INSPIRATION

Move to stop food and plastic + paper waste -- NOW!

The atrocious amount of wasted food / the ridiculous amount of paper and plastic we unthinkingly consume. Why? these accumulate in landfills and over the course of time, end up as methane. With plastic bags, as they disintegrate, they contaminate the soil and then the water supply. On land, cows and other animals are prone to choking on these "hazards" and die unnecessarily. In the ocean, animals mistake plastic for food, with catastrophic consequences.

It is a bit of a myth that simply trying to recycle these plastic and paper bags solves the problem. It does not; it simply makes one problem (that of throwing away these bags) disappear and makes one come up -- the amount of water that goes into recycling paper so it can be reused is enormous, for instance. With plastic, burning it does give petrochemicals but also a host of toxic chemicals.

This is a "simple" but important issue affecting us all. From a moral standpoint, we have NO business wasting so much food when 2/3rds of the world goes hungry at least 2 meals a day. Not just this, it appears supermarkets and food chains in the developed world will usually throw away ANY surplus food than give it to the needy (fear of contamination is their excuse; Tristram Stuart in his brilliant "Waste" lays waste to that argument).

The use of plastic and paper is another glaring example of how much of our lives are run on auto-pilot. When it is actually so easy to carry our own bags, what but an uncaring attitude for the planet and a mental tardiness can explain our refusal to change?

The landfill issues are already affecting our water supply and the oceans as well. Protecting our planet for future generations means taking care of our land and water resources (they are NOT infinite!) wisely.