I grew up in a very non-green household...never recycled never reused. This book points to more that you can do such as pointing to the different things you can do with your trash to make useful things...even gifts! It also gives you guidelines for what could be a buying guide. It gets a bit confusing because on one hand they say not to buy glass unless there is a portion you can reuse, but then they say not to buy glass because it seriously takes 100,000 years to turn into soil...so that was a little confusing. I like the simple manual format that helps you live a daily greener life. I am still trying to get my parents on board with this book. It doesn't push a lot of politics on the reader as well, which is really helpful in trying to convert people!