Poles need to learn to save!

I was in Poland a few months ago visiting my family. Everything was fine except -- Polish people must learn how to save the environment (and their money)!

I could not believe they take one sheet of a towel paper, wipe ONE cup and just throw the paper to a garbage can! Here in US I could use one sheet for at least 10 cups or more (and then I would still use the paper when it's dry again).

Not to mention the fact that so many Poles do not care and throw bottles, plastic with other garbage (even though they have separate containers for bottles and plastic stuff). And then they complain everything's so expensive -- well, no wonder if you have to buy 10 paper towels instead of one!

Well I`m Polish and I always tend to segregate my garbage, though I have to admit that I often use 10 paper towels to dry my hands. I don`t have the patience to pull out one single sheet of paper only to be able to dry my hands, I pullout 10 - sorry.

But when it comes to enviromental issues:

http://org.eea.eu.int/documents/newsreleases/Images/GHGrelease/table1. gif

then Poland is a country that in compliance with the Kyoto agreement had reduced its CO2 emissions by over 30%.

nita you really have no room to talk. 90% of the trash in the US can be recycled but isn't. fight this battle at home before you bring it here. the poles do not make as much money as we do here in the US. do not tell them how to use the money they earned. a lot of them don't have the choice to save their money because they need food or to pay rent. you need a hobby if you come on these forums to bitch about how people use paper towels I don't believe you dry your paper towels and reuse them... you know you can get a cloth to do the same thing a hundred times if you don't want to waste them why purchase them? and why the hell did you decide to pick on Poland? when you tell poles the NEED to do what YOU think they should do, it makes you look like a spoiled brat and makes the US look stupid. you never had to make the decision to buy food or rent. it’s easy to tell people what to do when you’re not hungry or make low income! Leave these people alone!

Guest 3, you're so ignorant... My family lives in Poland and I'm Polish myself so I fight it at home too. I did not pick on Poland - I've been living in Poland for 20 years and in the us for 10 years now so I know how it's like here and there! YOu don't know anything about me - but I lived in Poland in the 80ties too when I had to make the decision to buy food (the problem was there was no food in the stores then) or pay rent.

It just worries me - I make in the US much more than they do and still try to save much more than they do. It was just a piece of advise - is it bad and non-constructive advise?


It's your right to do that, of course. But if people like you want Poland to be closer to the West, it is a good idea to reconsider. I'm not talking about US only - you may check how poeple live and try to save in Germany for example.

They need to start doing things that will allow them to save money in the long term and don't cost anything.

Also, the "paper towel" thing is just one of dozens examples how some Poles waste their money. You need to understand this simple formula:

save=spending less money (meaning more money for you and your family)

I cannot understand people prefer to complain they have no money for food/rent (I know some of them don't) and at the same time completely ignore a good piece of advise that will allow them get better off!

Do you want to imply that Poland is not part of the "west"..

..Anyway as I`ve mentioned. Poland had reduced its CO2 emissions by 32%. Now it would be good if we would take the environmental issues more seriously ..but I think that we are already doing it at the same level or perhaps even more than most of Europe (i.e. there are many enviromental organizations here who are blocking large scale investments and becaouse the teritory of the natural reserves - one of the largest natural protected areas in Europe - has extended ect.)

And when it comes to trash segregation - then it depends from the utilities companies - those companies often do trash segregation on their own (at least it is the case in my city)

...



What a load of crap.

btw.



As I`ve mentioned before - I`m po-environment.. but this is a littlebit absurd. How much can I possibly save by using less paper per month ? 1-2 PLN ? A pack of cigaretes costs 6,50.. and you know time is an asset too (time is money). So I`m really not quite sure if spending the time to pull exacly one paper towell and reuse it ect. is worth the effort.

btw2.

The Germans can often drive things to absurdity by creating laws they have later difficoulties to comply with or are somply out of touch with reality (i.e. some time ago they had a law which forced people to turn their bottles into the shop wher they bought their botteled product... which was extreamly inpractical in real life... or you can take the closing of all German nuclear plants as an example ...where the Germans are going to be forced to build ne nuclear plants becaouse the higher demand for energy ect.)

Interesting topic.

In Germany and Britain the population who choose to separate rubbish do so knowing that the local authorities/council will put any profit back into the community.
Here in Wroclaw private companies collect separated waste and use the profit for their own good. Where is the incentive for me to separate my waste ?
Also, the bins in my area are at least 50 meteres from the house [I live in the inner city]. If you think that I'm going to carry five or six bags of separated waste, in the middle of winter, you have another think coming. We already have eight wheelie bins which are guaranteed to be overflowing before collection time, adding more bins for plastic, metal, paper etc will only take up valuable space. It's very easy to talk when you live in a house and can leave colour coded plastic bags at your front gate. It's not so easy when you live in the middle of a city. It would only work if refuse were collected on a daily basis. We can't have collection points on the pavements because they are too narrow. When you come up with answers to my problems regarding waste I will happily comply [as I'm sure most other people in my district would too.]

