Despite the fact that there are regulations in place for our public drinking water treatment systems, the water is not safe to drink. The Environmental Protection Agency knows this, as they are the ones that oversee the treatment centers. The EPA has made efforts to educate people about the hazards that they face when drinking tap water, and of the options that they have.

You probably have an understanding of what your options are already. You can boil your water in order to clean it, you can buy bottled water, or you can invest in a drinking water purification system. The whole point is that no matter which option you choose, you’ve got to do something to avoid falling victim to the toxins in your tap water.

The public drinking water treatment systems are very limited in their ability to provide us with clean drinking water. The equipment that they use simply isn’t efficient in order to complete the task that is asked of it.

Even though chlorine disinfection has done a great deal of good in ridding us of the threat of most of the serious waterborne diseases, there are parasites that still remain despite the chlorine.

These microbes, such as cryptosporidium, do pose a threat to the general public. However, the threat is greater for some than it is for others.

For most of us, these parasites will only cause some intestinal discomfort, but for the very old, the very young, or for those with compromised immune systems they could spell big trouble. These people need to take the precaution of getting a drinking water purification system.

The EPA states that people with health issues such as AIDS, cancer patients that are undergoing chemotherapy and those on transplant medications “may want to take additional precautions” in order to ensure their safety. They won’t publicly commit to the fact that there are serious problems with our drinking water treatment systems, but at least their suggestion is a start.

If you do believe that you “may” want to follow the advice of the EPA, they further suggest that the use of a drinking water purification system that utilizes a sub-micron filter unit in order to trap the cryptosporidium cysts, as well as others, “may” be wise.

However, they do not recommend that you switch over to bottled water, unless you first contact the bottler in order to be clear about the drinking water treatment systems that they use.

If the bottler doesn’t use a drinking water purification system that utilizes sub-micron technology, or will not commit to whether the technology is used or not, then pass on buying that company’s products. Bottled water is not required by the EPA to be any safer than tap water. It is only required to be “as safe,” and that is of no use to you as far as your health is concerned.

There are many problems that the EPA recognizes with regards to the way drinking water treatment systems handle our water, but they will only go so far as to say that we “may” want to protect ourselves. That’s very kind of them to take that measure of responsibility, isn’t it?

Hopefully, you will take on that responsibility for yourself and your family. Investigate further and get the high quality home water purification system that you need and deserve.

Want to live off your land? More people are pursuing a lifestyle of self-reliance, depending upon themselves for their food and making a living by homesteading. If you long to get off the office treadmill and onto your own land, here are fifteen crucial steps you should take to pursue your life of freedom:

Get out of debt

As any farmer will tell you, unless you own a corporation with hundreds, if not thousands of acres, you won’t make a fabulous income living off the land. Those farmers who do own hundreds of acres and thousands of dollars worth of equipment (along with the mortgages to prove it) are struggling to get by. The secret is to live simply and downsize. Sell that newer car with those high car payments and buy a used model, preferably with no payments. Stop eating out as much and use that extra money to pay off your loans.

Get some land

You don’t need hundreds of acres, but if you want to live off your land, you will need at least five. You will want enough space for a good sized garden, along with some farm animals. Live in town? Consider selling or renting that house and buying a used manufactured home set on a small acreage instead. Many people do it and live quite comfortably - and debt free.

Learn to grow your own food

Put in a lot of raised beds and grow potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and other vegetables. Learn to preserve your food through canning, drying and freezing, so that you go to your pantry instead of the grocery store, cutting down on cost and time.

Raise chickens

These wonderful birds will supply you with eggs, meat, and even income if you raise enough of them. Fresh chicken eggs are easy to sell. These eggs are delicious, and if they come from chickens who have eaten mostly grass and insects - chickens who live in chicken tractors, for example - they are also far healthier and more valuable than the store-bought brand.

Get your goat

Goats will supply you with milk, meat and cheese. Control their diet - only hay and grains - and your goat’s milk will taste exactly like cow’s milk, only sweeter. Plus, many people are realizing the health benefits of raw goat’s milk, making it a marketable product. Get two or three female goats - or does - along with a billy goat, and you will have enough milk for your family and some extra to sell to cover your cost.

