Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. More than five trillion pieces of plastic are already in the oceans, and by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish, by weight, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Some 8 million tons of plastic trash leak into the ocean annually, and it's getting worse every year. Americans are said to use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. -- CNN
This preys on me, and I do everything I can to minimize my contribution to this mess. But it feels woefully inadequate.
- Recycle everything my town recycles: paper, plastic marked recyclable, foil...
- Drink my water from the tap
- I won't purchase one of those (Keurig) one-serving hot drinks gadgets until they figure out how to make the containers recyclable
Boycott restaurants that use unrecyclable plastic or styrofoam takeout containers
- Bury as much organic waste as I can in a makeshift compost pit in my backyard
- Buy products with eco-friendly packaging (if I'm splurging for gourmet ice cream, I spring for Lizzy's or Haggen Daz (paper packaging) over Talenti (plastic container)
- Of course bring cloth shopping bags to the grocery store
- Recycle dead lightbulbs at Home Depot, dead electronics to Staples, and plastic bags at my supermarket
In a world in which there are so many scary things going on and so little sanity, is this something you worry about? What else can I be doing? And what can I do with all the bubble wrap and styrofoam I end up with much as I try not to?
JENN MCKINLAY: My parents raised me to be a hardcore environmentalist so, yes, this preys on me as well.
I recycle everything I possibly can. I compost. I buy things with as little packaging as possible. And I limit the amount of water my shower-loving Hooligans are allowed to use. They have been hearing, "Shut off the water, we live in a desert!" since they were old enough to reach the tap by themselves. We are pretty good about not making extra garbage. For four of us, we usually only have to take out one bag of garbage per week. That being said, I have no idea what more can be done. It never seems like enough.
As for the styrofoam and bubble wrap - I try very hard to reuse it all.
LUCY BURDETTE: yes yes yes! We do our best as well, and when I slip up (as in wanting to turn on the AC,) John reminds me that I am the environmentalist LOL.
We have a vegetable garden, we don't allow pesticides there or on our lawn, we recycle like mad, we compost. In fact I've been composting for 40 years. Our daughter Molly likes to razz me out how I made them take the guinea pig litter and dump it out in a pit in the yard, rather than throw it out.
But I too hate seeing those stories about the floating islands of plastic out in the ocean. And things like the coral reef dying off.
RHYS BOWEN: I have taken the granddaughters to visit the local
seal sanctuary and it's heartbreaking to see sea creatures who have become caught up with plastic floating in the ocean. I just read that a big threat is the micro plastic particles that break off from synthetic clothing during washing and wind up in our oceans. We recycle and can dispose of food waste in our green bin. And no 
plastic bags at the stores!INGRID THOFT: We live in Seattle, which tends to be ahead of the curve in terms of recycling and eco-friendly practices. The city banned plastic bags some time ago, and I'm always amazed when I travel to find stores still using them!
We live in a high rise, but have access to recycling and composting barrels, so we try to make the most of them. We recently had our lightbulbs swapped for LEDs, which the city utility company did for free. One of my quandaries is that I love to take baths, which I know uses a lot of water. Is a bathless future the only responsible option? I hope not!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, sigh. I recycle like mad, plastic and
There are boxes of used bubble wrap from stuff that was sent to us in our basement which I reuse (and feel so virtuous, plus that I don't have to buy it) And I hold back on dry cleaning.
We turn off the lights like crazy, do not have AC except for one window unit and in the winter our house is RIDICULOUSLY cold. But I miss plastic bags. I know--I'll get used to it.
The thing that makes me the angriest--wasting food. You cannot believe what I do to not throw food away. But that may be another blog.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, I recycle like mad. Our city does bin recycle pick-up, thank goodness, and we have a separate container in the kitchen. We had a party recently and afterwards I was digging glass beer bottles out of the regular trash!
A couple of years ago, we invested in replacing all our light bulbs (which is A LOT. Big house, and I'm a lamp fanatic) with LEDs. It was huge investment but I'm glad we did it. We don't do as well as some of you on the AC, because this is Texas, and our house is old and leaky. But we have programmable thermostats and I think that's been a big improvement.
