Green Means Go

Green Means Go

No, this time I am not going to talk about the crappiness of the drivers in Louisiana, how they run the red lights and dawdle at the green, how they don’t use their blinkers, how they either drive 40 or 90 in a 60 mph zone… Nope, today I want to talk about saving the world, one drop of water/piece of paper/plastic bottle/gallon of gas at a time.

I read an article in Runner’s World about the little things that we can do to help save the environment: turn off the water while you are brushing your teeth, flush the toilet only half the time, print of both sides of each unimportant sheet of paper, either use tap water or buy gallon jugs instead of buying individual bottles of water, and for goodness sakes – RECYCLE!

These are all very easy things to do and if each of us takes the time to do them, we will make the world a better place for everyone. I for one am trying to do these things when I can; I am trying to do my part for the sake of the greater good. However, living in Louisiana does not make it easy.

I was watching the news the other night when this came on: “Brad Pitt wants to help rebuild New Orleans one green house at a time. The actor, who has been involved with the Global Green USA project, sat down with NBC's Ann Curry to talk about his passion for the environment and his adopted hometown.” (click here for more info) Go Brad! I applaud his willingness to protect the environment and to use his celebrity status to promote something so great.

However, and this is one of the annoying things I have noticed while in Louisiana, there is a long way to go before the people around here are going to adopt such things as a “green” house. The people of Louisiana are not the most environmentally friendly. Did you know that they don’t even recycle? And no folks, this is not because of Hurricane Katrina, although it would be easy to blame it on that. This is just the way it is. In order to make sure I was not misinformed, I checked to see what I, or the Louisiana residents could do if we wanted to recycle.

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) site gives many tips on what you can do to start your own recycling program in your neighborhood, which are all very helpful. However, many times people will not do something unless it is very easy for them to do so. Put a bin out with sections for cans, bottles and trash, and nine times out of ten, people will throw things into the right section. Put the recycling center 3 miles away, and most people will not separate their own stuff and take it over there.

So what do we do? How do we make a difference? Well, like I said before, one by one, each of us separately can do our part and together, we can make an impact. Here are the top 10 things www.livescience.com suggests we each do:

1. Change your light bulbs
2. Drive differently, or drive a different vehicle
3. Control your temperature
4. Tame the refrigerator monster
5. Twist some knobs
6. Plant smartly
7. Invest in green energy
8. Go organic
9. Recycle
And LAST BUT NOT LEAST….
10. Be a minimalist

P.S. On this anniversary of 9.11, I want to say thanks to the heroes.
I'm NOT a Plastic Bag

I'm NOT a Plastic Bag

I am not usually one to covet high end crap that you have to stand for days in line to get or else buy at a ridiculously high price on Ebay. Take the Iphone for example. It is cool; don't get me wrong. However, I don't need it SO BADLY that I am willing to wait for it for hours on end and then pay 500 dollars for it and THEN pay for a 2 year contract, Internet fees etc. All in all, time is money and money is money and that item, as cool as it is, is not worth that much money.

However, when I read about the "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bag by Anya Hindmarch (who, by the way, I have never heard of, but apparently she makes high end designer bags) in Time Magazine, I said, "I WANT ONE OF THOSE!" The idea behind the bag is this:Too many plastic bags are being used in Grocery Stores etc around the world and not enough of them are being recycled. This bag, which retails for about 15 dollars is reusable and stylish and so would help eliminate unnecessary waste. In the US alone, an average family uses 1,460 plastic bags PER YEAR, which is about 88.5 billion bags total (in the US) and LESS THAN 1% of all plastic bags used get recycled.

So I got online to buy one. For 15 dollars you can't go wrong. Little did I know that I am not the only one who wants one of these bags. As it is a limited product, there were only a certain amount sold in the US, UK and China, and at this time, they are sold out. You can buy one on Ebay for about 40-50 dollars if you so please. In trying to find this bag, I also learned that the demand for these bags was so high that when they were launched in China, people got trampled.

So I wonder, are people buying these bags because they want to help the environment or because they are a low price point item from a normally high price point designer? I hope it is the former, but maybe it doesn't really matter. By buying the bag and wearing it, they are helping raise awareness around the world, which is equally as important.

A few stats, courtesy of Time Magazine(check out the entire article HERE): It takes up to 1,000 years for a plastic bag to decompose. 12 million barrels of oil are used to make the plastic bags that the U.S. consumes annually.

If you want the "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" bag, but can't get it, try one of these other charitable alternatives. Working with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), Presidential niece and model Lauren Bush has designed the FEED Bag — a stylish but sturdy tote bag made of brown sacking and white canvas. The proceeds from the $60 bag go to the WFP, which provided a staggering 16 million children worldwide with school meals in 2006 as part of their efforts to feed the 300 million children around the world that suffer chronic hunger. And Intuition has launched the Market Bag to help educate children in need. For each $85-$100 bag sold, Intuition will donate $35 to the International Rescue Committee. The goal is to raise $175,000 for the IRC's education programs around the world.

And last but not least, if you don't want to spend upwards of 30 dollars on a canvas tote, try buying one from your local grocer, which usually costs about $2-$5. You can still make a difference, one bag at a time, as long as it's "not a plastic bag"!!