Save oil - keep your cost of living low

For all those skeptics who think going green is nothing more than a buzzword and a Fad and also say that you alone cant change the world....think again....

Here is one more reason to quit relying on disposable water bottles (also to work on the addiction to plastic grocery bags)..To keep your fuel costs low! Do you think you need a reason better than that?

Image source: eesiflo.com

World economy relies on fossil fuels. Unnecessary diversion of non renewable, expensive and scare fuel to unsustainable industries (read plastic bags and bottled water industry among other list of things) doesn't make any sense. Instead of complaining about ever increasing cost of living, we could conserve and stretch our resources and keep cost of food, fuel and everything in general, low.

It is simple, our dependence on shipping and transportation is directly impacted by fuel costs and so is the entire pricing economics around the world. We can start by making minor changes, using our own cloth or jute shopping bags and avoiding use of disposable water bottles/beverage bottles for starters. Let those grey cells buzz.....I would like to quote a research I found on a website: farmfeliz.org

Food for thought....

• In California, 18 million gallons of bottled water was shipped from Fiji in 2006, producing about 2,500 tons of global warming pollution. Most bottled water comes in recyclable PET plastic bottles, but only about 13 percent of the bottles we use get recycled. (CA figures). In 2005, 2 million tons of plastic water bottles ended up in landfills instead of getting recycled. Source: National resources defense council:
   
• PET plastic bottles take up to 1,000 years to decompose and contribute to the vast vortex of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean, which is harming wildlife.It takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water. Source: Sierra Club
   
• Plastic (PET) bottles generate more than 100 times more toxic emissions than an equivalent amount of glass. Source: Berkeley Ecology Center
   
• The total amount of energy embedded in the use of bottled water is the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full of oil.Source: Pacific Institute
   
• The GGPNC sponsored “King Oak Gardens project” utilized, during its Big Sunday event, filtered water at an estimated savings of 900 bottles x .40 cents = $360. As a result of this success, according to Sherri of the Big Sunday organization, they are studying the feasibility of using filtered tap water instead of bottled water at 2010 events. Source: GGPNC green committee
   
• According to Ramona of FOLAR, it is her experience that they do not find a lot of plastic bottles during their clean up events because she believes they are collected along the river during the year for their redemption value.
   
• In 2004, nationally, 85 percent of all non-carbonated PET bottles ended up in landfills, or as litter in parks, roadways or rivers. In 2005, 28 billion per year or 66 million water bottles were purchased every day in the U.S. The market is growing. Source: Container Recycling Institute.
   
• ''….U.S. demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. crs for a year,'' Source: One World.net
   
• In 2008, 200 billion gallons of tap water supplied to 4 million residents of Los Angeles met or surpassed all health-based drinking water standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of California’s Department of Public Health Source: LAWDP 2008 water quality report

There is lot more to do and miles to go on the green front...my request is to spare atleast a minute a day to ponder on the choices you made through the day. With a little efforts, things can improve for the better....Live well and let live!

 

Take care