The Disney Chicklette and I visited the US Open a few weeks ago, and I was amazed to see that they were charging $4.75 for a bottle of water. Ridiculous by anyone's standards. But the silver lining was that the grounds were packed with bins for you to recycle those water bottles. Great idea, right? So why hasn't Disney jumped on this bandwagon?
It's estimated that 17 million people visited the Magic Kingdom last year. That's roughly 46,575 people per day. And let's say that the average person drinks 2 bottles of water on a full, 10 hour day in the park. That's 93,150 bottles of water that are being wasted PER DAY. 34 million bottles the Magic Kingdom sends to the landfill each year. That's over 2 metric tons of waste just from water bottle purchases in ONE park. And keep in mind it takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose. With numbers like those, Disney should be bending over backwards to provide bins for recycling.
Disney does a decent job of keeping things environmentally friendly where they can. They recently partnered with the Department of Energy to create a series of Tinkerbell ads teaching kids about conserving energy. And since its inception in 1995, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund has supported 650 projects devoted to the study and protection of our planet's ecosystems. But then why remove the glassware from the DVC studio homes and replace it with paper plates and plastic flatware? Seems a bit backwards to me - I think the DVC needs to sign up for Crunchy Domestic Goddess's Ditch the Disposables Challenge.
I think the thing to keep in mind here is that being green doesn't just fall under Disney's umbrella of corporate responsibility, but it's a challenge that should be issued to all park visitors. I doubt that many visitors will complain about having to throw away their plastics into a seperate trash can. I personally wouldn't be offended if there was a sign in the hotel bathroom encouraging me to take a shorter shower to conserve water. And really, I don't care if I have to wash out my dishes in our DVC suite. Isn't that the whole point? DVC is your home away from home? Guess what - I have real glasses at home and I wash those too.
What do you guys think? I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments below!
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1 comments:
I agree with you. First I think it would be worthwhile if Disney were to place cans for plastics in the parks alongside trash cans. We are used to doing this most places we visit and also at home. It seems weird when there is no place to put water and soda bottles at WDW.
I also feel that visitors to the parks need to do their part whether it be recycling when needed, shorter showers, reusing towels in your hotel or washing dishes you use.We can all do our part to make a difference. Peace.
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