Going Green

So you’re thinking about the subject of going green.

Going green, to me, means a lot of things. Anyone happen to notice how much more pollution there is in the world, just since the U.S. started depending on other countries and imports?

The more we buy from China and other countries, the more ships have to cross the ocean, the more trucks have to drive across the country to bring those products. All of this brings all the more pollution in our air.

China, until recently, had no regulations what so ever, over the bilging, polluting fumes from smoke stacks. What remains in their air eventually travels across the waters and into our air.

So does it still make sense to keep buying products made outside our country? We wound up shutting down our own factories, leaving us with little supply coming from within our own borders and eventually turned our economy on its ear.

So what does going green mean to me? It means ceramic and stoneware dishes instead of plastic. It means ‘paper instead of plastic’ bags. It means cutting down on worldwide traffic just to satisfy our whims. It means buying products from our own country.

Our own local artists should be on the rise, producing pottery and kitchen wares for a knowing public. This not only cuts down tremendously on pollution, we ourselves are causing, it also helps to bring dollars back to our own neighborhood and making room for more jobs.

The next time you’re thinking more bowls for the kitchen, why not visit the local pottery outlet and give them the business instead of China? Why buy that next vase imported from another country, instead of supporting your local artist?

I wonder if anyone realizes what they’ve done to the ceramics industry in the U.S., by replacing them with imports? I know it’s a small subject to most of you but countless, hundreds of ceramic shops have closed their doors in the last 20 years due to the competition with outside countries.

If you’re thinking ‘green’, think about your own neighbors and what they produce and support them. Even that helps.