Baby Steps...

If you didn't see this on
David Letterman the other night, you should go here and watch it now. And yes, it's a tad bit on the side of overwhelm, so you're forewarned.

However, I'm willing to take baby steps toward making a difference. Our municipality has curbside recycling. And yes, I took their survey recently and suggested that instead of continuing the pickups every week - with alternating weeks for paper products and glass/plastic/aluminum - we could reduce the frequency of pickups in an effort to save the City a bit on the cost of those collections. Like most local governments they're looking at every possible way to reduce costs, and I'd a lot rather see fewer pickups than a lost teacher! I also suggested to one city office my agency deals with that we could stop the snail mail hardcopy notifications on certain stuff we do and just use email (lordy the postage, trees, and time that saves!!).

I also discovered a business that will accept plastic 5 for recycling: Preserve Products

I'd already decided to collect my #5s and ship them (at my cost) to Preserve. Then tonight, after yoga class, I dropped by the Co-op to pick up a couple of things and found they carried their products...

This one came home with me. I think it's the perfect size for lunchtime salads. It's cute, too!

I am not the sort to become overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem. And I'm certainly not capable of eskewing all plastics (I'm afraid with Lupus and heart disease, I'm dependent on one too many prescriptions for example - but my Rx's come in #2s at least!).

But I'll do what I can do, as much as I can do. Starting with this of course:

A couple of handknit dishcloths...the yarn is organic cotton. I know now that's not necessarily a good thing...Ecological Intelligence is a very enlightening book (and another source of potential overwhelm, fair warning!)...

Reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose...The more of us who try, the better off we are. If you can do one thing? Please...do it!