Kermit the frog was right. It’s not easy being green.
I recently bought a stainless steel water bottle to replace the endless stream of plastic bottles I was taking to yoga class. I’m now some tiny percentage greener than before. It’s not much, but, as the yogis teach, no good effort is wasted. I’m glad, because my efforts on behalf of the planet seem a bit spotty to me.
Somehow we talked ourselves into thinking bottled water was a great idea. People in this country paid $11 billion dollars for botted water in 2006. Much of that was packaged in throw-away bottles.
This makes me think back to the cowboy days. In the 1800s people commonly drew their drink of water from a barrel in front of the general store, or at the railway station, using a tin cup that was hanging nearby. Everyone used same cup. The unsanitary aspects of this situation prompted entrepreneur Hugh Moore to start what later became the company famous for making Dixie Cups. (See Getting It Right The Second Time, by Michael Gershman.)
How far we have come in terms of daintiness and hygiene. Now we buy single-use plastic bottles made from foreign oil. But we have some pangs of guilt. Recently both the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times published stories about the guilt pangs many of us feel when we buy those throw-away bottles. We worry about the cost in dollars, or the cost in oil dependence, or the landfill issues, or all three. Now that I have switched, I have all the enthusiasm of the recently converted. This must be how Hummer owners feel when they switch to a Prius.
What finally prompted me to clean up my act? Two of my yogi friends, both of whom teach yoga. Thanks Gloria and Bruce!
