OK, gang. Earth Day (April 22) is over. Remember all the slogans and the buttons and the long lists of Great Ideas That Will Save The Planet? Where are they now . . . now that we should be living them?
Maybe - with the politicians and the slogan-sellers and the button manufacturers already three "causes" on down the road - it's worth the effort to go back and reconsider at least one of those lists. This one, distributed by "Priority", is as good as any. It doesn't have all the answers and real purists are guaranteed to be offended by at least six different points. But the concern and good intentions shine through.
Or . . . was it . . . just . . . the thing to do . . . at the time . . .
1. Don't use colored facial tissues, paper towels or toilet paper. The paper disolves properly in water, but the dye lingers on.
2. If you accumulate coat hangers, don't junk them; return them to the cleaner. Boycott a cleaner who won't accept them.
3. Use containers that disintergrate readily. Glass bottles don't decompose. Bottles made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) give off lethal hydrochloric acid when incinerated. (That's the soft plastic many liquid household cleaners, shampoos, and mouthwashes come in. Don't confuse it with the stiffer polystyrene plastic, used mainly for powders.) The Food and Drug Administration has now approved PVC for food packaging, too. Don't buy it. Use decomposable or "biodegradable" pasteboard, cardboard and paper containers instead. If you can't, at least re-employ nondecomposable bottles; don't junk them after one use.
4. Don't buy nonreturnable containers. Hold aluminum can purchases to a minimum. If you're living around New York, Denver, Houston or San Francisco this summer, bring in aluminum cans for a half-cent apiece (also: Old TV-dinner trays, old aluminum lawn chairs, etc.) They're worth $200 a ton to Reynolds Aluminum.
5. At the gas station, don't let the attendant "top off" your gas tank; this means waste and polluting spillage. The pump should shut off automatically at the proper amount. (True, too, for motorboats.)
6. If you smoke filter-tip cigarettes, don't flush them down the john. They'll ruin your plumbing and clog up pumps at the sewage treatment plant. They're practically indestructible. Put them in the garbage.
7. Stop smoking.
8. Stop littering. Now. If you see a litterer, object very politely ('Excuse me, sir, I think you dropped something').
9. If you're a home gardener, make sure fertilizer is worked deep into the soil - don't hose it off into the water system. Phosphates (a key ingredient) cause lake and river algae to proliferate wildly.
10. Don't buy or use DDT even if you can find it (and, unfortunately, you sti ll can). If your garden has water, sun, shade and fertilizer, it shouldn't need pesticides at all. If you must spray, use the right insecticide. (If at all possible, use botanicals - natural poisons extracted from plants - like nicotine sulfate, rotenone, pyrethrium.)
11. To reduce noise, buy a heavy-duty plastic garbage can instead of a metal one. Or sturdy plastic bags, if you can afford them. They're odorproof, neater, lighter.
12. When you see a junked car, report it to your local Sanitation Department. If they don't care, scream till someone does.
13. If you don't really need a car, don't buy a car. Motor vehicles contribute a good half of this country's air pollution. Better, walk or bicycle. Better for you, too.
14. If you have to car-commute, don't chug exhaust into the air just for yourself. Form a car pool. Four people in one car put out a quarter the carbon monoxide of four cars.
15. Better yet, take a bus to work. Or a train. Per passenger mile, they pollute air much less than cars. Support mass transit.
16. If you still think you need a car of your own, make sure it burns fuel efficiently (i.e., rates high in mpg). Get a low-horsepower mini-machine for the city, a monster only for lots of freeway driving.
17. Bug gasoline manufacturers to get the lead out. Tetraethyl lead additives are put in gas to hype an engine's performance; they can build up in your body to a lethal dose. Indiana Standard Oil Co. has a lead-free fuel now (Amoco); Atlantic Richfield has announced they'll introduce one if all car manufacturers rework engines to make them burn up every breath of fuel, so lead's not needed. One Detroit leader has already promised new engines on all 1971 models. Pester the others. (Lead, by the way, chews up metal - including new antipollution catalytic mufflers.)
