Being green doesn't mean having to give up the little luxuries that make our lives easier. Rather, the green movement has so permeated popular culture that it is not hard to find products and adopt practices that are eco-friendly and easy to align with our regular lives.
Looking at a very narrow area, the front porch of your home, start small and expand on the following ideas for green living, such as owning something as simple as a wood door mat. Having a green sensibility oftentimes just means thinking outside the box. Start with this area and once you've got the creative juices flowing, you can extend those same green ideas to the rest of your home.
Wood Door Mat
A wood door mat is a small but useful thing you can do to support the environment. That's because doormats are made from a variety of materials, including wood, coir, palmyra, nylon, rubber, cloth and metal, but most of these are bad for the earth in some way or another.
For instance, synthetic materials like plastics, rubber, nylon or things like metal are produced in factories where waste and byproducts are usually an issue. Most of these doormats are unfortunately still not being made from recycled materials, either, though there has been some advancement in this area. The worst part is, once this type of doormat gets old and is thrown away it takes a huge amount of time to break down in a landfill.
Then there's something like coir or palmyra, two organic materials derived from trees that you
would naturally assume is a much better alternative. This is not necessarily so. These products come from tropical, often impoverished countries where workers are exploited to labor for long hours with little pay.
The wood door mat is a viable option for a few reasons. For one, wood is a renewable resource. Most lumber companies engage in some sort of replanting program to supplant all of the trees harvested and to offset deforestation. At the same time, many a wood door mat is locally produced, as popular outdoors woods such as cedar can be found all throughout the US. This means you're not only buying local, but you know that your doormat was not a result of exploitation.
Other Ideas
So what else can you do to green something as simple as your front porch? Try and replace all of your normal fixtures with environmentally friendly alternatives. For instance, if you are considering having furniture like a porch swing, bench or rocking chair on your front porch, opt for either a locally sourced wood from an independent retailer, or look for recycled resin furniture.
Then are things like the outside light. Replace your normal bulbs with low energy, LED light bulbs. They use less electricity and last just as long as other bulbs.
Finally, consider the little things. Is your front door painted with non-toxic paints? Do you use eco-friendly cleaners on your outside windows? Do you turn your sprinkler on only when is absolutely necessary? Thinking small can produce some of the biggest changes and help out Mother Earth.
Author Resource:-
Todd Arend is a freelance writing professional whose expertise covers a variety of areas, including patio and backyard furniture, landscaping and design. He regularly writes about Wood Door Mat and Doormats.
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