Mother and Mother Earth approved!

Am trying hard to do away with paper in the kitchen. In its place I am trying to use cloth kitchen towels -different sets for wiping counters, for drying utensils and one for drying hands. I am trying to use reusable shopping bags. Am making a concious effort to stay away from plastic cutlery and paper cups, plates.
       In the beginning of this decade when I first came to this country the copious supply of paper from the kitchen to the bathroom to wet wipes to kleenex in cars and lobbies of offices impressed me. I found the no-mess, no-fuss cleaning that paper affords so easy. Who wouldn't? Why would someone deal with a dirty dish rag ?
Paper plates and plastic cutlery weren't new to me, but they are used much more here than what I was used to in India. Aaah, just use-n-throw, so clean, I used to think! Especially when it comes to eating at little joints and eateries, the cleanliness of the utensils used by us guests was never something to worry about.
Each and every thing that we thought made life easy, convenient and simply better is now coming back to bite us in a big way.
      When my parents ever used a cloth bag, I used to cringe. If my parents ever suggested using sheets of paper whose back sides were plain, we thought they were being too thrifty. When they did not want to throw away any piece of furniture or a household item that could find an alternate use, we let out an incredulous sigh!  But now I am trying hard to get lean, mean and green!
    I particularly remember when , one time, just before a train journey, my mother wanted to take drinking water in a stainless steel vessel ( called a gooja, it's a special vessel with its own lid , used exclusively to carry water, buttermilk or hot beverages) and I adamantly put my foot down and vetoed it. I would be too embarassed, I told her ; we could just get 2 bottles of water. I am still not so cool with the idea of a gooja, but I 've sufficiently distanced myself from plastic bottles.
It's funny how the many things we upheld, the many ideas we had and our internal code of right and wrong have meandered and morphed over the years to something very different. This is not limited to environment -friendliness, but as I age I find many things about my parents' ideas and thoughts, their advice start to have more meaning, relevance and making more sense to me
  When I discuss these things with my mother, her response is - ' You children never find what we say to be of any value. If the same thing is said in fancy english and if it's said on websites and on TV, that is when it becomes saturated with meaning!'. Once again, I roll my eyes!