Two of my biggest passions in life are animal welfare and protecting the environment. I'm not sure where these passions originated from, except they are just values that were instilled in me when I was young, but I can honestly say there probably aren't any two subjects that I feel more strongly about. In light of some disagreements I've had recently with a friend about the importance of being environmentally friendly, I've decided to write a series of blogs about a few topics that are close to my heart. While most of what I say may not be new to you or touch you the way it does me, if it makes even one person think, I feel like it was worth my time.
The place to start with this is the easiest one in your life to adjust: recycling! I could probably go through any random person's trash can and pull out 30-75% of what was tossed that could be recycled instead. Pretty much ANYTHING made out of glass, plastic, aluminum, or paper can be reused. Jars, glass bottles, hard plastic containers, paper cereal boxes, plastic grocery bags...ALL of this can be recycled. I know the idea of this seems like a lot of extra work for you, but the truth of it is, recycling is as easy as placing that beer bottle you just finished into a different 'trash' container than the one you normally use. (Look to the bottom of this post to find out how to get recycling services to YOUR house or neighborhood)
Everything I was able to recycle from making just one dinner and packing the next day's lunch
A few facts about recycling:
1. The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world's people generate 40% of the world's waste.
2. An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now! There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled.
3. The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
4. Approximately 1 BILLION trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
5. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year! (More on this later)
5. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year! (More on this later)
6. Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
One of the things I find most offensive about our lack of compliance with recycling is something I've realized very few people are aware of. Did you know there is a 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch'?? It is the largest landfill in the world and it is on our oceans! This gigantic vortex is estimated to be more than TWICE the size of TEXAS and weighs more than 3.5 MILLION TONS. It is visable during air travel on the way to Hawaii. Roughly 80% of the debris comes from land, washing out to sea from lakes and rivers and the remaining 20% falls from cargo ships and other oceangoing ships. In Japan, Alaska, and a few of the smaller Hawaiian islands, trash has begun piling up to over 10 feet high on some of the beaches as a result of the trash circle. More than a million marine mammals and birds die every year from ingesting debris from this circle that they confuse to be food (see picture below). Plastic accounts for over 90% of the trash floating in the world's oceans and is the most harmful of all debris because it does not biodegrade. There is no natural process that breaks down plastic, so it pollutes forever.
For more on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, please go to THIS blog post that I found which does an amazing job of illustrating the horror of it and what you can do to help.
Some pictures of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch:
So what can you do? Like I mentioned, the easiest thing you can do to start is recycle! Two of my favorite ways to reduce my impact are using reusable canvas bags whenever I go to Publix or Target (they're about $1 a piece, you can fit more in them than plastic bags, they make fewer trips in from the car, and they're good for years!) and to buy a BPA-free reusable water bottle for work/gym/pool and continue to refill it with water instead of using water bottles. Not only is it good for the environment, think of how much money you'll save by filling the same bottle with filtered or Brita water as opposed to buying case after case of bottled water!
For those of you living in my neck of the woods, here is a link to the Hillsborough County Recycling Webpage with everything you need to know about setting up recycling services at your house and in your neighborhood. It also offers links to where you can find similar information if you live outside of Hillsborough County. I urge you to go, take a look, and make use of the information there!
For the sources of information in this post or to research further, please visit the following websites:
