Wasteful practices that bug you

[larknm]

Nuclear waste, right now down in Southeastern NM, where a lot stored.

[catherine]

Because I fly a lot, I am a member of the "Presidential Plus" airline club. That puts me into a demographic that often represents things that are at odds with my own values..

So I get this big, shiny royal blue, expensive bubble pack in the mail the other day. It weighed a couple of pounds and it was thick. Inside was a book the size of a small coffee table book, with slick high quality pages. And the equally slick cover letter, signed by the SVP of Marketing and Loyalty, said "it is our pleasure to present you with the 2014 edition of The Luxury Hotel and Resort Collection Directory.

Really? Don't people have the internet? I don't even get telephone books anymore. This was a huge waste of time, paper, and shipping. It's going right into the recycling. What a waste.

[iris lilies]

Because I fly a lot, I am a member of the "Presidential Plus" airline club. That puts me into a demographic that often represents things that are at odds with my own values..

So I get this big, shiny royal blue, expensive bubble pack in the mail the other day. It weighed a couple of pounds and it was thick. Inside was a book the size of a small coffee table book, with slick high quality pages. And the equally slick cover letter, signed by the SVP of Marketing and Loyalty, said "it is our pleasure to present you with the 2014 edition of The Luxury Hotel and Resort Collection Directory.

Really? Don't people have the internet? I don't even get telephone books anymore. This was a huge waste of time, paper, and shipping. It's going right into the recycling. What a waste.

That is just silly. Whose brother-in-law at that company owns the printing house?

[zeaxmays]

resign from the airline club?

[meri]

Apart from wasting time ( and I am guilty of that a lot ) what really annoys me is bottled water and disposable paper everything. There exist re-usable cloth alternatives which worked for hunreds of years and I don't see any reason why not to use them nowadays. Sure, I do use toilet paper. But why waste paper towels when we have dishcloths, wipe your mouth with a paper napkin when a serviette even feels better? And I have never heard of anyone dying for using handkerchiefs instead of uncountable boxes of tissues.

Maybe it's the common practice of using car when 'going' shopping that encourages this behaviour. I guess a lot of people would think twice before drinking bottled water when their tap water is perfectly fine and using piles and piles of paper napkins, tissues and towels had they have to carry them home in their hands.


I am also amazed by people using clothes dryer which is becomming more and more common here. I feel it's not only huge waste of energy but the clothes that is regularly dired in a dryer don't last so long. Plus it smells much better when you let the clothes hang-dry.

I used to get upset by wasting food in households (well, I still do and I don't get it why some people refuse to eat left overs or freeze the extra portions for later) but not long ago I had opportunity to learn how much food is thrown away in restaurants and shops and it really terrifies me. They aren't even allowed to offer the food to be thrown away to the hungry and homeless people nor is it composted.


I live in a big city with a great infrastructure - great and inexpensive public transportation, sidewalks almost everywhere, parks, ... and yet there are thousands of people who use cars to get somewhere when they don't need to. I mean situations when a single person drives to a place easily reachable by tram or bus or even within walking distance. Like my DH driving the 500m to work even when it takes him longer to get the snow and ice off the window than it would take him to walk there and get some fresh air and exercise.


Well, it upsets me or to be more precise it makes me sad and worried but it's everybody's personal choice and I can't force anyone to change. We all just can do what we can leading by example.