Re-use is the best form of recycling

Being green once meant you walked everywhere in your sandals and didn't have showers. Now being green is seen as something cool. It's a trend. And while I generally hate trends. I have to say, the fact that everyone is jumping on the green bandwagon regardless of motives is pretty cool.

Some zealots may accuse those "trend setters" as hypocrites, and they'd be correct. We're all a bit hypocritical in one way or another. As human beings we can only try and do our best. My best might not be as good as your best, but at least I'm trying. I struggle just as hard at what I'm doing as your struggles with what you're doing, despite our skills being at two different levels.

I guess the trick here is to not look up or worse, look down at someone and what they do because it doesn't meet your standards.

A friend who has a high level of expectations about cleanliness expected his house mate to be the same. Turns out they are not. His life is jeopardised (or so he thinks) because they don't live up to his standards. So when I speak to him I tell him, do I do things to your standards? Does anyone? Both answers were no.

So, the other day when a "Greenie" approached me in the city and started to preach. I told him "Rather than spread the word, spread the example. I told him, rather than hand out pamphlets on paper that will end up in the bin, why not carry around an egg carton and suggest to people that they can be used to make goggles for kids.

Perhaps buy them from a farmer or markets where you can return them for re-use. Use them in compost. Collect a lot of them and use them for soundproofing a room. There is so much you can do, and that's just with egg cartons.

How many people do you see in front of you that can realistically drop what they do, change their lifestyle to one like yours, go save a whale, hug a tree and still be expected to come back to their inner city apartment in time for their favourite TV show? Monkey see, monkey do. Monkey no do as monkey told."

He ignored me, walked over to someone else and continued driving his train wreck into someone else.

Why do people look at me funny when I re-use old junk or rubbish?