Necessity is the Mother of (Green) Invention
September 19th, 2008 Posted in Business of ecology
When you buy the product, you are buying the package, too. So says my friend Gina who comes half-day on Mondays and a full day on Friday to help me clean up after myself and my family. I finally realized that I am not a slacker mom if I enlist some help around here. And Gina makes it nice.
When I came home today in the middle of the cleaning job, my kitchen looked so great AND she organized inside a problem cabinet, that I literally had tears of joy in my eyes and I hugged her. I feel like a person again!
Another cool thing about Gina is her witty life-lessons that aren’t didactic- they are simply practical. Case in point, see the uploaded image at the top of this post. The “bucket” is used in this case for cleaning solution but she says she uses them at home for organizers in the bedroom, bath or kitchen. In the spring she has used other similar containers as a planter for seedlings or houseplants. Finally, she tried to tell me how you can jazz up the cutting of the container to make it look like a plastic duck that could be fun for kids to put their little toys in, but I didn’t quite see the procedure in my mind’s eye. Maybe sometime I will ask her more on that.
It is perfect timing because about a month ago I purchased an empty plastic bucket for $4.50 and just yesterday the bottom corner got smashed up and broken open somehow and I had to throw it away!! Maddening!
So it seems clear that while recycling is ok and clearly better than tossing refuse into a landfill, it’s not exactly an environmental panacea and may in fact promote the very behavior it’s intended to eliminate – egregious wastefulness. A far superior alternative is Reuse. Why not take something in its present form and reuse it? This concept seems like common sense, but every year billions of pounds of perfectly good stuff ends up in landfills. [from Project Enterprise]
So if you are wary about re-using plastic containers for your food and potables, if you want to reduce the volume of plastic that becomes garbage, or if you are like me and really really want to avoid buying empty buckets that break anyway, take this tip from Health Patio via my friend Gina. Thanks, Gina!
Tags: cleaning, green, invention, mom, recycle, reduce, reuse