18. If bagged garbage overflows your trash cans, shake it out of bags directly into the can and tromp it down to compact it.
19. If you have a fireplace . . . abstain. As much as possible. If you must send up smoke, burn wood - not murky cannel coal.
20. Burning leaves or garbage is already illegal in many towns. Don't do it. Dispose of such material in some other way.
21. If you see any oily, sulfurous black smoke coming out of chimneys, report it to the Sanitation Department or Air Pollution Board.
22. There's only so much water. Don't leave it running. If it has to be recycled too fast, treatment plants can't purify it properly.
23. Measure detergents carefully. If you follow manufacturers' instructions, you'll help cut a third of all detergent water pollution.
24. Since the prime offender in detergent pollution is not suds but phosphates (which encourage algae growth), demand to know how much phosphate is in the detergent you're buying. Write the manufacturer, newspaper, Congressmen, the FDA. Until they let you know, use an unphosphated - nondetergent - soap. (Bubble baths, you may be happy to know, do not cause detergent pollution.)
25. Never flush away what you can put in the garbage. Especially unsuspected organic cloggers like cooking fat (give it to the birds), coffee grounds or tea leaves (gardeners dote on them).
26. Drain oil from power lawn mowers or snowplows into a container and dispose of it; don't hose it into the sewer system.
27. Avoid disposable diapers if possible. They may clog plumbing and septic tanks.
28. If you see something wrong and you don't know whom to contact, bombard newspapers, TV and radio stations with letters. Get friends to join in. Media will help with the message if you're getting nowhere in normal channels. Remember: Publicity hurts polluters.
29. Protest the SST: Write the President. Today's Boeing 747 can already move more people farther without ear-shattering sonic booms.
30. Help get antipollution ideals into kids' heads. If you're a teacher, a Scout leader, a camp counselor, a summer playground assistant: Teach children about litter, conservation, noise . . . about being considerate - which is what it all comes down to.
31. If you're in a relatively rural area, save vegetable wastes (sawdust, corn husks, cardboard, table ;craps, et al.) in a compost heap . . . instead of throwing them out. Eventually, you can spread it as fertilizer - nature's way of recycling garbage.
32. Remember: All Power Pollutes. Especially gas and electric power, which either smog up the air or dirty the rivers. So cut down on power consumption. In winter, put the furnace a few degrees lower (it's healthier) and wear a sweater.
33. Use live Christmas trees, not amputated ones, and replant them afterward. City bound? Contact your Parks Department.
34. Protesting useless pollution? Don't wear indestructible metal buttons that say so.
35. Fight to keep noise at a minimum between 11 PM and 7 AM. Studies show that sounds which aren't loud enough to wake you can still break your dream cycle - so you awaken tired and cranky. By the same token, be kind to neighbors. Suggest that your local radio and TV stations remind listeners to turn down the volume at 10 PM.
36. When you shop, take a reusable tote with you as Europeans do - and don't accept excess packaging and paper bags.
37. Patronize stores that specialize in unpesticided, organically grown food in biodegradable containers. There's probably such a health food store near you. The ne plus ultra : Boston's Ecology Food Store, opening this spring, which plans handcrafted products books and household ecology counseling. (Write Boston Area Ecology Action, 925 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02139. They need help.)
38. Radicalize your community. Do something memorable. One group is giving Polluter of the Week awards to deserving captains of industry. In traffic jams, other groups have handed out leaflets titled, "Don't You Feel Stupid Sitting Here?" The leaflets list advantages o f car pools and mass transit.
39. You, as a citizen, can swear out a summons and bring a noisy neighbor to court. If the problem' s bigger than that, talk to a lawyer about a class-action lawsuit. A group of people, for instance, can file a class-action suit against a noisy airline or a negligent public antispollution official.
40. Last, and most important - vitally important - if you want more than two children, ADOPT THEM. You know all the horror stories. They're true. Nightmarishly true. And that goes for the whole American economy: Unless we stop fanatically producing and consuming more than we need, we won't have a world to stand on.
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