We should also think twice before we buy that. There is a beauty in the reduce, reuse, recycle motto. Reduce your consumption of materials. Reuse it if you do buy it. Recycle it if you don't have any other use for it. I like to turn my glass jars into planters for my variety of plants life I have at home.
Check out the lifespan of the basic materials we use and buy everyday;
Glass: 1 million year! Plastic beverage bottles: 450-1000 years Plastic bag: 500 years to forever! Disposable diapers: 250-500 years Aluminum can: 200-500 years Styrofoam cup: 500 years to forever! (Meaning, it essentially does not biodegrade.) Tin can: 50-100 years Leather: 50 years Nylon fabric: 30-40 years
This should give you a sense of how long your "trash" will live in that landfill it will go to. Our landfills are already over capacity so, let be more conscious of what we buy. Try reusing them when the initial use is done.
PRIVITIZES WATER
Purchasing water contributes to the privatization of water, meaning, it gives corporations permission to bottle up a natural resource (which is provided by the earth free of charge) and sell it back to us for 500x's the price of tap water. Water is a commons, meaning it is for everyone and does not belong to one entity entirely.
ENVIRONMENT
Plastic is made from petroleum and we all know how horrible oil extraction is on the environment.
Air pollution - contributes to climate change with the release of carbon dioxide.
Water pollution - oil spills happen all the time which destroys sea life and pollutes our drinking water.
Deforestation - the removal of trees which we need to filter the air.
Also, only 20% of bottled water is recycled meaning that the remaining 80% end up in our overfilled landfills or in the ocean
Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the U.S.'s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles – more than $1 billion worth of plastic – are wasted each year.
HEALTH
People like to believe that bottled water is more healthy than your local tap water. This is far from he truth. In actuality, tap water is literally 500 x's more regulated than bottled water. Tap water goes through strenuous regulations set by the government while bottled water is usually only tested once by the company and not the government. Also, most of the bottled water on the market today is just purified tap water anyway so it is coming from the same source your tap water is coming from.
“There is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water.”
-Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council
Then there is the fact that it is stored in a plastic bottle which is made from petroleum. The chemicals from the plastic bottle can seep into your bottled water when left in hot temperatures such as a hot car in the summer.
MONEY
You save money when you ditch the bottle. Bottled water is sold at 500x's the amount of tap water. A case of bottled water every week can get pretty pricey when you add it all up in the course of a year. The recommended eight glasses of water a day, at U.S. tap rates equals about $.49 per year; that same amount of bottled water is about $1,400.
Nearly 230,000 people will be added to the world population. Which puts a strain on the worlds limited natural resources.
Approximately 312 miles of tropical rain forest will be bulldozed. Forests are the lungs of the earth. They provide us with the oxygen we need to SURVIVE! They also purify the toxins in the atmosphere. Cutting trees down is like chipping away at our lungs. We need those.
About 127 square miles of land will turn to desert due to poor farming practices (coughMONSANTOcough), overgrazing, and a warming trend caused by pollutants. We need to keep the land healthy in order to remain fed with fruits and vegetables. The livestock industry is a huge culprit here.
This is happening DAILY! Lets do something about it. BE the change you wish to see in the world. One person cannot do everything. But everyone can do SOMETHING.
It all comes down to supply and demand. If we do not demand as much, companies will not need to manufacture and supply as much. This means limiting our consumption. Practice minimalism. Shop at thrift stores. Think twice about buying that new iPhone when yours works fine. Do you really need more clothes? Are those new shoes really necessary?
“People ask me if I want to get a steak and I tell them I actually don’t eat that, or any meat or dairy. They’re usually thinking, ‘Wait, you’re supposed to be small and weak.’ But of course they can’t say that when they’re looking at me.”
I've had people tell me that it is impossible for them (as an athlete) to lead a completely vegan lifestyle because they could not get enough protein. Even though, my rebuttle is always, vegetables have protein too! However, I am no dietitian so I am not one to construct daily meal plans for them to prove my point. But, alas! David Carter, linebacker for the Chicago Bears, has crushed all nay sayers. If he can do it, so can you!
According to GQ, David has a daily intake of 10,000 calories to maintain and gain weight while eating "1.2 grams of protein per pound per day". This man does not miss a meal.
Originally, he became vegan to combat his tendonitis from which the harshness of football bestowed upon him. And wouldn't you know it, after a few months, it disappeared. Actually, David "is leaner and faster now than when he ate animals and their byproducts".
Apparently, he'd soon learn, a life in pain didn't have to be a given. Carter’s life changed when he learned, from a documentary on veganism, that dairy contributes to some forms of tendonitis. His own tendonitis had gotten so bad that he struggled to lift himself out of the bathtub. “I realized I was making everything worse,” he says. “I was feeding the tendonitis, the muscle fatigue, everything. So the next day I went vegan. The first thing I ate was a bean burger and haven’t eaten meat since.”
Here is an example of his what his daily intake looks like;
Breakfast
Oatmeal with hemp protein, bananas and berries
Snack
20 ounce smoothie made with cannellini beans, banana, strawberries, and spirulina
Lunch
Brown rice and black beans topped with avocado and cashew cheese
Snack
Another 20 ounce smoothie
Another lunch
More of the brown rice and black bean combo
Snack
Another 20 ounce smoothie
Dinner
Couscous with onion and garlic, and spinach salad with bell peppers
Snack
Another 20 ounce smoothie
All vegan! So, don't tell me you can't go vegan because you wouldn't be able to maintain your weight. Don't say that you cannot get enough protein in your diet. The proof is in the pudding! Vegan pudding that is.
:)
Concrete Jungle;An urban or other populated area containing a high density of buildings constructed of concrete or similar materials, especially one which lacks greenery and which seems unattractive, harsh, or unsafe
I live by these words;
"We are what we think . All that we are arises with our thoughts . With our thoughts , we make the world . "
-Buddah
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."
-Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
&
"I'm starting with the man in the mirror.
I'm asking him to change his ways.
If you want to make the world a better place,
Take a look at yourself and make the change."
-Michael Jackson
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