Mindzle

Posts Tagged ‘awareness’

So how’s that 2010 new years resolution progressing? Well, if you’re like many of us, you may have already given up.  It can be extremely difficult to change one habit.  In fact, we could proceed year after year making the identical pledge to ourselves to break a nasty practice.  Subsequently we break the promise of breaking that pattern (sound familiar smokers, routine soda drinkers, or fast-food eaters?).  It’s a vicious cycle! How do we smash it?

I propose we take on a method of fixing a variety of straightforward things in our lifestyles, now, as an alternative to developing just one objective for change.  Imagine if varying in just one way isn’t enough? As we tend to formulate decisions to change, yet in little ways, we add momentum in addition to confidence in our capability in making positive adjustments concerning a few of the harder things like working out frequently and eventually losing that extra weight.  So let’s initiate building with the intention of gaining confidence!

I see two uncomplicated yet important ways I can alter our planet as well as myself.  Firstly, I’ll make use of eco friendly reusable or wholesale recycled bags as an alternative to plastic one use bags as well as paper bags whenever I go to the grocery store.  Secondly, I’ll remember to utilize reusable water bottles. Chances are you’ll be shocked as a result of what a constructive inspiration these two easy practices can have on the world.

These different approaches are undemanding, trouble-free as well as inexpensive.  Additionally, contrary to widely held perspective, plastic containers and bags are not enslaving (we swear, no withdrawals or cravings)!  Numerous aren’t heedful of how our utilization of these products change our planet’s future.  Once upon a time not way back, we weren’t aware of the destructive effects of cigarettes.  We accepted cigarette smoke for the status quo.  Some of us still smoke or live in cities where smoking is allowed inside public places.  Using reusable grocery bags and reusable water bottles will be new healthy ways of life and so easy when compared with something similar to quitting caffeine, high fructose corn syrup or eliminating fast food from our diet programs.  Stash a reserve of green reusable bags in the car or your pack.  Make a small investment in a stainless steel reusable water bottle and carry it with you everywhere you go.  You will not simply reduce the harmful impacts of disposable bag and disposable bottle rubbish in the environment, additionally you will inspire the rest to produce these trouble-free transformations of their life at the same time as well. The most excellent part is how you’ll feel about yourself when you comprehend you’re now part of the solution, instead of the issue.  Check out the stats along with the facts:

Disposable bag usage:
Plastic bag waste pollutes our parkland, trees, creeks, rivers, lakes, along with oceans.Just since year begun (as of March 1st, 2010), currently its estimated that in excess of 82 Billion plastic bags are consumed in the USA.
According to the EPA this contributes in the deaths of countless 1000s of oceanic mammals (who ingest and subsequently gag or pass away of starvation consequently). In California alone, an estimated 19 billion plastic bags end up inside landfills every year. Although there may be debate regarding which one (plastic opposed to. paper) is worse for our environment, there is no debate that the widespread adoption of eco reusable shopping bags is by far one of the best solution for this important environmental problem.

Plastic bottle usage:
According to the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), more than 21 billion beverage cans and bottles have been land-filled, littered and incinerated so far this year (yes just since 2010 kicked off). CRI also states that Americans consume an estimated 34.6 billion single serve plastic bottles every year and hundreds of millions end up in the same places that disposable bags end up.

We all dream of a day when we finally break loose of our bad habits:  stopping smoking, eliminating fast food in our diet, or just getting off the couch and working out!  You already know you are able to do it!  Resolve what you possibly can simply modify right away, and act on it.  So compose an easy change in your plan today: Adopt a reusable shopping bag and reusable water bottles habit and begin building momentum used for larger lifestyle improvements that are beginning as part of your path today!

Picture for a second, a future world where all the paper goods we consume can bud into a flower when planted in soil.  Like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory where everything is edible, except with this ideal world: all of the paper is seeded and sproutable, plus the schnozberries still taste like schnozberries!  The way it turns out, seed paper transforms this possibility into a reality.