Assuming you pay not 1-2 PLN but 3 PLN per one roll (and you use 10 as much as needed), the annual savings will be significant. It's good you mentioned cigarettes - when I was in Poland I was under impression half of the Polish population smokes! You go to the train station - smoke, stay on a bus station - smoke, stay by the entry to the bank or a city office - smoke. Not to mention HUGE SMOKE in pubs, restaurants, or discos. If I were you, I would include cigarretes to the "paper towel" list - it would be good for your and your family's health.

The incentive is - you and your children will be living in healthier environment. If the only reason you don't separate waste is just because you don't want others to make money on "you" - I'm sorry to say that but it's just a typical Polish behaviour (aka "the gardener's dog").

I also had a similar to Nita situation. I sent a parcel (a computer monitor) to Poland along with some paper towels (since they are good as heavy-duty absorbers). I used two dozens or so of the towels. After a month my family writes me an email and tell me what wonderful towels we have here in Canada (Polish towels are useless - they are like sponges...) and if I could send them more. I was a little surprised, to tell the truth, since my family would use all these towels in a year . So Nita's got a point; or maybe it's just coincidence...

maybe Poles use paper towels to something else than normal people do

Nita,

Please read post No.9 again. Where do I put the separated waste ?

Also, If the scheme were government run and they put the profit back into local society I would benefit twice. Once because I would get something in return and twice because the enviroment would benefit.

I have nothing against enviromental protection. But I do have problems with people who don''t think things through. Poland is not the USA and your simple solution for us needs more thought.

It's true the organization of "Polish waste business" requires a lot of thinking and tweaking. That's why it's important that during association meetings or board meetings these issues are brought up and resolved.

Never before has such a thing as paper towels divided so many so quickly. I wash my hands each time I have a fag (other times too, but let us not be pedantic) so, 10 paper towels (has to be 10 - english towels are cheap and nasty) for each cigerrette I smoke, thats... 150 a day at least! I guess I should stop throwing empty fag packets in hedgerows too... Live a little Nita, coming into a forum and saying things like your first message isn't really that productive, if it gets your hackles up so much go and lead by example

GET OVER THE PAPER TOWELS ISSUE........There are so many other things of more impotance that you should be worrying about. War-terroists-gas shortage, so on and so on.

Maybe you could add earth pollution, Guest 17?

You can not dry ten glasses with one paper towel, what an exaggerated lie. Nita you need to pull your head out of your arse. And if you are going to talk about thicker paper towels such as "viva", you can stop right there, because environmentalists are against the uses of any paper products that arent derived from recycled paper products. There is no way in hell one paper towel derived from recycled paper is going to dry 10 glasses. Perhaps you need to use that one paper towel to clean off your eye glasses and dry those so you can see clearly!

Nita go stuff your face in a pillow

#17, there seemingly are more important things... though in reality it all comes doen to paper towels. They are the root of all lifes problems

If more people thought about the environment, our grandchildren wouldn't have to wear oxygen masks...

Nita if you werent such a douche bag, you would have recommended recycled paper products, but you didnt, Regina did.

Nita, saving a paper towel after it is wet? Why do you think at the dollar store 2 roles are $1? To use them you stupid ****ing ***! Or maybe you are Italian... whether that mob money roles in or not.... YOU'VE got some explaining to do for even five bucks. Dad, I've go a job, it's my ****ing money. Give me 5 dollars. For what?! For what?! So you can waste it on a soda and two cheeseburgers at McDonalds, play TWO ****ing lottery tickets, or invest it in your car or girlfriend?! No mother****ing bleeping bleep bleep bleeping (I'm Italian, I curse) bleep bleeping bleep way!!!! Ehhhhhh fata ZUT.....


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I'd like to hear what your grandchildren will have to say to their children when they ask: "Mom, on an old TV show the sky was blue - why do we see gray sky all year long"?

You could always blame it on the grandparents and how they dared to use more than one paper towel to dry off the glass. How pathetic!

It's pathetic one person has a good idea and ten other (lazy or i-don't-care) people mock her. If you have better ideas to save the environment - go ahead, post it and don't ridicule ideas of others.

Regina posted Nita and you ignored. Now take your hypocrisy elsewhere.

Oh, please there are more important things going on in this world than how the Polish use paper towels. You need a reality check Nita, I do so hope that you are doing everything that you possibly can to preserve this earth of ours. As long as I know you are out there worrying about the misuse of paper towels I will be able to sleep much better.

Towels are just an EXAMPLE. Imagine, you invite me for two months to your home and tell me - Nita, there are 36 bottles of water in the fridge. Whenever you're thirsty, feel free to have one.

Then I take the bottle and drink one sip only and pour the rest of water down the drain. In a few hours I'm thirsty again and take a new bottle, take two sips and trash the rest.

Would I still be welcomed in your house?