My Eight-Day Mini-Diary of Limiting My Dependence on Oil and Plastics
There is a lot of news out there about the Gulf Oil spill out there. It's even starting to contaminate the water down there . It's disempowering to individuals as to what we can do to help out. A lot of people that I speak to want to do something, but feel helpless.
Most of the volunteer opportunities are for locals or people that have animal rescue experience. This eliminates nearly all of us, so what can one do short of going down there and stopping the oil gushing by putting our finger in the hole?
I don't think there is anything that we can do to stop what has already happened, but what we can do is help prevent something like this from happening again by cutting down on our dependence of oil and plastics.
Unfortunately, they are a huge part of our lives and in more things than we know . Until an alternative is introduced into the mainstream, we'll have to do our best to be mindful of our actions and consumption to best limit our dependence.
This isn't an extreme post about never driving again and walking everywhere (I live in LA...it would be pretty damned hard). Instead this post is more like a diary about simple things that I've done over the course of eight-days to limit my consumption of oil and plastic.
Monday
- I rode my bike two-miles to the grocery store limiting the use of gas in my car.
- While at the store I chose locally grown organic produce over conventionally grown imported produce. Organically grown produce doesn't use chemicals that are petroleum based. On average food travels 1,500 farm to plate. By buying local it cuts down on the use of oil to transport the food.
- Chose produce that was loose instead of wrapped in plastic. I went in wanting cauliflower, but it was wrapped in plastic, so I changed my selection to something that wasn't plastic wrapped.
- When putting the produce in my shopping cart, I didn't use a plastic bag and just put the produce into the cart.
- All of the groceries were put into a reusable cloth shopping bag.
Tuesday
- Bought produce from farmers market. All of the produce was pesticide free and locally grown. This eliminates the petroleum based chemicals used in conventional growing. Locally grown foods require less oil to transport than imports.
- All of the produce was put into reusable cloth bags.
- Berries, cherries and other produce was taken out of the plastic containers and put into bags and containers that we brought. We reuse our containers each week. The farmers gladly take back the plastics to reuse. This cuts down on the need for additional plastic containers to be created.
Wednesday
- I rode my bike to the park instead of driving, cutting down on my oil use.
- Since it was a nice day outside, I did bodyweight workouts at the park. This cuts down on my oil consumption because gyms use oil resources to keep their establishments running.
Thursday
- Dedicated the entire day to not using the car at all. I walked and did local trips on my bike.
Friday
Saturday
- Instead of taking the car out several times during the day, I ran all of my errands in one trip.
Sunday
- More pesticide free locally grown fruit was bought from the farmers market.
- I was a green 4th of July party guest . I brought a fruit salad made from all items purchased from the farmers market and brought my own utensils, mason jar and reusable cloth. All of this piqued the interest of other guests and started a discussion amongst others about food and our reliance upon oil.
Monday
- A box of clothing was donated to charity. This keeps the clothes in circulation and keeps new ones from being created because believe it or not, there is plastic in our clothing as well.
Tuesday
- When I went to store, I opted to buy items out of the bulk bin and used containers that I brought from home instead of the items packaged in plastic.
None of these above actions are going to stop the oil from spilling in the Gulf, nor will they save a sea turtle that is covered in oil, but what I believe it will do is to help limit our dependence on oil to live.
If we limit our oil usage, then we won't have to dig and drill so much of it, which might prevent another disaster like this from happening.
It will also take a lot more than one person to truly make a difference. Know that there are others that are doing the same and as a whole, we can do something and cause the change that we want to see.
Additional resources to help you limit your oil and plastic consumption:
What are some other ways that we can help to limit our dependence on oil and plastics?
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