Participate!
Often times the problems we are faced with seem too big to fix, but each one of us can do simple things that can help in lessening our impact.
One such way is to buy local. With all the products that we researched, we discovered that the cost of shipping extends beyond the cost of gas. Shipping trucks, airplanes, and trains contribute about 17% of the carbon emissions into the environment. This is in addition to the cost to extract petroleum and the cost of making roads. When we buy local, we make sure we are decreasing our carbon footprint by avoiding shipping's negative externalities.
The organization, BALLE, is a great example of how these ideas benefit the environment and the people of the community.
Other actions we can do to participate are recycling our plastic, paper, cardboard. Composting our vegetable peels. food scraps, and garden trimmings. Composting leads to a sustainable way of recreating plant fertilizer and keeps those items from filling land fills. We need also to be aware of recycling of batteries and cellphones in the correct way. Which is to place the dead batteries or cellphone and take it to a proper establishment who then recycle the items.
Using reusable bags are another great way to reduce the amount of trash going to landfills and littering our neighborhoods.
Together we can help reduce our footprint of carbon before it becomes too late.
