Dudes, I’m dedicating every Sunday till the end of the month to share my environment woes and urge you to join me in reducing the size of our foot prints on the planet.
This week, let’s vow to begin using reusable grocery bags whenever we hit the market. Almost every market sells one now. If yours doesn’t, you can find them in megastores. Forget plastic bags, they’re vulgar and clutter the world.
If you’re not already using a reusable bag for your grocery and other regular shopping, be warned that it takes some time for it to become a habit. I have about 30 in the house and another 15 in the car. I would forget that I had several in the house and would buy a new one every time. It really does become second nature, though. Keeping a few in the car helps a great deal.
I recycle plastic and glass containers and have gone virtually paperless in my personal dealings. I intend to be mostly paperless in my work very soon.
Remember we are the khalifas on this earth. Now what kind of khalifa litters the ground and the oceans with poorly degradable material, poisoning living things?
Any earth friendly tips and practices ye want to share?
(Image courtesy of Thomas Northcut @ Getty Images)
November 10, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I live in the Bay and at that in Berkeley – people frown at you if you didn’t come in with your own bag. SF actually wanted to charge people who asked for plastic bags at supermarkets.
Anyways, you’re right, it takes sometime to get used to. I now always have one on me.
November 10, 2008 at 6:13 pm
AMTAF, from what I’ve read and heard, you live in a spot a world apart from many in the US. Some months ago, an assistant wrote a few words on a blank piece of paper, crumbled it and then tossed it into a trash bin. I thought I would have a cardiac event.
November 10, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I’m a little crazy about water and can get pretty scary if showers take more than 10 minutes (I think 5 min showers are perfectly acceptable) but I really need to start recyling and reusing stuff. I’m really careless about plastics and paper *don’t hit me*
I’m trying — inshallah it sticks.
November 10, 2008 at 8:10 pm
^ Lone Dreamer, I agree! 5 minutes do the job for me but it wasn’t always easy (still isn’t with long, tangled mess of a hair). I used a hot shower as a way to destress after a hard day. When I cut it to 5 or 10 max., I felt deprived, jumping out like a cold, wet cat
Ah well.
How’ve you been?! It’s great to see you around.
November 11, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Oh it’s not all that great believe me. People here have their own interesting quirks like every other place. It’s very liberal and leftist – and so somethings flourish like being enviromentally conscious and recycling… on the other hand, others suffer. Such as the acceptance of anything resembling the difference in opinion — God forbid you’re closer to the right – you’re automatically labelled fascist here.
But we still have more pluses I guess
November 11, 2008 at 10:12 pm
A., I’ve heard of that famous group think
It’s rampant in academia everywhere. Some card-carrying liberals tend to frown upon dissent to the point of fascism. Funny they’d label others that so freely. I think that’s probably one of the reasons that academia and I don’t love each other.