Slow arrival of Spring at the lake shore

9:17:05 PM    comment []

You are Cordially Incited to Activism:  Earth Day – it’s every day

Yesterday was Earth Day, or so it said on my calendar.  That’s not true in this household.  Every day is Earth Day; all twenty-four hours, every minute, every second spent on this planet using its resources is Earth Day.

Did I do anything special in observation of yesterday’s formally appointed Earth Day?  Nope.  Not special.  I did what we do every day: applied the Four R’s.

Reduce – purchases (particularly food stuffs) are evaluated for product-to-packaging ratio.  The kids aren’t happy about not getting those so-cool little teeny yogurts or fruit-in-a-cup packed for lunch, but the cost of packaging far outweighs the cost of the food.  We buy larger amounts and re-package in smaller, reusable containers; this makes for far less trash and fewer recyclables.  We discuss this choice at home and right there in the grocery store aisle: Look at how much packaging there is, my daughter points out.  I tell her how proud I am she notices, that she makes the right choice.  There’s also food contaminants to consider; the more packaging in contact with food, the more plastic leachate in the food you eat.  Ugh.  Just don’t buy it.  Buy products in glass whenever possible, and recycle the glass; no leachate there.

Recycle – two-thirds or more of this household’s trash is recycled; we take pride in having the least amount of trash at the curb every week, in proportion to the recyclables put out for collection.  We’re also very proud of a county-wide recycling program which actively encourages recycling to cut costs on landfill disposal.  The program includes mulching and composting of yard wastes – although in this household we compost most of our own leaves for use in our vegetable garden.  If you don't have a program locally, push for one.  You need one, you deserve one.  (Readers in Florida, you need to get your state on the stick, pronto!  Michigan has an aggressive and highly successful beverage container recycling program -- start with something like it!)

Reuse – from art projects to bird houses to mulch, a lot of our waste gets reused.  The kids fight for tubes from paper towels to make all kinds of crafts.  Newspaper is used under wood mulch instead of plastic weed barrier.  Milk jugs become cloches for seedlings, then become slow-drip watering systems before ultimately being recycled. There’s a jillion re-use opportunities for waste – don’t let them all go by you.  This includes donating reusable goods to places like Goodwill and Salvation Army; you’ll even get a tax credit for making goods available for reuse!

Renew – when making a purchasing decision, choose renewable whenever possible.  Our kids have a cedar swing set made of recovered wood; it can be dissembled and turned into other products when they outgrow it, even mulch for my yard if there’s no other use.  The cedar harvested for it has since been replanted, creating more oxygen and furnishing food and refuge for animals.  A plastic-based swing set would have been far more draining on the environment, made in part from non-renewable resources.

One thing I will do this week as part of a special Earth Day observation: buy recycling bins for two of our neighbors on this street.  Two families have moved in from outside the area and neither of them are recycling as yet.  My guess is the previous home owner didn’t leave their recycling bin with the house.  I’ll leave the bins with a brochure on the county’s recycling program as a house warming present.  Sure, it’s possible they don’t “believe in” recycling – but it costs every resident in this county more money when more trash goes to the landfill.  Money talks when the rest of ecological rationale fails.

Maybe that’s the Fifth R – reeducate.  Relearn our roles and responsibilities on this planet, this nearly-sealed system we must share.

Do your bit, Earth Day and every day.

10:39:44 AM    comment []