Diversify what you sell

Many people who try living off the land make the mistake of raising a single product in large supply and then selling it. But if the crop fails, then you are in trouble. Instead, raise a small supply of several items to sell. Sell chicken eggs and goat’s milk, honey and produce when it’s in season. That way if one item fails to produce, you have others to fall back on.

Avoid the exotic

A few years ago, raising ostriches were all the rage. At least they were until those raising them realized not many people are willing to eat ostrich meat. It is far wiser to stick with the standard fare - chickens, pigs, and beef, for example. Raising something unusual and hoping to get rich off it - like many get-rich-quick schemes -usually leaves you with an empty pocketbook and an animal nobody wants and you have to feed.

Raise only what you want to eat

This goes with the ostrich example above. If you don’t sell those hundreds of bushels of Swiss chard, then be prepared to eat them. If you don’t enjoy them that much, then don’t grow them.

Be prepared to learn a new trade

My grandfather was a plumber, and even during the depression, he prospered. During hard times, people might not need an insurance adjuster, but they will need someone who can fix their leaky pipes. Consider learning carpentry, electrical work or mechanics. Learn to make practical, useful items that you can sell or barter with.

Simplify

Do you really need three television sets? They use electricity even when they are not running. How about that 3,000 square foot home? Do you really need all that space, and all that clutter you accumulated to fill it? Learn to live on less. Cleaning and protecting all those things simply takes up precious time and money.

Give up driving

You won’t be able to homestead successfully if you are driving into town everyday for one thing or another. If you are a soccer mom and trying to homestead, you are going to become exhausted in a hurry. Caring for livestock is a full time job that requires you to spend a lot of time on your land. Plus, the gas and wear and tear on your car is expensive. If you don’t like staying at home, the homestead life may not be for you.

Don’t go it alone

Don’t try to homestead by yourself. Accidents can happen, and when you live in the country, there will be few neighbors who will hear you call for help. If you are single, consider finding one or two like-minded individuals who will room with you and share expenses.

Join a community

Find others in your area passionate about homesteading. Look for a local online group or start one. Go to your nearby feed store and see if they offer classes on animal husbandry. Sign up for an organic gardening class. All of these will get you in touch with people who can share information with you and who will encourage you.

Give back

Be willing to help those who are just starting out. There’s an old phrase that rings true: what goes around, comes around. Make certain that what goes around from you is positive, rather than negative.

Embrace hard work

The homestead life is wonderful, but it does involve a lot of hard, physical labor. You will be lifting hay bales, roping contrary critters and moving chicken tractors. I personally love the hard work (and the great sleep I get each night), but if you prefer a desk job, then naturally, the homesteading life probably isn’t for you.

Think you can do these fifteen things? Then start working on getting out of debt and go forward! A life of freedom and purpose awaits you.

It is nearly impossible these days to open the newspaper, turn on the TV, or listen to the radio without seeing a headline or hearing someone commentary on global warming. Clearly, a lot of the evidence we see in the media today makes a strong point to its existence. Polar ice shelves appear to be receding, ocean levels seem to be rising, and deadly hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes are constantly in the news. At the same time, there is abundant evidence that we are merely experiencing a natural warming trend. In the last two years there have been multiple regional records set for coldest temperatures on record and amount of snow precipitation.

Here in Mendon, Utah, it is near the end of July and there are still several small snow packs visible atop the gorgeous Wellsville Mountains. In my mind, the jury is still out on the possibility that global temperatures are rising due to human industrialization. However, I do strongly believe we as human-beings have an obligation to act responsibly with the earth’s natural resources. And I believe there are many easy ways each of us can do our part.

Recycle. Recycling takes effort. It is without question much easier to just throw whatever we no longer want or need into our garbage can and let the county or city magically make it disappear. Recycling usually involves storing and then hauling the recyclable items to locations that accept whatever it is we wish to recycle. Some are fortunate enough to have recycling programs that are offered at their curbside. In our place of business we have different boxes or bins for paper, cardboard, aluminum, and plastic. Once the pile becomes too large to handle, either I or someone else will bag the items and haul them to our homes or to other collection sites. It does involve effort. Since we are throwing it out anyways, we might as well put it into the hands of other industries that have a need for these materials. We can either do something now or we can wait several hundreds of years for aluminum, glass, and plastic to break-down. Other items that we should consider recycling are printer cartridges, glass, used car oil, and “green” waste.

