Sometimes the simplest little things can have big impact on our lives. In this series of posts I examine very short sentences (each just three words long) that can make a difference in your life. If you have a three word sentence that changed your life somehow, share it with me and I will share it with the world.
From one of my favorite sources of inspiration – the blog Jack’s Winning Words – come today’s three little words –
“Let’s talk trash!” (T-shirt Slogan) A study has shown that each American creates 4.5# of garbage every day…close to a ton a year. Tomorrow is Earth Day, and the suggestion has been made…to see if you of can go the whole day without creating any garbage. I’m going to try; how about you? Maybe we should put a reminder note by the waste basket. There are many ways to protect the environment. Do you have any ideas? 😉 Jack
OK, so it’s not talking trash like you might have initially imagined. Earth Day is tomorrow April 22. Earth Day is one of those days of celebration that can easily get lost in the calipee of daily life. It’s easy for some to dismiss it as a gathering of “tree huggers” or environmental busybodies; however, we are all along for the ride on planet Earth, so we all play a part on how our ride looks. Do you know someone whose ride looks more like a waste container on wheels than a car – full of empty coffee cups and fast food bags? Maybe you live next to someone whose yard could serve as the set for a horror movie, with old cars up on blocks and junk lying around everywhere. Maybe you should intercede and say to them – let’s talk trash.
In your daily life do you spend any time at all thinking about how much waste and trash you contribute to the problem? Where does it all go? If you said, “to the curb in the trash bin”, then you are a part of the problem. It’s where it goes after that which is the issue that is one of the central themes of Earth Day. You’ve probably driven by those huge mounds of trash in land-fills and maybe you’ve wondered about what is going on under all of that trash and dirt. What chemical reactions are taking place and what toxins are being released and then where do they go? Those are all concerns on Earth Day and reason enough to raise the issue – let’s talk trash.
One of the other focuses on Earth Day is to create and promote the use of natural products or sustainable products as they might be called; these are products that are not artificially made, but which occur or grow in nature. Some of them are products that can be recycled and used more than once. Most of them are not harmful or certainly less harmful than many of the modern man-made products that have been created as substitutes. Most will also naturally break down and return to the earth in the some useful form; or at least not in a toxic form. Hopefully these are the substances in the things that are put out for recycling and which will not contribute to eh landfill; but if they do end up there at least they won’t add to the toxic mix – let’s talk trash.
Probably the most insidious thing that mankind has done with modern science is to develop the concept of “packaging”. Almost everything that we buy these days is sold in a package of some sort and it is that packaging that makes up the bulk of the mass in our landfills. In most so-called developing countries and indeed in the great majority of the world’s population things that are needed on a daily basis are purchased and consumed in some small quantity on a daily basis without any packaging. Then there is us – the so-called developed countries – the U.S, Europe, Japan and a few others – who have embraced the concept that everything that we buy should somehow come in a bag or a box or some other form of packaging. We have created our own trash monster in the name of personal convenience. That’s how we have come to create our average of 4.5 pounds of trash a day – by throwing away the containers that our stuff comes in. Let’s talk trash.
Earth Day is about more than just trash; it is about doing things to lessen your negative impact on the earth – to conserve or at least waste less, to cut the pollution that you personally create and hopefully even to contribute in some positive way, to give back to the earth. Here’s a link to a good article about 50 tips for making a difference on Earth Day. The Web site EarthDay.org also has a program going called a Billion Acts of Green which has collected over 1 Billion pledges from people of small things that they will do to help with the effort to create a more sustainable future on Earth. As they say in Washington, a billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking real numbers. So, go there and sign up to do your part. Just commit to do some small thing differently. Maybe for you it can be taking some action to reduce the amount that you transport toe the curb every week. Let’s make a difference – let’s talk trash.
What do you plan to do on Earth Day? Since it’s not a national holiday, most of us will have to get up and go to work. They probably won’t even observe a moment of silence at work in honor of the day; but that doesn’t mean that you can do something. Maybe you can bring a little plant to work to place in your office or cubicle or just on your desk. That tiny addition to the office environment will do two things – clean a little bit of air and remind a few people about nature. Maybe instead of wadding up and tossing the report that you just finished reading you can find the paper recycling box at your office (if your office doesn’t have one, start one), or maybe you can just read you emails and reports on-line, instead of printing them off to read. Every little bit helps and evety little bit that you don’t do helps too. So at work on Earth Day – let’s talk trash.
If you live in the Milford, Michigan area here’s a link to our local Earth Day events.
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