An interesting little article from Seattle on the choices in hand drying. Just goes to show you how complicated some of these things can be.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Showing posts with label Waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waste. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2008
Cloth vs Paper vs Air, How To Dry Your Hands
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Trash Talking
This is an interesting articles about the Seven (New) Garbage Wonders of the World. As you may recall, a bit back they voted to decide on the new seven wonders of the world, a sort of best of the best if you will. This article lists the 7 worst of the worst, from The North Pacific Gyre to the Electronic Waste Dumps in Guyiu China, they are testament to the problems of a disposable society and are somehitng that each of us needs to confront.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Take Back The Filter Campaign
This is a really great campaign that Beth over at Fake Plastic Fish spearheaded. Clorox, who now owns Brita North America, does not accept filters back for recycling and re-use while their European counterparts have been doing this since 1992. It makes no sense and in an environment where people should be heading towards filtered water and away from bottled, we need to keep the pressure on companies to be responsible for the waste involved in the filters. For more info about the campaign check here and makes sure to sign the petition as well!
Live Sustainably
Dave
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Waste Not
A great article from The Atlantic about the wasted energy in the business sector and how the technology to recapture it is not only old, but tried and true.
"A 2005 report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that U.S. industry could profitably recycle enough waste energy—including steam, furnace gases, heat, and pressure—to reduce the country’s fossil-fuel use (and greenhouse-gas emissions) by nearly a fifth. A 2007 study by the Mc Kinsey Global Institute sounded largely the same note; it concluded that domestic industry could use 19 percent less energy than it does today—and make more money as a result."
A lot of people I talk to are always on the "technology will save us" train. Like this article illustrates, technology may already be there, but if we don't recognize and adopt it, it won't do much to change things.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Garbage Island
This a a really great video piece on VBS called Garbage Island. It follows Charles Moore across the Pacific Gyre and is worth watching the whole thing. You can see the rest of the episodes here.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Greendimes Will Pay You $1 To Stop Your Junk Mail
Greendimes has announced that they will pay the next 5 million people who sign up $1 each to stop their junk mail for a year.
Now how can you beat that?
What are you waiting for?
Live Sustainably
Dave
Dave
5/4/08 Update
After hearing some feedback, I wanted to post an update. While Greendimes is giving everyone who signs up $1 right now, it is for the manual removal sign up, ie, they walk you through what to do but you do it yourself. If you want them to do it for you, there is the usual $20 fee and they'll plant 5 trees as well. I believe the manual sign up doesn't plant trees but you can have them do so for a dollar or two more. While one friend did question this as a bait and switch tactic, i pointed out that they are willing to walk you through getting rid of your mail and pay you $1 for it at the same time so it's actually quite on the level. I just think that most folks, when they see what is involved with maintaining it yourself, will agree that $20 is worth the time and effort they will save you. Bottom line- it really chaps my hide that we need to spend a ton of time, or any money to get rid of junk mail to begin with, but it's a consumer based society, so it is what it is. At least they've set up one stop shopping to help.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Junk Your Junk Mail
Generally speaking the greatest waste to come out of any house is in the form of paper and the largest contributor to that number is junk mail.
Junk mail is generally a pain as most of us don't want it, and a huge amount of it doesn't even get recycled. In addition, think of the resources, fossil fuel, and time that are wasted as a result. A lot of people look at what I've been up to and after I've tackled the sanity question, they always ask what i do with all the junk mail and are shocked to find that we hardly get any.
I've been working on this for a while and at this point, we sometimes don't get any mail, and at the very least, rarely get any junk mail at all. I can't even remember the last time we got a catalog - and when you think about the fact that the average american gets around 88 a year, that's a major undertaking.
So here, in simple bullet points, is how I went about stopping the junk, and then below that are some other alternatives.
- For starters, check out Greendimes.com. Greendimes costs $20 a year, but for that price they automatically remove you from several lists, plant 10 trees, and continually monitor your account. I did this thinking the trees alone made it worth it, but the junk mail actually fell off from just that pretty quickly. In addition, when stuff does get through, you just go on the site, plug in the info, and they do the rest. I've heard pluses and minuses about them, but I'm a believer.
- Next was the mail from orgs that we give money to. I thought about this for a while and what i do now is call/email them and tell them that for reasons involving saving resources, I have decided to no longer give money to orgs that send me paper solicitations, but will gladly consider them if they send me email solicitations and give them my email addy. In every situation this has proven to be effective so far, and I usually get an email of thanks back.
- As for bills, I pretty much pay online and do auto withdrawal so after all is said and done, not much left. We do occasionally get a Penny Saver ad or something similar, but a call to the number in the editorial section takes care of that and eventually they stop showing up.
- Head over to The Direct Marketing Association and for $1 (I think that's a legal requirement) they'll get you off a whole mess of lists. Your request will be active for 5 years at which time you'll need to renew.
- Catalog Choice is a free service that will help get rid of unwanted catalogs for ya.
- Optout will put an end to most unsolicited credit card and insurance offers.
- If stuff continues to come in, rather than recycling it right off the bat, call the 800 number and asked to be placed on their "do not mail" list. Legally they have to and most will oblige.
- Apparently the USPS sometimes sells forwarded address lists to solicitors, so if you are moving, mark your forward preference as temporary for six months rather than permanent. As a result, your addy won't be sold and you won't bring all that junk mail to your new house.
- Any time you fill out a warranty card or subscription, you are giving advertisers the right to buy that information. To keep this from happening, write "Do Not Rent, Sell, or Trade My Personal Information, Name or Address" on the bottom of the card in big block letters.
- You can also check out 41 lbs which gets it's name from the average amount of junk mail an adult receives in a year.
