Genuine Green Effort #1: Quit One Disposable Product

Going "green" is trendy these days. Magazines are publishing green issues, banks are calling their products green (which seems to be about cashing in on the word "green" and have nothing to do with environmental sustainability), and many, many consumer products are calling themselves "green". Our society as a whole is becoming ever more aware of how Americans' voracious product consumption is detrimentally impacting our environment. Awareness is the first step toward change, so this is progress. However, to radically move our society to a cleaner, healthier plane of existence, individuals must make a greater personal effort everyday to lessen his or her consumer waste, avoid the use of harmful chemicals and toxins, and choose only whole, organic food.

Focusing on the "reducing consumer waste-ables" front, there is much that the average American can do to make a difference. Unfortunately it seems like most people go on consuming mass quantities of disposable products and when you estimate, how many Americans drink beverages and eat food in throwaway containers -- EVERYDAY -- the numbers are staggering. For example, the Clean Air Council website cites these devastating statistics:

• Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
• The average American office worker goes through around 500 disposable cups every year.
• Sixty-five billion aluminum soda cans are used each year.
• Nearly 44 million American workers purchase or eat lunch out every weekday.
• In the U.S., 4.39 pounds of trash per day and up to 56 tons of trash per year are created by the average person.

Perhaps the average American does nothing to reduce the amount of trash he or she creates because they think "I am just one person," -- if they think about it at all. More likely, they were never taught that it matters and have never seen a landfill.

For consumers who were raised to think the products on the marketplace are perfectly safe and our way of life is sustainable for the Earth, a massive sea change is required, which might seem so overwhelming that one simply continues eating and using the products they've always eaten or used, and thrown away. Adding to the problem is the ever growing offering of disposable consumer products. It's a dualistic dilemma: on one hand, green practices, eco-consciousness, and environmental sustainability are overwhelmingly considered the "right thing to do" yet consumers are offered more disposable, plastic, single-use items than ever before from diapers, wipes, bags, paper goods (paper bads!), take-out containers, drink bottles, cups, lids, insulators, utensils, boxes, and packaging.

It's obvious, our population must stop its daily usage of so many disposable items, so start with one product. That is, make a commitment to quit ONE disposable product.

• Carry water is your own re-usable water bottle. (Eradicating the environmental blight, which is the use of throw-away plastic water bottles is #1.)
  
• Bag your groceries in re-usable bags.
  
• Keep a folded-up, shopping tote in your purse for department store or any other store purchases.
• Bring your own cup to the coffee shop.
• Use cloth diapers. It's easier than you think!
  
• Have take-out restaurants put your food in your own re-usable to-go container.
  

If every American made one of these efforts every day, or better yet, ALL of these efforts everyday, we would see the difference on our city streets, in our green spaces, on the beach and in the ocean.