2
wash hands 5
shower 1
mom:
rinse dishes
communal:
wash vegetables

Electricity/gas

personal:
electric toothbrush 2
microwave tea 2’
microwave oatmeal 4’
microwave milk 2’
laptop on half day
mom:
communal:
lights
stir fry zucchinis
stir fry fish

Food

personal:
oatmeal with organic milk
organic oranges
tea
organic milk
organic chocolate
organic raspberries
mom:
Starbucks fruit and cheese platter for Little Sister
Whole Foods takeout mashed potatoes for Little Sister
lunch out at restaurant with Little Sister
communal:
fried organic zucchinis
fried wild fish with mushrooms

Waste

personal:
toilet paper
raspberries plastic box
mom:
communal:
3 newspaper plastic wrappers

Recycling

personal:
mom:
gave old clothes to Little Sister’s family
communal:
2 papers
junk mail

Transportation

personal:
mom:
communal:
drive Little Sister to Turkey Trot 12 miles (stop at Starbucks on the way)
drive to restaurant 4 miles (stop at Whole Foods on the way)

Non food shopping

personal:
mom:
communal:

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The Green Psychology of Families

Day 11 of Daily Footprint Project. The main thrust of the project has been to examine my personal contribution in terms of ecological footprint. Seems simple enough.

Is it really? That’s when the roasted chicken from Whole Foods comes in.

I decided to buy the creature this morning, in anticipation of Catherine’s needs for a nutritious late afternoon snack. I know, I should not contribute further to pollution with yet another non recyclable plastic container. But I did. I was going to be busy all day. No time to cook. She was to have dinner with her Dad late, and I figured she could munch on the chicken when she got back from her school with her friends.

The chicken got me thinking.

As the nurturer in our home, I am responsible for purchasing the chicken. What happens to the chicken after that, is up to the consumers, my teenage children. How much of it gets actually eaten? How much of it goes to waste? I have little control over that part.

I am a member of the family system, and whether I want it or not, my ecological footprint gets muddled in the course of my interactions with other family members. I already alluded to the emotional component of green parenting, in regards to my need to nurture with more food than necessary – Day 1 of Daily Footprint Project -, and my difficulty setting limits, as in the laundry example – The Complicated Landscape of Green Parenting -. With Prad, issues of control, power, and authority, make it difficult for both he and I to take charge of our own green-ness, or lack thereof. When Prad insists on taking repeated far away trips, am I to stay home, or go along with him, but compromise my views on limiting air traveling. When I disagree with him on his stance on food portion control, and I generously buy and cook food as if there were a few more people in the house, how does that affect his own intentions?

All of the above highlights the importance of the ecological impact of not just each individual member in the family, but also the role of the family as a system, with a complex set of relationships, and emotions. The boundaries between I and the rest of the family are not so clear when it comes to our ecological impact, and it is simply impossible to separate my individual footprint from the whole.

Staying with a family systems framework, it is worth noting also, that as a member of the family I have the power to influence other family members through the positive environmental changes I choose to make on a personal level:

‘The connectedness and reactivity make the functioning of family members interdependent. A change in one person’s functioning is predictably followed by reciprocal changes in the functioning of others. Families differ somewhat in the degree of interdependence, but it is always present to some degree’. Quote from Bowen Center website.

Daily Footprint Project
Daily Log
Day #11

Water

personal:
flush toilet 3
wash face 2
brush teeth 2
wash hands 4
two showers at the gym
mom:
rinse dishes
communal:

Electricity/gas

personal:
electric toothbrush 2
microwave tea 4’
microwave oatmeal 4’
laptop on half day
mom:
heat chocolate milk
heat muffing
cook cream of wheat
communal:
lights

Food

personal:
oatmeal with organic milk
organic orange
tea
organic milk
organic chicken soup
organic bread
mom:
organic blueberry muffin
organic hot chocolate
cream of wheat with organic milk
roasted chicken
pomagranate
communal:

Waste

personal:
toilet paper
orange peel
chicken bones
mom:
uneaten baked potato
communal:
3 newspaper plastic wrappers

Recycling

personal:
mom: paper bag for muffin
cream of wheat paper box
communal:
2 papers
roll from paper towel

Transportation

personal:
drive to gym 6 miles
drive to business presentation 5miles
mom:
communal:
drive to grocery store 4 miles

Non food shopping

personal:
mom:
communal:

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