Conserve electricity. This is a major issue around our home with four boys under the age of eleven running. I believe we all understand that electricity is generated by burning coal, natural gas, or by splitting atoms. More and more electricity is becoming available through renewable resources such as hydro-plants, wind farms, and solar plants. So it goes without saying that the more electricity we use the more of our precious natural resources will be spent in its generation and the more pollutants will be released into our atmosphere. Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) use less than a fourth of the electricity needed to power a traditional light bulb. Using Energy Star appliances will also reduce our energy consumption. Purchasing a programmable thermostat makes it easy to heat or cool our homes when we truly need it not when we are usually at work, sleeping, or on vacation. Just think of all the electronic gadgets that you own now that were not even available when you were growing up. These are all plugged in 24/7 and sucking electricity. There are many creative ways we can use less and at the same time lower our bills.

Do not litter. Let’s face it - litter is ugly. I spent two years serving my church as a missionary in northern Germany. Each week we would strive for at least four hours of community service. I spent six months in Bielefeld and we did not always have abundant opportunities to serve in this particular city so we would spend most of our service hours picking up trash around the park, our apartment complex, or the subway station. I would consider Germany and Europe in general as much cleaner than most of the United States; however, we still gathered tons and tons of trash. It beautified our surroundings and we felt good doing it. If each of us threw all of our own trash in the garbage - there would be no litter. This sounds like common sense, but if each of us would only concentrate on ourselves we would see a huge improvement in the natural beauty of our surroundings.

These points are not new. We have all heard them before, but hopefully they will cause you to pause and reflect what you can change in your own world. I don’t know if the polar bear will be extinct in 40 years, or if Miami will be covered in 50 feet of ocean water someday; but I believe there are many things we can do today to respect and live in harmony with this earth we call home.

It is nearly impossible these days to open the newspaper, turn on the TV, or listen to the radio without seeing a headline or hearing someone commentary on global warming. Clearly, a lot of the evidence we see in the media today makes a strong point to its existence. Polar ice shelves appear to be receding, ocean levels seem to be rising, and deadly hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes are constantly in the news. At the same time, there is abundant evidence that we are merely experiencing a natural warming trend. In the last two years there have been multiple regional records set for coldest temperatures on record and amount of snow precipitation.

Here in Mendon, Utah, it is near the end of July and there are still several small snow packs visible atop the gorgeous Wellsville Mountains. In my mind, the jury is still out on the possibility that global temperatures are rising due to human industrialization. However, I do strongly believe we as human-beings have an obligation to act responsibly with the earth’s natural resources. And I believe there are many easy ways each of us can do our part.

Recycle. Recycling takes effort. It is without question much easier to just throw whatever we no longer want or need into our garbage can and let the county or city magically make it disappear. Recycling usually involves storing and then hauling the recyclable items to locations that accept whatever it is we wish to recycle. Some are fortunate enough to have recycling programs that are offered at their curbside. In our place of business we have different boxes or bins for paper, cardboard, aluminum, and plastic. Once the pile becomes too large to handle, either I or someone else will bag the items and haul them to our homes or to other collection sites. It does involve effort. Since we are throwing it out anyways, we might as well put it into the hands of other industries that have a need for these materials. We can either do something now or we can wait several hundreds of years for aluminum, glass, and plastic to break-down. Other items that we should consider recycling are printer cartridges, glass, used car oil, and “green” waste.

Conserve electricity. This is a major issue around our home with four boys under the age of eleven running. I believe we all understand that electricity is generated by burning coal, natural gas, or by splitting atoms. More and more electricity is becoming available through renewable resources such as hydro-plants, wind farms, and solar plants. So it goes without saying that the more electricity we use the more of our precious natural resources will be spent in its generation and the more pollutants will be released into our atmosphere. Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) use less than a fourth of the electricity needed to power a traditional light bulb. Using Energy Star appliances will also reduce our energy consumption. Purchasing a programmable thermostat makes it easy to heat or cool our homes when we truly need it not when we are usually at work, sleeping, or on vacation. Just think of all the electronic gadgets that you own now that were not even available when you were growing up. These are all plugged in 24/7 and sucking electricity. There are many creative ways we can use less and at the same time lower our bills.

