Green Your Parents

By: Melinda Toussaint

So far the green movement has been successful at influencing our young generation to live more eco-friendly but what about our parents' generation? The baby boomers are the biggest generation in America, and also our biggest challenge. If your parents are anything like mine they are stuck in their ways. They have plans, habits, and lifestyles that they have been living happily with for years, so change doesn't come easy. But helping them live green is now easier than ever. I believe that if you can get your parents to be greener in three areas: laundry, cleaning, and recycling, helping them compost, reuse, and perhaps buy greener can be easier down the line.

First up is the laundry. Most households do laundry more than once a week and sometimes everyday if necessary. So making your parents do the laundry in a more eco-friendly way will be a huge improvement to the environment and to their wallet. The average household does 400 loads of laundry per year (that's 13,500 gallons of water used) however there are ways around that. If your parents have the means to switch to Energy Star appliances they could be saving 7,000 gallons of water per year as well as $550 in operating costs according to www.energystar.com.

But if your parents can't afford new appliances, they can buy green and reduce their usage. By cutting down your dryer usage you could be saving yourself a lot of money. Dryers are ranked as your #2 energy hog in your household, right behind the refrigerator, and can rack up about $70 per year in energy bills. Use a clothes line or drying rack and you could save money as well as energy.

Making your parents laundry green is just the first thing that you can do. If you also teach them to clean more green it will help the earth tremendously. Recently Arm & Hammer has created a new Essentials line of cleaning products that are not only plant-based to protect the environment from harsh chemicals often found in cleaning products but they have also created reusable bottles. By reusing the bottle and refilling the product your parents can save 25% of their money as well as reducing plastic waste found in landfills. And don't think just because it's green that it won't work. Plant-based products are actually tougher on grease and stains in your home! Visit www.armandhammeressentials.com for their full list of products ranging from glass cleaners to fabric softeners.

If you have trained your parents to clean green and wash green now is the time to teach them the new rules to recycling. Your parents might already think they do a good job recycling paper, plastic, and aluminum cans, but that's just the start. With growing efforts to keep waste out of landfills, Waste Management has been working to help us recycle a lot more. Your parents can now recycle batteries, cell phones, printers, computers, and even their Christmas tree!

According to www.earth911.com the current recycling rate in America is 33 percent. If we could get our parents to recycle more affectively, imagine what that rate would be. With technology expanding at a rapid rate e-waste is becoming the largest and most dangerous waste to end up in landfills. Waste Management is already providing at least one e-waste collection site per state by the end of this year. Wisconsin has five already, how many sites does your state have? To find out, visit www.earth911.com.

This is just the start to your parents living green… from here you could help them turn green in every aspect of their lives. If we can teach our parents to clean, wash, and recycle greener the impact on our earth could be powerful. Maybe then they could decide to compost their fall leaves or even consider driving a hybrid all on their own.

Don't underestimate your parents' power to learn. If my 82-year-old grandma can learn how to email the family jokes I think we can green our parents. Baby boomer celebrities like Bono and Julia Roberts have already been doing their part for our Earth…help your parents do theirs! Sit down and visit www.treehugger.com with your parents for more helpful green tricks to help save the Earth and your wallet.