The Little Things
Day by day we do things that damage our earth. From the
waste we produce to deciding not to recycle, some of us realize these negative affects
and others don’t, but nonetheless it continues to do damage when there are more
sustainable options. But there are other things we often lack to think of when
going about life that are so simple to change in order to reduce our waste.
Here are a couple ways each one of us may be able to make changes to benefit
our ability to be sustainable.
Reusable v. Recyclable
Often times when you go to your favorite coffee shop and buy
a beverage and lack to provide a reusable cup, even when they are offered for
an additional cost and we do this without even a second thought, actually this
is annually 58 billion cups in the United States. This costs the earth 20 million trees a year
for all these wastefully little cups and for only four of these devilish little
guys results in one pound of CO2 emissions. This is not only a large amount of
waste created just by one country in a year, but it is also easily avoidable
waste for a country every year if we just thought things through a bit. With just
the use of a single reusable cup once a day, for forty years, you yourself
could save 24 trees. Or you could even just have a cup of coffee at home if you
cannot handle carrying your own cup around.
Reusable K-cups
This brings us to the invention of the Kuerig. With each one
of those plastic pods they are doing just about as much damage to the earth. One
way to avoid doing this damage is using reusable k-cups, just like those coffee
cups at your coffee shop, they are avoidable waste. However, sometimes it’s
better to just invest in a plain old coffee maker if you are more of a regular
coffee drinker anyway.
Another Cup
Another cup that we can try to stop buying is plastic water
bottles. Even though lots of these are recyclable less than a quarter are and
we should try to avoid purchasing. With Americans alone consuming 8.6 billion
gallons of water out of these plastic bottles this is clearly a problem that
must be addressed. This water isn’t even tested and regulated half as much as
tap water, and wen compared often doesn’t keep up to the tap water standards, so
it really isn’t even benefiting us. Instead, we need to switch over to
reusable water bottles, where we can reduce this waste, enjoy healthier water
to consume and save water bottles for emergency situations where we shouldn’t be
consuming water from our facets.
http://planetsave.com/2010/04/05/betacup-encourages-collaboration-to-create-a-sustainable-coffee-cup/
https://www.banthebottle.net/articles/5-ways-you-can-help-reduce-plastic-bottle-waste/
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