Doing Our Part
At Boxcar, we value working toward leaving the world a little better than we found it. Shared commuting drastically reduces each traveler’s carbon footprint. Driving directly to your reserved parking spot instead of circling while looking for a space does, too. We think we’ve made a good start on improving our environment, but know there’s always more we can do. And sometimes, small steps make a big difference.
In the US, 60 million disposable plastic water bottles end up in the trash each year—even bottles that are put in recycling bins often end up in a landfill. Each of those bottles takes an average of 450 years to decompose. Even worse are the millions of bottles that make their way into our oceans, wreaking havoc with wildlife and polluting our waterways. According to recent findings, the energy used to produce and deal with disposable plastic water bottles could provide power for 190,000 homes. Or, 37,280 charter bus trips (holding a total of 2.1 million riders) on Boxcar’s most popular route. That’s a lot of energy devoted to something we don’t really need.
In light of this, we’ve decided to eliminate water bottle service on our buses—it’s a simple step we can take to help the environment. But we also realize how thirsty a Midtown commute can make you, and don’t want to leave you high and dry. On Wednesday, 6/26, we’ll be giving out REUSABLE Boxcar water bottles to all riders on our Madison, Chatham, and Summit Routes. On Thursday, 6/27, we’ll distribute them to riders in Westfield and Cranford. We hope you’ll use yours throughout the week and help us cut down on the plastic headed for a landfill. With this small change, I hope we can make the world a little better, one Boxcar commute at a time. If you have any suggestions for other positive environmental changes we could implement, please let me know.
