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We Can All Learn Something Important from Local Yokels
Dear Editor:
I'd like to offer a word or two of encouragement and thanks to a few Philipstowners for their efforts to help improve our environment. We can all learn something important from Local Yokels - that even small modifications in our daily habits can make a difference on a local and even a global level. Yes, most of us are creatures of habit, many of which we've developed out of convenience, need for comfort or personal tradition perhaps. But would it really take that much effort to change some of these habits that contribute to waste and pollution? What if we tried to just pick a couple of these to change? Two of my personal favorites are car engine idling (as Ray Fitzgerald discussed in his letter a few months ago) and overuse of shopping bags.
Leaving a car engine running at a drive up window or while you run in to get a cup of coffee may seem a reasonable enough thing to do. Perhaps it seems to use more gas to turn off and re-start the ignition. Not so. According to the EPA's website, engine idling for more than 30 seconds wastes gas and contributes significantly to pollution. I say let's start a new trend and turn that ignition off whenever possible.
Bags, bags, bags. Americans use an average of 380 billion plastic bags each year. The petroleum needed to make 14 plastic bags could drive a car one mile. These bags will not break down in landfills. Even paper bags, though they are biodegradeable, require considerable resources to produce and transport. I suggest the following simple idea: after unpacking bagged groceries or other purchases, immediately put the emptied bags back into your car. When you go shopping next time, bring in your bags and reuse them until they are unusable. Better still, get some sturdy canvas or nylon bags and leave them in the car to have handy for each shopping trip.
I strongly urge Philipstown businesses that use bags to offer incentives to their customers to bring their own- maybe in the form of a rebate of a few cents or with a sign urging bag recyling. Hannaford in Wappingers Falls and the recently opened Nature's Pantry in Fishkill are already doing this.
Is there more we can do to make a difference? Of course there is. But I say, it's far better to start with simple things, one at a time, and stick with them than to be overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction by the enormity of the environmental challenges we face.
Ron Hershey
Cold Spring
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