Monday, January 14, 2008

More green = more green

I have finally gotten around to watching An Inconvenient Truth, or as I like to call it The Really Cool Power Point. It's a startling movie. I have to say that one of my favorite parts was actually the credits when they offered bits of wisdom: "When you pray, use your feet." - African Proverb. The movie's website is great and has a very cool tab where you can look for ways to take action. This got my mind going. It seems that some of my money saving tactics are helping the environment and that in helping the environment, I can save money. I save the Earth, the Earth saves me money. Cool!

I'm a fan of hydration. If I go for a run, I end of drinking nearly a bottle of water per mile during and post run. In general, I drink about 4 bottes of water each day. What the hell am I doing?!?! According to the Container Recycling Institute, the oil it takes per year to make plastic water bottles in the US could fuel about 100,000 cars for that year. Think about that when you go buy a bottle while filling up your gas tank. And, only 23% of those bottles are recycled. Nice.

My solution: I'm getting the gallon water jugs at the store and will pay $.35 at the local water place to get them filled. I figure that average weekly consumption is about 3 gallons. That's $39 a year for water. In order to make it easier, I'll treat myself to the $8 32 oz. Nalgene bottle that can be washed and reused. So, $48 a year. I would have spent $4 on 24 bottles of water for the week so this will save me $160 a year. Not a huge savings but it's worth it monetarily and environmentally. Again, good for the karma, good for the wallet.

I have more ideas and more plans. Check back in a few days when I've had some time to do a little more research on some things. I'm feeling good about this!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a great idea..I usually buy the gallon jugs rather than individual bottles. It saves money. But I wasn't aware of how much oil it takes to produce that bottled water. Interesting!

Unknown said...

You're right. That was the coolest powerpoint ever. Far too many people are unaware of the impact they have on their environment.

MelissaQ said...

UGH, I saw that on Oprah the other day and it freaked me out, I never knew that it took that kind of energy to make one stinkin bottle of water, I guess I'm gonna have to stop being lazy and go buy that water filter for my fridge, By the way, Have you ever gone by a blog called mommygetspaid.blogspot.com. She has a great blog and great money making tips, I have some to, but not nearly the amount she has.

Little Dough Girl said...

The mere thought of the bottles oogs me out at this point. When I went hiking on Sunday, they had a big ol' recycling bin for water bottles. It wasn't even full and there were dozens in the trash cans. What is wrong with these people? Okay, done being high and mighty...

And I LOVE mommygetspaid.com. She and I are frequent readers of each other. Great lady.