However, I get a big X on the composting. Hubby has never wanted me to compost, because we--how do I say this delicately--have a big problem with RODENTS in our neighborhood. Our property was so infested when we bought it that we called our shed (the old garage) the Rat House. Now, I think I'm going to insist on a rotating composter, which should be varmit proof, AND one of those fermenting bucket systems. So cool.
Has anyone tried those? Sort of pre-composti
HALLIE: I have a compost bucket on my kitchen counter. I toss all manner of vegetable waste in it, take it out and bury it in my backyard. I monitor for rodents. If I put it deep enough and cover with grass clippings they seem not to know it's there. I'm not clever enough to garden with it.
More tips for being a good citizen of planet Earth? Pet peeves? Share!
I’m in complete agreement . . . we recycle, take our own bags to the store, compost . . . all the things you wise ladies have already mentioned.
ReplyDeletePet peeves? Grocery checkout: I have my own bags and I even bag the groceries, but the person checking out my food insists on putting the meat in a plastic bag before it goes in my recyclable bag. Grrr.
And Styrofoam coffee cups . . . .
Hallie, I never thought about the Keurig coffee containers not being recyclable. I’m not a fan because we don’t drink just one cup of coffee a day and those single-cup machines are just downright aggravating.
Joan,
DeleteIs it possible to ask to speak with the manager of your grocery store? Or write a letter to the HQ if your grocery store is part of a big chain?
Diana
I agree on those over-conscientious baggers who insist on putting meat in plastic. All you can do is anticipate and ask them not to put meat in plastic before they do. My supermarket has these aggravating plastic bag carousel thingies at the end of the counter where I would be filling my own bags. I hate it.
DeleteI try to catch them before they do it, too, but really it's more frustrating than problematic --- John simply takes the bags back to the store the next day and they are recycled. On the positive side, the deli folks have stopped packaging the cheese on Styrofoam trays . . . .
DeleteAnd, in the store's coffee aisle, you can purchase one of those reusable coffee things for the Keurig, but it hasn't made me one bit more receptive to the idea of giving up my coffee pot for making single cups of coffee all the time . . . .
I applaud all your efforts to be good environmental stewards. The amount of plastic garbage floating in our oceans is scary.
ReplyDeleteI spent most of my career in the federal with Environment Canada, which is like a combo of NOAA and EPA. So yes, I have always recycle, bring my own bags for groceries (they charge 5 cents/plastic bag here) and finally I am able to compost in the communal bin in my apartment building in Ottawa. And I use tap water treated with my Brita filter and only have some bottled water stored for emergencies.
We also have time-of-use electricity charges in Ontario so I try to reduce my electricity use during peak hours (i.e. do not do laundry, switched to LED lights). And I did not have AC for 13 years in Toronto and only use my portable one (bought last year) when it's horribly humid//hot for several days. My AC is still not installed yet this year and we are in a heat wave.
How interesting, Grace! We're having a heat wave in the 90s now in Boston and I'm glad I'm in California where it's a comfy/col 68. The only room where we have AC is my office, a tiny room that heats up like an oven without.
DeleteWe have time of use here in AZ, too. Very helpful, especially in summer.
DeleteI am back from my sweaty group walk. It's now 87F feeling like 100F with the humidity but my apartment is still cool without any AC. If the heat wave lasted longer than 2 days, the heat would build up but it is supposed to cool down by Wednesday into the low 70s.
DeleteHallie, didn't you have snow last week?
DeleteWhat a team! I am always astonished when my neighbors (a couple - no kids) put out three cans of trash. Huh? What's in there? We have one paper shopping bag of trash a week. I've also been composting for decades, and have never had a rodent problem. You have to keep meat and bones out of it, but otherwise all kitchen waste and yard/garden waste goes in, it gets turned once or twice and after a few months gets worked into the garden. Organic gold!
ReplyDeleteLove that phrase Organic Gold! Our town charges $2 per trash can but takes recycling for free. So that encourages recycling.
