A little conservation conversation
I wouldn’t exactly say I’m the best at protecting the environment, but I do my part.
I’m not an eco-extremist. I don’t wear hemp clothes. I still drive my regular gas-powered car. I travel on planes. I don’t grow my own produce. I have an air conditioner, which I use when appropriate (for example, +80°). I use paper, but I recycle the old pieces. I’ve been known to buy Starbucks coffee in those disposable paper cups (which is a topic for another blog post). Oh, and I throw some things in the trash.
Wow, this is starting to sound depressing.
Those are the things I don’t do well when it comes to being eco-friendly. But I’d like to think I’ve made some changes to lessen my carbon footprint (with help from @mmagnolia22).
We recycle like crazy. We try to drive her Prius more than my Impala. We have CFLs in our most used lighting fixtures. We buy local. We buy used. We use reuseable bags. We strive to buy things that come in recyclable packaging.
And you know what? It’s not really a hassle at all. It hasn’t changed my shopping habits, it hasn’t made me a hippie.
But I’ve noticed there’s a lot of things I can do in addition to what I’m doing now.
For a long time, when we go to Noodles & Co. on the IUPUI campus we take a bag to be reused. We’ve probably used the same bag for more than 15 trips. It’s thick, durable and not recyclable.
So I decided to try something the other day.
I eat at Subway fairly regularly, and I feel bad throwing out the bags; the closest grocery store and dry cleaner location don’t take back plastic bags. In the past I’ve told them I don’t need the bag, just the paper wrapper. Then they decided to put it in the bag anyway. Obviously that didn’t work.
So a few weeks ago, I took a Subway bag back to the store.
I went through the sandwich making process with an “artist.” I always wonder if they take photos or paint. As I approached the end of the line (you know, where the cookies are), I told them I had my own bag.
They stared at me.
Utterly confused.
Like a… I can’t even think of an example.
I had to explain to them that I had a bag from my last visit, and I would like to reuse the bag. All they had to do was put the food in the bag I handed them, then hand it back. I know it added a step to the process, but I figured it was worth the headache. After working through that situation, I walked out the door, happy with my personal accomplishment. I’m sure they cursed my name.
But just think about if we all reused one bag. Or just took two extra minutes each day to reduce what we send to the landfill.
This isn’t a “global warming,” “conservative,” “liberal,” “Al Gore,” nor “tree-hugger” thing. This is a “why waste so much crap” thing.












