A really informative issue - the April 2010 Invitation Oxford magazine is on the stands everywhere in Oxford - pick up a copy today, or read the great cover stories on their website - http://invitationoxford.com/content.html
And don't forget to recycle your hardcopy when you're done with it!
The cover stories in this issue follow the Earth Day subjects of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. All three of the Green movement's Rs are so important! But personally - I find myself putting REDUCING at the top of my list. When I use the term reducing - I primarily mean the reducing of purchasing and of consuming so many products with environmentally unfriendly packaging. There are many more ways to reduce, such as reducing the use of energy, which you can read about in Jesse Wright's article about the Doyle family on page 38.
The reason that I am reducing my use of products that can be recycled, or refraining from the purchase of some consumer items that I know can also be recycled, is the fact that I'm not sure where the packaging for so many items goes after I recycle it.
I continue to recycle, of course, but my latest concern is that final destination of so many plastic bottles and containers. In the Recycle article by Katie Morrison in the latest Invitation Oxford issue, one learns that the Oxford-Lafayette Recycling Center has grown exponentially since 2002, and is even turning a profit these days. I loved seeing the pic of Amberlyn Liles, the director of the OLRC. She always responds promptly to my emails, and I was thrilled to put a face with a name as I have not met her in person. (She's so cute! What a great pic!) The article states,
"Oxford's recyclables go on to live another life as diaper filler, feminine hygiene products, roofing shingles, Patagonia pullovers, carpets, cereal boxes and playground jungle gyms, among other products."
The article does not go in to any detail about who takes the crushed cans on to be recycled, or how the paper gets turned into more paper products that Oxonians, in fact, use again. We only see the photo of the cans, paper and plastic saved from the landfill and awaiting recycling.
I challenge Oxonians and Mississippians alike to reconsider the purchasing of so many products with plastic and/or excess packaging. Just because we can recycle it, does not make it environmentally friendly to go overboard with the purchasing of so many plastic items, such as bottled water, for example. Many of the items we throw into our recycling bins are shipped to other countries to be downcycled into lower quality products. In the end, these new items are not recycled but end up in landfills in other nations.
Watch The Story of Stuff Project's The Story of Bottled Water video below:
No comments:
Post a Comment