Don’t be the 78%

…who don’t recycle water bottles.  That’s right, close to 78% of the 70 million water bottles used every day don’t get recycled.  Even when they are recycled, they are often made into cheaper plastics that go on to be used only one more time.  Perhaps they reincarnate as a playground, getting years of use.  Perhaps you’ll spot the ghost of one later as a plastic bag, stretched and torn in a tree as its petroleum composite slowly breaks down.  In the decade between 1997 and 2007, bottled water sales jumped from 13.4 gallons per person to 29.3 gallons per person (U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2009, June). Bottled Water: FDA Safety and Consumer Protections are Often Less Stringent than Comparable EPA Protections for Tap Water. Retrieved June 2010from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09610.pdf_).  Add energy and transportation costs to the energy and materials used to make the product, and you have water where 90% of the cost went into production and marketing.

Better yet, invest in a reusable water bottle.  What water bottle is best?  Some tout stainless steel or aluminum, as they are cleaner and more sustainable than plastic.  There is concern a plastic bottle left in a hot car may leach BPAs, PCBs or other chemicals into the water.  Think also of where you are going to use it.  Will it fit in the cup holder?  The ceramic ones can be heated in the microwave but often have silicone lids that spill if you’re walking with them.  For me, who has to walk over a mile to the bus, a tight-fitting lid is key.  Plus, if I have access to a microwave, I have access to a cupboard to store a mug I can pour my beverage into to heat.  Then make sure you are using the water bottle, travel mug, or shopping bag.  Sometimes have to repeatedly tell a clerk I’ve brought my own bag or argue with baristas to fill my clean, reusable cup.  (Maybe the ceramic one looked too much like a disposable one.)  At the drive-thru, it’s even more difficult.  My solution has been to brew my coffee at home or work (I use a press pot).  Regarding the unbagging of my merchandise at department stores, I’m close to writing a letter to Target to train their cashiers better. 

It would be so much better just to have plastic bags banned, and some supermarkets have stopped carrying them.  Many stores also sell reusable bags, but cashiers continue to be in the habit of bagging in plastic without question.  Trying to ban bags and non-recyclable containers outright is difficult, as lobbyists will fight for the right of a business to pollute.  There were efforts to ban plastic bags in California , state-wide and town-by-town, with large resistance from corporations.  Meanwhile, the state spends $25 million collecting the bags for the landfill and 8.5 million cleaning them up from streets and highways (Clean Air Council. (2009, May). Why Plastic Bag Fees Work.).  Only 1% of bags even get recycled, the friendly boxes at the entrances of supermarkets being part of that.  And for the $4000 it costs to recycle one ton of bags, the resulting material is sold for barely $32 (Clean Air Council. (2009, May). Why Plastic Bag Fees Work.).  Why become a slave to such an inefficient system that only makes money for corporations?  Use a reusable bag.  Ireland has added a 15 cent surcharge to plastic bags, resulting in a drop to 27 bags used per person per year in 2008 as opposed to Britain’s 220 (Webster, B. (2010, January 18). Boris Johnson sets an Olympic goal for London to be Britain’s First Plastic Bag-Free City. The Times. Retrieved June 2010 from http://timesonline.co.uk).  And, they’re making money that could go into further improvements in waste management.  We need to treat where we live as an island, where nothing “goes away”.  Nantucket has done just that, mining its own landfill for raw materials and setting up a used merchandise store to keep yet more out of the little space they have.

