So I appeared on Virginia This Morning again this morning, and of course had a long, long list of things I wanted to cover, but of course, I always end up feeling like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, suddenly in the parking lot, having missed an opportunity to say much of what I intended. Rats, I thought I had some good stuff, so it's going to be posted here instead. Although it will be over several days.
Though Earth Day is a terrific concept, every day really should be Earth Day- we can’t afford to do anything less- for our children, ourselves, or our planet. The bad news is that something has to be done, now, but the good news is that there are lots of things we can do. I always think about it as the gum wrapper effect- I think that lots of people think, “just this one wrapper won’t make a difference”, but if everyone thought that, we’d be knee deep in gum wrappers!
We don’t all have to ditch everything we do and spend thousands of dollars to “go green”, but we definitely can make a difference. Lots of things are simple, but some do take a bit more effort or thought.
Focusing on the three “r’s” Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, I’m going to start at recycle, because that’s something we are hopefully ALL already doing.
Pay attention to what can be recycled- if you go to www.cvwma.com (if you're in the Richmond Metro Area- if not, check in with your local recycling program), you can read up on those things that can be recycled- you may be surprised at what you think you can but can’t and what you think you can’t that can.
Close the loop!- the more recycled content products you buy, the more efficient our recycling system becomes. Paperstone cutting board, Recycline toothbrushes and razors. Now we even have recycled content aluminum foil available, (and aluminum, a really toxic process to create from the beginning , is one of the best things to remember to recycle.) There really are so many products available now, from printer/ copier paper to paper towels, to toilet tissue.
Regardless of exactly what statistics you look at, and what type of tp you use, the facts of the matter are that if the whole world used toilet paper at the rate we do, there would be no trees left on the earth. Period. YIKES!
One million trees would be saved if every U.S. household replaced just one 250-count package of virgin fiber napkins with 100 percent recycled ones.
Now, imagine not only not using as many of those things, but cutting at least one completely (or close to it) out. If you use only reusable towels for wiping up, drying hands, washing counters, etc., that will make a huge difference. Even if you still keep the paper towels when you, say, step in a present from your dog and such- you're still using so many fewer that you will definitely save money as you save the planet!
Even better than recycling; Save money and the Earth and be clean at the same time...yes! Get serious and add Bathroom Bidet Sprayers to all your bathrooms. Available at www.bathroomsprayers.com with these you won't even need toilet paper any more, just a towel to dry off! It's cheap and can be installed without a plumber; and runs off the same water line to your toilet. You'll probably pay for it in a few months of toilet paper savings. And after using one of these you won't know how you lasted all those years with wadded up handfuls of toilet paper. Now we're talking green and helping the environment without any pain. As for water use a drought is always a concern and must be dealt with prudently but please remember that in the big picture the industrial water users always far exceed the water use of household users and in the case of toilet paper manufacture it is huge. The pollution and significant power use from that manufacturing process also contributes to global warming so switching to a hand bidet sprayer and lowering your toilet paper use is very green in multiple ways.
Posted by: Jeff9 | April 21, 2009 at 02:30 AM