It's been 13 years, where's Wall-E?

In 2008 the world was gifted an incredible film by the name of, Wall-E. The premise being; humans have left earth hundreds of years of years ago leaving behind; thousands of "Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class" aka "Wall-E". Wall-e's are robots designed to help clean up the earth for us. We currently have some machines, that are kind of like Wall-e except they're in the ocean. Which I love and appreciate, but I want wall-e!

I'm forever disappointed we won't get a follow up, but it can definitely stand on its own as a fantastic solo film.

So why is this relevant to my cause to help reduce my carbon footprint? Living in a first world country we really forget just how much waste we produce without a second thought. We also tend to forget just how much of that waste can be repurposed. From paper, plastic, aluminum cans, glass bottles, cardboard boxes from amazon, milk cartons, cereal boxes. There is so much waste that can be repurposed or at least disposed of in a better way so it just doesn't end up in a landfill.

Sadly it's not as easy as just unleashing an army of wall-e's around the globe to let them do their job. As cute as that would be to see, we need to our part right now. Here are some ideas I have to help mother nature.

REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE

How did we forget those 3 simple words? I remember countless posters growing up in school reminding us to do our part. Small changes in our life from using reusable bags instead of one use plastic bags. We can use canteens instead of water bottles. Then in the case where we actually use those plastic bags/bottles, reuse them as often as you can. On to the last R, of course I'd like to see more people recycle as often as they can because it's simply the right thing to do. However, not too many people do. I'd love to see more incentivized recycling. Currently only 10 of the 50 states will pay for your recyclables. The states that will buy your recyclables are: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New York, Oregon and Vermont. If eventually we could get at least half of the country on board, I feel like this would have a tremendous effect on the lack of plastic, glass, metal, etc. ending up in our oceans and landfills.

COMMUNITY CLEAN UPS

Unfortunately people will always use the excuse; "I'm just one person, how much can one person really do?" to be lazy. Okay, simple solution. Don't just make it one person, get together with some friends and family members to help make a difference or join some local community projects.

I'll be honest I participate in these as often as I would like. However I have in the past. Specially here in Las Vegas there's a lot of places here in town where people just dump their trash with no regard. Whether it's on the strip, near the strip in the dirt lots, deep in the desert after bonfires, or at the outdoor shooting ranges. Thankfully though, there are a ton of community clean up programs. So get out there, even if its only for a few hours a month, and help clean up as much as you can. Once again especially if you live in costal cities/towns/states this will help keep our oceans clean.

COMPOSTING

Oh the beautiful world of composting. Growing up in a desert it's a very uncommon word to hear unfortunately, however even in the unforgiving desert composting is truly something we should all do. Composting is very inexpensive; I've seen DIY compost bins for all of $10. The most simplistic way I can explain composting, is re-purposing all your organic waste to help make very healthy, organic soil. So why is composting so good, well when organic waste ends up in a landfill and just sits in the landfill an insane amount of methane is produced. Composting actually helps combat the production of methane gas, which we know is a green house gas. Then of course we know the less green house gasses in the atmosphere the better for us all.

SAVE WATER

I can't even begin to imagine how much this point has been brought up, but it's because it's true. Saving water will always benefit the environment no mater where you live. I won't delve too far into saving water so here's a picture of some quick and easy ways you can save water.

IN CLOSING

As much as it saddens me we don't have Wall-e yet, it's probably for the best. Because the day we get to meet Wall-E and as much as I'd love to just give Wall-e a big hug. When we meet Wall-e it means unfortunately earth's problems have gotten too bad. The movie Wall-E, as cute of a movie as it may be still has a very strong message and warning that unfortunately we haven't been listening to. So please, join me and help make sure we never get to see the world of Wall-E come to fruition. If we can just do a little bit everyday, we can all lessen our carbon footprint together, combat climate change, and help clean up our oceans.

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed what you have read today. I have plenty of different articles on many different topics. Feel free to give those other articles a read or two. Also if you'd be so kind, I'd greatly appreciate a heart and if you really feel so inclined tips are always appreciated but by no means required.