Bryan and I had a conversation the other night that ended with him calling me Al Gore, and me saying that I hate big trucks. Hurtful words to a man who loves his truck. We were discussing the environment and how much I worry about it. I feel like I try to do my part, and he cancels it out by not doing his.
For example...did you know that even though you recycle plastic water bottles, the cap and little white ring left around the top are not recyclable? After you recycle that water bottle, they ship it to China and run them on a conveyor belt where a man with a machete chops the tops off the water bottle so the rest can be recycled. I'm pretty sure that when you're wielding a machete...you're not trying to take off as little waste as possible. I'm pretty sure you're chopping that thing in half and saving your fingers. Not to mention the fumes from the melting plastic that these workers are exposed to. Check out this article on Mindfully.org.
But do you know where I am falling short lately? I don't bring my own bags to the grocery store, even though I have a million of them. We always ask for paper and we use them as our garbage bags. This is what we did growing up too. Since then my parents have switched to compostable bags and I'm feeling like I should also. It's tough to know what is BEST when there are so many options.
The other day my coworker (our green guy, no really that's his job title) sent me this recycling calculator to see where I stacked up. I did pretty well, mostly because we don't get the newspaper!
Check it out for yourself, click 'here'.
Do you still use plastic bags? I've been hearing a lot of commercials on the radio about what they do with recycled bags (trex decking, playground equipment). You can drop them off at your local grocery or hardware store, which we've been doing lately. Just make sure to take your receipts out first!
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we've started just leaving our reusable grocery bags in the trunk because we do the same thing [have 100 of them but always forget to take them to the store]
ReplyDeleteI always bring my own bags.. Love it
ReplyDeleteugh. i'm so guilty of not using reusable bags at the grocery store...we even get a discount for bringing in reusable bags! i just need to leave them in my car...but i always forget to take them back out once i do use them!
ReplyDeleteWe switched over to reusable grocery bags. I do use any plastic bags that I have multiple times, but it's good to know I can take them somewhere. I have heard though, that the recycling process in many cases is harmful to the environment as well. It's so hard to know what to do and who to believe, yes?
ReplyDeleteHmm... well I'm probably not the right person to talk to about this. Of course I care about the environment, but I am not very conscious of things like that. I always get plastic bags, always. Bad? Probably. It's just a habit I think. I spend more time caring about the economy and the fiscal problems we're facing as a nation. But I really should spend more time being an "environmentalist". Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteWe are usually pretty good about bringing our reusable bags to the store. We have a drawer close to the door where we keep them, so it's become a habit to just grab them on the way out. I don't just use them at the grocery store, either. I bring them to Target, department stores, etc.
ReplyDeleteIf we do forget our reusable bags, we save the plastic ones for cleaning out the litter box.
I also reuse most ziploc and other plastic bags (mostly because I'm cheap, but also I don't like using so much plastic)
We are pretty fortunate to have a fantastic recycling program here in Louisville (well, it's not run by the city cause we're more on the outskirts and I think it's run by a town within the city). Every other Thursday, a recycling truck comes and picks our yellow trash bin (the same size as a regular trash bin) full of recycled stuff. It's amazing how little trash we have now! WE drink a lot of beer around these parts so tons of bottles are being saved every week :)
ReplyDeleteChad calls me the recycling Nazi sometimes. I can't stand seeing recyclable items in the garbage, and will claw through to remove said items, even at work. We have a no water bottle rule in our house. We are lucky enough to live in a region with some of the best tasting water, so there is no need for the waste of water bottles; plus, since Chad works for the water department, he knows just how wonderfully clean our water is :-) I feel so guilty when I forget my reusable bags, so I do the same as you, ask for paper then use it to put our recycling in. Oooh, and here's a great idea: if you have lots of celebrations at work, instead of using paper plates, buy a set of plastic plates from the dollar store, then they can be washed and reused. Also, for parties at our house, we try to save all the plastic cutlery, plastic plates, and cups, to be reused next time. You could say I am a little obsessive about these things :-/
ReplyDeleteOh, and you already know my love of cloth diapers! I visualize the number of diapers we go through in one year, and it freaks me out to imagine them taking up that much space in a landfill for the next 100,000 years, or whatever it is!
ReplyDeleteRe:Newal water is going to save our planet! ;)
ReplyDeleteRenewal-water.com
Coming to your local markets soon!
Call me a right winged asshat, but whatever. I call it as I see it.
ReplyDeleteAll this go green stuff is all well and dandy but serves mostly to give warm fuzzies. It's like trying to put a band-aide on a gushing machete wound to the neck.
The problem is with the way our system is run, our commercialism, our overpopulation, our very way of life. If we don't change our core habits there is no amount of bringing your own bag to the supermarket that's going to save our collective bums.
Re: renewal water - quit the gimmick and get water out of your tap. That will save the planet way more. - signed - guy that works at a water treatment plant.
Also. Big trucks rock. I have a small one. I'm working up.
ReplyDeletei used to recycle at my old apt, but we don't have a bin at my new apt...i realy need to get one. no exscuse for not recycling!
ReplyDeleteWe don't use water bottles, they are my pet peeve. I hate plastic bags too, but we use them as our bath trash bags so at least they are being used. Last year we had a grad school student in Textile Engineering do their grad project by weaving pieces of plastic grocery bags and made rugs, bags, etc. She somehow spun it into a fine yarn. So cool!
ReplyDeleteI do the same as you, reuse our bags as trash bags... But if you brought your own reusable bags to the store, what are you going to use for trash bags? Would you buy trash bags? Wouldn't that be just as wasteful? At least this way you are reusing a bag more than one. That's my two cents, I feel I'm doing something good by reusing them...
ReplyDeleteWe use reusable canvas bags at the grocery store most of the time. On the days we forget, we use the plastic bags we get as trash can liners.
ReplyDeleteI read recently that the paper bags are worse than plastic because of all the energy and materials that go into making them. Wonder if that's true? We don't have paper grocery bags in Mexico anyway, so why bother? haha
There should almost be no trash if all the food stuffs are composted, and the packaging is made of recyclable materials (ideally). Order a tiny garbage box and you'll notice that it never fills. Then you can use all of your reusable bags, and cut down on your carbon footprint!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this informative post. In case you haven't heard, Recyclebank has just teamed up with Greenopolis! Now you can earn both Recyclebank and Greenopolis points everytime you recycle. Check out this video-- I learned about the news here. http://youtu.be/TGSDH4L_qHA
ReplyDelete