today is earth day
i don't really wanna talk about hippie dippie stuff, man. i'm not an activist. i just hate waste.
like, i shop with reusable bags because plastic drives me crazy (okay, except for target bags, but i use those in the bathroom trash bin), and i always brown bag it at the grocery store so i can reuse the bags for other stuff like craft projects for my kids.
i don't use plastic water bottles because holy shit, do you know how much room those take up in landfills? talk about freaking wasteful. try getting a brita filter if you don't like the way tap water tastes.
i take my bottles and cans to recycling centers for cash. i drink about 30 dollars' worth of recycled soda and booze every month. that's 360 extra bucks a year, man. that buys me 9 bottles of costco-sized gentleman's jack.
i eat organic when i can because i hate the way genetically and chemically altered food tastes most of the time. (beware of the organic label, too. it doesn't take much to be able to be labeled "organic" according to FDA standards. always read your nutritional labels! label. one more time- label.)
i recycle empty ink cartridges because again, wasteful. and this helps keep the cost down on name-brand ink when the company can reuse the cartridges.
i mean, i think i just hate when people are so blase about throwing out perfectly reusable stuff. to me, it's like you're sort of unknowingly shitting on less fortunate people who would really appreciate having a water bottle to use over and over again while you toss the third of the day in the garbage. or like, i have relatives in the phillippines who give the boxes we send them (we send american stuff over there every few months in these ginormous boxes any filipino can tell you is called "balikbayan") to neighbors to use as beds, you guys. beds. how many cardboard boxes have you tossed out this week?
i'm not really into the whole "mother earth" vibe. i don't drive a hybrid. i'm not a vegetarian. i don't smoke pot and i don't always wear all-natural fibers on my body. but i do appreciate all of those things and kind of long for having the discipline to do so. i just like all-natural products and packaging because i hate overprocessed, man.
i guess what i'm trying to say is maybe stop a moment and think about how much you waste in a day. and trust me, i'm guilty of it, too. but i'm getting better. i'm not talking about minimizing your carbon footprint or other stuff like that. just... maybe instead of throwing junk mail in the trash, you might use it to pack a box with, or at least put it in a recycling bin. or, instead of throwing out clothes that don't fit, drop 'em off at an assistance league/goodwill/salvation army. (man, i didn't realize how many people just throw out old shoes and clothes and stuff. D: )
does it take effort to do these things? yeah. of course it does. but man, it doesn't really hurt to pay attention to shit like this, does it? and once you get used to it, as with most things, it doesn't seem like much effort at all.
all right, someone tell me a good fart joke before i start feeling sanctimonious or some shit.
tl;dr crowd: how do you feel about this planet we live on? don't care at all? hand out pamphlets at slaughterhouses? have a fred flintstone foot-peddled automobile? come in and tell me, campers. and pick your damned trash off of my forest floor, got damn.