Plastic bags have become a staple of modern life. First introduced in the 1970’s, they became the standard in the 1980’s. Worldwide, we use about 500 BILLION to 1 TRILLION plastic shopping bags a year .It’s estimated that here in the United States we use about 84 BILLION bags a year. They littler roadsides, flutter from trees, clog catch basins and ultimately end up in landfills and the ocean. Marine life suffers, too: each year over 100,000 whales, turtles, birds and fish die of strangulation or starvation from eating or being caught up in plastic bag litter. There’s even the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, a floating island of trash: most of it plastic! Plastic bags come from petroleum, so every one that’s used requires Middle East oil. The Earth is being destroyed and depleted for our convenience.
Retailers like Wal-Mart have jumped on the bandwagon and are selling reusable bags. While a noble effort, consider where these bags are coming from. Noting Wal-Mart’s reliance on cheap goods from China, I’d hardly think that these bags ARE fair trade. They first had the black bags which were completely made out of recycled plastic. Then they switched to the blue ones but they are only made from about 50% recycled plastic, and last half as long! Leave it to Wal-Mart to LOOK ‘green’ but not be.
Australia, Italy, Ireland, Mumbai (Bombay), and others like Taiwan have begun to charge for plastic bags. Here in the United States, several localities have either started charging for plastic bags or banned them outright. San Francisco has banned the use while Washington DC is imposing a 5 cent fee. Of course, some residents are fuming and the oil lobby and retailer’s association are against it.
Chico bags are a light, easily packable way to reduce your plastic bag consumption. Many of you forget your bags. Chico bags are easily packed into a purse or for you guys, a knapsack. Mine are in my purse all the time. I’ve loaded them the 14oz cans of cat food plenty of times., easily topping over 20 pounds! The good news is — they are really RECYCLABLE! The company that makes them will take them back and rework them into something else!
Each of us on this Earth must make a choice every day to save resources. Whether its turning off lights, buying a solar charger, fixing leaking faucets, switching to a composting toilet or buying a more fuel efficient car: everything — EVERYTHING — we do does have an effect!
Sun-Mar composting toilets may look a little funny at first glance, and seem overpriced, but the benefits far outweigh the cost.
A 4-person household using a 3.5 gallon flush toilet will flush 70 gallons per day down the toilet or over 25,000 gallons per year.
An older 7 gallon toilet uses 140 gallons a day which equals 50,000 gallons a year.
Do you want to WASTE that much GOOD water to flush poop down the toilet? Think about it. Billions of gallons of purely good, drinkable water are being wasted every year by the flush of a toilet. Isn’t that insane?
Like it or not, our planet is running out of drinkable water. Our aquifers are being depleted by wasteful use of our most precious resource. The quest for the perfect lawn uses millions of gallons a DAY! California, really a desert, insists on being a lush tropical oasis complete with swimming pools in just about every yard! Desert paradise, Las Vegas, is gobbling up water with its obscene obsession for water waste as it caterers to tourists and an ever-expanding urban sprawl.
What about your neighborhood? What about you? Have you planted drought resistant plants and shrubs for your area? Have you made an effort to cut back on your watering? Have you thought about the benefits of drip irrigation instead of sprinklers?
Saving water is up to ALL of us. From our toilets to the yard — YOU — can make a difference… starting today!
It’s only fitting that today, Earth Day, I make mention of the responsibility of caring for our HOME.
This IS our home, but like irresponsible and selfish little children, we’ve messed it up. Our “Mom” (Mother Earth) has been trying to tell us. The animals, plants, oceans, atmosphere, insects have been trying to tell us too. The climate is … s c r e a m i n g … at us to pay attention. Still we spew, still we pollute, still we ignore the cries of a damaged ecosystem.
We think it’s someone else’s responsibility. The guy next door, the crazy environmentalists, the government or some other country. In fact - it’s everyone’s job…. yours, mine, the government and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, we haven’t been too good at it.
This ‘hippie’ thing started in the 70’s - 39 years ago, to be exact. It looked good for awhile but then people forgot. They continued to drive their gas guzzling cars, made by car companies with interests in the oil industry; the government blind and deaf except to the whispers of the lobbyists and corporate America.
Electricity consumption - fueled by our voracious need for luxuries and entertainment and unnecessary ‘necessities,’ has jumped despite electricity saving techniques. One family showcased on TV had a monthly bill of over $700! How can this be? What do they NEED that their costs should be so much? How can they save? Do they even TRY?
What are YOU doing to help this Earth? Not just today, when we can proudly say ‘We celebrated EARTH DAY’ - but EVERY SINGLE DAY? What is your water useage? Do you waste water? What about electricity? How much can you save by really making an effort - not just putting band-aids on things. How about your driving? Have you gone back to driving more since gas prices went down? What are you giving back to the earth, instead of taking away?
What are you doing to be environmentally responsible - instead of irresponsible? Are you really making a difference - every day?
There are people in desert regions of this Earth who would give anything to have the amount of good drinking water that the average American flushes down the toilet every day.
Consider the numbers:
A typical 4-person household,
using a 3.5 gallon low-flush toilet
flushes 70 GALLONS per DAY
-or-
25,000 GALLONS a YEAR of drinkable water down the drain
An older 7 gallon toilet uses double that: 140 GALLONS per DAY -or- about 50,000 GALLONS per YEAR
Toilet waste is over 90% water content. Pathogens like nitrogen and potassium, which upset the normal Ph of the soil, add tremendous pollution to groundwater.
To date, SUN-MAR composting toilets have saved about 3.2 BILLION GALLONS of water (to January 08) with an additional saving of 6,103 gallons a minute!
Sun-Mar toilets are adaptable for any situation. Residential use, cabins, workshops, guest houses; even for RV and marine use. They’re the premier manufacturer of composting toilets. They’ve been making them for about 40 years now, the same family-owned company started Hardy Sundberg in the 70’s.
I’d think they know what they’re doing by now, wouldn’t you?
Environmentally speaking, Americans waste water - billions of gallons a year. The average family of 4 uses about 400 gallons a day; 70% of it being used inside the home.
Consider the following statistics on how much water is used by an American family:
Toilets: 27% Shower: 17% Faucets: 16% Washing Machine: 22% Leaks: 14% Other: 5%
27 percent of all household water is used in the bathroom. Installing a new toilet or a composting toilet can save a dramatic amount of water in one year. A leaky toilet can waste over 200 gallons every day.
Bathroom faucets run at about 2 gallons of water a minute. Shutting off the faucet while brushing your teeth saves about 200 gallons per month.
Not rinsing dishes before loading into a dishwashe saves over 10 gallons per load.
Washing machines can use up to 54 gallons of water per load, but recent energy efficient models use about 27 gallons.
Garbage disposals waste electricity and water. A typical disposal uses between 4 and 8 gallons of water a minute. Consider this the next time you go to use yours. A garden composter is the way to go and will provide you with free, nutrient rich soil for your garden and get rid of your food scraps at the same time.
You won’t be wasting water or electricity with a composting toilet or a composter.