Small Gesture, Big Impact
January 19, 2008 6:38 pm
I’ve been afraid to see An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s documentary about Global Warming, because I know I will only get depressed. I am already well aware that the polar ice caps are melting, that changing weather patterns are adversely affecting animal migrations and causing natural disasters such as hurricanes, droughts, and floods to occur more frequently around the world. Why would I want to hear more about a subject I feel completely powerless to do anything about?
Kevin told me just recently about a website that a friend of his, Diane MacEachern, has put together, The Big Green Purse. It’s excellent. We all know that corporate greed and mindless consumerism are a deadly duo. Maybe we, as individuals, can’t do anything about corporate greed, but what about the other half of the equation? Reading Diane’s site has made me aware that I am fully guilty of being a mindless consumer. I may have my heart in the right place but that doesn’t mean that my spending habits are not contributing to harming the environment. Here’s an example: I read over and over that I should be drinking lots and lots of water every day. I think I’ll be smart and have a bottle of water in my car, one in my backpack when I hike, and one in our room so I don’t have to go downstairs to get filtered water. Well, it’s not smart and here’s why. According to Diane’s site:
- When you buy bottled water, you’re buying plastic packaging and convenience, not necessarily healthier water that’s safer to drink than tap water.
- Approximately 1.5 million tons of plastic are used to make bottles of water. Because the bottles are petroleum-based and linked to the price of oil, they are more expensive than the water they contain, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
- Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year.
- Only about 12% of plastic water bottles are being recycled, which means 40 million bottles a day are going to the trash or ending up as litter.
- Bottled water can cost as much as 10,000 times more than tap water. At $2.50 a litre, or $10 a gallon, bottled water costs almost four times more than milk.
I was not aware of this information because – duh! – I never really thought about where that plastic bottle came from or where it ends up. I always recycle plastic bottles, but how many other people really do? (See answer above – not many.) There’s no denying that my now-former habit of buying bottled water was “mindless consumerism.” All I have to do to have water at my fingertips is put my filtered tap water in a thermos or other container. How hard is that?
The Big Green Purse gives me hope that through education and awareness, people will realize they are not powerless and their small gestures, collectively, can make a big impact.
Here’s a great idea for America. All grocery stores in France force you to have your own carry-out bags. They never ask, “Papier ou plastique?” If you forget your bags, you can buy them there super cheap. When and if the bags wear out, the store replaces them for free. When I think how many paper and plastic bags could be saved in every store, every day all across the U.S., it’s staggering, n’est-ce pas?
5 Responses to “Small Gesture, Big Impact”
Hey Ruth….I’m so happy that you stop being a “mindless bottled water consumer”. I was on the road to Cincinnati last month, and passed by a landfill, there were hundreds of birds on top it trying to eat human waste. My heart was broken tremendously…knowing that there were so many bottles, cans, papers, card board boxes being un-recycled. I know this because in Cincinnati, it’s an option to have recycled items pick-up in a household. All I can do now is just making a small gesture like you said.
Let’s live green!
Sorry….I need to add more…basically…if you live in Cincinnati, and you want to save money, you just throw everything away on your trash. I was very depressed on that day, and Bryan cheered me up by saying: “One day, they’ll have a technology that can dig in all these landfill and pick all those recycled items up easily.” And of course I felt better.
And on a positive note, an upscale restaurant in SF, pioneered to not serve Pellegrino (imported from Italy) to the customers, and now they have their own soda-fountain-style carbonating machine for their filtered tap water.
Chez Panisse is also using the same brilliant idea to use the least amount energy for serving water in the restaurant.
For more about this, just go to: “http://www.sfgate.com/c/a/2007/03/21/FDGU1OMMT61.DTL”
That’s one of the things I love about Switzerland – all of the recycling: http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/search/Result.html?siteSect=882&ty=st&sid=8626199
But I must admit, I drink lots of fizzy water from bottles (all of which are recycled, of course). Have you tried any of the carbonation machines that let you make your own bubbly water at home? If you have any brand suggestions, I’d love to hear them. We’ve been thinking of switching. but we don’t know anyone who’s actually used them.
Blog looks great!
I tried to comment yesterday, but my satellite internet hiccuped, and I lost that too long post, anyway. If, like me, everyone had no trash service, and had to dispose of one’s own consumerism, we would all be more conscious. For example, I have taken to “unpackaging” things I buy at the box stores, and telling them they need to find out how to dispose of it themselves, that I am not taking it home. I don’t buy bottled water, but use the plastic I get in other products, (oj comes to mind) to fill from my tap, which is spring water anyway.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Monterey County dump, but it is the gold standard in the US. They have a “Last Chance Store.” I have actually shopped there. You can pick up 1/2 full cans of paint, for free, as well as other similar items. A visit to the “dump” is quite an education. It is fascinating to see how CLEAN it is, how organized, and how they sort through all the garbage. The even have created compost which they created a wonderful garden, and they also sell it!! I got a 1/2 dozen antique 78 records for a quarter apiece. Lots of building supplies, clothes, and everything in between. Monterey sorts through ALL the garbage, recycles and sells almost everything. I think the actual amount that ends up in the landfill is less than 5%. And this has been going on for at least 10 years, that I know of. Our local school won awards for its recycling programs from Waste Management, and was recognized state-wide at a ceremony w/ our actor/governor.
So, while it can be discouraging what we are doing to our planet, there are programs that are making a HUGE difference. I would also add that shopping for Free Trade items helps insure the health of our planet, as well as decent living and working conditions in other countries.
Such a sweet blog you are doing, Ruthie! Good stuff, and I love the green purse link.
Dear Ruth,
Thank you so much for this wonderful post. It will get a lot of people thinking, and that in itself is a step in the right direction. Keep up the good work!
Diane MacEachern, Big Green Purse
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