CHAT AND WELCOME (ENERGY & POWER) forum: Welcome...Chat Away!
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Susie, that link was also good for explaining what is actually done with all of that plastic. If only a small percentage of it is being repurposed, I wonder what is happening to the rest of it.  The township that I used to live in only accepted plastics of a certain # designation. i'm referring to those #'s on the bottom of the container. I really don't think that any of those hard molded packaging plastics are recycled at all. |
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| Stormy, Thanks for sharing all you're doing to conserve and reduce consumption. Sounds like you're doing a really good job! Don't you think that really the best we can do is consume responsibly, conservatively, remind others to do the same, and recycle where possible? When I look at my consumption compared to my neighbor's I know I'm making a difference. Not that there is a challenge between us or that there is a challenge between me and anyone else... it's just a comparative indicator. It's not easy to be as conservative as we'd all like, given the consumer options we have. At least you're aware and an activist. Don't be too hard on yourself. Another way to conserve, a really effective way, is to buy local. At least you know that if a product is made in your region, transport, packaging, maybe materials, cash flow, revenues will be enjoyed locally. It's not like a "soldier toy" is made from recycle petroleum product from USA, shipped to China, made into a soldier, packaged as if it were an Edelweiss flower, and shipped back to USA, received at San Pedro ports in CA, loaded and trucked to a Walmart Superstore and consumed by a guilty feeling mother who can't buy enough for her child, unwrapped, put in landfill or recycle bin and regurgitated back to China. I mean really? Talk about energy? I really think the issue is consumption in lots of respects. Yogurt, yes, milk carton, yes. All probably here to stay. The sad thing is that barring the practice of buying locally this may be as good as it gets. Fun thing about Whole Foods is that many of their containers are recyclable to compost. You compost ... right? paper products can go in compost. "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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Yes, Susie, I do compost. I have finally given up on all Newspapers. I almost held a memorial service when I finally decided to cancel my subscription to the Sunday New York Times.  I swear that I was symbiotically attached to that thing. If you have never seen it, even with all of the advertising stuffers removed for out of state subscribers, it is still almost 6 inches thick and would take me all week to read it. I finally felt so guilty about the 6 or 7 sections that I never read, that I decided to live without it.As far as the kids go, they have come to accept that I will always buy them books and put money into their college funds. They have entirely too many toys already. For fun, I'll take them to something neat that their parents never would. They appreciate those outings more than they would just one more toy. I do try to buy local. Did you know that Walmart is the #1 in the world seller of locally grown produce? It is the only place around here that consistently sells our local peaches, melons, plums and apples. They also sell them very inexpensively. I am always looking for ways to be a more responsible consumer, but I really don't think that is enough. Somehow i want to find an effective way to communicate to these manufacturers that they should change their packaging. Another thing that I try to be diligent about is to set some time aside every month or two to get my name removed from all of the catalogue company's mailing lists that have again adding me to their endless barrage of wasted paper. The thing that really gets my goat is all of the circulars that get put into my mailbox every week from the grocery and drug stores. I have asked the Post Office to stop delivering them several times and they say that they can't not deliver them. |
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| My how our lives change, eh? I think it does take a constant awareness of what we are going, where we are going. I really try to limit my trips to town to once a week (18 miles away). EVERYthink goes into the compost bucket except plastic or metal (I put in light cardboard, paper towels etc.. Because of the 'can linings' I really limit my canned vegetables to tomatoes in the winter when I have gone thru the sauces I have frozen. Plastic containers I use for painting, storing etc.... I use some glass bottles with lids for carrying around my drinking water. It has been so long since I had a pear (from NZ) or a mango (from Mexico)...local first and then USA if I can't avoid it. AND - we eat well, healthily. I do buy crackers and sprouted bread (CA,) but want to start making crackers (any good recipes for crackers full of seeds/nuts/twigs etc.?). We use paper towels over and over until they aren't much fun...then they go in the compost. I buy bulk and keep them in the big jars (I little silicon packets taped to the lids to control humidity)... I wish I could do more.....  Leap. The net will appear. |
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| I think most of the people who would stumble upon this cubit (whether they access it by Google-accident or intentionally) are interested and practice reduced consumption, re-purposing, recycling. We're a fairly conscientious bunch. We certainly can learn from each other, too. Most valuable learnings. I think part of this movement is to spread the word and pass on ideas to those we know who don't practice frugality. I read the other day that we are awaiting the birth of the 7 billionth human being on this planet. Well, I won't get started on what I think about that. There has got to be a lot of opportunity out there for education. There is something between the person who lives without plastic or plumbed water and the person with plumbed, potable water who buys and drinks only bottled water. You know what I'm saying. The person who has no shoes and Imelda Marcos who had, what? Thirteen thousand pairs of shoes. Everyone can learn something about consumption. I think most of the education in some parts of the communities needs to come from very aware, probably outsiders with a few bucks. My friend in Los Angeles is not Hispanic but spends lots of times with her friends in So Cal barrios, Norteno dancing and having fun. She says all the billboards are for Pepsi products (not just the sugar water but the chips, dips, etc.) Not nutritious foods. If they get off of what was originally a proper fresh food Mexican diet and succumb to "the middle aisles" of the grocery store or convenience stores they will incur disease and health problems. She says there is no apparent evidence for advocating good nutrition. I think the same can be said of educating for conservation and wise buying to make landfills obsolete. I think the US educates a lot about recycling but doesn't have a message to reduce consumption. 'course that would be anti-commerce on the face of it. Even though we can still consume but avoid the waste in packaging etc. Oh my, it's so complicated. I'm exhausted thinking about it. Spread the word  "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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You are right Susie about the bottled water issue. Having been to many countries in the world where the water is not potable even by the native peoples, I have no hesitation to drink any tap water in the US. This wholesale marketing of filtered water, not even spring water is even worse. The other day I saw a hispanic family in the market carting out two full grocery carts. The second cart had 6 cases of bottled water and 4 cases of canned soda.  I remember thinking how outlandish it was when San Francisco outlawed the sale of water in plastic bottles. With all of the people who are educated about the problem but refuse to amend their ways, it seems like that is no longer such a drastic measure. I know a number of well educated people who insist that they can't drink any tap water.  |