Do not litter. Let’s face it - litter is ugly. I spent two years serving my church as a missionary in northern Germany. Each week we would strive for at least four hours of community service. I spent six months in Bielefeld and we did not always have abundant opportunities to serve in this particular city so we would spend most of our service hours picking up trash around the park, our apartment complex, or the subway station. I would consider Germany and Europe in general as much cleaner than most of the United States; however, we still gathered tons and tons of trash. It beautified our surroundings and we felt good doing it. If each of us threw all of our own trash in the garbage - there would be no litter. This sounds like common sense, but if each of us would only concentrate on ourselves we would see a huge improvement in the natural beauty of our surroundings.

These points are not new. We have all heard them before, but hopefully they will cause you to pause and reflect what you can change in your own world. I don’t know if the polar bear will be extinct in 40 years, or if Miami will be covered in 50 feet of ocean water someday; but I believe there are many things we can do today to respect and live in harmony with this earth we call home.

The world’s wetlands contain approximately 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, namely carbon dioxide and methane which is equal to one fifth of the entire earth’s store of carbon.

If the world’s wetlands are destroyed they could release this powerful carbon bomb and unleash a climatic catastrophe upon the planet. As if we weren’t in bad enough shape as it is. Climate change and development are destroying large areas of wetland, and as they are drained, or built upon, their huge stores of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.

If all of the wetlands on earth released all of their store of greenhouse gases, there could be a rapid and catastrophic rise in global temperatures. The likelihood of all these gases being released is, of course, very slim. But even a fraction would have a significant impact.

Wetlands include swamps, marshes, river deltas, river flood plains, lagoons, mangroves and even peat bogs and tundra. These wetlands account for approximately 6% of the planet’s land surface, but store 20% of it’s carbon. In the past these wetlands have been destroyed, being viewed as an impediment rather than an aid to civilization. In the past century almost 59% of these wetlands have been wiped out worldwide. This has occurred through drainage for agriculture mostly, although other types of urban development have also contributed, such as peat cutting and groundwater pumping.

Rising sea levels could also change the salinity of these wetlands and in some cases inundate them completely. As with so many global warming issues, it is virtually impossible to predict the exact impact of this “carbon bomb”. However what is for certain is that it is cheaper and far more viable to rehabilitate the wetlands rather than trying to build artificial flood control to stem the flow of more frequent and devastating storms and floods, likely in a warmer world.

A more difficult issue to deal with is the northern tundra where billions of tons of carbon are locked up in the frozen ground. As global temperatures rise this will be released, fueling more global warming in an unending vicious circle. This release may be unstoppable in the northern climes but there is still time for the warmer wetlands to be rescued.

I guess it is all down to priorities once again. Wetlands have a poor public image as being a considerable waste of land which could be used for more beneficial purposes. And yet we are much more in favour of saving the rain forest. Both the wetlands and rain forest need to be preserved in equal measure, and maybe if we are better educated about the environmental benefits of the wetlands then we may yet stave off the carbon bomb.

Laziness is probably at the root of this problem, Trash. Everywhere you look there is trash on the roads in the medians, on your lawn, broken beer and alcohol bottles in the middle of the street. What the heck is your problem. People, you know who you are, get off your butt, walk fifty feet and throw it in the trash can.

Have you ever been to someones house and thought “how disgusting,how gross” That you could never live like that. Dirty laundry laying all over the bedroom, dirty dishes in the sink that were there four days previously, trash and wrappers all over the floors, empty bottles or full ones all over the coffee tables. I could go on but you get the point. All the while this person who you are gracing with your presence is lounging around in their underwear complaining that there is nothing on television.

Is it that we are allergic to cleaning or are we just so nasty that we see past or disgusting ways? the most typical trash deposits are grocery stores, shopping malls, shopping centers and highways. i recently read an article that quoted “a tourist complained that there were no trash cans nearby so they dumped their trash out of their car, here is a solution. TAKE IT WITH YOU! Find a place to throw it away.” It is that simple.

I have known people that had so much trash in their cars you couldn’t even get in the seat. Explain to me the problem here. It may take only five minutes to clean out your trash. Heck take an hour clean your house, wash your clothes wash the dishes. You obviously took the time to make the food, take the time to clean the dishes you ate off of. You don’t have an endless supply of clothes so take the time to clean the ones you have.

How many of us have been driving down the road only to see someone flick their cigarette butt out the window of their cars with no regard to other drivers. there is a reason car manufacturers build a car with an ashtray.

