It’s not just a certain state in a certain country that is fabled to like all things big. It’s somewhat ingrained in all of us. The “more” factor is closely tied to greed or in some cases, survival.

While the more nuts the squirrel has stowed away for the winter, the more likely it will survive; the same can’t be applied to big screen TV’s.. or many household consumables for that matter.

Much of what we eat, apply to our skin or hair or use to clean is simply just water. Not only do we pay for that water with money, the planet pays for it dearly too.

Here’s an example – dish washing detergent. I remember my mom buying little packets of the stuff that weighed next to nothing that would make a quart of full strength dish washing detergent.

My mother bought them because it simply made economic sense and was less to carry on shopping trips – what she didn’t take into consideration is that it was also saving on packaging and emissions associated with transport.

Another example is orange juice. Many popular juice brands are made from reconstituted orange juice. In fact, most of the orange juice sold today throughout the world is reconstituted juice.

The oranges are grown, picked, juiced, filtered, pasteurized and evaporated under vacuum and heat. Liquid is then added back in and it is then frozen, shipped to the bottler where it is thawed and more water added.

Imagine the millions of people who buy reconstituted juice each week and the packaging and transport impact. Why not buy the frozen concentrate?

It may not sound like such an important step in going green, but picture this: A million people buying a product that weighs 2 pounds when a concentrated product a quarter of the weight is available. That works out to be 750 short tons difference. Now imagine how much fuel it takes to shift that 750 tons from the place of manufacture into the stores and then finally into homes.

Now think of hundreds of millions of people doing this with multiple products. That’s a lot of packaging, fuel and other resources.The positive impact by doing something as simple as switching to concentrated products can be quite appreciable.

Other popular products used around the home where concentrates are available:

– Soda
– Shampoo
– Hair conditioner
– Glass cleaner
– Floor cleaner
– All purpose cleaners
– Fabric conditioner
– Carpet and upholstery cleaners.

.. and better still, some of these concentrates are environmentally friendly in terms of ingredients. Keep an eye out for them at your local supermarket, or have a hunt around for them online – being concentrated, the shipping costs buying them online should be minimal.