Debbie Blank
February 29, 2008 08:36 am
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I’m always coming late to the party. For instance, I began liking the Beatles’ music after they broke up.
I know I should watch Al Gore’s much-praised movie “An Inconvenient Truth” – and I will someday, along with the other 217 DVDs I’ve been meaning to view.
I already know his message. Americans are squandering our earth’s precious resources and we really aren’t being very good stewards of the land. What kind of shape are we leaving it in for our children and grandchildren?
Sometimes I imagine the world of our descendants. No snowball fights because of global warming. Poor air quality because of pollution. When we lived in Mexico City for a year, I learned our sons were breathing air that was so dirty it was like they were smoking two packs a day. Even though the weather was in the 70s, we kept all windows closed and ran air purifiers 24 hours a day. That is not the world I want to live in.
So I was dismayed to learn several years ago that only about one-third of Batesville households recycle. It’s convenient and it’s free. And you have that nice feeling of knowing your stuff is being re-used and not ending up being carted to a landfill.
It seems like I’ve been recycling newspapers forever, even before we moved here. Being a pack rat, our three different subscriptions stack up because I can’t part with them until I look at every section to make sure I don’t miss any news or story ideas. Even though I could put them curbside, being a former 4-H member, I like to recycle them at the little hut behind the Memorial Building so that members of two 4-H clubs can get the proceeds.
I’ve been fortunate to have three earth-conscious friends who have influenced my habits. When we lived in Louisiana, Denise Holly appeared on a TV show talking about the benefits of composting. It made perfect sense to me. When we moved to Batesville, I bought a bin for the backyard and have been throwing kitchen waste, leaves and other vegetation into it ever since.
Bill, who has a much better sense of smell than I do, dreaded the stink of the silver pail under the kitchen sink when I uncovered it to toss in a scrap. After our move, we keep the covered pail in the garage and we’re both happy.
Years ago, one of Tony’s friends, sixth-grader Eric Simmons (remember his parents, Delta pilot Earl and wife Julie, now living in Columbus?), shamed me with one question. When I put a paper napkin before him, he asked, “Mrs. Blank, don’t you have any cloth napkins?” I haven’t bought a paper napkin since.
When I interviewed Hamburg resident Darrin Moorman, an expert on alternative energy solutions, he discouraged me from using restaurant drive-thrus because that habit wastes so much gas.
Recycling can almost be a game. What can I do with this instead of throwing it in the trash? I collect egg cartons for chicken farmers and take books I’m done with to my Indianapolis library sales. Now the Batesville library has a Friends group and they want my books, too.
The Mardi Gras beads our family gathered during eight years of parades used to be used to decorate valentines and Easter eggs. Now I pass them out at Halloween when I run out of other items and am taking some to a school art teacher.
When “An Inconvenient Truth” came out, I asked myself, “Can’t I be doing more?”
I bought two cloth mesh bags from the Food and Growers Association. They remain in my car so when I go grocery shopping I can use those instead of the less durable and smaller plastic ones. Did you know Kroger gives a 5-cent-per-bag discount for doing that? The Batesville store also has reinstated its plastic bag recycling bin in the front lobby.
Now our garage has turned into a temporary recycling center. We stack up cardboard (not just sturdy boxes, but the cardboard that surrounds cereal, toothpaste and frozen foods and holds paper towels) and collect the plastics not accepted curbside in Batesville. The city takes numbers 1 and 2, but not the higher numbers. We have a box for used batteries and another for catalogs and magazines.
Every couple of months, we make a trip to Osgood to the Ripley County Recycling and Re-Use Center, 2710 Hasmer Hill Road, off U.S. 421, which is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
I know what you’re thinking: Driving to Osgood and using all that gas defeats the purpose of recycling. I still think keeping that amount of junk out of a landfill makes sense.
When it was time to purchase a light bulb for a ceiling fan in our new home, I bought my first fluorescent one. Believe it or not, our house does not have gutters. You don’t know how useful those are until they aren’t there. When we add gutters, Bill said he wants to look into having rainwater flow into a barrel for later use on the garden. Just what I was thinking!
I daydream that my next car will be a Prius, an electric/gas hybrid that gets around 50 miles per gallon. Or will it be a Honda Civic Hybrid I can watch being built in Greensburg?
My stylist said, “Ugh, that car is ugly.” I answered, “You’re missing the point.” Vehicles like those are our hope for the future.
Kermit was right. It’s not easy being green.
But it sure seems worth it.
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