Delving a bit deeper, Public restrooms are extremely nasty. Sometimes you wonder if anyone cleans them at all. Walking into a public restroom to find the floors soaking wet with toilet paper thrown everywhere, Urine on the seats and clogged toilets and dirty sinks. Is it too hard for businesses to have someone walk into a public restroom every hour or so to check on the cleanliness? It is nauseating, And then you think, “there are actually people out there that are that nasty and have no regards for public health or their fellow man”

Laziness, that’s all it is. The mentality of the public is that someone else will clean it up, and it is not your problem, but soon it becomes everyone’s problem, because we all have to walk through it and step over it.

Pick up your trash, throw that cup in a trash can and not out your car window, walk twenty feet to a trash can, Flush your toilet, and wipe off the seats, you know who you are.

You ride down the road everyday and see tons of trash littering the sides of the roads and in parking lots, and it is sad to think that all the trash scattered across your own city could probably fill a few thousand dumpsters.

Laziness and total disregard is at the root of the problem, however, the same people that litter are probably the same people that have a spotless house, go figure that one. Perhaps it is those who litter are the same ones who have a nasty house, I suppose you just can’t tell,…. Just pick up your trash.

Global warming. For the last few years it has become a very much talked about and hotly debated topic. Is it real or is it just so much hogwash generated by uninformed scare tacticians trying to suppress free enterprise? Changing weather patterns around the globe seem to indicate that the earth may in fact be in the midst of a global warming cycle. Scientific data shows that the earth’s temperature is gradually rising and climate changes are being seen in areas all around the world as a result. We are already seeing moderate rising of sea levels. Storms are becoming more severe. Areas which don’t normally receive much precipitation are documenting higher than normal rainfall. Areas which would normally experience good rainfall levels are receiving less and less.

The ozone layer over the south pole is being depleted allowing more radiation from the sun to enter earth’s atmosphere helping to raise global temperatures, causing the arctic and antarctic ice caps to melt to levels not known of in thousands and thousands of years. Glaciers in various locations around the world once thought to be semi permanent are melting off and receding at alarming rates. The implications to mankind are enormous and potentially devastating. One half to two thirds of the worlds population live in coastal or low lying areas which could be totally eliminated by rising sea levels brought about by the melting of earth’s polar ice caps. Society as we know it could be totally devastated. Major coastal cities totally wiped out or at the very least made partly or completely uninhabitable. Agriculture severely crippled. World commerce severely disrupted. And the more the earth’s temperature rises the faster the effect is amplified. Some scientists are predicting that global temperatures could rise by ten to twenty degrees and sea levels rise as much as twenty feet or more by the middle of this century due to accelerated global warming.

Quite a scary scenario for our future and our coming generations future. But what is causing this phenomena? Is it all part of some sort of natural cycle of the earth or is it somehow being caused or at least intensified by the way we live and use and abuse the resources of our planet? It is very possible that it is part of a normal cycle of climate changes that the earth has experienced since it was created. The earth has gone through numerous climate changes including ice ages and periods of tropic and Sub-tropic forestation since it was created and started to evolve. But it is also quite possible that this warming cycle is being amplified by human interaction with the atmosphere which protects the earth. Interaction in the form of fossil fuels which emit carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air which help trap greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Industrial air pollution and pollution from the cars we drive are very possibly the main culprits in the effects we are seeing and experiencing with our atmosphere. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century and the birth of the industrial age, pollution levels in our atmosphere have been steadily rising and as more of the world becomes industrialized the problem only gets worse as long as that industrialization relies on fossil fuels.

What can we as individuals do to help stem this rise in the pollution of our atmosphere and the possible contribution to global warming caused by the use of fossil fuels as our principal means of running our societies? First we can demand that our governments work on developing more earth friendly forms of energy. Wind, solar, geothermal, and other forms of energy which don’t emit harmful toxins into the atmosphere. Second, we can make changes in our personal lives which will help reduce the amount of pollution we as individuals create. The largest culprit among us is the cars we drive. Cars which use fuels which are improperly formulated to burn properly because oil companies formulate their fuels to only burn efficiently enough to actually allow our cars to operate, so that they can make as much money as they can off of their products without regard to the consequences to our planet.

