So for my second post this week, I thought of sharing some personal stuff...my own inventory of environmentally-friendly products, that is. I looked around the house to find some products that could possibly lighten my environmental footprint.
First up is what I thought to be the pencil of the future when I first came across them back in secondary school. These pencils are made out of recycled newspapers rather than wood, which makes them more environmentally friendly. With mechanical pencils these days, I am not sure how this compares, but for the pencil purists, I feel this is a pretty good substitute for the conventional wooden pencils. These are from O'Bon, which is a stationery brand that specialises in green stationery. They are not based in Singapore though, so the flight miles that these pencils took to get here may make them a little less green then they are. Nonetheless, I support the idea of newspaper pencils and in any case, they look pretty cool.
Next on the list are some secondhand books that I bought. The National Library Board (NLB) holds an annual sale to clear some of their old collections. Although the books are old and outdated (which makes sense, otherwise they should belong in the library), there are some good finds and I try to pop by every year. I think that giving a second (or some thousands, since the books were previously used by other users in the library :D) life to these books is a great initiative by NLB. Rather than paying $20++ for a new book, getting a secondhand book at under $5 is a pretty good deal and reduces the forests cut down to make new books too.
Following, I found this pack of Sutchi fillets in my freezer. It is certified by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to be from farms that practise sustainable farming. The certification is similar to the MSC label that I discussed last week and I know I gave MSC a hard time but I still do support sustainable fishing practices. Having said that, Sutchi has not had the best reputation when it comes to eating fish. Most Sutchi sold in supermarkets are from farms which have a rather negative impact on the environment. There are some scary blog posts here and here. Although sustainably farmed fillets are better than those conventionally farmed, I might be reconsidering other more sustainable fish the next time I visit the supermarket.
The next product I have to share is this familiar household cleaning agent MaMa Lemon. Every Singaporean must have heard of this dishwashing liquid. I never realised until today that it carries the Singapore Green Label though. It is great to know that one of the most popular dishwashing liquids in Singapore is going environmentally friendly. What I did find a little disappointing however, was that the product did not state the ingredients inside so I really cannot tell how it is environmentally friendly other than trusting the label it carries.
The last product I wanted to show is really not an environmentally friendly product it itself:
I just wanted to make a point that sometimes the most environmentally friendly purchase one can make is really not to make a purchase at all. My table lamp broke a couple of months back and I wanted to use that as an excuse to get a new lamp. However, the lamp was actually still working so I held back the temptation to buy a new lamp and fixed this one instead. Two months down the road it is still working fine although I have to say it is quite ugly HAHA. They ask why fix what's not broken. Well, why not fix what is broken?
So that ends today's adventures around the house to find green products. As always, green consumerism is a two-edged sword and whether or not a product is as green as it sounds is debatable. Many of the products I have shown above may not be the most environmentally choice. I certainly cannot say for sure these products are the greenest you can find. However, green consumerism is about taking small steps sometimes, about replacing the downright dirty stuff in our homes with slightly greener products and continuing that cycle until we are able to reduce our footprint on the environment. I do not consider myself a green consumerism expert but I do try to find out the environmental impact of the things I buy and take small steps to lessen my environmental impact through my consumer choices. And of course, lessening our environmental impact also comes in many other ways "post-consumerism", i.e. after buying the product, daily habits of usage, etc. And sometimes the most environmentally friendly thing to do is really not to do anything at all.
My lamp would be happy to hear that it will still be relevant for some time to come.
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