Make every day Earth Day
As Earth Day approaches, we took the opportunity to look around
at just how green our community is and to reflect on how green we
live our lives.
The results were mixed.
Make every day Earth Day
As Earth Day approaches, we took the opportunity to look around at just how green our community is and to reflect on how green we live our lives.
The results were mixed.
Both county and city staff are looking at ways to incorporate green building techniques into future construction for administrative and agency offices. The Hollister Animal Shelter, currently under construction, will be topped with solar panels and city staff have said it should be energy neutral. The county staff are looking at the purchase of hybrid vehicles as they replace outdated company cars.
Local government agencies seem to recognize that they need to think of ways to reduce their footprint on the planet – and that sometimes it can even save them money – but they still seem at a loss to implement even the easiest solutions.
When a Pinnacle reporter asked spokespeople from the county, city and a local school district if they use recycled paper, they just didn’t know. The school district spokesman said they do not use recycled copy paper in their photocopiers; city and county staff said they encourage office staff – supplies are ordered by individual offices rather than centrally – to buy recycled paper, but they also encourage them to keep costs down and recycled paper costs more. The same seemed to be the case when asked about energy star appliances – they just didn’t know if the microwave, refrigerators or other household appliances throughout their offices were energy efficient.
When it came to energy-efficient lighting, some city and county offices have been updated, thanks in part to PG&E and the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments initiatives, but again the school district staff were unsure about it.
All agencies have recycling programs. One local school even has a program set up with Eagle Recycling, a local recycling center. The students learn about sorting aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass containers and the importance of recycling while earning a little extra spending money for their schools. It is a life lesson some of them will take them as they form good recycling habits for a lifetime.
Part of the problem with the solutions is many of us don’t realize how much of an impact we are having on the world around us. A recent documentary on the National Geographic channel, “Human Footprint,” looked at the consumption of different items throughout an average lifetime.
The program revealed our impact starts before most of us can even walk or talk. According to the documentary, the average child will require nearly 3,800 diapers, and if they’re disposable, all of those will end up in landfills. Those diapers require 715 pounds of plastic and 5.65 barrels of crude oil for their production. And that doesn’t even take into consideration that diapers don’t biodegrade so they take up a lot of space in landfills.
As the child grows, they will consume more than 12,000 hamburger buns in their lifetime and use more than 30,000 gallons of gas.
Multiply those numbers by the more than 300 million people in America, and the numbers become even more staggering. The problem with so much consumption is often the byproducts and side effects that come with it. All those hamburger buns add up to a lot of bread – meaning a lot of fields of grain – and a lot of cows for those hamburger patties. Not to mention the leftover packaging that often ends up in the waste bin.
It doesn’t take much to make our footprint smaller. Change a few lightbulbs around the house or the office. Bike to work one day a week or carpool with a coworker. Pay a little extra for recycled paper for the copier. Eat a few less hamburgers and a few more locally grown vegetables. Make sure recyclable items make it into the blue recycle bins and not into the trashcan before pick up day. And spend a little time thinking about your impact on the world around you, not just around April 22, but all year long.