Slowly, alternative fuels and fuel alternatives are being developed. Ethanol, Natural gas, hydrogen, biodeisel along with electric and solar powered vehicles. Hybrid cars which combine part time electric drives with conventional gas powered engines. These are all potential solutions to the pollution problems caused by our automobiles. Yet their full potential remains years away from full commercial development. However there are ways to actually make our present cars run better by improving the fuel mixture so it burns more completely thus eliminating the vast majority of pollution caused by the unburned fuel emitted as unburned hydrocarbon pollution. This can, thanks to committed independent inventors be easily and economically accomplished by incorporating hydroxy gas systems into our present cars. Hydroxy gas systems break down H2O into a burnable gas which when combined with the gasoline/air mixture creates a much better and cleaner burning fuel mixture which will eliminate almost all of the pollution emitted by our cars, but also increase the car’s gas milage substantially because these systems cause the gasoline to be almost completely burned up in the engine the way it should be if it was properly formulated to begin with by the oil companies.

These systems can be purchased pre built for a few hundred dollars or with proper plans can be easily constructed from readily obtainable materials for under a hundred dollars. There are numerous people and commercial entities who try to dispel and suppress this information either because they are too disbelieving that these systems can actually work or more importantly are the commercial entities who realize that these systems do in fact work and if people implemented this technology into their cars that these entities profits would be drastically affected.

It is ultimately up to each one of us to change the way we do things and do what we can to help reverse the damage which we as a race of people have done to the health of the planet which sustains us and all living things on this planet. Whether though real shortage of oil supplies are due to market speculation, if something like the cost of gas rising to five or ten dollars a gallon forces us to make those changes, then ultimately that is a good thing regardless of how much it forces us to change our lifestyles or the short term hardships it might impose on us compared to the effect of killing the only atmosphere we have.

Everyone has some plastic bags in their home. You know the ones. They give them out “free” at the supermarket. Sometimes they hold one or two things and we wonder why we even got a bag. And other times they are so overloaded the ice cream is at risk of falling out of the bottom. Yes, they seem to be a part of everyday life but what else do we use them for? Here is a humorous and eye opening look at 4 ideas for other uses for plastic bags… (and a better alternative)!

1. Mummification - Has the beloved family pet last day come and gone. Why not preserve Fluffy as a mummy and keep him around for awhile? Just wrap him up in those plastic bags you’ve been holding on to, and find a good spot for him in the back yard! Those bags take hundreds of years to decompose, and so will Fluffy! Our country’s landfills have been holding on to these bags for years and they are only just beginning to leech chemicals into the soil.

2. Lawn Chair Flight - Ever heard of those guys who fly away on their lawn chair by tying a bunch of helium filled balloons to it? Take 582 of those bags you have at home (I know you keep that many around) and tie the handles together. Fill each with helium and attach them to your favorite outdoor lounger and away you go! Don’t forget that the bags are very flimsy and tend to break at the worst times… remember that ice cream that fell out of the bottom of the bag last week and splattered all over the concrete? Don’t let that happen to you!

3. Reverse Engineering - So you have a PhD in chemistry? You think Einstein’s theories are child’s play? Then you should look into reverse engineering those plastic bags and returning them into their original ingredients. Most plastic is petroleum based so that should be the first thing you should get out of this little science project. At $4.00 per gallon, every little bit helps, right? Just think, you are putting that fresh fruit and green vegetables inside of a little part of the reason that in just America alone, we are using 29.6 million barrels of oil a year to have the convenience of plastic bags. Lucky us!

4. Video Tape a Bag and Call it “Art” - Some people think that a plastic bag floating effortlessly in the breeze, without a care or worry in the world is beautiful result of nature’s elegance. Break out the camcorder and sell the footage to the highest bidder! Although, since there are so many bags floating around our cities, through our rivers and up and down our coast lines, you may have some competition. Of the 200,000 plastic bags consumed in the world each minute, many end up just blowing in the breeze. Buy hey, one man’s trash is another man’s art… isn’t that how it goes?

All jokes aside, plastic bags wreak havoc to our environment and never seem to go away. Why not purchase reusable bags and bring them with you to the store? You roll them up and put them in your pocket or purse, and when you get to the store and they ask “Paper or plastic?” you can decline and whip out a bag of your own! They come in organic materials such as cotton and hemp or even polyester, and in tons of different styles to fit any personality.

