Mission 3 Accomplished

I remember one time when Kasara was little, we had gone bowling and after we said goodbye to our friends and drove away she started crying inconsolably. I finally got her to stop long enough to tell me what was wrong. She was panicked because her dad had left his 32 ounce drink in the parking lot and he was just moments away from turning into a litter bug. When I lived in Texas the motto was, " Don't mess with Texas!" and it was always important to me not to litter. I believe that this earth was a gift and it is our responsibility to maintain it's beauty. On the other hand though all this eco-friendly business has not been very important to me. It's been hard for me to see how one person can really make a difference. So I did my research and this is what I found. There is a lot of information out there about eco-friendly materials. I learned that bamboo is really durable and easily replenished. It takes about 3 years to replace a bamboo crop but much longer to replace a tree. Cotton seems to be the foundation of all clothes but it isn't green because it is treated with pesticides. Hemp is another green material that was mentioned. It yields 250% more fiber an acre than cotton. And don't worry, according to my resources hemp will only get you high on life and the environment. Organic cotton is being produced with synthetic fertilizers and no toxic pesticides. I tried to find bio-friendly personal care materials but most links took me to websites trying to sell stuff. I did find out however that there are disposable utensils you can buy that are made out of cornstarch biocompostables. One of my quirks is that I can't eat icecream with a metal spoon. :P So this is information that I can use. A few words kept coming up in my research. First of all, obviously, eco-friendly is used to describe activities which are good for the environment. Renewable resources can be replenished and are reproduced easily. Biodegradable means the dissolution of materials by bacteria or other biological means. Approximated Time for Compounds to Biodegrade Product Time to Biodegrade Vegetables 5days- 1 month Paper 2-5 months Cotton Tshirts 6 months Orange Peels 6 months Trees Leaves 1 year Wool Socks 1-5 years Plastic Coated Milk Carton 5 years Leather Shoes 24-40 years Nylon Fabric 30-40 years Tin Cans 50-100 years Aluminum Cans 80-100 years Glass Bottles 1 million years Styrofoam Cups 500 years- forever Plastic Bags 500 years- forever I am going to set a goal to recycle glass because it can be made into many new things and it takes quite a while (1 million years) to decompose. Also, those dang shopping bags. Don't you hate seeing them blowing around and stuck in trees? I use them a lot to line bed and bathroom trash cans but sometimes when I get to many I just throw them away. From now on I'll take the excess to Walmart to be recycled. The website I used for a lot of my info was ecosalon.com. It has a link on the left of where you can find eco-friendly businesses near you. I'm going to look up where to recycle glass!