Kick The Can

Last Sunday, I watched the premier of the National Geographic Special, "Human Footprint" which shows what a typical American will consume over their lifetime. From diapers to bananas and everything in between. It was fascinating. It was scary. You really should watch this show. (they are repeating it.)

One of the things I found most interesting was that over a lifetime, a person will use 43,000 soda cans!!! OH. MY. GOD! Most of these cans are NOT recycled. By just recycling these cans, you save enough energy to run a TV for 14 YEARS!!!!!!

But think of the energy that you would save if you didn't even buy the can in the first place. If you didn't have to drive to the store, spend your money, and then worry about recycling at all. Nothing of any nutritional value comes in a can anyway. Seriously.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit I was fighting a pretty tough battle with sparkling water a bit back- I would drink a bottle A DAY. I'm down to 2 a week now. I do recycle them of course.

But mostly the drink options in our house are:
-Iced Tea
-Coffee
-Hot tea
-Water
-Milk
-Juice-watered down 25% juice, 75% water
-Most recently, I've added Almond Milk to my cart each week but I'm kind of up in the air on that one. It comes in a waxed cardboard container (not recyclable) and is the most expensive drink option we have-I'm using it for smoothies though, not for thirst quenching.

So kick the can-For your wallet, your health and the environment!