One Thing Lowell Can Live Without IMHO: Styrofoam

WARNING: Styrofoam is one of my Pet Peeves.

First off, I want to repeat what I have said and written many times. Good stewardship of the environment SHOULD NOT be a political consideration. Taking care of the planet from which we get everything we eat and drink is just common sense. Yup, I am well known as a greenie - a tree hugging old hippie who walks to work and rides an electric motorcycle. You know who raised me to be one? An ultra conservative, Republican mama - she is the one who had me read "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson when I was in the 5th or 6th grade. Mom taught me about recycling before it was popular. She was a life long user of Amway's SA-8 laundry soap because it didn't pollute ground water. My mom was taught to take care of the Earth by her mom - who was equally conservative and was raised on a farm and taught to take care of her source of food and drink.

Can we please put aside politics and just talk about common sense?

Here is my main complaint about Styrofoam - it NEVER, ever, ever degrades. You can plant it in the ground and dig it up in 1,000 years and it will be there.  Don't believe me? Do some research - or would you believe it if you read it here?: Styrofoam Break Down

Secondly - to my knowledge, you cannot recycle Styrofoam in Lowell or Kent County.

Styrofoam hits me in the face at almost all of my favorite events in Lowell. I love the chicken dinners served up by the fire department at the Fallasburg Festival every fall. I hate that it is served to me in Styrofoam - as are most of the beverages I can purchase there. The ultimate whack to my common sense came this past December when I finally got out to the Wege/Whittenbach Center for the beautiful Luminary Walk through the woods. It was wonderful - but they were selling hot cocoa and offered it only in Styrofoam. Do you get the terrible irony of serving hundreds (actually, thousands) of Styrofoam cups of cocoa at an event hosted at a Center devoted to educating kids about the importance of taking care of the Earth, our water, and animals? (Not to mention the school of thought that suggests drinking hot beverages from a Styrene container might have health risks because of the potential for the heat to release chemicals into your beverage.)

FYI - I put my $$ where my mouth is and contacted the folks at Wittenbach Center with an offer to buy paper cups for next year's walk. Happy to report my offer was accepted. Looks like it will cost me about $100 to $120 bucks - great investment IMHO.

Speaking of MONEY - the saving of which is the reason most people give for using Styrofoam. Might not really be an issue. This morning I went to the website of a restaurant supply house - the difference between an 8 oz premium paper cup that is lined for hot beverages and the 8 oz Styrofoam version is $1.32 cents FOR A THOUSAND CUPS. That is .00132 cents per cup - an infinitesimal price to pay for NOT putting something in a dump that will never, ever break up and degrade. NOTE: I am not advocating that money be spent on high dollar, super biodegradable Green cups that will disappear super fast - which would be great; just a paper cup that at worst will disappear in 20 years in a landfill OR at best CAN be re-cycled here in Kent County and come back as another paper cup we can drink cocoa or lemonade from.

How cool will it be at next year's Luminary walk if some, most, or ALL of the paper cups used for cocoa would end up in a recycling bin? It would make my mom and her mom smile down upon us.

We need to use the paper alternative to Styrofoam for all the events in Lowell in my opinion. On a positive note, I am NOT the only one thinking these thoughts. I have it from very reliable sources that efforts are underway to reduce and/or remove Styrofoam from many events. Please think about it and lend YOUR wholehearted support to such efforts. Even if you had to pay another .02 cents for the drink at a Festival or concert - invest in the future.

We pay a lot of lip service to loving our children and grand-children - how about we demonstrate that love by making an effort to leave this place in better shape than we found it?