Monday, October 15, 2007

Blog Action Day...pay attention






Most of you know that Mr & Mrs Doodles moved our selves into our RV last May to travel the country. And boy we have traveled and put on a lot of miles. But it leads me to the subject of the environment and what we need and what we don't.

When we left Florida we put our worldly possessions in storage. Now I must say that we do not have that much in storage. Some art work, many tools that Mr Doodles cannot part with understandably, and a lot of depression glass and a few antique pieces. I pared down my kitchen equipment while packing up know the RV just wouldn't hold it all. Now it has been several months without my stuff and I can honestly tell you there is not a lot I miss that is in storage and wish I woulda brought with us. What does that say? I don't need all that stuff do I?

Now another thing I noticed when tootling down the road and stopping at rest areas across this country I am totally disgusted at how lazy and dirty that people are. I had a few photos to show you but when the computer crashed it globbed onto my photos....crap!!!

Also when we were living in Key Largo we would all go out once every six months and do a reef sweep. Now explain to me why someone would leave and apple core in the ocean. What were they thinking? You may think it would decompose immediately NOT six months and the apple core is still there. Now don't even get me going about monofilament line also know as fishing line.

But I made a list and went to look up how long it would take these items to decompose.....PAY ATTENTION........these are but just a few items.

styrofoam= NEVER
aluminum = 80 - 100 years
plastic bags = 10-20 years
cigarette butts = 10 - 12 years
plastic containers = 50 -80 years
plastic coated cartons = 5 - 7 years
plastic bottles = NEVER
orange peels - up to 6 months

I think what I will do is look for companies that recognize there truly is a problem, that's a bit hard to do.

It bothers me that many of the politicians preaching to us about global warming and saving the environment are jumping in there private jets and racing around the country to campaign.

I appreciate the fact that markets sell me cloth bags to carry my items home instead of those horrible plastic bags. Trader Joe's comes to mind that is an environment conscious company that is trying to make a difference.
Now here is what is absolutely amazing ...........I Googled how can I help the environment and came up with thousands of sites. The following was copied off of the WWF websites.
  • Take your own bags to the shops to carry home your groceries and shopping.
  • Look for products that have less packaging.
  • Buy organically grown fruits, vegetables, cotton clothing, and hemp-fibre products.
  • Don't buy bottled water if you know your tap water is safe - transporting water from its source to the supermarket shelves is an expensive waste of energy. And the plastic and glass bottles add to the already-high mountains of rubbish that we produce. Find out from your municipality about your tap water. If you do buy bottled water, buy from a local source (read the labels) and buy water that comes in recyclable glass or plastic.
  • Choose biodegradable cleaning products so that the chemicals have fewer negative impacts on the soil and water system.
  • Buy the most energy-efficient household appliances you can afford.
  • Use recycled paper.
This site is interesting as it is geared toward kids.......... http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/earth/recycle/helpenvr.htm Starting with kids is a great advancement cause they will remind mom & dad's to be more environmentally friendly.
Got any ideas???

Let's do something instead of just talking. email me what you are doing let's share ideas. The more you know the better we will all be.

Don't know if we have time for the stay tuna'd............

1 comment:

Bee said...

Most wonderful ideas. My darling daughter, especially, needs to pay attention to the one about bottled water!

Do you think there is a list somewhere of companies using bio-plastics and stuff like that? That might be an interesting search for little ol' me!