It is a common misconception for many people that bottled water is safer than tap, plastic bottles get recycled, and no harm is being done to the environment in the bottling process. Unfortunately, that could not be further from the truth!
Even if littering did nothing and whatever you threw on the ground had no affect on our ecosystems or planet, why would anyone choose to do it?
If you are on a budget or just plain refuse to pay the extra for organic fruits and vegetables, there really are some good reasons to buy at least a few of those items in the organic version if you can.
What exactly do we all need to live? Is it 4 TV’s, 3 cars, a 4,000 square foot house? Multiple yearly vacations to far away lands? Piles of cheap plastic doo-dads from China?
Oftentimes we hear reports about how changing a light bulb will not make a bit of a difference in the fight against climate change and that everyone must make huge sacrifices in order to have any effect. I say don’t listen to them!
Aside from staying home and drinking tap water out of a washable glass, the best way to be “green” while on the go is choosing your water bottle wisely. From the lowly single-use-only plastic water bottle you can buy at your local gas station to the stainless steel and aluminum options, making the right choice is important in maintaining both your health and the health of the environment!
It’s moving day! Hopefully everything will go smoothly this weekend as I move in and get settled, and I expect to have internet service again starting on Monday. Wish me luck! To keep you busy, here are a few great articles that caught my eye over the past week…
I’d Like To Buy The World A Non-Carcinogenic, Responsibly Packaged, Healthier Alternative To Coke
It was a chilly and overcast day in Washington DC, when environmental activists from Appalachia got out of their cars and vans and started pounding makeshift cemetery grave stones into the lawn of the Environmental Protection Agency lawn.
Simran Sethi’s “Greening the Green Girl” series launched on Oprah.com
Now that I’m over six months deep into this gardening game ‘m starting to notice a pattern in some of my plants. There is something wrong with their growth. The one commonality between all of these plants is that I did not feed any of them.
Across the country (and globe!), there is a movement spreading to connect the next generation — the wired generation — with nature. Jolted awake by Last Child In The Woods, people are working to create balance in the lives of the next generation and to instill a love of nature that will carry into adulthood.
Not sure when or how, but we’ve become totally out of touch with our food source. How many of us have ever had the pleasure of enjoying some homegrown vegetables? I read the book Plenty and in it they said that our food travels from farm to plate about 1,500 – 2,000 miles. That’s insane and I wanted to do something about it.
This past spring I decided it was time for me to get back in touch with my food source and grow my own vegetables. Some of you might be rolling your eyes and saying, “No shot. I can’t do that. I have no space. I don’t have any experience. It’s too expensive.”
To that I say neither did I. I live in New York City on the 4th floor of an 8 story building. It took a bit of creativity on my end to pull off the ultimate urban vegetable gardens. I now have a fire escape garden and a backyard vegetable garden at my Grandmother’s in Brooklyn.
Up until I started these gardens, I had zero experience in gardening too. I just kind of experimented to see what would happen. You know what happened? I got some fresh homegrown veggies. No degrees. No books read. I just did it.
The whole experience has been great and a lot of fun. If I want a fresh salad, I go to my fire escape to harvest some lettuce and kale. It doesn’t get much fresher than that. It’s a great feeling to eat a big freshly harvested salad that you grew on your own.
Not only is it fresh, but I know exactly where it came from and what’s happened to it before I grew it. Though I didn’t start from seed, I bought the plants from a local gardener at the Farmer’s Market. She is the one who planted the seed and was with the plant from it’s beginning. When you go to a chain the employees have no clue as to what happens to the plants or seeds.
In terms of cost, they are minimal as well. I built self-watering containers using recycled materials that cost less than $5. You could also make hanging planters using soda bottles.
So getting back in touch with your food source and enjoying some homegrown vegetables is definitely possible.
If you are still hesitant, which I’m not sure why you would be, and want to get more involved in knowing where your food comes from I’d recommend joining your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or food co-op.
These will help to put you in touch with the farmers and get whatever questions that you have answered by the source that is taking care of them.
What’s stopping you from growing your own?
Mike Lieberman resides in New York City and provides simple solutions for living in a complex world. Besides his own blogs, he contributes to others across the web. You can find all of his work at CanarsieBK.com and follow him on Twitter @CanarsieBK.
I don’t really have much to say other than…yea, right. Nestle’s ad campaign for their Pure Life water touts the fact that their bottles use 15% less plastic because of their “Eco-Shape”. Um…
There is absolutely nothing green or eco about water packaged in plastic bottles. Nothing. And as I always do when posts like this go live, if you need more reasons to avoid bottled water you can check out my post 12 Reasons To Stop Drinking Bottled Water.
Nice try, Nestle, nice try.
Why? Because it is not all about money. It seems that every day I read somewhere or see on television the complaint of “Well, I won’t buy a hybrid because it would take me years and years to make back the extra expense over a regular gas engine“. Though saving money on gasoline should be a major consideration when deciding on buying any car, it is NOT the only thing you should be thinking of. But unfortunately too many people see it this way. What else should they be thinking of when making this decision?
For starters, hybrid cars pollute a lot less than conventional gasoline engines. Since most people’s driving is done locally and at speeds lower than 40 miles per hour, your hybrid could probably run on its battery power a lot of the time. Running on batteries = no pollution and no burning of gasoline. So for a person serious about being green, this should be a major consideration. Even if I never made back the extra expense on the hybrid, just the fact that I am polluting less would make the cost worthwhile.
Secondly, the more people that buy hybrid cars the more manufacturers will build them and lower their prices. Don’t think for a second that Toyota and Honda do not know this. That is why they are expanding their hybrid line to get even more buyers in to their showrooms before other manufacturers have a chance to catch up. Brand loyalty is big in the car business, and if Honda and Toyota can create it with lots of new customers, it is good for their bottom line. But even more important than that, the more manufacturers that build hybrids, the better the technology will be. Everyone will be spending money to have the next big breakthrough in hybrid technology, and this can only lead to more fuel efficiency and less pollution in the future.
So the next time someone says “It would take years to make back that extra expense in my gasoline savings” you have a reply. It is not all about saving money on gas; in fact, I would almost bet that should be the last reason that a person should buy a hybrid car. Less pollution and better technologies for the future should be the main reason. And the fact that we use less gasoline is just an added bonus at this time. Gas engines are still the majority of the market and they are not going away anytime soon. By investing in hybrid technologies, you are helping to push us all towards a cleaner future.
