Green Hands USA: America Volunteers

With the wold economy in the toilet, are you still willing (or able) to pay a premium price for greeners goods?

According to a new survey by a research company called Mintel, 33.6% of you are still willing to pay a little bit more for environmentally friendly products -- but that's down from a high of more than 40% two years ago.

Meanwhile, 19% of Mintel's survey respondents said they can't afford to even consider whether the products they buy are environmentally friendly or not.

Apparently, low-cost green goods like lightbulbs aren't a factor in any of these decisions, it's groceries and the big-ticket items like electronics and appliances.

A few retailers are using this reluctance to their advantage. Sears has a new line of commercials that point out how the energy savings from a new washer will pay for the accompanying dryer. But green devices do often cost more green, and that sticker shock is hard to overcome.

How about you? How has the recession affected your buying habits? Are you still willing to pay a little bit more to make a difference, or are you cutting costs to get by? Let us know!