our part

About a month ago or so Chris and I went to see Wall-E. I love Pixar films, there’s a humor to them that is perfect for adults and entertaining for the kids. Wall-E had that but had a much deeper message to it. It takes place in a future where humans have virutally destroyed the Earth and now live on a space ship completely run by robots. It was a disturbing thought to see…and mostly because how far off from that are we? Robots like Wall-E were designed to clean up the Earth. There is no dialog during first 20 minutes of the film, instead we hear a barrage of beeps, squeeks, and gear shifts as we get to know Wall-E’s character. He’s a lovable character as are his companions EVA and MO.

This movie was a kick in the butt for me. I’d been thinking about ways I could be more green. It’s all over the news now and it’s an issue that really shouldn’t be ignored…and yet I never really got around to it. Until now. Peoria area doesn’t require recycling like the Chicago area does, so I did some research and found a nearby recycling center. Today after work we’re going to drive by and check out the drop off. I want to see if it has hours and days that it’s open. I’m hoping to be able to recycle glass, plastics, and cardboard. This would take a huge chuck out of our garbage load.
For mother’s day/Mom’s birthday this year I bought her some canvas tote bags she requested. She takes them to the grocery store and fills these instead of the plastic bags they offer at the store. For my birthday Mom got me 5 of these bags. I love them! 4 bags alone will hold as much as 10 of the plastic bags. Plus those plastic bags we all throw away b/c we get so many of them never degrade. Think of the hundreds of bags you get each year it’s insane to think where they are all buried slowing the natural bio-degradation process.
We’ve also made some other minor adjustments. We’ve started using the fluorescent light bulbs to save on energy. I realize these have mercury in them but they last so long I’m going to hang on to the few that go bad until we start recycling them. We’ve also started reusing lunch bags and sandwich baggies. They hold the same thing each day and work just as well after three days as they do getting a new one each day.
It might not seem like much, but baby steps are at least little steps in the right direction. Plus I get a good feeling knowing that I’m contributing to making a world where we will only need Wall-E in a movie.

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