What is “green living” and why is it important to you, to your family, and to everyone living on this planet? Does green living matter and should you even care? What is green living?

A person who practices green living maintains an eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyle so as to reduce the environmental impact on the planet. Choose to ride a bike; walk; recycle; reduce household waste; and save electricity and water. Every one of these actions is economically savvy. Carpooling or using your bike means money saved on gas; recycling cans and bottles means money earned; saving electricity and water means your utilities bills are lower so you pay less. These choices all support your health. Riding a bike or walking is exercise; recycling and reducing your household waste creates less pollution; and saving electricity and water means you’re less likely to have a heart attack when you see your next utility bill.

Green living means not being wasteful and doing what you can to support yourself and protect the environment. Why should you or anyone else care? Following are some issues to consider.

Pollution. You know what pollution is and can name some of its causes. You also know that pollution is bad for your health. Pollution can include everything from contaminants in the air you breathe to contaminants in the water you drink. If you live somewhere on this planet, you experience some form of pollution. A simple drive around the block creates pollution from your car's tailpipe. Consider the additional pollution created by companies manufacturing gasoline and other parts and accessories needed to keep your car running.

Plastic. Almost everything today has some plastic in it. Plastic is made from oil and is not biodegradable so it will not decompose naturally. Manufacturing plastic creates a lot of pollution. You probably use plastic every day but do you recycle it correctly? Now imagine everyone else in your house using just as much plastic; then add everyone else in your city, state, and country. If everyone recycled, the problem wouldn’t be so bad. But not everyone recycles. How often do you walk down the street and see empty plastic containers on the side of the road? This happens every day.

Recycling plastic means that additional new plastic doesn’t have to be made because the old plastic can be reformed and reshaped into new products. Recycling the old plastic causes less pollution than does manufacturing new plastic. The recycled plastic does not end up in the ocean in the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” This example illustrates how one small product (plastic) can cause a huge problem and how doing one thing differently (recycling) can make a large difference.

Apply this same process to many everyday products. Paper equals loss of trees and ultimately rain forests. Wasting water equals loss of natural habitats such as natural rivers and lakes. Food equals increases in greenhouse gases and pollution of all sorts. It’s easy to see the negative impact one person has on the environment each day! The idea behind green living is to solve these problems through small, easy, everyday changes.

Green living is simply in your own and everyone else’s best interest. You can make the environment healthier while your own health benefits as well. To top it off, you’re also saving money. It’s easy to see why green living is important to you, to your family, and to everyone else! Since green living is in everyone’s best interest, all of us should try their hardest to adopt this lifestyle.

Next time you hear the phrase “green living,” you’ll be able to tell people why green living is important to you and why it should also be important to them.