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| http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/bottl... This is a good presentation but doesn't emphasize the health risk of the chemicals from aging bottles or heated bottles that leach into the water. If it were put out there that a certain ethnic group were being victimized by the marketing of bottled water and their consumption it would hit the news, big time. I watch C-SPAN "a lot". Believe me when I tell you there is a plastic bottle of water in front of every person you see in a meeting, hearing, podium, mic, you name it. My blood boils. How utterly stooooopid. "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| I have really noticed that a lot in the past 5 years Susie when attending conferences. It used to be that each table was set up with water pitchers and glasses. Now there is always a big table set up in the back of the room with bins full of iced bottled water. It doesn't seem to matter what hotel or conference center is holding the event, they have all gone that route. |
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| This may sound snobbish....but I think that 'they' think it makes them appear eriodite and sophisticated...worldly. Yech!!! Leap. The net will appear. |
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| I can agree with you, Carol. Heaven forbid their lips should suck off a glass poured with water... a glass that may not be cleansed from the prior user. That about it? We're talking about government culture for the most part, here. Hypocrites. "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| Oh, and on the other side of the gov't cultural pendulum, $14,000 bottle of wine for Mr. Panetta. I wonder what sort of glass he'll use to deliver his sip. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/10... "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| Yeah, but they sure don't mind ice cubes made from tap water in their upscale restaurants that charge $25 for a cocktail. Idiots is a better description. |
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| http://www.wimp.com/lightenup/ What an amazing use of liter bottles. We could actually implement it here in certain ways. I drink tap water too and keep a pitcher filled with it in the fridge. When water is cold it has no taste. My one beverage love is the Safeway brand of ginger-ale. But I save the bottles and make flower pots from the bottoms, painting them funky. I use the tops in my container plants where I fill the reservoir with water and it slowly sinks into the soil. But now I have no more need for the tops but I stacked some of them up in the storage close because I'm sure I'll think of something. |
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| Wow, Becky! That concept is miraculous! Thanks for sharing! "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| I use a lot of the 24oz soda bottles for that purpose too in the pots. I save the 2 litre and larger sizes for winter sowing. That was a very nice video Boo. It's a shame that people in the Phillipines still live in such abject poverty after all of the years that we have had such a major presence there. |
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| To reopen this chat...it's interesting- all the ideas!!! I am still trying to cut down on waste!!! Re: bottled water: I just came back from visiting my son in Bellingham, Wa....and the water out of the tap in this lovely old logging town at the foot of the Cascade Mts. was so incredible nasty!!! Smelled like a Pharmacy...I kid you not!!! Very medicinal/chemical!!! taking a shower was a nausiating experience. How can they stand it? I 'spose the older I get the less flexible I am...but I cannot drink that stuff. Even the food cooked in it tastes horrible!!!! I was in a foul mood my whole trip!!! So...maybe the nasty drinking water is part of a conspiracy? Pharma + plastic bottling companties against clean water...????? Leap. The net will appear. |
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| A long explanation here: http://www.cob.org/services/utilities/water-treatment.aspx Chemical coagulants added to hasten settling of colloidal material, then of course disinfectant (i.e. chlorine). I grew up in the Puget Sound area and remember excellent tap water originating from artesian wells fed by glaciers. Hiking in the Cascades we didn't think twice about drinking right from the creeks fed from glaciers. It was the best tasting water ever. I guess now days they recommend against drinking any water right from the high streams and creeks. |
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| Happy you thought to post hear, Carol! Howdy, Connie. You can get some nasty parasites from drinking water in creeks/streams. I haven't had a problem but I understand giardia may be present. Not good. I've never been to Seattle area but believed, based on nothing, that the water was healthy and tasty. Being from San Francisco our water source was Hetch Hetchy. Good clean taste, at least until I left and during a few visits back home over the years. Here in Phoenix we get water from the aquifers, underground collection. It's pumped up to treatment plants... tastes NASTY. Too many minerals and treatment. Nearly everyone uses reverse osmosis or some filter. My friend lives in New River where they rely on all wells or trucked into cisterns. Landscaping is almost out of the question. She has a well and the water is GREAT! I'm so glad bottled water is going out of favor and people are more conscious of the fact that that bottle is a hazard to the environment at all levels. Carol, I've seen bottled water exported from Kauai here in Phoenix. So much water on that island. "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --Albert Einstein ~ All Things Plants, SOUTHWEST GARDENING ~Cubits.org ENERGY & POWER |
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| I run my drinking water through a Brita filter and that helps alot. Our city water isn't anything to brag about either, though it probably isn't as bad as Bellingham's! My expectation of Puget Sound area water is that it should be good if it originates high in the mountains (stored in glaciers) and is naturally filtered through gravel, sand and glacial till that is part of the geography of the area. My first experience with bad water is when we lived in southern CA back in the late sixties. The bath tub was stained dark brown. Terrible, we couldn't drink it! I didn't drink water for a good year and a half when my husband got out of the Marines and we moved back to Washington. I got used to seeing water trucks in CA but it wasn't long before I started seeing them in WA. I could never figure out why people would pay all that extra money when the water was so good! |
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