DeleteI recycle everything I can possibly recycle, but like you, Hallie, I wonder what else I could be doing. Most of the towns on the Cape have switched over to paper bags, but I've brought my own for ages -- when I remember to take them out of the car!
ReplyDeleteDeb, our neighborhood/area has a rodent problem as well; I think partially because of the neighbor's chicken coop. Some recently took up residence in our shed, too, and some got into our basement because where the a/c was connected wasn't sealed right. (The exterminator told us this is a common problem - slovenly work on the part of the a/c installer.) Anyway, this is a long way of saying we don't have a compost pile, but luckily, the town has an agreement with a local farm, so I bring all the composting to the transfer station/recycling center.
I think a lot about the good old days before everything became plasticized. We used waxed paper to wrap sandwiches in -- is that better than plastic bags? It seems it would be. Also, heavy paper was used to wrap deli items and even meats. The most important thing to me, though, is that we weren't a throw-away society. Our mothers reused everything that could possibly be reused. I think I still have a little of that mindset from parents who grew up in the depression-era, but I see people throw things away without a second thought, and it bothers me. I hate waste.
Okay, back off my soapbox now, but it's a subject near and dear to me. Thanks for bringing it up, Hallie!
I STILL USE WAX PAPER! I use it as a cooking surface and to wrap leftovers (when a plate on top of a bowl won't work.) My kids used to be so humiliated when they pulled their sandwiches from their lunch bags at school and they were in wax paper.
DeleteI need a "Like" button. I am going back to wax paper today!
DeleteMy husband and I are good stewards. We're environmentally conscious.
ReplyDeleteWhat concerns me more is littering. I am appalled over the miles of litter lining the roadsides across this country. From the beaches to the desert to the mountains.
The county road department where I live has stepped up the effort to keep our beloved mountains beautiful by hiring people to pick up litter. Of course, individuals, businesses or clubs can adopt roads which are not maintained by the county, but the county provides forty hour week jobs. That is how much trash clutters our roads, enough to hire people as full-time employees for an hourly wage with government health benefits, to keep the roads clean, every day, every week, all year long. That's not the parking lots or the city limits, only county roads. It's a good use of taxpayers' money, I'm not complaining.
Hubby and I do our due diligence along our road frontage here in the forest. It ain't fun picking up a bag from a fast food joint only to find a snake holding out for a rodent.
The sadness is...with all the awareness over the sixty plus years Iron Eyed Cody was advertised, littering is global and it is forever. And it just makes me sad.
I so agree. In poorer communities there's not the $$ to pay for roadside cleanup and boy does it pile up. What are people thinking when they flick a coffee cup out the window? And those plastic bags caught in tree limbs... forever... make me furious.
DeleteMan, you northerners and your no-AC-halos! I'm thrilled that you don't need to turn on your AC this time of year in Canada, but here in Texas mine has been on for months. It's not just the heat, either, although last week we were in the mid-nineties and that makes us say things like "gosh, isn't it nice that it's still so cool, this far into the summer?" I apparently live in a pollen crossroad, where all the stuff from east, west, and north tends to concentrate. Since I have asthma and a) want to breathe plus b) want to continue living, some air filtration is necessary nearly all year round. I have, however, installed a more efficient AC system, caulked all my windows, and am working on getting thermal barrier window treatments. As for the rest of it, I compost, I don't have or want a sprinkler system or pool, and get my electricity from a company that promotes wind and solar. I'd love to investigate solar panels for my roof. I'm also considering switching my newspaper subscription to digital, since the single biggest thing I recycle every other week is newsprint. I think the important thing is for everyone to be aware and do what they can where they can, because one size does not fit all. For instance, Dallas tried that plastic bag ban a couple of years ago, and it was great for the well-off folks who regularly shopped at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, but the hard-working minimum wage earners, who can barely afford adequate housing, and might only get to the grocery store once a week via Dallas' crappy public transportation, balked at paying an extra five cents per bag. You can't tax poor people for wanting to carry their food home. Naturally Dallas wouldn't consider fining the grocery corporations for not using paper. When it comes to going green, I think we all need to be creative and look at many different ways to approach the problem. And, for heaven's sake, why hasn't anyone figured out a way to get all that plastic out of the ocean and recycle it?
