A very interesting point made by Michael Bloch of
www.greenlivingtips.co.uk.
Much of what we eat, apply to our skin or hair or use to clean
is simply just water. Not only do we pay for that water with money,
the planet pays for it too.
Here's an example - dish washing detergent.
We used to be able to buy little packets of the stuff that
weighed next to nothing that would make a quart of full strength
dish washing detergent.
My mother bought them because it made economic sense and was less
to carry on shopping trips - what she didn't take into
consideration is that it was also saving on packaging and emissions
associated with transport.
Another example is orange juice.
Many popular juice brands are made from reconstituted orange
juice. In fact, most of the orange juice sold today throughout the
world is reconstituted juice.
The oranges are grown, picked, juiced, filtered, pasteurized and
evaporated under vacuum and heat. Liquid is then added back in and
it is then frozen, shipped to the bottler where it is thawed and
more water added.
Imagine the millions of people who buy reconstituted juice each
week and the packaging and transport impact. Why not buy the frozen
concentrate?
It may not sound like such an important step in going
green, but picture this: A million people buying a product
that weighs 2 pounds when a concentrated product a quarter of the
weight is available. That works out to be 750 short tons
difference. Now imagine how much fuel it takes to shift that 750
tons from the place of manufacture into the stores and then finally
into homes.
Now think of hundreds of millions of people doing this with
multiple products. That's a lot of packaging, fuel and other
resources. The positive impact by doing something as simple as
switching to concentrated products can be quite appreciable.
Other popular products used around the home where concentrates
are available:
- Soda
- Shampoo
- Hair conditioner
- Glass cleaner
- Floor cleaner
- All purpose cleaners
- Fabric conditioner
- Carpet and upholstery cleaners.
... and better still, some of these concentrates are
environmentally friendly in terms of ingredients.
Keep an eye out for them at your local supermarket, or have a
hunt around for them online - being concentrated, the shipping
costs of buying them online should be minimal.