Plastic Free: Day Six
I traveled to LA today. Our society makes it very easy to use a lot of resources very quickly. Flights between Oakland and LA only take an hour, but oh the jet fuel you’ll burn!
That caused me to look into Terrapass. They estimate that the average American citizen uses 36,000 lbs of carbon every year. I suspect I use more since I travel pretty often. Fortunately, they have a carbon footprint calculator, and unfortunately, my carbon usage is closer to 48,000 lbs this year. The biggest cause of that by far is air travel. Our trip to South Africa and back was 13,000 lbs alone. For just me. All four of us went. The cost of the offset for my carbon usage is $242.96, which is the equivalent of planting 566 urban trees.
Buying that feels slightly virtuous, which helps, because I feel like I’m not doing a very good job at this zero plastic thing. Yesterday, I used a plastic fork and spoon, drank Zero Coke from a plastic bottle and bought a Twix bar that had a plastic-ish wrapper. I opted to eat oatmeal from a paper bowl rather than buy yogurt in a plastic container, but that was the only time I consciously avoided plastic.
My plan now is to make a little carrier for non-plastic utensils that I can toss in my purse. I will post a picture (and some links for making your own or buying one) when it’s done.