Everywhere you go people are talking green this and green that. We used to drink bottled water, but recently purchased an ionizing water machine which eliminates the need for us to purchase bottled water from the store.

Many people buy water from the store regularly, and consequently, end up with the same problem we had; that of many empty plastic bottles lying around. The question was what to do with them? Of course you could fill them up with tap water, with the idea of having water in case of a shortage, or in the event of an earthquake, and being unable to depend on the water.

As often happened around our house, most of those empty bottles went to the dump where they were possibly separated out and sent for recycling. However, if they were not recycled because of lack of funds, then they were nothing more than a little balloon of air, in a non decomposing shell.

Although the water where my wife works is supposed to be safe to drink, the water is so nasty tasting that his business provides small bottles of water for their employees to drink. A lot of employees open a bottle of water and only drink a sip or two to quench their thirst, and then leave it sitting around to be thrown away at the end of the day. Much unneeded waste takes place, of which no one has found an answer to that problem yet. But again, all those little bubbles of air and water are filling our landfills.

There are some who cart their 3 or 5 gallon container to the store and fill it up for a few cents, and this of course saves our landfills, as long as they continue that habit.

We tried filling our 5 gallon bottles too, but often we would forget the 5 gallon container, and we would buy several gallons of water again. Eventually, we were back to buying the 1 gallon waters because it was more convenient

Unfortunately, all those plastic bottles are building up in the landfills and as we are constantly being reminded - most plastic bottles do not break down over time. Therefore, our dumping grounds are filling up with balloon type garbage which will never decompose.

A health issue also arises from drinking bottled water. Some plastics which water is bottled into, leach poisons into the water, and that can’t be good for us, especially if the bottled water is left in the car on hot days, so this heated bottled water also becomes carcinogenic to our bodies, or so I’ve heard.

As I said before, we recently got an ionic water machine and so we no longer buy bottled water at the store. Of course, in buying the water, we were consuming quite a few gallons of water each month. Consequently, empty plastic gallon sized bottles were accumulating in the dumpster almost daily.

With the water filtering and ionizing machine, we consume much more water than we ever did before, because the water is so clear and pure tasting, and you can guzzle it. However, we are not littering the landfills with plastic bottles. We are saving a few bucks each month, to have our wonderful alkaline water and at the same time contributing to a more green environment..

We are helping make this planet a better place to live by not contributing to the accumulating number of plastics that hit the landfills.

With the massive growth of the greetings card industry over the last few years, the card buying public have a moral obligation to recycle as many of these greeting cards as possible. By doing so they will help the environment and at the same time hopefully alter their mind set towards recycling.

Greetings cards are traditionally displayed for several days up to and after the event that they are celebrating. In the past when the event is over, the greeting cards were simply gathered up and thrown into the trash. Now however there is a trend to try and recycle these cards where ever possible.

The cards should be taken to your local recycling point and sent to the paper mills for recycling. Most shopping malls now have paper recycling bins and it is easy to put the cards into one of these bins when you go shopping.

Before taking the cards to be recycled you should check them and remove anything on the cards that cannot be recycled. If any of the greetings cards are musical cards, you should tear off any bits of metal before recycling the card. The paper mills also do not like cards with lots of glitter on them; their sieves become blocked when trying to recycle these cards.

When you get to the recycling bin, you should remove any plastic from the cards as this makes it much easier to process the cards at the paper mill. The cards are then taking to a recycling plant for sorting. Usually they will be put over a sorting conveyor where they will be manually sorted and any non paper items removed.

After sorting, the greetings cards are compacted up into large bales and stacked waiting to be transported to the paper mill. When there are enough to make a full load, they are loaded onto a vehicle and taken away for recycling. On arrival at the paper mills, the bales of cards are inspected to check that they are of the correct quality. If the load is accepted, the bales are unloaded and turned back into paper pulp.

A bale has its wires cut and is placed on a conveyor and sent into the pulping machine. During the pulping process all non paper items are sieved out of the material and the rest is turned into pulp. The pulp then has all of the water removed and is then ready to be used again. Most pulp from recycled greetings cards is turned into toilet paper.

When you are next out shopping, have a look at the toilet paper in the shops and look to see which brands are made from recycled paper. It is quite possible that some of them have been made from the process of recycling your greetings cards.