The other morning I was waiting in the freezing cold at my local bus stop for the express into the city, and a school-mom buddy passed by in her car screaming kudos to me for traveling by public transportation. As she shouted, "How cool are you?!" I had to laugh, because I know she's happy to see that I am not only talking the talk, but actually walking the green walk in my hectic everyday life.

So here I gladly sit at the bus stop, a mom on the edge of green, striving to make a meaningful impact while carbon offsetting as a mass-transit babe, drinking tea from my 3X-reused Starbucks drinking cup made with 10% post-consumer recycled fiber and its cup sleeve made with 60% post-consumer recycled fiber. Onward and upward!

I had a conversation last summer with a swim team mom who announced that she reuses, recycles and renews old to new every day. She saves old bottles, jars, paper bags and so on and reuses them, recycling their use over and over 'til they break or wear out. I wondered how she does it when, after a month, my shelves overflow and become so cramped I can't find anything when I need it. I concluded that either I was missing some trick to the success of this tactic, or she just wasn’t telling the truth.

I began to further assess my situation in order to step up my efforts. What I became very aware of was how many garbage-can liners I was purchasing unnecessarily, when I had supermarket plastic bags that worked just as well.  I stopped buying plastic food-storage containers and began relying on old jam jars and glass containers to store leftovers. Even the brown paper bags that were jammed into an overflowing cabinet are now put to new use as a fireplace fire starter in the wintertime. It works like a charm... I just twist-bundle them, and they must be better for us than those chemically treated bricks.

I guess the bottom line here is to continue being aware and do what you can do without turning a blind eye and saying, "It doesn't matter"—because every recycle and reuse counts and makes a difference!

Be it reusing tea bags or cutting a bottle of dishwashing liquid with water to turn it into four bottles' worth, I really feel like I am doing my small part in conserving what comes into our home. I drink tea every night as a way to wind down my day, and I have reduced the number of boxes of tea I purchase by doing the double dunk. Grocery store plastic bags double not only as mini garbage-can liners, but also as refrigerator clean-out depositories and portable laundry/swimsuit bags during weekend trips. Oh yes, one of my most wonderful "making it last" efforts are with the plastic bags around my morning newspapers.  I use them for my car garbage and therefore never have to feel guilty when I throw them out.

I swear it happens more times than I’d like to admit. For instance, when I pack my daughter’s lunch, I ask her to bring home the plastic bag that holds her crunchy orange twists and organic grapes, but they always seem to find their way into the school’s trash.  Recently, when I was cleaning out my fridge, I dumped a huge plastic zip bag of leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes. I briefly contemplated whether I should fish the bag out of the garbage, clean it and reuse it; I know that would have been the GREEN thing to do, but at that particular moment, it was not going to happen.

True, I am no longer unconscious when it comes to reusing, but on the other hand, it takes such effort to be consistent, and sometimes I slip. Being green takes time, diligence and, I’d have to say, a true passion for saving the planet. I’m a work in progress on the consistency part of my commitment to the planet, but I’m getting better.

I guess a bit of guilt is a good thing.