Home Decor and the Environment

We all know that, as consumers, our money is our vote. If we offer products that are not environmentally friendly, we choose to destroy our life support system. We choose our poison water and soil, and the atmosphere in the Swiss cheese that we do not breathe, and it will not protect us from cosmic rays cause cancer.

If we offer products made without toxins, or consist of materials that are sustainably harvested, we chose to give our children a world they can survive.

This is our challenge in a market of consumers, we must change the way we shop, to change the way factories producing their products. Ultimately we are responsible decision makers every time we pull our wallets. We can change the way we consume resources of the earth.

It begins with the knowledge of our options. Set these options as a pyramid, where at the base, you have the worst option available. In addition, energy recovery. On the third floor, we find the recycling or by a layer of re-use. Closer to the tip of the crown and minimization of the earth-friendly tactic is prevention.

One example would be the prevention, slip covers, that our furniture, so they do not wear out, and we would not need to buy new furniture, which even in the best conditions, causes of energy consumption and emissions for production and transportation.

One example for a minimization, furniture would be to buy from sustainably harvested, and fast-growing wood, such as bamboo, so that our vital oxygen producing forests are not depleted. Buying from local producers means that less fuel needed to make it for you.

One example for a re-buy a piece of tropical hardwood furniture in a garage sale. To a tropical hardwood from the manufacturer to bring the destructive practices of deforestation caused. They are causing the problem by creating a market demand. However, buying that same item in a garage sale would not be nearly as bad. Using materials reclaimed from old buildings, when they demolished there is a way to ensure that hardwoods are not lost.

One example for recycling would be to buy furniture fabrics made from recycled cotton. Organic cotton is naturally the best, because it prevents the use of so many toxic pesticides and prevention at the top of the hierarchy of options.

In the absence of an organic option, recycled cotton, with clean strips of old T-shirts to the new substance, is still better than buying new conventionally grown cotton, as they at least avoid a demand for more toxic cotton Agriculture. Recycling is, however, waste to energy and emissions in the production and transport processes, and is therefore less desirable than recycling.

One example for an energy recovery would be to think that your furniture is beyond repair, and (assuming that they have no toxic substances in IT) to burn it in your wood stove to heat your home, so that the waste of electricity and gas for the operation of your standard heaters. This creates, however, emissions, and demand for a new product, so it is low on the hierarchy of options.

Disposal is the least desirable option, because it caused damage to so many levels. Es schafft die Nachfrage nach einem Ersatz-Produkt, die Energie in den Transport auf der Müllkippe, und erstellt dann mehr auf Deponien, oder wenn die Emissionen verbrannt.

Now that you are an informed shopper, Tell your friends about these principles and model for your children. You culture is a living laboratory to these ethics in practice. You learn a lot as you go, and proud of your home when you are finished. Eco-friendly decor can be just as beautiful and affordable as conventional style, and is usually more.

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Autor: Anne E. Moss

This article was originally posted by Anne E. Moss on Home Decor Hub. For a more holistic approach to Home Design, see her website Feng Shui Decorating

Added: June 21, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/