ReplyDeleteGigi, believe me there are plenty of Canadians who use their AC, just not me. It's already 76F feeling like 86F at 8:00 am here and it will feel over 100F by noon. But this is a 2-day heat wave here so I can bear it. I have an Ottawa friend who moved up here last year and she lived in Houston, and Singapore for over 15 years. She thinks our Ottawa summers are a joke! I can't imagine living in the Texas (or Arizona) heat in the summer. I am off on my 2.5 hour walk in this heat (I am crazy, I know).
DeleteWe have central air and we use it when we need it. Fortunately in Rochester, it is a rare night without a cool breeze, and I have windows on three sides of the bedroom, so it's always cool for sleeping. In Texas, you can't do without AC except maybe in December and January!
Delete"And, for heaven's sake, why hasn't anyone figured out a way to get all that plastic out of the ocean and recycle it?" HERE HERE! That's my question too. (And Hank who loves her plastic bags would second!)
DeleteDeb says, "However, I get a big X on the composting. Hubby has never wanted me to compost, because we--how do I say this delicately--have a big problem with RODENTS in our neighborhood. Our property was so infested when we bought it that we called our shed (the old garage) the Rat House. "
ReplyDeleteI get that. Our neighbor started a compost heap a few years ago, and the sewer rats thought it was a cafeteria. We made him get rid of it. Rochester is a city and cities have rats. No getting around it.
We have huge wheeling bins, blue for recycling and green for everything else. I love the idea of a compost pit, but I have no qualms with grinding up stuff and putting it down the drain or tossing potato peels in the garbage to go to the landfill. It's all biodegradable isn't it?
We also have a crew of pickers than come by the night before garbage day, and anything we put on the curb in gone in a couple of hours, faster if we put a five dollar price tag on it. It's amazing what people think they can steal!
When we remodeled the kitchen last summer, we put in an under counter pull-out trash thingie. Immediately we realized we have way more recycle stuff than garbage, so that is what it is used for. The garbage pail is now under the sink.
For doggie and cat waste, we use biodegradable poop bags. Now what I am going to research is big biodegradable bags for the garbage pail. They are bound to be out there.
We have used reusable grocery bags for years now, and our Weggie's is getting very good about minimal packaging, using paper instead of styrofoam, all that sort of thing.
Still I use Kleenex like, well, Kleenex, and way too many plastic trash bags. Inwon't even mention my love affair with paper towels. But I do wash paper off, like what the fish was wrapped in, and toss it in the recycle. We don't buy bottled water; we have filtered water and a fab infuser for making lemon/cucumber/mint water, always in the fridge.
Living on one of the Great Lakes, we have a surfeit of water, so I don't worry about watering the lawn on the rare occasion we need to or taking long showers. This is probably the year to replace the hot water heater with one of those tankless jobs, although the count is still out on those, very very expensive.
It's really hard to stay on top of all this, and like Deb, I dive in after a party and rescue all the beer bottles and other recyclable waste out of the garbage. It isn't very becoming to see an old lady's butt sticking up in the air, with her head in the trash, but WTH, no one can see my face.
Good subject Hallie
PS Rochester hires the unhire-able at out recycle center, making jobs for people who have zip skills and little potential, including the homeless. I admire this. I'm sure the pay is meager, but minumim wage here is $9.50, going up to $10.40 next year and by dollar increments until it gets to $15/hour.
Off the research biodegradable plastic bags... Last I looked they were advertising them but they didn't actually biodegrade...in one's lifetime.
DeleteJust looked on Amazon. They are now available. Yay us.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI always wonder if the recycling really gets recycled.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty big deal here. I try to by "contains (FITB) % recycled materials too. Our grocery bags are made from 100% recycled materials, so they have to come from somewhere.
DeleteHank,
DeleteGood question.
