Recycling Initiative...

The commercial building which I work in does not have a recycling program for plastic bottles, but it does so for paper. It doesn't make any sense to me but its probably something bureaucratic. Anyway, my co-worker (GY) and I are going to launch an initiative to install a recycling program for plastic bottles. I'm positive we would be able to generate some momentum with this, the majority of co-workers in my company are conscious about plastic consumption. In the meantime GY and I are storing all the plastic bottles we have used in hopes of finding a person collecting bottles so we can give it to them to recycle.

Edit #1: Listed below are the recycled materials in question:

Polar Bear Alert!

Polar Bears are on they way to extinction with in our children's life time if we do not act now. Go on line to www.givewwf.org and see how you can make a difference.

Images of a changing World!

This is the Aral sea over thirty years.

Another way to recyle...

When you're finished reading your magazines - instead of chucking it, share it! In our apartment building on the Upper West Side, we have a magazine share in the lobby. Share your magazines with coworkers or any other community office.

Bottled Water

Stop drinking bottled water. Todays filters do a great job at cleaning the water we use and are much less damaging to the environment. We at Good is Green have added some reasons to stop drinking bottled water.

* 60 Million plastic bottles a day are disposed of in America alone!
* Massive volumes of greenhouse gases are produced in the making of plastic bottles
* Fossil fuel emissions are produced from transporting millions of bottles everyday
* It requires 3 times as much water to make the bottles as it does to fill it.

To give or not to give..

So I have two cars, one of them is a 1993 Saturn SL2, which I am planning to hand it off to CN. Now you might say to yourself, that's pretty generous BT, I suppose it is but mind you that the insurance coverage is worth more than the car. I could have easily donated to a charity and redeem my free cruise & $25 tax deductible for my tax returns next year. But I did not know what their intentions were, it would probably be the same as me giving it to CN. But I ran into a moral issue, should I have had the car recycled for parts, potentially doing my part in helping the planet? Unfortunately no, instead, I am leaving it out on the road for it to contribute its harmful fumes to the environment.

It's only one car, what harm could it possibly do the environment? Well, one gallon of gasoline produces 19 pounds of carbon dioxide (one of the leading causes of global warming), the average car has a 13 gallon gas tank, 13 times 19 = 247 pounds of carbon dioxide per re-fill. Now lets say you've used up 800 gallons of gas a year, that equals to 10,400 pounds or 5.4 tons a year of pollution coming out of the car. Now take that amount and multiply that with the amount of cars in the U.S alone, which is roughly 200 million.

The decision has already been made, it's out of my hands now. It's up to the new owner to determine his carbon footprint.

RECYCLE!

In some communities the recycling programs are being discontinued due to low participation. We at Good is Green implore you to call your local leaders and start recycling - PLEASE.

Carpool!

Start carpooling. When you start to carpool, for either work, school or play and can eliminate at least 25 miles of driving a day you can reduce at least 6 tons of CO's from the being added to our atmosphere.

Weekend Fact!

Lighting an office overnight wastes enough energy to boil 1000 cups of tea. Think about it.

Plastic Bottles & Bags = Oil Prices

Came across this article today that blew my mind away, to summarize:

"America consumes 31.2 billion water bottles a year taking 17.6 million barrels of oil to create them. Enough to fuel 1.5 million cars for a year. America consumes 100 billion plastic bags a year taking 12 million barrels of oil. World figures? 154.3 billion water bottles and 500 billion - 1 trillion bags=147.4 - 207.4 million barrels of oil a year."

America's dirty little secret oil secret: Plastic Bottles and Bags