Trashy

If he knew, my dad would probably kick my ass right about now.

He's become an environmentally-conscious freak. I can always expect a good rant about oil, global warming, recycling, and not being careless when it comes to what I'm using and trashing. Since I can remember, he's been recycling everything he can, from cans, newspaper, boxes, glass, tin, other metals, and more. He built the deck leading to the backyard pool using boards made out of old milk bottles. He's got a bio-compactor thing by our garage as well, that he drops organic waste in as well (things like apple cores, banana peels, tree branches, leaves, etc.) For a family of four people living in that house, they probably don't fill more than 3/4 of the trash bucket each week with actual trash.

A few inches from my feet right now, the small garbage can at my desk has 4 styrofoam coffee cups in it. I have another cup on my desk - half full with water. Throughout each work day, I've gotten into a habit of grabbing a cup of water or coffee from the water cooler each time I pass it. Each new trip, another new cup is used. As sad is this is to realize, I've probably used 20-30 cups in the last week. At only one cup for coffee per day, that's probably 250 during the year!

According to some websites, Americans use about 25 billion styrofoam cups annually. And 500 years from now, they'll still be sitting in our landfills! On top of that, styrofoam products make up about 30 percent of all the junk in our landfills.

Ok - I think I've learned my lesson. No more foam cups for me.

Ut oh - maybe my father's on to me - he's calling my cell phone right now!