Monday, May 26, 2008

Plastic Water Bottle Deposits?


I don't remember what it was that got me thinking about it, but I started thinking yesterday or the day before that we really need to implement a deposit on plastic water bottles to increase the amount of recycling of these. People are buying these in such great numbers, especially considering that in Washington, we have some of the purest cleanest water around. Actually, most places in the US have water that is just great for drinking! People are willing to pay 10x and more for bottled water, which is often actually not as clean and sometimes it's actually tap water that's just been bottled to make it more "convenient"!!

I understand that the problem is that recycling is less available outside of the home and office, where it really seems useful to carry bottled water. That's a whole separate issue, but perhaps by having a $.05 deposit on these bottles, something I believe has already been implemented in California and has been implemented with aluminum cans in a number of states, the rate of recycling of these would greatly increase. In Michigan, where there is a $0.10/bottle deposit, 95% of deposit containers are recycled! 95%!! That's pretty big time, I'd say. Adding initiative to the whole thing is one way that's almost a surefire way to get these items recycled, whether it's by the consumers who are using the bottles or people turning trash into cash. Regardless of who recycled them, they'd be getting recycled and decreasing our consumption of petroleum, which is already known to not be a limitless resource for us on this planet. They'd also be decreasing our output of garbage, which is seemingly becoming something we have an endless supply of, especially in the US where consumption of everything is just ridiculously high.

Perhaps we can move towards a statewide bottle deposit for Washington or even further, a national program that could help on an even greater scale, but something needs to be done to increase the sad rate of recyling of these items that have become a staple in so many people's purses, backpacks, cars, briefcases, hands, and everywhere else people can fit them. I'd still rather promote using reusable bottles and refilling them, which saves everybody from the waste and the added expense, but I'm not so disillusioned that I believe people are going to stop using bottled water, especially here in the US, where everything has to be about convenience and the slightest hassle is a big deal.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Ride Your Bike To Work Day/Week/Month!!!


Well, I haven't had as much time as I was hoping for and didn't get a chance to mention it here, but today is Ride Your Bike To Work Day! They are expecting about 20,000 people will commute to work via bike today, higher than last year's approximately 19,000. It is also Ride Your Bike To Work Week! This month, haha, is also Ride Your Bike To Work Month, to top it all off! While I meant to write more about this sooner, at the very least, sooner than the actual day of, I have been trying to increase my own riding and have been riding daily to get back into more frequent riding. I made my usual commute from Edmonds to Redmond for work today and it was great to be out as the weather was already beautiful at 5:30am and there were more people out than the typical 5-6 people I will usually see at this early hour. Also, there were booths set up along the trail "celebrating" today and offering free foods, lights, water bottles, and such! It's great to see people out biking, even if some people will indeed only do it for just today! If it is just for today, still 20,000 people are not in their cars, not clogging up traffic, and not kicking in a little more to the pollution out there! I tried to get some more people biking this week by giving one friend of mine one of my old bikes and going to another friend's house and actually fixing his bike and then riding into work with him the next day to get him on the bike to start. It's a great time to start getting into shape for the summer, saving up some money on the increasing gas costs, especially with Memorial Day and the typical rising Summer gasoline prices on the way, and just strengthening that "bike engine" a little bit to prime it and get it running a little smoother!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Simple Savings for a Budget-Minded Time

Right now, times are really at the point where people are watching their pennies in their pocketbooks. People are also thinking an awful lot more about living a little "greener". I've got to say, one of the simplest things that I did to save a little money and cut down a little bit of the landfill growth was to switch to cloth napkins. I can't lie, though... I've been guilty on more than one occasion of grabbing enough napkins from a napkin dispenser while eating to wipe up the whole restaurant. Sometimes, I feel like I'm grabbing napkins for everybody I know. It became ingrained in me for so long. I even used to grab a handful to load up my (already stuffed full) glovebox in my car. I've tried to reduce that nowadays and not use a napkin once and then go back to the large stack next to my plate.

I think I made the switch a little over two years ago. I hadn't even really thought about the usage until one day, I was talking to my sister (criticizing is probably more accurate) about the amount of paper towels that she was pulling off the roll to clean up a spill of water or something along those lines. She remarked about it being the same as using napkins after I'd scolded her and talked about the waste of paper and that's when it hit me. I wasted so many napkins all the time without even batting an eye. That night, I went to Target and looked for cloth napkins. I found a cool color that would go with my place and grabbed a couple of packs and left, very content with myself.


I guess it's also just an easy project if you're handy with a sewing machine to make up a few, as all you need is some scrap material of your choice to stitch the ends up on. That way, you could make some that you wouldn't feel hesitant about using on a mess because you can choose the material. Heck, you can make some just for the messy meals, make or buy some nice ones for guests, etc.

Since I began using cloth napkins, I feel like it's the only way to go. I used to love cloth napkins when you'd go to a nice restaurant and it just felt classy. Now, I could enjoy that feeling all the time! I even keep a couple at work for my lunches there. It feels good and it's just an even better feeling knowing that I'm saving all the wasted paper of paper napkins. It's cheaper as well even considering you have to wash them, as you can just throw them into an already full laundry and it doesn't really even make any difference to the load!

Another unfortunate thing about paper napkins is that they're almost always not recyclable. On one part, usually recyclables with food/food particles aren't considered recyclable by a lot of recycling programs and I also read that paper napkins contain something in them that can clog recycling machinery (I don't have a source handy). This means that they're pretty much going straight into the landfills that we've already got pretty well loaded and expanding.

For me, this change was just one more thing that made me feel like I was doing my part and walking the walk of all the talk I do about environmental issues and reducing waste. This isn't to say that I don't ever use paper napkins when I'm out and about or when washing my hands at a public restroom, but I'm just more conscious of my usage these days.