Going "Green"

Because of my responsible and earth friendly husband I have been learning over the past 20 months of our marriage to be an active recycler. It is not convenient to recycle in Wichita - oh no! We save up our recyclable goods for a couple of months - pack our SUV full of them and then drive about 30 min away to drop them off - where we then fill up old grocery carts and roll around to different bins to sort out what we have already sorted once. There are volunteers there to help out and it does go rather quickly. If I lived near the recycling drop off I would love it even more - it's just that it is so far away and not on our way to anywhere else we are going - loving the earth takes effort.

So I am kind of promoting recycling and kind of complaining about it. :) But honestly I am glad Adam leads us to do it, because it has given me an awareness of how much we could be throwing away, I know because we cram it all into the back of my vehicle every couple of months and because of how little trash we have to put out at the road each week. Wish we could pay 1/2 of the trash bill and only put it out every other week - that would suit us just fine.

I must have become more aware of being earth friendly without really knowing it because I am on a rant today...something that I saw on Sunday has been rolling around in my head and I am finally to the point I must say something.

Sunday afternoon we stopped by our bank to get some cash from the ATM. Our Bank has a new checking account they are trying to get people to sign up for called the "Green Account." They have been promoting this account for a few months now, there are advertisements all over TV and the community. Here is a little about the account, directly from their website...

Plant some green in your wallet
Earth Day comes just once a year, but BWCU wants to encourage everyone to do their part to help the environment all year long. So what’s the Green Account all about? First, you help save trees by eliminating paper waste, and second, you earn cash back on your account while reveling in that karmic sensation of doing something good for the planet.
Check out how lean going green can be with a paperless Green Account:
Free transparent green VISA debit and credit cards with your photo
Free online bill pay
Support the Greensburg Tree Project*
Free online banking
Earn cash back on your account by using your debit card*
E-statements to eliminate paper waste
Purchase recycled checks**
we’ll also make a donation to the Greensburg Tree Project to replenish trees. We strongly recommend recycled checks.

Ok, so back to my story. We're at the ATM, getting our cash and the machine prints off our receipt. The receipt is longer than usual, Adam says, "That's weird."
I look at it and see that the information we need from the receipt is at the top, not taking up much room at all. About half of the receipt is an advertisement "enticing" us to sign up for the Green Account.
This is what has been bothering me...Isn't the whole POINT of the green account to be saving paper and waste? Why are they waisting extra paper to promote the account, and why to people who have to drive by 2-3 advertisements about it anyway just to use their ATM machine - there is a sign in the drive up window, a sign for the account on top of the ATM machine, a sign on the lobby door - now you can have a sign to take home w/ you on your receipt - that you are going to THROW AWAY! This makes no sense to me at all.

Being good to the earth is a good thing no matter what motivates you to do it - that being said and the knowledge that what I am about to type is judgemental, I would like to say -
I wonder, does the bank really care about being earth friendly or are they just using this as a way to get earth friendly people to change over to their bank?

Anyway...recycle something today - or just get water in a paper cup instead of the water bottle that will lay in a landfill forever.