:D Happy Earth Day, everyone! I just typed "earth" as "bearth." orz;;
I don't know what other people think, but I'm pretty sure that we humans are completely trashing this planet. Not on purpose, of course, but really, just look at what we're doing to it every day. I myself can't really explain how much Americans alone consume each day - something like that is better said through the artwork of Chris Jordan, who portrays American consumerism in a beautiful, but slightly horrifying way.
I mean, really, you should look at his stuff:
HERE are some examples. His main site is
here.Look at all those things that people use in such short periods of time! It's terrible. D:
So we should all do what we can to help preserve this planet, not only for ourselves, but for the rest of the world and everything living on it, as well as the generations to come. I'm not trying to make people go out and reforest the earth right now, but there are small things that you can do that will help the earth out in the long run, especially if more and more people catch and begin practicing these things too. :D I sound like such a green advocate, but really. This planet has it rough. D;
So some things that will help! :D
- If you have to have water or coffee throughout the day, instead of buying bottles and cups all the time, get your own reusable one instead. There are some pretty cool-looking water bottles and coffee mugs out there that you can get. Or if you don't want to spend a lot of money on a water bottle, you can just reuse a normal Talking Rain or Aquafina bottle. I know Starbucks uses recyclable cups, which is good, but using your own is better, I think. If you're not sure about brewing your own coffee to take to work or school in your handy-dandy mug, I'm pretty sure most chain coffee places like Tully's or Starbucks will make the coffee in your mug for you if you ask, so there you go.
- On the note of using your own things, use your own bag when you go grocery shopping. There are also some really neat bags out there that are good for groceries. ;D If you don't have one and aren't sure whether paper or plastic is the way to go, uhh, I can't really help you. Both paper and plastic bags have their merits and downfalls;
= Paper bags require trees to make, and the amount of energy that goes into making them is much higher than that for plastic bags. However, plastic bags have a lower recycling rate than paper bags [according to the Wall Street Journal]. You can put paper bags with your normal recycling and not worry about it, but plastic bags you generally can take to any grocery store and they'll have a deposit for them there.
You can always reuse your paper and plastic bags, too. We use plastic bags to line our household trash cans, and paper bags can... make really funny masks.
- On the note of recycling, PLEASE DO! I can't believe how many people actually just DON'T recycle. You can recycle most cardboard and paper products, and certain types of plastic depending on your state. Well, actually, you can recycle most any types of plastic, but some types may have to be processed elsewhere. And about that:
= There are 7 types of plastic out there. The most commonly recycled are types 1 and 2, PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) and HDPE [high-density polyethylene). PET is used for things like water and soda bottles and lots of food product containers. HDPE is used for things like shampoo and detergent bottles, as well as milk bottles and plastic grocery bags. Other types are PVC, LDPE, PP, PS and "Other," which are recycled depending on what state you're in. These are types 3-7. Type 5 is often used for milk product containers such as yogurt, butter, margarine, etc., so look out for those. You can tell what type of plastic something is by looking on the bottom of whatever it is - there'll usually be a small recycling symbol [the triangle of arrows] with a number inside. It doesn't hurt to recycle plastics, no matter what the kind, but I'm not exactly sure what the collection companies do with the types of plastics that can't be recycled in their state.
- If you're going to get a new phone or camera or computer, ask yourself if you
really need one. And if you do, can you somehow reuse your old one? TONS of phones and computers are thrown out every day, and they're
very hard to take care of. There ARE companies that will recycle electronics like that, but the process takes quite a while, I believe, and a lot of energy. Other times companies will ship the phones and such to places in China or other countries and pay villages to take them apart. This process is very dangerous and a health hazard; there are places in China where little kids take apart phones and such, and the chemicals from the electronics pose huge health concerns for them. You can donate phones and other electronics to charities or other organizations.
- In general, try to use less things. There's the whole "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" thing for a reason, right? Reducing is a good, good thing. Reusing is great, too, and will probably save you some money some time.
- And a note about batteries: batteries can be really gross leaky things if they're left for too long. There are places you can drop off batteries to be recycled; find out where one is near you! There are certain kinds of batteries that are more toxic than others; Alkaline batteries are generally okay - these include Duracell, Energizer, etc., but some batteries are made from mercury or nickel, and those aren't so great. The battery will generally say whether it's alkaline or not right on it. Rechargeable batteries are good, too, since batteries are pretty expensive.
I know it feels kind of like "how is one person doing these things going to make a difference?" But really, if more people start doing the small things, all those little things will add up and make a big difference in the end. So try to live a little bit greener, and get the people you know to do it also. There really isn't a reason not to do some of these things - being too lazy to find a recycling bin is not an excuse to recycle your Starbucks cup. Besides, green living is in these days. 8D So yes, there's my green shpiel for now. Let's make this planet a nice one, or at least preserve it a little longer!
Go-On!Holy fuzz this post is long.
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