Sounds like a story for a great investigative reporter...
DeleteAre you on this Hank? May I suggest you come to Rochester to do the investigating? I'll tidy up the guest room and change the sheets.
DeleteThere's an entire neighborhood in northern Cincinnati that is powered largely by recycled trash, Hank.
DeleteSpeaking of plastic, I wonder if plastic can be recycled?
ReplyDeleteThe other day I read about wax worms that eat plastic!
Like Hallie, I do not want to buy Keurig for the same reason. I saw a tv ad several months ago - I think it was called cafe something? It is a little cup that you can use like the Keurig cups but that little cup can be washed and used again and again! Looked for it at the La Sur Table. Not available YET. Perhaps it is available only through TV ads?
We all try to do out part to take care of the environment. Because we had a severe drought in California for a while, I got into the habit of washing my hand in a bowl of water. I use the water from the bathtub after I shower to flush the toilet. Though we do flush with the handle once a day to make sure it is still working. Not sure if we have what is called a low flow toilet.
Would love to know HOW we can do ONE bag of garbage per week. I noticed that several comments include one bag of garbage a week.
We have a vegetable compost and we use it all the time! We have recycling bins for paper, newspapers, paper boxes and other types of paper.
That is good to know about Haagzen Daz (I cannot spell this!) ice cream using paper boxes. What about Breyer or Ben and Jerry? I would think Ben and Jerry would use paper boxes?
Gigi, that is good point about working people on minimum wages. In our family, we call Whole Foods "whole paycheck". LOL. Though I was surprised about Trader Joe's because the things we buy there are much less expensive than whole paycheck grocery stores or organic food grocery stores.
At the farmer's market, they have little stands where they sell salads and other meals. If we bring a plate from home, we get a discount because then they do not have to use paper plates. We bring cloth bags to put vegetables and fruits in.
We all try to do out part.
Yes, littering is a problem.
Worms eat plastic?
DeleteBring a plate fro home? Great idea. I may start bringing my own containers to restaurants to pack up my takeout. Or is that too ridiculous?
Most plastic can be recycled, has a code on it somewhere. Exception is styrofoam, at least for us, and filmy plastic bags. The latter two have to go somewhere other than our city recycling place.
DeleteHallie, we decided to bring our own takeout container next time we eat out! I almost never finish an entree and it's stupid to keep bringing these plastic containers home. Some are so sturdy we reuse them forever, but they pile up.
DeleteGreat idea to bring a container from home to a restaurant.
DeleteYou can find those little cups in the coffee aisle of the grocery store. I have a couple I use for the Keurig. Speaking of which my husband bought it because he thought it was so cool. So suddenly after using it for several years he's decided he likes instant coffee better. So I'm stuck with the Keurig taking up space on the counter.
DeleteFor those of you who are wondering about Keurig - there has long been a type of "cup" that allows you to fill with your own coffee and wash it out instead of buying the K-cups. We use it - because I don't drink coffee and making a full pot in the morning means most of it gets dumped out (even a four-cup is too much for The Hubby - he really does want only one cup). Also, some companies are making recyclable K-cups.
ReplyDeleteWe recycle. We don't compost. Hallie, I wash out all but the most stubborn mess to be able to recycle (because at some point I guess you have to balance water usage vs. throwing it out, right - or that's what I tell myself). I'm constantly yelling at the kids to watch their water usage - although part of that is selfish because we get charged sewage on our water usage and you do not want to see my bill (my township had an EPA violation years ago and I am STILL paying off the fines and the costs of the sewage repairs to bring it up to "code"). We had cloth bags, but I am ashamed to admit I have zero idea where they are now. But we reuse the plastic bags and recycle periodically.
But the A/C? I wish I could say I didn't use it. I can't. My MS symptoms are exponentially worse when I get overheated, so when it's 90+ degrees, feels like 100 or more and high humidity, the A/C goes on. We do have a programmable thermostat and we've tried to program it to be efficient, but I just can't be functional without it. =(
Mary, thank you! Do you know where people can buy a type of "cup" that allows you to fill with your own coffee and wash it out instead of buying K-cups?
