80 - 450 Years

What a lovely weekend the tree of us had at our favorite getaway, The Mountain Laurel Inn. But more on that later (I promise!) because I HAVE to discuss something else right now.

As Sarah, the owner of the B&B came out to take us up to our room, she handed me these two water bottles as a "thank you" for coming to her place year after year.

Sounds pretty UNinteresting, right? There is an interesting part. Wait for it. . . The water bottles are biodegradable. The company, e-green.bz claims that while it takes normal plastic 80 - 450 years to break down in a landfill, this plastic will break down in 1-5 years in a "properly maintained landfill."

This idea sounds really cool to me. I was a little worried that it might break down in use and that some weird chemical or enzyme might leach into my water. However, the company claims that the "shelf life" is indefinite until put into that properly maintained landfill or compost pile.

I did not become passionate about recycling and not using unnecessary chemicals until, of course, I had a child. Now, all of a sudden, the importance of these matters sits on me like a lead balloon. Will I leave in my stead a trash heap for my children to deal with? How is that honoring to God who trusted us to be good stewards of the resources he allots us? I lie awake at times thinking about stuff like this now.

So, I don't know if this plastic water bottle will really make a difference in the scheme of things, but I am tempted to buy one and throw it in the compost bin, just to find out:-) If nothing else, it is a number two plastic, so I CAN take it to the recycling center here.