It was the 80s and we had just stopped at Stewart’s (a local gas station and convenience store). At the time, my two favorite sodas were Coca Cola and Root Beer. My brother, Matt, was next to me when I opened the cooler. He grabbed his usual Pepsi and I and pulled out a bottle of Coke and …. “Wait a minute! What the heck is this? It’s plastic! What happened to the glass bottles?” I asked the girl behind the counter. She could only shrug noncommittally and say that they switched them from glass to plastic. “I think it is safer,” she mused. Well I never bought it back then. Glass kept the soda colder, didn’t have that plasticy taste and somehow just seemed more authentic. Coke tried hard with their curvy bottles, but it was still plastic.
Everything is plastic these days, and we know now that the chemicals used in making it are not especially helpful to our health. (Nor is drinking soda, but I stopped that practice in the late 90s.) So now, here I am, drinking bottled water all the time out of plastic bottles. The other day I stopped at my favorite little store – Down to Earth – and bought a glass bottle of Mountain Spring water. Oh, it was so cold and refreshing (and just as inexpensive as a bottle of Aquafina!). The upside to it is that I can refill this bottle without fear many times over, and it is just as cold and delicious each time. (It also helps to have good well water.) I am hoping to really begin drinking less from plastic and more from glass. Sadly, that girl in the 80s was very mistaken when she thought that the plastic would be safer. Safer from violent acts, perhaps, but the environment has not been saved from this plastic menace. Consider this: In January I began collecting bottles for recycling at our little church. Since then, I have kept over 1200 plastic bottles out of the landfill; not to mention cans and cardboard. Come on folks… it’s our planet, lets do what we can to be wise stewards with our resources.
This reminds me of something my father used to talk about. We live in a “throw away society” he would say. So many things are made nowadays with that mentality. My Dad had things most people would just toss and replace. He figured (and I agree) it still worked, why replace it?
I saw an old war poster recently that said something like: “Use it up, wear it out, recycle it, or do without.” I wonder how many more dollars we would have to Give back to God, share with others, or use to make a difference in another person’s life; if we lived by that mindset today. It certainly makes me stop and look at my own lifestyle.
Thanks Josh! Sometimes it’s good to look at what used to be and ask, “What was so wrong with the way things were?” I personally don’t think some of the “old things” were so bad.
Product after product, issue after issue, we as a country, we as a society are recognizing that many of those “fantastic” and “life saving” inventions are incredibly harmful if not deadly for us.
Cigarettes, PBAs in plastics and vinyls, processed foods, insecticides, all our fuel sources, etc.
The problem is, we’ve done such a good job of selling and creating the need in our society, most of the generations are stuck in sociological lock down in their ideas. They’ve built their lives on the commercials that have mom in the kitchen cooking up a huge can of spam and dad smoking in the garage.
Ok, maybe that’s too dated.
But we are such funny creatures. When we are taught something and it becomes part of our lives, it’s very difficult to “undo” the thinking. It’s good on one end, scary on the other.
Corey and I have been looking into the plastic issue as of late and realize that it is an overhaul we are challenged with, not just a little adjustment.
It’s so good to do and we are on board but I can definitely see how in the society we live in, it may just be too much for people to jump into, and that’s sad.
It’s also infuriating that our government and the FDA passes approval on such deadly products just for a profit but that is for another blog. 🙂
It all stinks!
Let’s hear it for Sigg!
josh, now you see why i have been drinking out of glass for all these years. its great to see the lite come on. love dad