Saving the planet: Recycled ideas

By Ruel S. De Vera, Associate Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

THE BRIT band Oasis had a pretty catchy song called “Little by Little,” and that encapsulates what I think about protecting the environment. There are many important and high-profile tasks to be accomplished by people around the world, but personal responsibility is often forgotten. After all, those folks are saving the whales and preventing global warming, so why me worry?

Yet I try my little bit everyday. Small steps, but a steady pace. The footprint humanity leaves on the planet is terrible enough (check out the supremely scary “The World Without Us” by Alan Wiesman if you don’t believe me), but every little bit can’t hurt. The commonsensical tips, like turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth, aren’t hard, just hard to remember.

Perhaps the most commonly forgotten step is recycling, and I don’t mean segregation. It really doesn’t make any sense when we’re asked to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable and then the folks in charge of garbage just mix them back together anyway. We feel like we’re doing something but it’s just a placebo. Make sure it stays segregated, and we have a deal.

But on an everyday basis, we need to keep it up. Try recycling as much as you can. This can work. For example, don’t throw away those cardboard boxes, they can be used as containers. Same thing goes for empty bottles, whether plastic or glass.

But this is particularly important when it comes to plastic bags. We really are a plastic bag nation, with stores just handing out those bags big time. Interestingly, we’ve always considered the plastic bag rather useful. Remember those old National Book Store and SM Department Store bags? So do the same, keep using them, so long as they’re clean or have been thoroughly cleaned (same thing applies to the boxes and bottles, of course). You’ll be surprised how many plastic bags we go through when we’re not aware of it.

That’s only half the process of course. The other half has to do with not using new ones. So try to say no when they try to give you the plastic bag. Stores usually comply rather conscientiously when it comes to this. Remember, they actually wind up saving an incremental amount, too.

If the store insists that a bag has to be used because of security issues, then it’s time to bring your own bag. Rustan’s Fresh Supermarket follows this line of thinking, with cloth bags available for sale, and discounts for their users in the long run. That cloth bag can be very practical, particularly when it comes to heavy groceries. For those who use two plastic bags so that your groceries don’t fall through the bag bottom, cut it out. Use a cloth bag, please.

There are others: go paperless with your bills. Switch off the lights and air-conditioner or TV when leaving the room. It sounds simple but so few people remember. It’s the little things we forget. I don’t know if we can save the world by doing this, but it certainly can’t hurt. Oh, one more thing.

Start right now, please.

Read the Sunday Inquirer Magazine’s Earth Day issue on April 27.