If you have never heard of seeded paper you are not alone, who knew paper made out of seeds possibly will bloom a flower or any plant for that matter? Yes, despite the paper making procedure, the seeds can still germinate which enables them to bud when planted.  Seed paper is a beautiful, eye-catching, and easily recyclable item which may include many different plant seeds.

But why should we utilize and increase the word about eco-friendly seed paper and all recycled paper for that matter?  In accordance with the CWAC (Clean Water Action Council) the answer is due to environmental damage caused by the paper industry, which is a good deal more than merely deforestation. The following are a few main damaging effects on our eco systems caused by paper waste according to Clean Water Action Council. A lot of impure sediments seep into food supplies and river systems containing a multitude of species of fish and ducks. There is certainly a ceaseless continuation of toxic chemical pollution, in addition to atmosphere pollutants including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides, carbon monoxides and particulates. There is also a large quantity of energy consumption. Mills extract a immense quantity of electrical energy from public utilities, or mills are forced to construct their very own energy facilities. An extensive quantity of water is needed along with copious quantities of solid waste. Worldwide, colossal tracts of forest are stricken by the paper industry, accounting to the world’s scary deforestation trends. Politicians are a bit deterred to act caused by collaboration of government entities and the multi billion dollar paper industry interests.

The majority of us are aware of global warming, man’s ever-growing carbon footprint, and detrimental man-made pollution of all sorts.  We perceive with our own eyes the unsafe toll on the environment attributable to the increased effects of our personal human actions and behavior.  We wish to reduce, reuse, recycle, and make this planet a greater place for upcoming generations, but every so often we must be confident, empowered, and reminded.  We are making strides with companies promoting the use of reusable grocery bags. Seed paper as well is an ideal way to inspire one another to go green.

If you’re a business expert, conservationist, business proprietor, salesperson, or simply passling along your annual holiday letter to family and friends, using seeded paper as your correspondence stationary is a great way to show your personal or organization-wide promise to reducing your carbon footprint while also saving trees.   When you give out your seed business card, or send out your holiday seed cards you are extending the excellent news about seeded paper, recycling, and the imperative necessity for all of us to exist and be eco friendly.  As the 40th anniversary of Earth Day comes to pass (April 22nd), there has never been a more fitting moment for organizations to purvey their obligation to reducing their carbon footprint through adopting green methods to make this world a better place for upcoming generations.

It is time for BYOB! Yes, bring your own shopping bag!  While we keep on our journey through a eventful 2010, it’s crazy to think about how much purchasing we traditionally do now in America and world-wide. Whether it’s regular trips to the supermarket as we keep our kitchen’s stocked for amazing meals and tasty goodies or those occasionally dreaded (yet skillful) “6 bags on each arm” walks through the neighborhood shopping mall, it all adds up to so much unnecessary waste.  One of the most blatant examples of this waste is disposable shopping bags.

An estimated 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used each year within the USA, according to the Wall-Street Journal.  Most plastic bags end up in landfills and the rest frequently end up in rivers, ponds, lakes, streams or in the sea, where animals can ingest or become entangled in them.  Considering the number of shopping bags that are consumed and wasted each year, the time is now to spread the word about the positive benefits of eco-friendly reusable grocery bags.  After all, the majority of us want to give back to our families, friends and communities as often as possible.

Creating a BYOB approach in our individual shopping habits is a simple method to do just that.  If we can increase awareness presently, the positive impact for our environment is immense for 2010 and well into the future.  Numerous metropolitan areas have already made gradual but momentous progress in promoting the use of eco friendly bags in recent years.  Encouraging consumers with plastic and paper bag bans, savings at the register for reusable bag usage and tax motivations are a few to speak of.

