Confessions of a Recovering Hippie: A Guide To Sane Sustainable Living
My name is Rachel, and I am a hippie. I’ve been in recovery for the past few months, and think I may be able to live a normal life after all. There was a time when I went two weeks without washing my hair, and spent several years compulsively composting anything that was close to biodegradable. But lately I’ve accepted that it will not kill me to use shampoo, even if there’s unpronounceable chemicals on the label, and if it’s biodegradable, it will break down in a garbage dump just as well than in a heap in my backyard. It’s still hard for me sometimes, but I’m going to be okay. I even ate a few items with high fructose corn syrup over the holidays. Not many. Just one or two. It still drives me nuts that my husband is drinking two cans of Pepsi a day.
After living most of my life as a thriving hippie in the ‘Eco-Friendly Capital of the World’, Portland, Oregon, this past year I suddenly moved to Rapid City, South Dakota, where I can’t even recycle a cereal box. Since I no longer have a curbside recycling bin bigger than my garbage can and easy access to other hippie-friendly resources, I’ve had to reevaluate some of my environmentally friendly habits. For example, it’s no longer practical for me to compost living in military housing. What would I do with a giant bin of rotten food if we suddenly had to move? Throwing it in the garage would be a bit counter-productive.
I still feel a pang when I throw a glass bottle in the trash or let a perfectly good bag of grass clippings go on the curb for the garbage truck, but there’s plenty of habits I picked up in my hippie days that easily carry forward to a more moderate “sustainable” lifestyle, even living away from Hippieland…I mean, Portland. Let’s start with three simple ones that will cut the amount of trash that ends up on your curb:
1.Use cloth grocery bags. They’re also easier to carry and hold more than paper or plastic.
2.Instead of buying individual bottles of water, get a reusable water bottle and a filtering pitcher, and re-fill it on your own.
3.Cook more foods from scratch to save packaging (that has to be manufactured and then thrown away to take up space in landfills) and avoid additives that come in processed foods.
As you start baby-stepping towards a lifestyle that has less of an impact on the planet, it’s natural to start gravitating towards companies that share those priorities. I decided to be a guest blogger, something I would encourage readers to do. The opinions, ideas, reviews are mine as well as the stories and experiences.
I will not only be sharing tips about making your own lifestyle more sustainable and discussing the market for eco-friendly products, but reviewing businesses who practice those values. My experience as a recovering hippie helped me to learn to spot fantastic products and companies that strive to keep their business sustainable, and I can smell “green-washing” (translated: slapping an “organic” label on some piece of junk and raising the price $10) from a mile away. Whether you’re a yuppie or a hippie (or a “yippie,” which we call a special breed a people that gravitate around Portland and Seattle), or somewhere in between, there’s a place for anyone to find their niche in taking care of our planet….even people who wash their hair daily.
If you are a sustainable business or the creator of a sustainable product and would like a review from a potential customer, send me a sample and I’ll happily share my openly honest opinion. If you are a reader and want to share your ‘sustainable living’ experiences, join the conversation.
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They’re baaaaack. . . This fall velvet booties (short boots) and over-the-knee heel boots (or thigh high heel boots) are leading the trend charge this winter on the runway and available 
The Terra Tee Project is the brainchild of 
Going green is first a conscious choice and then a process that eventually morphs into a green lifestyle.
