I was reading the local paper online today and came across this article.
I've been reading through the comments that people have posted here, and I have to say, I am APPALLED at some people. APPALLED! Is recycling really *that* difficult, people? I'm all for instituting a "clear bag" policy for our garbage...particularly since we will still be allowed one black bag per collection week for "personal items" (although for those us truly environmentally friendly, even that isn't necessary). For those of you who aren't familiar, read about the Diva cup here.
Our world is in trouble, people. The only way that it's going to get better is if everyone contributes in some way. We have people in this world who can do big things to make our planet better - they have lots of money, lots of influence, lots of time and resources. Then there's the rest of us. And what can we do? We can reduce our garbage. It's pretty simple. If you don't know what to do, take 10 minutes to familiarize yourselves with your city or town's garbage and recycling policy, and then follow it! Right now, I am living in a household of 4. I don't consider us to be "recycling nazis" in that I know that every now again something makes it into the garbage that likely doesn't belong there. But for the most part, even my 3 year old knows what belongs in the compost and the recycling. Generally on trash day, we put out two (yes, that's right -- two) bags of garbage...sometimes we don't even have that. That's a bag of garbage per week, for a household of four people. And let me point out that my youngest still wears disposable diapers at night. Once she's out of those, our garbage will be reduced even further.
Currently in our city there is a 6 bag limit per household. Personally, I think that's WAY too much. I can't fathom what people are putting into their garbage, if they meet (or exceed!) that limit.
I am appalled that so many people in our society are too lazy to recycle and be careful of what they put in the trash. There's no excuse for it! As I've said before, our planet is in serious trouble. We live in a world of excess and consumerism, and something must be done about it. I am ashamed that I live in a society of people who are so utterly selfish that their own comfort and convenience outweighs the future of our planet.
Why not start in your own home? All it takes is a few extra minutes of your time. Isn't the planet, and the human race worth that, at least?
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9 comments:
I will definitely show that to my father ;) BTW, here outside the city, we have garbage collection only every other week, and with diapers, 6 bags is close to it ;) lol
Btw, the link for the article doesn'T work for me somehow!
The link is fixed - thanks for the heads up.
Garbage pickup here in the city is every other week as well. :)
I think people from this city are amazing (compared to some places I've been). It's unfortunate that there are still "those" people... I often hear things like, "It's "those" big companies that are causing all this pollution so I'm gonna do NOTHING!" It's exhausting.
It's great that people like you are talking about it in such a passionate way.
I'll keep track of what goes in the garbage here for you ;) I wonder why we end up with way more bags than you, other than the diapers! lol
As for my dad, he is anti-recycling since it was discovered that something crazy like 80% of the recycling bags end up at the dump rather than the recycling plants, because these plants cannot process that much material... That's in Quebec, thoug. Sad, isn't it?
Pascale - have you tried cloth diapers before? You can borrow some of Alex's old ones for a bit to try them out after baby is here, if you like! I LOVE cloth nappies!!
Have you heard about Recycle Bank? It's a recycling program that depends upon greed: you recycle, we give you cash credit toward any of a number of retailers. While we all SHOULD just recycle (we recycle everything our recycling company takes, which, unfortunately, is not all that is recyclable) others may be more likely to do this if they GET SOMETHING for it (clearly, a cleaner planet is not enough for them). Here's the link:
http://www.recyclebank.com/how-it-works
Charmaine:
Yes, I do have cloth diapers... With Luca, I had to stop using them because he had major rashes due to a weakened immune system (long story), and I was so thrilled to have a healthy baby #2... and she ended up not using them because we had no way of drying them (and half the time, we didn't even have water...yuck!). Now that I can both wash AND dry them, Amelia is almost out of diapers (panties during the day at home, real diapers at night... just because I don't want the mess ;) )...
I guess it will be up to baby#3 to wear these nice cloth diapers! lol
Heh, well Pascale it's a good thing you decided to have baby #3 then!! :)
Would love to hear about your living situation where you didn't have water half the time, yuck! You'll have to fill me in one day!
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