BYO Lunchbag: Later Paper
by Dominic Muren, Philadelphia, USA on 04. 6.05
Lets join in a round of chanting the Treehugger mantra: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse... Come on, you know we love it when things don't get thrown away. And even if those brown paper bags you're toting your lunch around in are 100% post consumer, they're still getting tossed. So kick the habit, and look slick to boot, with this flashy little buy from BuiltNY. Made from fabric-bonded neoprene, it's durable, and sure to keep your lunch well protected, and warm or cold depending on your mood. They accommodate a variety of food containers, and zip open to form a placemat, or roll up for storage. Best of all, they'll only set you back 20 bucks, which should leave some money for lunchmeat.
:: BYO Lunchbag [by DM]
Um, isn't it "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" -- in that specific order? Recycling is supposed to be the last resort, and does no good at all if people don't first reduce their consumption and then reuse what they can.
Absolutely Chris.
Actually, without thinking I was channeling a PSA television commercial from my childhood. Something like "Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, and close the loop..." set to groovy 80's music. Weird.
But you're right. The real problem isn't that things don't get recycled, it's that we just use too many things in the first place. Reducing and Reusing should be the root of any treehugger's ... tree. And the BYO is a great way to start that.
No way. If you don't already have a bag you can take lunch to work with, you've got other issues.
This website needs a lesson about embodied energy. who on EARTH would suggest a neoprene bad is a responsible lunch-bag?
utter nonsense. my suggestion for a lunchbag: a free plastic bag.
Wow. Sorry's a little testy :)
Alright, your point about embodied energy is well taken: But are you sure about the "free" plastic bag route? How many times can you really re-use one flimsy LDPE bag? And if you're gripe is really about embodied energy, won't the 50 bags per year (one per week, which seems pretty generous) for the two years(probably more) that my neoprene bag lasts for end up costing more energy?
Embodied energy matters in all cases, but it matters most when you assume the product will be thrown away. Embodied-energy-per-use is what you should really be looking at; Cast iron has a ridiculous embodied energy, but if you pass it on to your grand-kids, the energy per use goes to almost nothing.
Having said all that, you may have a point after all; it's worth looking into. Neither one of us will really know for sure which is better until we actually run some numbers for embodied-energy-per-use on these bags -- a calculation & research that takes a little more work than I had time for before writing this post up :)