Disagreeing With Ed
I did something radical last night: I watched Planet Green’s Living With Ed. Now, we all know Ed Begley, Jr. is an actor who’s passionate about the environment, so it makes sense that Planet Green would have a “reality” series featuring him. The first episode I caught was the one where he’s celebrating his birthday.
Most of the first eight minutes are spent with him complaining about the volume on his wife’s answering machine. Typical marital issues. Nice touch. However, here’s what I noticed about this opening scene: Ed’s reading a script of some sort and it’s printed only on one side. Considering how often scripts go through rewrites, that just seems horribly wasteful and not very green at all.
Hey, Ed, here’s a thought! Be like Matthew Modine (this was on his website at one time, but I can’t find it right now) and request that all the paperwork that comes to you (scripts, contracts, etc.), come printed on both sides. I know it’s not the way most of Hollywood does things, but you know what? Think about how many scripts are floating around out there and how many pages are in each packet. I’ll wait here while you do the math on your solar powered calculator. Back? Okay. It’s a pretty significant number, isn’t it? MAJOR! So, what’s say you put that little plan into action and save a few hundred thousand trees.
For those of us with kids, think of how many times have you said, “You only colored on a small corner of this paper, you can use it again!” I make my kid write and draw on both sides. He doesn’t get to write or draw, decide he doesn’t like it, crumple it up, and throw it away. Nope. He uses the whole piece of paper and when he’s done with it, then it gets recycled. It’s a simple act that goes a long way. If kids can get the hang of it, adults should, too.
If you’re going to be a proponent of living green, you gotta be willing to go all the way. And Begley’s been doing this long enough to know better.
Just my two cents.
I work for a woman who consults and gives seminars about “going green.” Yet, she is the least green person I know! She rarely recycles. She tosses out tons of paper. Then she puts un~recyclables in the recycle bin! It drives me nuts. I regularly dig through her garbage bin because she’s *always* throwing out perfectly good and usable things. Crazy!!
Comment by DogsDontPurr — 2009/03/29 @ 14:29
I use green engineering paper for my homework assignments. (It’s really GREEN!)
BTW – Ms. Mo loves using it for her homework…..it makes her ‘stand out’. :diva:
Comment by Mad Mikey — 2009/03/29 @ 21:24
I would go all the way with Ed Begley.
Comment by Cheri @ Blog This Mom! — 2009/03/29 @ 21:54
Marcie, I tend to recycle other people’s things, too. It’s a very bad habit of mine. I call it my grandmother’s curse. She was an expert at reduce, reuse, recycle.
Mikey, YAY! So glad to see you stop by. And Ms. Mo — I’m sure she doesn’t have to do much to stand out. She’s so smart and beautiful, I bet she gets lots of attention no matter what.
Cheri, Ed’s pretty damn lovable, even when he gets a little riled. I totally get where you’re coming from.
Comment by DaGoddess — 2009/03/30 @ 00:37