Thoughtful Thursday Links (on Friday)

Wow, where did this week go?
I'm a day late with posting the links that have caught my eye this week, but yesterday I was just feeling straight up lazy (which is only partially true because I did take a hike in the rain). Anyhow, instead of posting before I went to work, I decided to kick back and watch Big Ideas for a Small Planet, which I highly recommend. It's very kid friendly and inspiring to know that there are people out there doing some good stuff! (Thank goodness...)

Anyhow, I did spend a bit of time on my laptop, but it was researching rechargeable batteries. I found this website, which seemed like a pretty decent site offering some good stuff. I emailed them and they wrote back right away, offering great customer service and answering my questions. I can't believe that I have never considered getting rechargeable batteries before. Well, actually, I have considered it, but then I always think back to the rechargeable batteries that we had when I was a kid (yes, I'm talking 20 years ago) and I remember how much they just didn't work. But I realize that someone must have come up with a better quality product since then, and we need some new batteries around the house... and since I certainly don't want to buy disposable batteries anymore, now is the time to get us set up with some rechargeable batteries in the house.
I will keep you posted about this once I get some money to make a purchase...

And now, some links for you:

Check out these amazing sculptures made from recycled plastic bottles.

In San Francisco, volunteers picked through their trash to determine where most of their trash is coming from - check out this article, it's pretty interesting.

I am interested in how the series Trash Inc. will turn out. I will definitely try to find a source to watch it and see what a major television network is offering us as an environmental awareness series.

Oh, and I'm super excited to buy this environmentally friendly biodiesel alternative to my tiki torch fuel! (Once again, as soon as I can afford to buy it...)

Here is an article with some important info about buying food from Asia, and how we should be much more careful about it... or just avoid it altogether and stick with local. Just a thought.

And lastly, check out Ban the Bottle, a website dedicated to... you guessed it, banning plastic water bottles. The site has some good facts that we need to remember, like:

"In 2007, Americans consumed over 50 billion single serve bottles of water; between 30 and 40 million single serve bottles went into landfills each year."

And "It takes 17 million barrels of oil per year to make all the plastic water bottles used in the U.S. alone. That's enough oil to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year."

And let's not forget "The recommended eight glasses of water a day, at U.S. tap rates equals about $.49 per year; that same amount of bottled water is about $1,400." 


That's all I've got for you today, I hope you can find something interesting or helpful from at least one of these links...