Right here in America, the San Jose City Council recently approved among the nation’s strictest bans on plastic and paper shopping bags.   It is a great victory for the Bay Area, which has 1 million plastic bags per year accumulating in and along the San Francisco Bay.  San Jose becomes the latest bay area town to enact some sort of ban on disposable shopping bags; others comprise of San Francisco and Palo Alto. Tracy Seipel of the San Jose Mercury News reported that it was actually ONE man who truly jump-started the ban, a further remarkable instance of the power of one person.  Here’s a an excerpt:

“While visiting his sister-in-law in Taipei, (Kansen) Chu (elected to San Jose city council in 2007) went grocery shopping and was surprised to get charged for plastic grocery bags. The next day, he brought his own cloth bags back to the store.  “I guess the question,” said Chu, “was, ‘Why not San Jose?’ ” He began a conversation with the city’s environmental services staff, which later moved to council committee discussions.

Save the Bay’s 4th annual report on the most garbage-strewn sites in the area further demonstrates the need for BYOB.  The 50-year-old environmental advocacy group focused on 10 explicit bay-area sites where almost 15,000 plastic bags were retrieved in one day last year in their account.   Here’s an passage of an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kelly Zito.

According to (Save the Bay’s) research, Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags each year, 3.8 million in the Bay Area. The average use time for the bags – made using about 12 million barrels of oil each year in the United States – is about 12 minutes. In addition to the hundreds of years it can take for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill, the bags also force downtime when fed into traditional recycling equipment. Typically, the bags get wound into conveyor belts or gears and must be cut out by hand.

Ten US metropolitan areas have banned plastic bags thus far, five in the past year. Even Mexico City enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags, which went into effect in August.  The city of 20 million currently faces the realities of effective enforcement, which isn’t easy while the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimates there are actually 35,000 vendors in Mexico City’s downtown area alone.

Bans on plastic bags aren’t the only valuable means to cut back dangerous waste brought on by disposable bags.  PlasTaxes, which tax customers at the register for using plastic bags while shopping, were being primarily launched by the Irish.  John Roach of National Geographic reported in 2008 about the worldwide momentum that’s been building from the time when Ireland instilled a PlasTax in 2003.  The Irish confirmed they could cut down plastic bag utilization by 90% or more.   Momentum is increasing the world over, particularly in America.  From Washington, DC to Edmonds, WA to North Pole, AK, communities and governments are developing a global trend to scale back the unsafe environmental effects of disposable shopping bags.  In the great state of Hawaii, the legislature is at this time considering a bill to ban single-use plastic bags (SUP), or to ascertain a small fee to use SUP bags.

Even major retail stores like Target and CVS are taking action by enacting savings at the register for customers who decide to BYOB or simply carry-out their items without a bag.  For the naysayers, it’s convenient to disregard recent momentum in reducing disposable bag waste.  But to a few, the wide-spread adoption of eco friendly recycled bags is inevitable.  Have a look at the way smoking is becoming taboo in America.  Indoor smoking bans have caught on like wild-fire.  In the same way, who’s to say the use of disposable bags won’t turn out to be taboo someday within the (hopefully near) future?  The use of eco-friendly recycled grocery bags is certainly gaining steam.  Our personal decisions to carry our recycled shopping bags can go considerably farther than we imagine.  That’s what BYOB is all about.

Obviously, plastic and paper bags ought to be recycled and it’s important to keep in mind most large retailers including Albertsons and Wal-Mart will recycle plastic bags for you (just need to bring them your accumulated stash).  That being said, a BYOB shopping strategy can make your life much easier because there isn’t a need to accumulate that cupboard full of plastic bags or determine what and when to deal with it.  Keeping a few eco friendly bags in your car or backpack is a great way to ensure you possess them when required. So give back this year by remembering to BYOB!   Whether it be in a convenience store, the shopping mall, or while grocery shopping, we can make a difference for the environment and help increase consciousness one transaction at a time.  In the battle to eliminate disposable shopping bag waste, 2010 is our moment.