Say “NO” to Plastic Bags
Recycling| 1 Comment »
Say "NO" to Plastic Bags
Data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency shows that somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
– National Geographic News September 2, 2003
"Less than 1% of bags are recycled. It costs more to recycle a bag than to produce a new one."
– Christian Science Monitor newspaper
“There’s harsh economics behind bag recycling: It costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32.”
– Jared Blumenfeld, Director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment
So… where do the plastic bags go?
"Bags get blown around… to different parts of our lands… and to our seas, lakes and rivers. Bags find their way into the sea via drains and sewage pipes."
– CNN.com/Technology, November 16, 2007
"A study in 1975, showed oceangoing vessels together dumped 8 million pounds of plastic annually. The real reason that the world’s landfills weren’t overflowing with plastic was because most of it ended up in an ocean-fill."
– U.S. National Academy of Sciences
"Plastic bags have been found floating north of the Arctic Circle near Spitzbergen, and as far south as the Falkland Islands."
– British Antarctic Survey
"Plastic bags account for over 10 percent of the debris washed up on the U.S. coastline."
– National Marine Debris Monitoring Program
"Plastic bags photodegrade: Over time they break down into smaller, more toxic petro-polymers, which eventually contaminate soils and waterways. As a consequence microscopic particles can enter the food chain."
– CNN.com/Technology November 16, 2007
"The effect on wildlife can be catastrophic. Birds become terminally entangled. Nearly 200 different species of sea life including whales, dolphins, seals and turtles die due to plastic bags. They die after ingesting plastic bags which they mistake for food."
– World Wildlife Fund Report 2005
If we use a CLOTH bag, we can save 6 bags a week!
That’s 24 bags a month!
That’s 288 bags a year!!
That’s 22,176 bags in an average life time!!!
If just 1 out of 5 people in our country did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags over our life time.
Bangladesh has banned plastic bags.
– MSNBC.com March 8, 2007
China has banned free plastic bags.
– CNN.com/Asia January 9, 2008
Ireland took the lead in Europe, taxing plastic bags in 2002 and have now reduced plastic bag consumption by 90%.
– BBC News August 20, 2002
In 2005 Rwanda banned plastic bags.
– Associated Press
Israel, Canada, western India, Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Taiwan, and Singapore have also banned or are moving toward banning the plastic bag.
– PlanetSave.com February 16, 2008
On March 27th 2007, San Francisco becomes first U.S. city to ban plastic bags.
– NPR.org (National Public Radio)
Oakland and Boston are considering a ban.
– The Boston Globe May 20, 2007
Plastic shopping bags are made from polyethylene: a thermoplastic made from oil.
– CNN.com/technology November 16, 2007
Reducing plastic bags will decrease foreign oil dependency.
China will save 37 million barrels of oil each year due to their ban of free plastic bags.
– CNN.com/Asia January 9, 2008
It is possible…
DO YOUR PART!
Do something DRASTIC – stop using PLASTIC!
Save a Tree — Remove Junk Catalogs from Your Mail
Recycling| 1 Comment »Save a Tree — Remove Junk Catalogs from Your Mail
Time to help the planet — stop all those catalogs that you never read anyway!
Go to www.catalogchoice.org
Just sign up, it costs nothing and you can opt out of many of the catalogs that are clogging up your mailbox.
If you have the catalog with your customer number or key codes, it helps, but not necessary to stop the mailings.
Time for ALL of US to start saving trees!
National Geographic’s Green Guide
Recycling, Tips & Trivia| No Comments »Here’s an easy way to go green with National Geographic’s new Green Guide. The Green Guide makes living in an environmentally-aware way easy, understandable and practical.
Check it out by going to:
http://www.thegreenguide.com/lp/srb?c1=GreenGuide&source=CtrPt
It’s not political or activist, but it is chock-full of simple, useful ideas, broken down into achievable steps, that make going green a gradual and affordable process, rather than an all-or-nothing plunge.
Make small changes that add up to big benefits for your wallet, your health and the planet. Subscribe for yourself; and get some subscriptions as gifts to share what you love this year:
It’s a great magazine full of…
- Reviews of eco-friendly products
- Money-saving shopping tips
- Green home improvement how-to’s
- 100 pages delivered four times a year, and much more.
TIME TO GET SERIOUS ON RECYCLING
Recycling| 1 Comment »TIME TO GET SERIOUS ON RECYCLING
Being in the printing industry for over 30 years now, I have watched how the delivery from massive printing change to high-tech delivery through email, PDF files, and the Internet… all good changes. WE NEED TO. It’s our Mother Earth – and our HOME! It brings joy to my heart when there are alternatives at our finger-tips to SAVE THE PLANET. It’s TIME for utilizing those alternatives!
Yes, in spite that I’d really love to (selfishly) have a bright yellow Saturn SKY sportscar, my next car will be a HYBRID instead. Smaller cars, less fuel consumption. If you need an SUV – get the new cross-over Hybrids. We all need to think ahead… to our future… our childrens’ future… even 5-10-50 years from today. Will we HAVE the resources we need to sustain our lives? We’re in this TOGETHER!
The greatest gift–the most touching gift–someone can give me today, as my mother did for Christmas this year, is the gift of a TREE planted. We need our trees – to live and breathe. Granted, we’re not in a paperless society, yet. There ARE numerous things that you and I CAN do now to support the planet’s resources.
What does "recycling" have to do with "Heart" and "Heart Books?" The Heart is the Core; for people it’s the central vital organ, and the passion for life; the Heart of our planet is a living being, Ghia, Mother Earth. Just as we need nurturing, so does she. Just as we need support, so does she. Just as we need love, so does she.
This is the FIRST article on this blogsite regarding this crucial need for Recycling.
JOIN IN. Write your articles, leave your comments, offer tips, website links, resources and ideas — after all — it IS "our" home!
–Sheryl Roush, Sparkle Presentations, Inc., Speaker, Author of over 10 books
