I’ve been actively working on this part of my life. If you think about it, we through a lot of shit away. That shit has to go somewhere. We have various methods of ways of doing this. Everything from throwing it in the ground, burning it, or if possible recycling it.
I read an article about a German law a while back that was outlawing certain type of plastics because the German government didn’t want to see it going into their landfills. Makes sense on the surface. This got me thinking about some of the things I’ve been doing. Using plastic forks and knives at work is a big one. Why? I have several sets of camping utensils that I barely use. So, I decided that from that moment on I was going to use the camping utensils instead of using plastic forks and knives and adding to the landfill problem.
That isn’t the only change. I also have been guilty of buying Kleenex tissues by the case. Again, I asked myself why I was doing that? This past weekend I bought a boatload of cheap bandanas. When I was a young boy my father always carried around a “hanky.” If you needed to blow your nose, you used the hanky. You can wash them and use them over and over again. Bandanas have tons of different uses including a makeshift face mask if you need one.
I’ve also stopped buying store bought water. We have a reverse osmosis system here at Castle Nerda so I can just fill up reusable bottles here at home. At the moment they are Smartwater bottles which are every campers dream. They are perfect for a lot of things and extremely durable. A little less ideal because they are still plastic and will need to be thrown away a lot sooner than I would have needed to throw away an aluminum container. I am working on it.
My ideals have changed in the last 20 years. I specifically remember not giving a shit about using disposable items if it meant that I didn’t need to do dishes. We grow and mature. Hopefully, I have grown enough to realize that I am not going to save the planet from anything but I can certainly be a lot kinder to it. Let’s face it, the earth can shrug us off it as though we were flies. Mother Earth doesn’t give a shit about what you care about or what you believe. The earth can explode beneath your feet at any time and no amount of tree hugging will save you. With that being said…
…that doesn’t mean you have to pee on her lawn.