DeleteAmazon, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Keurig all sell the reusable cups. Just make sure you get the right one for your machine (I have a classic, but the newer machines are Keurig 2.0 and the reusable cup design is different).
DeleteGreat!
DeleteAnd here's my plea to my fellow writers who like to create swag to promote their books. Make it ECO-FRIENDLY and hold the plastic! How about cardboard coasters instead of pens and plastic do-dads.
ReplyDeleteI've done that twice now!
DeleteI have a well here and it seems there is plenty of water but I am still careful with it. My water heater is the demand type so that means I never run out of hot water but it wastes a lot before it gets hot. So I think nothing of washing my hands in cold water. In winter I catch and save about a gallon and a half and use that water for plants. In summer, with no heat on, that's more like 2 gallons and a half caught, but there are also more plants to water. And I'm making very good use of my milk jugs!
ReplyDeleteWe just switched over to gas and a much more fuel-efficient heat/water heating system. So I'm feeling virtuous about that, too. That "waiting for the water to get hot" thing is a big deal... our master bath must be the furthest from the water heater and it takes forever to get warm water, and on a cold winter morning a hot water wash is such bliss.
DeleteKatherine Hepburn said she always took cold showers. Some people think cold showers are better. I never liked hot showers or hot baths. when I was about 4 years old, I remember the bath water was too hot and I said the water was too hot! It was scalding hot to me!
DeleteHallie, we have always had a separate 16 gallon water heater under the cabinet by the kitchen sink. It is brilliant!! It would take ten minutes of running water to get hot from the big water heater upstairs. Only thing is, I see how much water other people use when guests help with my dishes. They always drain the 16 gal tank.
Deletethere was a weird story the other day. Something to do with a logging company in Canada and Penguin Books ?
ReplyDeleteThe logging company made paper for Penguin Books ? Do they recycle paper at Penguin Books?
DeleteMy youngest daughter lives in Brooklyn where they have curbside pick-up of compost! She and her husband also use compost-able baby diapers. The company picks up once a week (in the middle of the night), removing the waste and dropping off a new supply.
ReplyDeleteI hope the future brings more opportunities (and technology) for all of us to live in a way that is better for our environment.
I really like Keurig coffee, but we aren't having it in this house, too expensive and too much plastic crap. Julie drinks a four cup pot of decaf every morning. I prefer leaded, so I use an 8 ounce cafetiere for my one very large morning latte. Not even a filter to deal with!
ReplyDeleteRight there with you ladies on the long wait for hot water. Like Hallie, my water heater is at the opposite end of the house from the bathrooms. When I put my new water heater in, the plumber mentioned something about a pump that would constantly circulate hot water, so less would be wasted waiting for the warm to get where I need it. If such a pump is available, and could be powered by a solar cell, it might be a less expensive alternative to the on-demand water heaters. More research!
ReplyDeleteQuestion for Debs and Rhys:
ReplyDeleteWhen you visit England, did you notice any differences between the US and England regarding the environment?
I asked because when we visited England in the early 1990s, we were surprised that they did not sell Lysol in the shops, which was easily available in the USA.
Thanks in advance.
The UK is much more waste and green conscious. I learned years ago to always carry a shopping bag when out and about!
DeleteI remember that the UK is more green conscious from my visits to the UK.
DeleteIs cafetiere similar to French press coffee?
ReplyDeleteYes, same
DeleteHallie, Keurig containers are 100% recyclable if you put in the work. All you have to do it pull off the top foil then you can rip open the paper filter and dig it and the coffee out. The paper filter and the coffee can go straight into a compost and the foil and plastic cup in the recycle bin. Some pod makers already have recyclable cups like Tim Horton's AND as others have mentioned there's a refillable one called the My K-Cup® Reusable Coffee Filter.
DeleteMy earth-friendly tip, as we have a teenager in our house and even though our water system is all recycled through and treated for re-use ... timed showers. If it takes you longer than 10 minutes to get clean then I'd better see a newly rebuilt carburetor or a freshly dug trench. :D
Great!
