Using your Big Green Purse is not about buying MORE stuff. After all, “rampant consumerism” is part of what’s thrown the planet into crisis mode to begin with.

Instead, Big Green Purse focuses on buying “better” stuff: products manufactured using organic or non-toxic ingredients and energy- and water-saving practices, by adult workers, not children, who are given a fair price for their goods and services.  Better products help protect wildlife and nature rather than destroy them.

Quality over quantity can really pay off. It saves money to buy better products that last longer than the conventional items you’re used to. It also saves time. I have energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs in my house that I haven’t had to change for at least seven years, and some as long as 10 years.  Talk about convenient as well as environmentally correct! The concentrated eco-friendly clothes washing detergent I use lasts me 40 or 50 washes before I need to buy a new box or bottle.  I can drive my hybrid almost 400 miles before it needs a fill-up — and then it only costs me around $30.00.

Shifting money we already spend to better, greener products is about getting more for our money while we protect the planet, too.  If it adds up to less “stuff,” well, that’s actually the point, isn’t it?