Start with the Basics
PLEASE NOTE: This site is under construction.
This is the first version, and it is faaaar from done... Please be patient with me, I am just one person and this is not my day job!
Every action we take, every product we buy, the food we eat, the transportation we use, it all has an impact. Whether that impact is detrimental to our environment or not is up to us. That can be a lot of pressure. But if we each just do what we can do to make a small difference in the "right" direction it makes a big difference.
Small actions in large numbers have a big impact!
Let’s start with reducing the waste that we send to the Landfill, to the many, many, many trash piles ever growing around the world, and the inevitable overflow that becomes “litter” contaminating all aspects of our natural and “civilized” world.
…How?… A beginner’s example: Sandwich bags. How I spared at least 6 pounds of trash from landfill just by switching Sandwich Bags.
*Definition time: “single use”
If you have not heard this term before, you will hear it a lot here. “Single use” refers to an item that is designed to be used just once. For example, single use sandwich bags. It is an item that is designed to be thrown away or recycled after use. It is designed to be “waste.”
Where do you want to start?
Waste – this is a big one, and is probably the easiest change for most people, especially as there are so many ways to make a difference in the “waste” we create!
Transportation – I am putting this one second as it is mentioned so often. Again, I think we should not be judgmental of others. There are so many factors that to into the decision on how we get around in our communities and how we travel in our world.
Resources – water, electricity, fuel
Litter -- This is waste, but – picking up litter!
Policies -- This is something I will not be getting into on this page. But please refer to the “Get Educated’ and “Get Involved” pages for some information and inspiration.
Businesses -- As a business, you have a bigger platform (and probably a bigger impact!) than most individuals. Highlighting your intentional choices can have a bigger impact than you may realize!
REMINDER: All of the plastic that you have ever used in your life still exists. In fact, every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. We are just slowly but surly growing a giant pile of human made “Trash.”
Let’s do some math:
Target has a 150 count box of their brand of sandwich bags listed as $3.39 per box. That would be 7 boxes of single use sandwich bags in 4 years. Seven boxes at $3.39 is $23.73, already more expensive than my one time purchase. And using the single use bags contributes 0.83 pounds per box to the landfill, that’s 5.81 pounds of trash in 4 years!
That is using bags just for sandwiches! I have two packs of my Russbe bags because I use 2 to 4 of them on each lunch.
So, our math really should be more like 3 x 5 lunches a week = 15 bags per week.
15 bags per week times 52 weeks = 780 bags per year. Over 5 boxes of the 150-count single use bags per year. That is $16.95 on single use bags, and 4.15 pounds of trash to the landfill per year…
In the 4 years that I have been using the same set of sandwich bags, that is $68 dollars and almost 7 pounds of trash to the landfill, just in single use sandwich bag waste.
AND, This math is per person…. It multiples with each person in your household.
And don’t forget… How many of those single-use bags have you torn when hurriedly packing lunches? Add that to the math for the amount of money spent, and the pounds of trash sent to the landfill just grow and grows!
I hope this first example helps you see how small actions in large numbers make a big impact.
What impact we have on our planet is up to us!
Four years ago, I bought two 8-packs of reusable Russbe brand sandwich bags at $10 per box. I have not needed to buy a single sandwich bag since!
Being that I am cheap, clumsy, and I break things easily, I am not a fan of products that are fancy, fragile, or require special care. The Russbe bags are on the less expensive side, they are durable, and diswhaster safe. I love them! I use them for everything.
For the sake of simple math, let’s just look at the impact of packing myself a lunch for work. Let’s just say I pack a sandwich each day in my Russbe bag in place of the throwaway ziplock style single use sandwich bags.
One sandwich once a day at work, that would be 260 single use sandwich bags a year, and 1,040 bags in the 4 years that I have been using my same set of bags.
“Ok, yes, but that is over the course of 4 years, and it’s just cheap, and not massively polluting sandwich bags. Why is this crazy hippy getting so excited?"
Because…