The good news is some corporations are realizing they can appeal to consumers AND save money while helping the environment.  Beverage companies have reduced packaging 46% since 1990, despite 24% increased sales (American Beverage Association. (2010). “Packaging.” Environment. Retrieved June 2010, fromhttp://www.ameribev.org/environment/packaging/.).  However, if that decrease is from the smaller caps on water bottles, it’s barely a dent compared to eliminating water bottles altogether.  Think of all the trash generated by packaging in general.  Think of that when you pick out toys for those on your holiday list.  My daughter uses the wood crate with green lining her Melissa and Doug instruments came in as a corral for her horse figures.  Of course, let’s not forget sometimes the box is the most fun part.  At my school, students make robots out of the packaging I collect at home: rings from orange juice and half-and-half, plastic bubbles torn off cardboard backings, numerous tiny boxes…drink stirrers become axles for pasta wheels secured with a bit of Plasticene and the students race their working robot cars with bubble tops and strange parts before writing about what each part does.  Feel free to make your own robot, or some other fun or useful device with your trash at home.  I use a party platter tray (which I didn’t buy) as compartments in my junk drawer.  It may be the neatest place in the house!

You can also effect change with your wallet: only buy food and goods with little to no packaging.  It’s an over-all boycott of packaging that if enough people did, corporations would notice and respond.  Some companies now advertize they use less packaging.  (They’re also saving money.)  In the case of water bottles with smaller caps, you’ll be saving the money over buying the bottled stuff by investing in a Britta filter instead.  Perhaps your money will go into improving municipal water supplies…where there’s demand, there’s attention.  Most bottled water is just filtered tap water anyway.  And not all spring water is clean anymore.

More important: Don’t act alone.  What is the break room like where you work?  Is there recycling?  We have a number of people who make sure the right containers are being used, training the less inspired to recycle. Remember, people had to be trained to throw something away in the first place.  Make it easier for people to be more earth-friendly by providing the right tools for the job.  The average office worker uses about 500 disposable cups a year (http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html).  No wonder, when my one plate gets used by everyone, I hide my mug, and all the silverware I brought in has disappeared.…Sometimes people need to trip over the recycling bin before they use it.  Perhaps we need silverware with GPS.  We at the very least need longer-term solutions.  While I'm at it, you can recycle electronics FREE Saturday, Dec. 10th, at the Audubon Society in Bristol, RI.  For a full list of what they will accept, check here.

Just cleaning up the mess is not enough, when you haven’t corrected the behavior.  Every spring, my family cleans out the woods behind my house, mostly of water bottles and plastic bags.  There is one steel garbage can that is mostly ignored and no recycling bin.  At my dojo, we noticed the trash cans over-flowing with iced coffee and bottled water containers.  There is no recycling pick-up in that plaza.  (Consider also: 84% of residents of the northeast have curbside recyclables pick-up, while only 30% of southern residents do.  The south also has over 5 times as many landfills (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2009, November). Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States Detailed Tables and Figures for 2008. Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery. Retrieved June, 2010 fromhttp://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw2008data.pdf).)  Solution: we got a large blue container, labeled it clearly, and released it into the wild.  People responded by using it.  We take it home once a week to put out with our own recyclables.  We even suggested our dojo sell a reusable water bottle.  When they offered it, we bought two. 

Being Honest, Penn State, and Bounty Hunters

I’ll be honest: Without cable, an I-Pad or I-Pod, second car, the latest toys, etc., buying most things second hand, growing and preserving our own food, working full-time as a teacher and picking up odd jobs, I still don’t make enough to live on.  Without my husband’s disability check, we’d lose the house.  But I believe in my work and we manage.  Someone on Facebook posted, “Why is it easier to believe 150,000,000 million people are lazy rather than 400 people are greedy?”  As the saying goes, evil triumphs when good people do nothing.  Just look at Penn State.

Every spring, my family cleans the trash from the woods behind us.  It’s worse now (in November) than I’ve even seen it.  The poem I wrote about these woods, which was just released in the anthology What’s Nature Got to Do With Me?  Staying Wildly Sane In a Mad World, is now covered with water bottles from the kids who play baseball there, beer cans and power drinks flooding into the dry river that goes through the trees, the path torn up by ATVs, evidence of fires, burnt spray cans, and a collection of huge rocks that looked almost sacred now covered in graffiti.

