Last week, as the rains pelted down
and my indoor drying racks groaned under sopping shirts, I faced an
ethical dilemma: whether 'tis nobler to suffer the guilt of running the
tumble dryer or to make guests sleep on damp bed linens and possibly
suffer pneumonia. As
the bulimic teenager of time ogled the treacle tart of fate, I panicked
and fired up the Zanussi for the first time since early April.
Later in the day, was I purging my sins by scrubbing tins with
an old toothbrush before recycling them? No. Instead, I actually found myself in the queue at
Argos, hardly the bastion of budding EcoManiacs. Of course Argos – like most major high-street chains – is
working to green up its act: 90% of the garden furniture is now FSC-certified and Argos
vows to send zero waste to landfill by 2010 (learn more about the Eco Policy
here).
As our guest room is still missing an
actual bed, there was nowhere for our guests
to lay their weary heads. No, I wasn't at Argos for a hastily purchased
bed, but a pump. We'd decided to put the guests up in our room
while we camped out on the trusty inflatable
mattress; unfortunately our pump wasn't so trusty. I found that a carbon-guzzling, battery/electric pump costs less than an
old-fashioned hand pump, but why? It's this
sort of false economy that keeps people from going green (and from
getting fit – think leaf blower instead of rake).
Later, after an invigorating workout with said pump, I was cheered to hear
that Rebecca Feiner's car club article
had been published in The Daily Telegraph, featuring my family and Streetcar. [Right, photo by Claire Lim for The Daily Telegraph]
Unfortunately, none of my
pithy and poignant observations about car-free living made the final
cut
(hrmph!) but I hope the feature encourages more people to join up and
free
themselves from the taxes, paperwork, inspections, insurance and
monthly payments that are the privilege of car owners (not to mention
the worries about petrol prices and pesky thieves).
I am somewhat surprised the government is allowing the car
clubs to proliferate. There's often a conflict between the government's
environmental objectives and its business ones (such as the promises to
increase UK airport capacity
while also reducing carbon emissions). If even half the country's
citizens joined a car club, surely the car manufacturing industry would
collapse.
There's no risk of that yet, but as more people join, they'll be
spreading the word about how convenient car clubs can be. We only use
ours once or twice a month, but it can really help out in a pinch. In
fact, we'll be
getting ours out this week. A friend is moving and has offered us her
'vintage' sofabed. That should salve the green guilt for the moment.
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