Green Orleans member admits despite his best intentions he adds plastic containers

Editor:

Recently, I read an article on the New York Times website: “We’re All Water-Bottle Freaks”, written by Matt Richtel. Matt writes about the fact that we have increasingly become concerned about the amount of single-use plastic we dispose of, meaning that we are taking this issue seriously.

This, of course, is a very good thing. So, we have been purchasing substantially more reusable drinking containers. However, despite this, consumers continue to buy an alarmingly increasing number of single-use plastic water bottles, even as faucet water remains free. This doesn’t seem to make much sense.

I know that despite the fact that I have joined a group, “Green Orleans”, which was created to encourage community members to incorporate actions to help preserve our environment, I often forget to bring my reusable water bottle to a sporting event, or the ice cream stand, and also forget to bring my clean reusable container to a restaurant when the meal is complete and I have leftovers to bring home. So, I collect another plastic container and add it to my pile.

I guess we can make many excuses for purchasing and accumulating a large number of plastic bottles, containers, etc. Liking the looks of that new reusable bottle we see in the store, not trusting the quality of the water from a faucet, forgetting to carry our reusable bottle, looking “foolish” by taking our own container into a restaurant to take home leftovers, etc. Since, most of us are taking the “plastic” situation seriously, I guess that we just need to do a better job of remembering to “cut back”, me included.

And, we just need to be willing to “model” the behavior that we wish others would use. I do believe that taking a reusable container for leftovers into a restaurant may serve as encouragement for others to consider doing this the next time they go out to eat.

Sister Dolores O’Dowd (Green Orleans Coordinator), sda_albion@rochester.rr.com, and I, Tom Robinson, thomasarthurrobinson@gmail.com welcome any thoughts regarding this opinion letter, and/or thoughts and ideas for our group, which meets monthly on the third Thursday, 11:30 a.m. at the Hoag Library in Albion. All are welcome.

Tom Robinson

Medina