I hope you are all prepared for an earful! Amy has requested that I talk a little about what we can do in our busy little lives to help with the problems the environment is facing! And boy are we making a mess of things.
We WASTE MORE than any of us realize and the solution is so super simple. Doing small things that take just minimal extra effort from each of us can turn a TIDAL WAVE of waste into a much smaller stream!
As you can see I am VERY passionate about doing my part. So here is one of my personal batttles with the land fills:
NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS!!!
This is my biggest effort. Oh the statistics!
-200 animals die every year from plastic bags.
-Plastic bags cost 4,000 dollars to recycle which can only be resold for roughly 32 dollars. That's a loss of 3950 dollars per ton!
-Plastic bags brake down in to MORE toxic petro-polmers which contaminate the soil and water ways which get into our food chain.
-Plastic bags are made of a polythylene; a themroplastic material made from oil.
There are many many other stats, but the point is that we need to change.
What WE CAN DO!
-Use cloth bags at the grocery store! So simple! It will cost you maybe 20.00 dollars for a good amount to carry even the biggest load. You can make them on your own. They last for years and have no toxic side effects! Please, if you do one thing, strive to make it this!
-Instead of lining your garbage cans with plastic bags make a little extra effort and clean them out once a week.
-Use Cloth diapers. THERE ARE MANY MANY companies that make fantastic, easy to clean renewable diapers. (aka, fuzzybuns, bumgenius, gdiapers) Plus you will save roughly 1,000 to 1,500 dollars by doing so.
-Give your support to companies in your community that are tryingto get rid of plastic bags and spake up about it! Talking to people is one the quickest ways we can help clean up our act!
We can do these simple things. We can make change. Change begins in the home. If you teach your children the importance of reusing and avoiding plastic bags they will grow up doing the same. As mothers we have the power to change everything!
4 comments:
Those are good ideas... have you guys watched the video online "The Story of Stuff"? That gave me a new perspective on all the stuff and put into words a lot of the feeling's I've had (although some of the ideas are a bit extreme for me). It's worth a watch (it's about 20 min). www.storyofstuff.com
thanks heath, I look at the plethora (sp?) of bags in a whole new light. my mom bought a bunch of mesh bags she uses at the grocery store, I think that's a great way to reduce the amount of harmful waste.
I've read somewhere that a lot of cities are trying to start or upgrade their recycling programs but they just can't get the public involved. I guess the first step would be that we need to call our local city offices and see what they in fact provide in recycling centers or bins, pick-ups, etc.
That would help kick start the motivation!
I have been contemplating the cloth diapers. Since I will have to use them again come January. With prices rising all over, I don't think I will have a choice.
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