Stupid and Superfluous

I am by no means an eco-fanatic. I would not willingly cut off my left arm so a polar bear could eat it (and I'm not even left-handed!), I would never spend half my day laundering cloth diapers, and I still eat meat even though beef production is the number one cause of green house gas emmissions in America. (That is because of all the nasty fast food people eat here - sick!)

But even I am more conservation friednly than the marjority of people I meet. I don't even do it in an attempt to protect the earth from its detrimental human-pox. Yes my friends, we are like a cancer, slowly killing off the very organism on which we depend for survival. (Now go back and read that out loud in a very creepy-serial-killer voice . . . fun eh?)

I just don't see the point in wasting so much. Seriously, we are so trash-happy we can hardly wait to throw anything away, even if it is still reusable. May I mention plastic baggies? Okay, some baggies need to be thrown away, this is true, like if they have gaping holes or the plastic is starting to wear down and releasing toxic chemicals into the products they store. But they can be used more than once! If you put a cookie in a plastic baggy so you will have a delicious pick-me-up for the much anticipated lunch break at work, then don't throw the baggy away once you have devoured the soul-satisfying goodness of a little flour and some chocolate chips. Take the baggy home, rinse it out with hot water, place it upside-down on the counter or a drying rack, and then use it the next day for your lunch-time cookie. Was that really so hard to do? And you just saved yourself 6 baggies if you do that for one week. And that is a little more cash in your grocery budget.

Or tinfoil, we throw away so much tinfoil! My husband loves baked potatoes, which means I use a lot of tinfoil to make sure the peels stay nice and soft for my red-headed dear. Instead of disposing of the precious metal after just once use, I reuse it multiple times. I unwrap the potatoes, stack the tinfoil on the counter, then once it has cooled I smooth it out and place it all back in the drawer - ready to use the next time I need to bake some apples of the earth. (That is the literal translation of potatoes from French - cool eh?) Now, obviously, if I used tinfoil to bake ribs, I am not going to gently rub and rub until it is sparkling clean, dry it with a blow-dryer and then reuse it again - only whale lovers and wild-turkey preservers do that sort of thing. But everyone can certainly reuse potato tinfoil. And if you say "Ew, I can't reuse that, it has germs on it." Think about it - you are placing that tinfoil back into a 400 degree oven - no germ is going to survive that kind of heat.

And plastic utensils - do you need a new plastic utensil every lunch? Either take it home, wash the darn thing, and bring it back with you, or buy one of those really cute bamboo utensil sets. They come in different colored pouches with fun bows for fasteners! Who doesn't need a little cute silverware in their life? It certainly brightened my lunch time rendevouses (not sure how to make that word plural.)

This one people have no excuse for. If you don't use reusbale grocery bags, or recycle the plastic ones you do use - then I am sorry but you are just lazy. You can find reusable grocery bags almost anywhere now - even the check-out lane at the grocery store. Could it get any easier for you? Just buy it, stick your groceries in it, unload your groceries into your cupboards from it, and then leave it in the coat closet so you will remember to grab it next time you need to shop. How hard can it be? And if you are opposed to using reusbale grocery bags for some odd and selfish reason - then at least recycle your plasic ones. Every grocery store has plastic bag recycling bins nowdays. Except for maybe Carter's - just cause that sounds like a way they would be uncool. Sorry Enterprise residents - it is reusbale bags for you.

These and a million other little, easy things would mean less waste. Turn off the lights when you aren't in that room, don't start your car twenty minutes before you need to use it, don't let the water run while you brush, stick a reusable water-bottle in the dishwasher instead of buying a new plastic one every day.

These are simple and easy solutions my friend, I'm not even asking you to stop buying aerosol hairspray (which you really should do), just stop throwing away things that can be reused! It is stupid and superfluous!

Don't be a lazy bum. REUSE or RECYCLE!!! Otherwise I will call you at 1 a.m. and make noises like a dying polar bear.

You know I would do it too.