Water bottles.  Only 23% get recycled each year.  Many that are recycled only go on to become even cheaper plastics that cannot be reused.  Cleaning up the problem is not the solution.  Giving people the tools to do so might be.  My family studies tae kwon do at Mastery Martial Arts.  We love it there.  Often, it is hard.  We do it anyway, because we know we will be better for it.  People were filling the waste baskets with water bottles.  My husband and I brought in a huge recycling container, clearly labeled with the lesson of the month: Respect for the World.  We take it home to recycle on our curb once or twice a week, as there’s no pick-up there.  We even suggested Mastery make their own water bottle available along with all their other gear, and lo-  it’s even in my favorite color, burnt orange.  We bought two.

Now the greater problem: Why don’t businesses have recycling pick-up?  I got an apology letter from the land fill about the stench of late.  The site they’re using should have been closed 10 years ago, but people keep making trash.  Burying it in soil (I can think of better uses for soil) and drilling wells are a short-term solution for the fact people and corporations produce too much trash.  The 99% had to stop buying stuff, stuff in too much packaging, stuff that’s going to get used once, stuff made to break quickly so you go out to buy more stuff.  We need to tell our representatives we don’t want a society that makes it hard to live green, and to live well.

I was frustrated with frequently being in situations where I was required to get something done and not given the tools to do it with.  Sometimes people tell me, “I love what you do.  I wish I had the time.”  You need to make what you value a priority, or you don’t value it.  I don’t spend every night cooking, but I make enough for reheating when I do.  Once, pressed for time and starving, I even ate a processed frozen burrito (ick!  my husband gets them) while spending the hour it took to make real food.  Some of the changes we’ve made have actually saved us time.  Switching to cloth napkins, buying or growing food without packaging, composting, and producing less trash overall, we only generate one brown paper bag of trash a week.  Less time taking the trash out.

I still get frustrated I’m not making a difference with my changes, or by setting an example or offering this blog.  Then after my art opening at First UU in Providence, I listened to Brother David Andrews, CSC, and a Senior Representative at Food and Water Watch, and learned of his and others’ role in stopping governments from having corporations control small farmers in poor countries, with efforts like taking to representatives and sending emails with 8000 other people.  Then there was a speaker from Southside Community Land Trust (must get her name), now in it’s 30th year.  She’s been involved with the organization 8 years.  I just learned about them 3 years ago.  Now there are 37 community gardens in Providence, and growing!  It’s hard to see the long-term difference when you manage only your own garden and a school one, but there you are, a start.  I see more school gardens, more victory gardens, more anti-corporation gardens.  Start ordering those seeds.  It can start with something that tiny.

Oh, and bounty hunters...  A reward for every head captured and consumed.  Broccoli heads, that is.  The reward?  Calcium, vitamin C, and fiber.  Your kids should like this one too!

Reduced Fat and Sodium/Vegetarian Option

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Broccoli Bounty

Taste of America’s South

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4 cups fresh or frozen broccoli pieces, steamed

4 cups cooked rice or pasta

2 cups shredded cheese (local cheddar or Cabot's)

2 tbs. unsalted butter, divided

1 tbs. flour

1 cup reduced fat/low sodium chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup 1% local milk

1 tsp. paprika

1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper

1 tsp. Bell’s Seasoning

1/4 cup Panko flakes

This can be made in late summer with fresh broccoli or anytime with blanched and frozen broccoli.  This dish is high in calcium, both from the dairy and broccoli, and a hit with kids.  Steam broccoli until tender and cook rice.  Melt 1 tbs. butter in sauce pan over medium heat.  Whisk in flour and stir continuously one minute.  Slowly pour in broth and milk, along with seasonings.  Stir in broccoli,rice or pasta, and cheese, mixing well.  Transfer to casserole dish.  Sprinkle with Panko flakes and dot with remainder of butter.  Bake at 350ºF for 30 minutes, until bubbly and golden.