DeleteLiving in AZ, I am boggled that solar isn't mandatory in new construction. If they had done this during the building boom of the 80's/90's think what an energy efficient city Phoenix could be. Again, boggled.
ReplyDeleteJenn, yes that is short-sighted decision making by the city, state and developers to not force the use of renewable energy in a sun-drenched state as AZ. But I am assuming the fossil fuel energy industry is pretty dominant down there too. Incentives to develop and use clean renewable energy sources were rare in North America during the 1980s & 1990s.
DeleteI am at a loss to understand why there’s so much reluctance to install solar . . . we’re in the northeast and, despite a fair number of grey, rainy days, our system consistently makes significantly more power than we use . . . .
DeleteSince I'm a tea drinker, I use recyclable tea bags. They are called T-sacs and I think they're made in Germany. They come in 4 sizes. I use a three for my big pot of tea in the morning, which lasts me all day usually and makes Rick iced tea at night.
ReplyDeleteWith loose tea, I should add!
DeleteHere is the fermenting pre-composting system I mentioned. http://www.bokashicycle.com/howitworks.html It's called Bokashi. I am seriously looking at getting an off the ground rotating composter like Gigi's (it's screened so don't see how rats could get in it, and wouldn't put meat or bones) and trying the Bokashi, too.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the highway litter, oh do I hate that. I'm always amazed at how clean London is for such a big city--probably doing away with plastic bags has helped. Paris, not so much, and Parisians don't pick up after their dogs. Londoners do. (You get fined if you don't!)
ReplyDeleteTexas highways are cleaner than most, thanks to our Don't Mess With Texas campaign, which does actually seem to make an impact.
when I visited Paris, to my surprise, I never saw doggie poo on the streets. Perhaps the part of Paris I visited always had someone pick up after their dogs? I visited the Rue Cler.
DeleteThat's one of my bugaboos about Paris: dog poop everywhere! You can barely enjoy the sights because you're always trying to pick your way around the piles.
DeleteI am my mother's care-giver. She uses a lot of disposable products, and I am not going to even think of recycling them! We don't have a lot of other garbage besides milk carton, egg carton type as I try not to buy very many processed foods. I live in Colorado, and I think a lot of people here are hyper aware of not letting pollutants into our waterways, or trash into the wilderness. I still see appliances dumped on the side of the road in the middle of no-where, and electronics because people can't afford to pay the hazardous waste fee of 42 cents a pound. I think the local govt should get rid of the fee and more people would bring those materials into the proper disposal sites. It is free when I take medical waste (insulin needles) into the hazardous waste site and they give us a new medical waste container. I really appreciate that service.
ReplyDeleteNowadays our recycling container is fuller than our trash bin. And they're the same size! Hooray! The City of Houston held off negotiating a renewal contract with the waste service with the result they no longer recycle glass. An enterprising student picked up the slack and for $10 a month he comes by twice and picks up glass to recycle. We save plastic bags and either use them or take them to the recycle box at Walmart. I don't have the space to compost. I did try it once with a barrel but I'm afraid it just turned into a roach motel. Literally. I cut up plastic rings from six packs as a preventative measure too.
ReplyDeleteWe wash and reuse Ziploc bags. We've been doing it for years and people used to make fun of us. We actually used this for a comedy bit in a sitcom I was writing on. We also refuse to replace anything until it's broken - which is why we currently don't have heat or AC because the 35 year old system we inherited with the house caught fire three weeks ago. (The delay is due to a fight with our home warranty program.)And I despise those Keurig machines. Luckily, I also despise coffee, so to Keurig or not to Keurig isn't an ethical dilemma for me. And I reuse teabags. I squeeze those babies until they scream.
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed by all of your recycling and environmentally conscious efforts to preserve our planet. I am also shamed and will try to get with the program now. The one thing that I don't think I can give up, though, is my air conditioning. As humid as it is here and how I hate the heat, I don't see that happening. However, it's interesting that growing up, we didn't have central air until I was fifteen and my siblings were all out of the nest. Ironically, we moved to a bigger house then. In the house where we all grew up, we had a window unit in the living room, and that was it. The basement, where the family room was, usually stayed fairly cool.
