Blog Action Day

I've always considered myself an environmentalist. Not an extremist but I try to reduce my impact. I don't believe a word of Al Gore's current rhetoric. Basically, I want to cut out as much waste as possible and keep the world from turning into a giant toxic landfill. I'm really glad to live in an area of the country where recycling is mandatory. Americans are probably more wasteful than any other country so it only makes sense to recycle glass, cans, plastic and paper. It's better both environmentally and economically.

One thing I've recently done is reducing the amount of plastic bottled drinks we buy, whether it's bottled water, sports drinks, etc. We always recycled plastic bottles but now we reuse the plastic bottles until they get crunched by the kids at soccer practice, chewed by the dog or somehow unusable. We still have a case of bottled water in our food storage but reuse bottles until they can't be used any more.

I drink about a gallon of water a day. At work I would wash out a plastic water bottle every morning and use it to drink water at my desk. Now I have a glass Nantucket Nectars bottle. It's much easier to clean and won't have to be replaced unless I break it. (After a month or so, plastic bottles don't get clean on the inside unless you use a bottle brush.)

Why reduce water bottles? Plastic bottles are made of oil. I already pay enough for gasoline, why give the Middle East more of my money? Wikipedia cites the "process of making the plastic bottles for the water bottles consumed in the U.S. uses approximately 17 million barrels of oil per year." The Wikipedia article does a good job explaining the waste of plastic bottles. If you want another source, see this ABC News article.

If you're still wondering what environmentalism has to do with depression, I'd say it would be one less thing to worry about if we made a difference. =) See the Blog Action Day website for more about the virtual "Earth Day."