Item #1 in the Earth Week Challenge is to quit using single use drink bottles as pictured below. You may say that they are recyclable, but the volume of plastic bottles we produce outweighs the number that can be used to create new things. Many recycling centers can't find buyers for so many bottles. In addition, their production and byproducts of production are very hard on the environment. Plus it's just more "stuff."
So I've purchased a travel coffee cup and travel water canister that will be reused over and over and over again. No more plastic bottles, no more plastic cups (at work,) no more plastic bottles in our recycling bag, and no more plastic bottles for which our recycling center needs to find buyers.
This one was easy....
3 comments:
This was a good post for me, because Gabriel and I often argue about the environmental effects of recycling plastic. He is against it because he's read it takes a lot of energy and makes a lot of waste products to recycle plastic. I'm for it because I don't want to spend new energy to make plastics and put so many non-biodegradable objects into the landfills. He says there is plenty of room in the ground for trash.
Anyway, now I can change my argument to us just not using single use plastic bottles. I rarely do, but Gabriel probably uses at least one a day! Now we have a real debate.
-Shirin
These are things I have been doing for years, probably because I'm cheap. But as I debate whether I should use paper napkins or launder fabric ones, it seems to be that whatever I do, my activities have a deleterious effect on the environment. Determining which choice cause the least damage, often seems impossible. But that doesn't mean that we should try and make the best decision we can with the available information.
- Your Big Sis
Shirin- I will do a post in the near future on the pros and cons of recycling v.s. throwing away plastic, so stay tuned.
Big Sis- I think our parents, having lived through the depression and WWII, often lived very green lifestyles. Dad used and reused things till they fell apart and Mom would keep rigging up new outfits out of the old ones. I'm with you on the issue of often not knowing which method (washing v.s. disposing, recycling v.s. disposing, etc.) is the better environmental choice. Shirin agonized over the cloth v.s. disposable diaper issue. It's hard.
I feel very motivated to continue to sort through the confusing facts. The "facts" themselves keep changing and often it depends on the point of view of the author or scientist. Then there are times that one choice is clearly better (Shirin- recycling plastic is better) and so our decision is easy. Wish there were more of those!
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