I hate my family. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but they seriously frustrate me, particularly when it comes to buying green products. As someone who cares deeply about sustainability, I get tired of seeing products like Tide, Antibacterial Jergens Soap, and Purex around the house. I try many a time to convince my family to make more responsible purchases but it’s like talking to a bloody brick wall! The last straw was when my mother bought all-purpose cleaner from the dollar store. What the hell mum!?
I sat her down and asked her why she doesn’t buy a more environmentally friendly cleaner. She told me they were too expensive. I countered by telling her that it’s OK to spend more on an environmentally friendly product; we should be supporting companies that produce such products. That didn’t fly, and I anticipated that, so I moved on to my next point. Method cleaner is $1 more expensive than Lysol. Over the products life, that is such a minimal amount. She countered by telling me that a $1 here and there adds up. I understood that but asked her how often she truly purchases home cleaning products. She was still adamant that it was too expensive so I gave up before I lost it.
She’s made strides since then and is now purchasing recycled paper toilet rolls. It is Purex Envirocare but at least it’s a start. EcoLogo certified Cascades is a better choice but I don’t want to push it, it took long enough to get to here. I actually showed my mum a TED Talk the other day in which the speaker talked about sustainability by design and how pretty much all of our modern products are designed to be energy wasters. She told me she learnt a lot from the talk and will try to take more steps to me sustainable. Once again the incredible power of TED Talks come to the rescue!