If everyone worried about trash as much as Rose Timmer, we’d probably have a lot less of it.
The Brownsville native and executive director of the nonprofit Healthy Communities of Brownsville Inc. said she can’t get through a day without thinking about the environmental impact of the trash she’s generating and the water she’s using, for instance.
“Water is a very precious commodity and I don’t think we could get very far without it,” Rose says. “I take three-minute showers or less. I turn my water off when I brush my teeth. I recycle everything that I can.”
She’s not shy about telling others they should recycle, or challenging someone she sees drinking water from a disposable plastic bottle.
“I just can’t believe people pay money to drink water out of a plastic bottle,” Rose says.
Needless to say, littering bugs her.
“If everybody put litter in the trash cans we wouldn’t have a litter problem, but we do,” she says. “Straws are a big deal too. Plastic bags are a big deal.”
“We are not at the point in our society where you can walk in with your container and have things put in there for you,” she says. “They do that at some stores in Chicago, New York, California. You walk in with your jars and they fill them up with grains or this and that.
“But people need to be aware of the waste that they’re creating, from the time they open their eyes to the time they close them,” Rose says. “It’s a lot.”
YOU SHOULD KNOW
Special environment dates and what they mean
WORLD WATER DAY – MARCH 22
This annual event focuses attention on the importance of universal access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities in developing countries. It also is a day for advocating the sustainable management of freshwater resources.
This special day is supported by people all across the world. The first international World Water Day was designated by the United Nations in 1993.
EARTH DAY – APRIL 22
Perhaps the most known of all special environmental days, there are Earth Day events in nearly 200 countries and coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. Earth Day was started in 1970 and was celebrated in March. Here in America, it was first held a month later and led by United States Sen. Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teaching opportunity.
There are numerous activities to celebrate Earth Day, but the focus is on the environmental issues the world faces.
