In my last post I talked about paper reduction and recycling. While I’m on that topic, a few words about bottles. Some years ago, our office began a seltzer craze that continues to this day. Most of us drink seltzer at our desks rather than plain water. In general that’s fine since seltzer is not exactly unhealthy. But seeing cases of plastic bottles delivered to our office when we ordered was disturbing from the waste-stream perspective, even if we’re recycling.
We have invested (not much, as the equipment is inexpensive) in a carbonator. We have started making our own seltzer out of tap water using refillable CO2 bottles. Our daily count of plastic bottles is down and the sound of the gas being injected into a bottle of water is, honestly, amusing enough to justify the whole effort.
This issue is not particularly important in itself but shows how we prefer to proceed: incremental changes. It’s hard to one day say that you’re going to change everything about your business so that you can improve your community but it can be quite easy to make a series of small steps toward that same goal. And that goal is central to the Best for NYC Challenge.
