We often hear about large scale green projects, such as the installation of huge solar arrays or wind power farms, new fleets of biodiesel or hybrid vehicles, or new multi-million dollar green buildings. Even at TTMYGG, we love the large scale projects that have huge, positive impacts on the environment. However, as an average consumer, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed about what you can do to help the environment.
My motto has always been “every little bit helps.” Small actions on a large scale really add up quickly. Let’s take going to the bathroom as an example. Assume there are 300 million people in the US who go to the bathroom an average of three times a day (I’m willing to bet this number is much higher). Let’s say 60 percent of these people wash their hands each time (the other 40 percent is a totally different conversation). This means there are a total of 900 million x 60 percent or 540 million trips to the bathroom each day. Assuming 40 percent of these people use some type of paper to dry their hands after washing, that’s 540 million x 40 percent or 216 million trips to the bathroom each day where a person washes their hands and dries them with paper towels.
Imagine if each person used one less paper towel each of these 216 million trips. Could you use 1 instead of 2 pieces of paper? Could you use 2 instead of 3 pieces of paper? If everyone used just 1 piece of paper less, that would mean saving 216 million paper towels each day. Sure, a lot of paper towels may come from recycled paper, but think about the amount of energy needed to recycle, refine, manufacture, and distribute this amount of paper. Small actions really do add up, and indeed, every little bit helps. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars to help save our environment.
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