to see in the world." - M. Gandhi
This Issue Needs Your Attention!
www.stopthesealhunt.com
BOTTLED WATER 
The major problem with bottled water is the plastic packaging. Plastics are made of petroleum, a non-renewable resource that requires new fossil reserves to be extracted all the time. By choosing to drink tap water, we can conserve this valuable resource and reduce our dependence on oil. The plastic manufacturing process is also associated with toxic by products which are released in the air and cause pollution and respiratory problems. Most bottles will be incinerated or end up in overcrowded land-fills. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that about 1.5 million tons of plastic is used to make water bottles. According to the EPA, plastics are the fourth largest category of municipal waste. Converting back to tap water, which is what everyone used in the past, is more energy efficient, earth friendly and uses far fewer natural resources than bottled water. We can also utilize water filtering systems to enhance the taste and give peace of mind that the water is clean and safe. For those occasions when you are away from home at outdoor activities and events, there are a wide variety of thermoses and eco friendly containers that can be used to transport your tap water. At the same time, transporting your own environmentally safe containers to work and other activities will reduce the amount of styrofoam and other plastic disposables ending up in our landfills. It's the small changes that make all the difference.
NO LITTERING
What ever happen to the precept "Take what you need from the land and leave it as you found it", or maybe now the later should read "leave it a little better than you found it." When I first saw the commercial that the preceding video refers to, it had a profound affect on me as a child. Some have said that it was done in bad taste or that it was racist. In my opinion, it compares a time when people cared about the planet we live on to what our society has now become. To this day I feel that that commercial was an important factor in teaching me as a child how important preserving our environment really is. Littering should not even be an issue. If everyone did their part and recycled and disposed of their waste properly, we could win the war on litter and move own to other issues involving pollution. Please do not litter and pass it on.
PAPER
All problems associated with paper are predicted to grow even faster in the near future. Our paper consumption has grown by 50% since 1960, and experts believe it will have increased another 50% by 2010. Some thought computor use would reduce our consumption: Personal computers print out a global total of 115 billion pounds of paper each year, and the average U.S. consumer uses more than 700 pounds of paper every year-twice the European average.
Recycled Paper
Recycling saves trees and forest eco-systems, saves land-fill space, produces jobs, saves water and energy, and produces far fewer greenhouse gases than virgin paper production. By purchasing recycled paper we create a market for recycled paper and incentives for the recovery of paper, the percentage of office paper being recycled in the U.S. is a pitiful 20%. Look for the following labels on recycled paper:
% Post-Consumer Waste(PCW)Defines the percentage that is derived from paper recycled from the solid waste stream(This is what you and I bring to the recycling center)
% Recycled - Indicates that a paper contains the specified percentage of all recycled materials
% Pre-Consumer Waste - This refers to non-mainstream waste such as mill waste and wood chips
De-Inked Material - Waste paper that has had the ink, filler, coatings etc. removed as a step in the production of recycled paper
PLASTIC BAGS
Plastic bags are everywhere. Everywhere we go we have plastic bags pushed on us, grocery stores, clothing stores, and book stores. Enough is enough, just say no! Plastic bags are the cause of major environmental concerns. Statistics show we are consuming more and more plastic bags every year. The average individual uses about 130 bags a year. Most of them go directly to land-fills while a very small percentage of them are actually recycled. An immediate reduction in our use of plastic bags is essential in solving the environmental problems caused by them.
Reasons why you should reduce your consumption of plastic bags:
- Plastic bags account for a major part of our waste in land-fills and are one of the top items of liter on our roads.
- There is virtually no market for recycling plastic bags. Most recycling centers won't even accept them.
- The production of plastic bags is extremely harmful to the environment and are said to take up to a 1000 years to decompose on land and 450 years in water.
The most important thing you can do is switch to reusable tote bags and refuse to accept plastic. Change ultimately starts with one.
Green Living Starts Now
*DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES*
*AND HAVE A TREE PLANTED*
