It’s Kind Of Easy Being Green

Am I the only one that gets upset when people aren’t even a little bit green?

Okay, so this is how I see it: We live in this beautiful, sometimes even breathtaking world, so why not try to be eco-friendly?

I recently went on a trip to Aruba and that “one happy island” seems to be super environmentally friendly. They just changed their famous Aruba aloe bottles to all 100% recyclable materials and the hotel I stayed at asked guests to try to conserve water and recycle. Seeing this made me want to write about it.

In 2009, I read about something called the Plastiki, a boat made out of 12,500 plastic bottles and other recycled plastics. The boat sailed across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia. Plastiki was built to raise awareness about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a huge patch of plastic garbage floating in the ocean. They say it’s about double the size of Texas! Their mission was to show people that we wouldn’t have these garbage patches if we added recycling, reducing and reusing into our everyday lives.

So here are some easy ways to be a little green:

• Don’t Litter. How can this be something that has to be said? I feel like this should be a given, but I’ve seen so many people litter in just the past week. I’ve seen a person throw trash out of their car window onto the street.  I went on a boat ride with my family and saw that someone had lunch on the beach and left everything there. As the tide came up, it swept away the foil containers and plastic mayo holders.

Recently, Kelly Oxford posted an Instagram of people emptying all of their trash out of their van on the side of the road. Classy. Pure laziness. I can’t even comprehend how a person could think that’s fine.

Just don’t do it. Okay?

• Use a Reusable Bag. Plastic bags bug me. Of course, sometimes I forget my reusable bag at home and need to use them. I say just try to cut down how many we use. I hate seeing them stuck in trees around the city or floating around when it’s windy and almost flying into my face.

I love Katy Perry, but wouldn’t it be awesome if the lyric, “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag; Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again?” became even more irrelevant than it already is.

• Recycle.  In some places, you can get fined for not recycling. I feel like it should be that way everywhere. Recycling is pretty easy and we should all be doing it.

I came up with a slogan for recycling- “You (photo of a can) Recycle!” So Don Draper, right? Okay. Okay. Fine, maybe not. Maybe, it’s more of a Chandler Bing slogan. Also, it’s probably been done before.

• Reusable Cup/Bottle. While working, I saw so many coffee cups being used and thrown out every day. If only everyone brought their own cup, there would be way less waste. The company would even save money. By carrying around your own water bottle, you could save money. Also, you wouldn’t have to worry about where you’re going to find water.

Starbucks sells a reusable cup for a dollar. (I think they still have it.) That’s crazy awesome. I usually use the ones with the straw, like these.

Don’t want to brag, but one time I got 3rd place in a reusable challenge that pro-snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler had. (My video was actually terrible. I don’t even know how I placed. It’s embarrassing, but if you want to see it, let me know.)

So I’m not the most “green” person ever, but I do try and I think everyone should at least try to be a green.

Featured Image via tumblr. (p.s. how cool is the cover image? I was so excited when I found it!)