Yemane Abraham: Going Green

Yemane Abraham is an avid hiker and an outdoor enthusiast. He tries to find eco-friendly solutions in almost everything that he does in life. He works in food service and while he sometimes takes a bus to work, more often he will ride a bike and sometimes he even walk.

When he rides his bike to work, Yemane Abraham carries a plastic shopping bag with drawstrings in it that can be worn backpack-style. He pulls over to pick up discarded bottles and cans whenever he sees them and places them into the shopping bag. He always fills it by the time he gets to work because there are so many bottles and cans littering the environment. Once he reaches his destination he empties the bottles and cans into a single-stream recycling bin. Then he washes his hands thoroughly and begins work.

Picking up all those discarded cans and bottles requires multiple stops and adds up to ten minutes to his ride in to work. But Yemane Abraham says that it's worth it. He knows that getting all of that litter picked up and disposed of properly in a recycling bin is only a tiny thing, but that every little bit helps. For that same reason he tries to reduce the amount of trash that he personally creates. He brings reusable canvas bags with him to the grocery store and buys in bulk whenever possible, which reduces the amount of packaging he buys. He is a believer in the old saying that you are either a part of the problem or a part of the solution.