Holter Says: Every Little Bit Counts, It Really Does

Recently, Holter Graham, of Planet Green's Wa$ted, served as Honorary Captain at the Newport Aquarium WAVE Foundation fundraising gala and he gave this compelling speech about the impact of small, everday choices to be greener. If you're in need of a little inspiration, a little green pick-me-up, find it here.

One of the first things we realized while filming the first season of Wasted was that EVERYBODY says they recycle. And, to be absolutely honest, they do. But just barely. And for a long time I was just as bad as any of the people on our show. Sure, you throw a plastic bottle in the right bin, but what about the three others you tossed in the trash? Or what about the fact that you didn't need to buy them in the first place?

I have a friend who moved here to Newport from New Jersey with her family. Growing up in New Jersey, recycling was mandatory, and down here it is not, so she finds herself almost alone in her neighborhood on trash day, one or two red recycling bins sitting full and lonely on otherwise empty curbs. She even sneaks over to her family's house and steals recyclables from their garbage and puts it out on her curb. Her whole family used to recycle, but without the state pressure they slacked off. I understand that, but I have to ask if the tiny difference in effort is worth the damage to our future.

At Planet Green we're trying to show people that a green life does not have to be some horrible life-sentence of hemp shirts, rain-water bucket-baths and rollerblading around the block for family vacation. Our approach is to show people how many small and easy changes they can make that will add up to a better life for the planet and everyone on it. We're trying to show people the strength of the aggregate.

And our other goal is to try and show people exactly why it matters that we change our habits a little in favor of sustainability. So I would like to do a little experiment to try and show why caring for our planet matters; an experiment that ties directly into the funds raised tonight, because they all go to the WAVE Foundation's Youth Education program.

If everybody who has a child could raise their hands...thank you. Now, if you could keep them up for a second.

Now, if everyone who is somebody's child could also raise their hands.

OK...along with debunking my spore theory of asexual reproduction, I think you've proven my point. We are all part of one generation or another, and we are—every one of us—therefore somewhere in the line of succession, either being given the planet by those who went before us, or preparing to give it to those who will come after. It cuts across race, class, gender, socio-economic strata, and political inclination. We are all children, and many have children. It is beautiful in its inescapability: I am someone's child, and I someday hope to hand my little part of this planet to a child of my own. And, because nothing happens in a vacuum, to your children, as well.

So, to completely bum you out after that pleasant moment of coming together, I would like to do a little math. There are approximately 300 million people in the US. Let's lop the youngest and oldest 10% off just to avoid people complaining that I am asking infants and great-grandparents to compost or something. That leaves us with 240 million. Now let's eliminate the richest and poorest 10%, because one group can't afford bottled water and the other has their water brought to them in crystal glasses by hired help. So we're down to 190 million people who, in this day and age, we can safely assume have bought one bottle of water this year.

Now I am not even asking us all to stop buying water. It'd be great, but let's use realistic baby steps, OK? If every person who bought one bottle of water at some point this year, filled it up at the sink once before throwing it out, that's 190 million plastic bottles we keep out of the waste stream. Current stats show that around 80% of plastic bottles are not recycled, so in one tap-water refill we have kept 152 million plastic water bottles out of dumps and landfills.

That's the point I am trying to make here; if we acknowledge that we are all someone's child, that many of us are someone's parent, that we are all part of the human chain, then even a tiny single walk to the sink can make a huge difference.

And it is working. This kind of thinking, this kind of concern, has led bottled water companies to change their ways. Following the lead of Indian and Asian water bottlers—who are way ahead of the US in terms of their environmental impact concerns—Poland Spring and a few other major manufacturers have started making bottles that themselves use 30% less plastic to make.

And, what's more, there was a report in the New York Times recently that PepsiCo has seen bottled water purchases go down to such an extent that they are having to restructure to accommodate the changes. A few people do something, and then a few more, and then all of a sudden, the world starts changing for the better. It's simple, really.

And here's a final number for you, for all of us. If each American household swapped out one roll of paper towels for recycled, we would save 544,000 trees each year. That's 50 football fields of trees. Just think of the dog-walk you could have in that forest, think of the game of hide-and-seek you could play with your kids.

So that's my pitch. Look around you, inside and out. Look at the planet we walk through and appreciate it, and look at everyone around you every day and realize that we are all in this together, and that we have, as our greatest strength, our numbers. Buy a reusable bottle, walk to lunch and skip the elevator, tell the guy at the deli you don't need the plastic bag, and, when you get a rare opportunity like this one tonight, spend your hard-earned cash on worthy causes like the WAVE Foundation, and snap up an item at the silent auction, because you know that your money immediately goes to good use; to education, to sustainability, to, quite frankly, penguins.

Thank you all for coming and enjoy your evening.

More things you can do to help the environment:
Track your Green Goals with Online Tools
Try Greenmatching at Work
Buy Stocks, Change Environmental Policy
Click These 21 Links to Save The Planet
Green Glossary: Relational Activism
How to Write Your Elected Officials

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