For one year, my wife, my 2-year-old daughter, my dog and I, while living in the middle of New York City, are attempting to live without making any net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no carbon emissions, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no plastics, no air conditioning, no TV, no toilets…
Could you do this????
This is an excerpt from the blog of No Impact Man. He dedicated one year of his family's life to making no impact on our environment. I began watching his documentary last night and it really made me think about some things. Funny thing is Hubs and I were just talking about this last weekend on our trip to OK. Well let me correct....I was talking about it and he was listening graciously.
How much of an impact of you making on our world?
I'm not some big environmentalist tree hugger who would forego toilet paper to make it a greener world. But I am a recycling, non littering, waste not person who cares about the world I live in. I am pretty adament on two things when it comes to being environmentally conscious...littering and recycling. I have been an avid recycler for many years now. I get so excited when I our big recycle rolling can is 2/3 full each week and our trash can only has 2 bags of trash in it. I think it is pretty amazing that for a family of 5 we only produce 2 bags of trash a week. And yearly that is over 100 bags...But I wonder how I could reduce that by becoming a more conscious consumer. For example, a pitcher of lemonade only produces one small cup for the powder that is recycled versus 10 juice boxes that are not. The packaging that our products come in can be pretty wasteful. Just think about how much trash there is in a value meal at a fast food restaurant...the wrapper for the burger, the carton for the fries, cup, straw, straw wrapper, napkins, ketchup packets, and the bag. That is alot when you break it down that way.
Don't get the wrong idea that I'm going to start becoming some crazy environmental nut...I just want to make less of an impact on our world with my trash and more of an impact with my thoughts and actions.
**If you haven't seen the documentary of No Impact Man it is worth the time. You can find atleast one thing that you could apply to your household (hopefully NOT the absense of toilet paper). Just something to think about....
2 comments:
Good thoughts. At least everyone can recycle. I don't think people realize how much they use that is recyclable until they can look at what has collected for a week.
Check out nonewplastic.com This is the couple in Plano that I had to comment on when the news channel stopped me on the street. :)
Post a Comment