Choosing a safe reusable water bottle.

According to Lifehacker, "Americans consume 28 billion single use bottles of water per year and roughly 80 percent of those end up in a landfill." And considering how much bottled water we drink, all the plastic takes up a lot of space...somewhere.

The Good Human addresses some of the bottled water concerns, including a list of the best reusable bottles you can buy. The worst are PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles - the same kind Aquafina, Coke, and other water, juice, and pop bottles come in.

The site concludes that the best kind of reusable water bottle is one made out of stainless steel:

Ideally, the best way to drink water on the go would be an aluminum or stainless steel water bottle, as they seem to exhibit the least amount of health concerns out of all the choices. Add in the fact that they can be used over and over again with no degradation and do not need to be recycled each time you use one, they really are the “green” choice. And since upwards of 40% of bottled water is actually just tap water in disguise, buying it seems like not only a health risk due to the plastic leaching possibilities, but also a wallet risk due to wasting money on something you already have at home!

What kind of water bottle do you use?

Stop the automatic phone book deliveries.

I don't know about you, but two or three phone books each year is too much.

YellowPagesGoesGreen.org thinks the same thing. The group doesn't think that we should ban phone books all together, but put forward a simple idea: when we want one, we can ask.

Says the group:

Yellowpagesgoesgreen.com was started because we are continually bombarded with Yellow and White Page directories at both home and office. The movement is not intended to stop the use of such directories, but to eliminate the unsolicited delivery of the books. If we want a book we will call and order one.

Over 500 million of these directories are printed every year. That is nearly two books for every person in the country! These directories produce a staggering amount of waste, not only in terms of misused natural resources but also in filling of valuable landfill space.

All that paper going to waste - it's a wonder someone hasn't done this sooner.

Yellow Pages Goes Green will help remove your name from printed Telephone Directory mailing list, and provides links to resources that will help in the effort - including the Do-Not-Call Registry.

Downtown Jackson drop off site gone Nov. 4?

If you read Thursday's Jackson Citizen Patriot, you may have caught the story on the City Council outlining city manager William Ross's goals for the rest of the year.

One of those goals included "relocate city recycling center by Nov. 1."

We've tried to spread the news on this, but we really encourage everyone to call their city council representative and voice their opinion on the matter.

Recycling Jackson advocates keeping the site where it is, or moving it to the (often vacant) parking lot across the street. We don't want to see it on Water St. with limited hours and accessibility.

At the same time, we don't want the mess and the disrespect to continue.

Make your voice heard!

Thanks Fazoli's for the waste

This is why people complain about too much packaging in our world today.

Look at that. A simple piece of cheesecake from Fazoli's inside a container big enough for the entire cake. And because I bought two pieces, I got two of these monstrosities. Why couldn't they just stuff two pieces of cheesecake inside THIS package?

It's horrifying. And it's a good thing we have plastic recycling in Jackson County now. These two containers may need a whole bin to themselves.

Recycling gum? It's possible.

That wad of Bubbleyum you just stepped on? That could've been recycled.

Companies like Recycle Media are offering ways to recycle used bubble gum using cute, cuddly bins like the one above.

There are even some artists who use the chewed-up gum as their medium to their masterpiece.

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This is why the city wants to move the downtown drop-off site:

Our city recycling drop-off sites are not trash dumps, but some people aren't getting the message.

It's no wonder the city wants to move the site to a "secure" location: people are probably dumping in the middle of the night. That also means, however, residents can't use the drop-off site at any time.

If you see someone pulling this kind of thing, please let us know. Because of the people who do this kind of thing, we may not have recycling sites at all.