Originally Posted by jewels

Purchasing appliances for my house made me very aware of the new buzzword.

I did buy HE (high efficiency) washer and dryer. The washer uses such a small amount of water, I still can't figure out how it cleans so well. The refrigerator, by design, minimizes energy consumption because you only open the portion that you need, and the French doors keep half of the cold air in when you open the refrigerator section. Those things make sense to me.

I thought about doing some of my floors. Some say that wood floors are wasteful, to go with laminate flooring is the green thing. Some say as long as the company is raising new trees and not deforesting, it's green. Some say it's the fact that the wood can be re-purposed, if someone decided to rip out your wood floor in the future. I think it's enough to drive anyone insane.

Much the same can be said for nearly anything that's labeled as "green".

I do the best I can, trying to conserve where I can, minimize consumption and waste. What else can you do?

Oh and I use the plastic bags, too. They save me from purchasing lots of kitchen trash bags. My understanding is that most are biodegradable anyway.