20 February 2011

In Which I am an Environmental Hero

I have always felt like a good environmentalist. Not a fanatic, of course, but very conscientious. I recycle everything that is recyclable. I gather old batteries and household chemicals for proper disposal. And I reuse Ziploc bags whenever possible. This is my greatest achievement in the environmental area.

Example:

Isaac pooped the other day, as is his custom. It was my privilege to clean the young man, and faced with the terrible choice about where to put the diaper, I considered the following:

1. Bathroom garbage
2. Kitchen garbage
3. Direct to garbage can

Of the three, the latter is the least injurious. Any and all smells are taken outside. We never did buy a diaper genie, despite every intention to do so with each child. With Isaac we usually put the diapers in the bathroom in his room, the door of which is always closed. Most of the time this works well, but this this was an especially odiferous diaper, and I was struck with a marvelous idea.

Earlier in the morning we had been cleaning the freezer and had removed some freezer-burned fruit. The ziploc bag remained on the counter, and I decided to put the diaper in that used bag. This afforded me the great liberty of putting the bomb wherever I desired. It was liberating, and a wonderful second life for that plastic bag.

Before you remind me that putting a disposable diaper in a plastic bag, both of which would soon be on their way to a landfill, was no great act of environmental heroism, I can assure you that in the environment nearest to me, where my nostrils were now saved from accidental offensive olfactory ingestion, epic poems were thought of (though not written) and all rejoiced at the banishment of the beast.

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