Eco-worrier

Eco-worrier

A monthly look at the challenges and occasional frustrations involved in living a green life

When did we stop being green?

This may be a strange way to start a column on ‘going green’ (by the way, how I hate that phrase and also being preached at by what Jeremy Clarkson calls ‘eco-mentalists’). But why do we talk about ‘going’ green? It suggests we weren’t ever ‘green’ in the past. Yet I can’t remember my parents and grand parents being wasteful. Not convinced? Let’s have a look back…

• Terry cloth nappies, what I was always wrapped in – now green
• Shopping trolleys and cloth shopping bags, my gran wouldn’t be seen out in the street without hers – now green.
• Buying things in brown paper bags – now green
• Taking the bus to the shops – now green
• Walking to the shops – now green and healthy
• Reusing containers (my papa’s garden was a riot of cans with geraniums in them) – now green
• Growing your own vegetables, my mum’s Ayrshire potatoes were the best – now green (apparently 100,000 people in the UK waiting on an allotment right now)
• Turning off the lights/TV (gran’s was only for showing off when people came around)/heaters – now green
• Making bricks out of old newspaper for the fire – now green
• Collecting rainwater; my papa had an old barrel at the end of the downpipe – this is green.
• Wearing hand-me-downs (now called vintage clothing) – now green

I remember the 1970’s when we all had to make do and ever since I have had that ‘old fashioned’ mentality that means I can’t throw something away without first spending a huge amount of brain power trying to figure out alternative uses for it. My workshop - really a recycling depot in today’s parlance - is full of, tins, plastic pots and bottles full of nails, screws and other bits left over from renovations. Lengths of wood, waiting for the next bit of work I can shoehorn them into, lie in untidy piles, while bits of cable and string hang from every rusty nail – I could go on.

The real message is that before the packaging designers, legislators and aspirational gurus got their hands on us and persuaded us that we needed to spend our hard earned pennies on the latest and best, we all made do and recycled. We can again…and if the economy continues to spiral down, we will have to.

Stop Press

Even world famous designers are jumping on the bandwagon. Frenchman Philippe Starck famous for furniture and hotel design has announced a new windmill. It is said to generate between 20%-60% of a single home’s energy and costs around 400 euros. Of course it isn’t just a windmill but a ‘personal wind turbine’ branded as ‘Democratic Ecology’ and comes in clear polycarbonate. I for one can’t wait.

Graeme Swan runs Les Cygnes, a Carbon-neutral holiday complex in the Deux-Sèvres. For more information visit: http://www.lescygnes.net