Is "Going Green" a new concept?

Is "Going Green" a new concept? I know that this has to have been said a million times, and I don't know who came up with the motto or slogan or whatever it is, but I want to repeat it. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! What I can remember is this line being pounded into my head during my entire public school career. We had drawing contests and essays assigned, all with the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle topic. We saw signs saying it on every concrete wall we encountered. There were t-shirts, coffee mugs, commercials and politicians all chanting the same line in unison, brainwashing our little minds. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Nowadays, we call it "going green". Same concept, but more politically correct, I guess... I really don't care for politics. I reduce, reuse and recycle in my house. This must prove that I really am a child of the '80's and spent my teenage years in the '90's.

Let's take a moment and think about this. We reduce the amount of things we buy by reusing the things we have so that the cycle of life that our possessions have is diminished, right? Some would argue that to recycle, you have to put out a special bin on certain days of the week with plastic, paper and glass in it, but I think not. Recycling in my house is defined by reducing and reusing. I refuse to pay more money on my city water bill to have some company reuse things I bought. Why would I pay for someone else to gain profit on my water bill and then gain more profit on my possessions that I paid them to take away? Seems stupid to me...so instead, before I buy something or throw something out, I try to think of all the ways that an item can be used.

One day, while I was cleaning out my car, I realized that I had about a gazillion napkins floating around with little advertisements for fast food restaurants on them. Every time I went through a drive-thru I was handed a small stack and they were just thrown in the floorboard with the greasy sacks and plastic cup lids. A little light bulb flickered and then dimly lit up and grew brighter and brighter over about a 15 minute period...obviously this was one of the fluorescent bulbs that we're supposed to use that supposedly last for a decade (my mother's words). I could use these napkins instead of spending money on paper towels.

I'll admit, the best cost saving decision I ever made was to stop buying paper towels. I completely refuse. All by myself, I can go through a whole roll in a day, just because they are there calling out to me that I don't have to turn around and use energy to get a dishtowel out of the drawer. Paper towels are like the devil sitting on my shoulder. Now, no one wants to dry their hands on a Mickey D's napkin, so (drum roll) dishtowel it is! We do, however, keep a stack of the napkins we acquire and use them with messy dinners or to use when paper is just better or easier, but we have reduced our cost on grocery day and our trash by doing this.

FlyLady.net suggests setting out a new dishtowel each evening for use the next day. I my mind, by doing this, you can keep the reusable towel visible, thereby actually using it, and reduce the times that you grab one that's going straight in the trash. Think about it, just because it got wet with clean water you throw it away. Some people argue that dishtowels are less sanitary, but my question is this...if you only use a towel to dry clean dishes or hands that were just washed, then why is it less sanitary? You touch the surfaces in your home with your bare hands. Let's get real here and use our common sense,. If you wipe up egg yolk with a dish towel, common sense says to throw it in the dirty laundry and get a new one, right? Or better yet, spray some all purpose cleaner on it, use your counter rag to wipe it up...rinse your rag that is disinfected with the bleach in the cleaner, and let the wet counter air dry. Problem solved, and I don't have to be responsible for making paper factory owners millionaires...of course there's still toilet paper....hmmmmm. I wonder.