Eco Homes and Not Going Green on Holiday

We have an old home, a run of the mill rural home, not an Eco home.  But still we think we are a little bit Green.  But take me on holiday and it all comes tumbling down.  I confess my sins for a total disregard for Eco tourism or green vacations.  I just cannot be self sufficient away from home!

Being Green at Home

Right then, firstly I am not totally Green with a capital GRRR.   We have a car, we enjoy food that isn’t always local and we have a bunch of stinky dogs that cannot be helping with the whole CO2 emissions thing.  One of them in particular is keeping the methane levels up pretty high.

But, on the other hand we are way better than we once were.  Partly through hoping the planet lasts a good while, and partly through just not wanting to waste stuff we tend not to over-consume.  We aren’t folks with all the latest gadgets, though two lap-tops to keep the money coming in is a battery recycling dilemma just waiting to happen…

We still rely primarily on the sun for our power, but a smelly petrol generator lies in wait to take over when the clouds won’t part.  Our water comes from the sky on the most part, and gets recycled to water the garden.  We compost pretty much everything and still try to produce as much food for ourselves as we can.  We still primarily use the sawdust toilet except on those days when “nobody remembered to empty the compost toilet”.  But we don’t stay in knitting yogurt all day every day.  Sometimes we drive to the big town and revel in supermarket choices to be made.

But we don’t do too bad, being greenish is just a part of life.  We have to save water and power because there isn’t any here.  We may as well recycle as we have to deliver all our waste wherever it is going ourselves.  You don’t have to really think about it… When we are at home that is.

Not Going Green on Holiday

But, book a fancy last minute holiday and all that being green goes straight out of the window.  Of course there is the usual huge waste of fuel just getting us 2 hours overseas.  But more than that, when you get to a  hotel with the highest water pressure I have ever experienced, and its hot too, it is hard to remain a 2 minute shower type of girl.

In my defense we had no water for showers for a few days in the run up to the holiday so we were feeling a little stinky.  But settling down to hotel life I even found myself flushing the toilet all the time!  The shame!

I did try to save a little water by airing the towels and folding them neatly on the rail so they wouldn’t be taken for washing every day.  MrDB even tried hiding his on the balcony to air.  But the cleaning lady was extremely determined that all towels (and there were many) should be taken and washed every single day so that we were responsible for wasting even more water in our week away.

We used public buses or foot power for all our trips, but I can’t help feeling it is a lot easier being green at home.

How Do You Have a Green Vacation?

So, do Eco terrorists go on holiday?  And if they do, do they keep to their principles?  And more importantly how?  As far as I can tell unless you have a huge disposable income (and how did you get that being green?) you really cannot dictate what kind of food you will eat, and what will be done to all your waste when you are away (camping trips excluded).

I guess whatever you do going away means unnecessary travel so is never really going to be a good thing is it?  But then I enjoyed it, and after many years on the mountain I really would like to do it more often.  Maybe I will even start going green on holiday if I get a little more practice in!

Ah, the confessions of a total Eco-hypocrite!

One Response to “Eco Homes and Not Going Green on Holiday”

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  1. Tracy says:

    It’s really hard to be completely green. Sure we can use products that are reusable and not throw things away and it helps to maintain the going green process but how long can someone really go without throwing something away. There are some many flaws to going green.