ReplyDeleteI have resisted buying a Keurig for coffee, and that was an environmental decision. I just had to buy a new coffee maker, and I bought one with the choice of using a permanent gold filter instead of paper ones. I used it this morning, and it is a bit of work to clean it out, but it is a baby step for me to get more environmentally involved.
We started recycling as soon as our suburb's trash pickup started, about 34 years ago, and I've been composting almost as long. Our trash company switched to enormous containers a couple of years ago, set out so the truck lifts it to empty, and not a human being. They're so big that we usually only take our trash to the street every third week, and usually then because the recycling bin is so full.
ReplyDeleteOn my first trip to Paris I bought a reusable shopping bag that folds up. I like it so much I bought more, then gave everyone in the family two. That same Christmas they each also got a coupon for a steel water bottle. Now they all use only reusable bags and refillable bottles. Plastic water bottles are the devil! They use not only water, but also petroleum to make them. And half the time people don't finish drinking them, and they throw away perfectly good water.
My husband drinks weak coffee all day, but I only want one, strong cup a day. So I use a Perfect Dripper system with a gold filter. It makes great coffee, one cup at a time, and I compost the grounds.
By the way, we've put our vegetable scraps, leaves, yard waste, eggshells, and coffee and tea grounds into the same spot for well over 30 years. If you do nothing to it it pretty much melts into the ground. Of course, adding it to the garden is good, but even if you don't it's way better than sending it to the growing landfill mountain.
Oh, my daughter is a recycler and composter. She has one of those composting buckets on her kitchen counter and uses compost in her gardening. I watched recently while she and the seven-year-old granddaughter were planting some spinach. The granddaughter was in charge of putting the composted dirt into the holes. So cool that my daughter is passing it on.
ReplyDeleteReusable shopping bags are great! Though sometimes we forget to bring them. The other day we went to REI and I put the things we bought into my backpack. We did not want to use a paper bag. I notice that paper bags collect dust and I am allergic to dust!
ReplyDeleteWe use paper grocery bags, which I'll ask for periodically, to recycle paper, and for our kitchen trash. I never buy plastic trash bags unless we're going to do a major cleanout.
DeleteSadly, I believe the plastic floating in the oceans will cease being a problem only when corporate business finds a way to turn a nice profit by scooping it up.
ReplyDeleteWe do all the right things already, but it never seems to be enough. We have participated in both park and beach clean-ups, but again, it seems to make such a tiny difference when the whole problem is considered. *SIGH*
Lest we start thinking nothing makes a difference...
ReplyDeleteWestern PA is home to...gosh, six or eight pairs of bald eagles now? Pittsburgh alone has two breeding pairs within the metropolitan limits and each of those pairs has produced at least one eaglet each of the last three years (one pair has two eaglets this year, the other has one - they'd have more, but lost their nest and first egg in a windstorm). The eaglets show no sign of leaving the area, which means more breeding pairs in the future.
And I just saw this: humpback whales in NYC harbor: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/humpback-whales-have-returned-to-NYC-11208323.php?cmpid=fbsocialflow
So take heart. Something's working. =)
That's so fantastic!
DeleteI agree, Mary, doing something is better than doing nothing, and there's a cumulative effect. Since we started composting, I once calculated that we saved 400 or 500 (can't remember now, but it's probably a much higher number at this point, anyway)garbage cans full of waste. And since I started taking my own bags to the grocery and to other kinds of stores, I've saved several thousand plastic ones, not to mention how many plastic water bottles our family has chosen not to use.
Everything counts.
FYI: Home Depot takes batteries of all kinds.
ReplyDeleteWe have a Keurig and each have our own filters. If I want a different coffee than he does I can make it. Also sometimes you want just one cup and why make a whole pot for that? Our town no longer has a dump, although we still call it that, we all recycle everything! and there is a building to swap gently used still good items.
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