Bottom line is don't give up. Some things will stop right away, and some will take up to two months as that's how far ahead they plan their mailings, but eventually you'll see a big difference. I kind of treat it like a game and it actually keeps it fun in a weird way.
Good luck.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Peanuts! Get Yer Red Hot Packing Peanuts!
Packing peanuts. If you are anything like me you hate these things, but somewhere deep in the recess of a closet, you have a large bag of them waiting to be sent off to some unknown destination. Come on, you know who you are.
Well fear not, friendly peanut hater. While they may keep coming at ya whether you like it or not, there are now options. For starters, stop buying so much stuff online (kidding, well, not really, but....anyway). Check out the Plastic Loose Fill Council which believe it or not actually offers a hotline and online resource to find places to return these things where they will actually get re-used. Get that, re-used, not recycled or re- whatevered, but re-used for the purpose they were originally made for. Cool huh? I wish they'd stop making these things in the first place but if they are going to, at least they can get re-used so less of them need to be made.
And if you're looking to gripe on the subject, check out this I Hate Packing Peanuts website.
Live Sustainably (and stop buying so much stuff on the Internet)
Dave
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Bottled Water
My buddy Duane sent this to me. Thought it was kind of cool. Enjoy.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Monday, March 3, 2008
Pacific Gyre Sample
The sample you are looking at was taken off the surface of the ocean 1500 miles from land by my friends Marcus and Anna. Studying the Gyre for the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, they surmised that it is 25 million square miles and comprised of approx. 3.5 million tons of plastic debris. While this may not seem like much, consider this, it's a little over a cup of water and it's got all of that in it. And since the fish eat the particles and bigger fish eat those fish, you may just be looking at dinner.
Live Sustainably
Dave
Friday, February 29, 2008
Poop Freeze
I was flying up north yesterday and started to read SkyMall, that shopping magazine they have on planes that takes advantage of the fact that you are trapped with nothing to do. I was perusing the pages laughing at products that I'm certain no one actually needs, and most likely most don't even want, when i cam across this little gem. Here's the blurb from the mag.
"Poop Freeze is an easy, earth-friendly way to do your "dooty" and clean up after your dog. It chills animal waste to -62°F, creating an outer "crust" that enables you to quickly place in a bag and dispose. Makes picking up loose stool and diarrhea easier. Effective for all kinds of pets, including dogs, cats, birds, etc. Indoor or outdoor use. Safe for humans and pets when used as directed. "
I'm sorry did that say earth friendly? Truly? Earth friendly? Now i'm assuming they are talking about CFC use, but can you really look at this product that no one on earth actually needs and say that it is friendly in any way towards the earth? Unreal.
I ordered a case.
I guess the thing that gets me is this so highlights the whole greenwashing thing that is going on all around us. So few people actually take time to critically think about their decisions that they can go ahead and buy and use Poop Freeze and feel likem they are doing the right thing. They can look past the manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of Poop Freeze and smile as they ice their dog's waste stream simply because they were told it was ok. Advertisers wouldn't lie would they?
Same thing gets me about disposable. Who decides that it's disposable? An environmental engineer who looks at the cradle to grave cycle of the project, or a number cruncher named Bob (my apologies to all the Bobs out there) who has determined that people will buy something at a certain price point, throw it away and buy another one, if they are led to believe that that's ok.
Allright, I'm done. Rant over. Gotta check my mail and see if the Poop Freeze has arrived.
Dave
I'm sorry did that say earth friendly? Truly? Earth friendly? Now i'm assuming they are talking about CFC use, but can you really look at this product that no one on earth actually needs and say that it is friendly in any way towards the earth? Unreal.
I ordered a case.
I guess the thing that gets me is this so highlights the whole greenwashing thing that is going on all around us. So few people actually take time to critically think about their decisions that they can go ahead and buy and use Poop Freeze and feel likem they are doing the right thing. They can look past the manufacturing, transportation, and disposal of Poop Freeze and smile as they ice their dog's waste stream simply because they were told it was ok. Advertisers wouldn't lie would they?
Same thing gets me about disposable. Who decides that it's disposable? An environmental engineer who looks at the cradle to grave cycle of the project, or a number cruncher named Bob (my apologies to all the Bobs out there) who has determined that people will buy something at a certain price point, throw it away and buy another one, if they are led to believe that that's ok.
Allright, I'm done. Rant over. Gotta check my mail and see if the Poop Freeze has arrived.
Dave
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Ban the Bag! Sign The Petition
A blog reader sent me the following link and post to an online petition to ban plastic bags in grocery stores all across the country. I think making our voices heard on this subject is important, and this, along with sending it to your representatives in Washington, is a good way to do it.
Dave
This is a petition intended to urge all CEOs of major U.S. supermarkets to completely eliminate plastic grocery store bags.
On January 22, 2008, Whole Foods Market, the global leader in the natural and organic foods market space, formally announced that it will permanently end the use of all disposable plastic grocery store bags. This decision affects all of its 270 stores, and is set to be completed by Earth Day, or April 22, 2008. We at Green Eggs and Planet (http://www.greeneggsandplanet.com), are fully behind this small but significant step forward in terms of global consciousness and environmental awareness. And this got us to thinking.
What about the rest of the super markets and grocery stores out there across the land? What are they waiting for?
We don't believe that it should only be the province of the environmentally aware, eco-friendly "organic" or "health" food store, regardless of how large and seemingly important Whole Foods may have become in recent years. Those of us who have awoken to the reality of the planet's state, rather unfortunately, still represent only a growing minority. The fact of the matter is that the issue at hand, specifically that of eliminating plastic bags from use across the country, is a concern for all people -- whether they realize it yet or not. The time, however, is now.
Many of us have begun to notice a small change creeping up in our local grocery stores and super markets -- with some stores currently offering alternatives at the checkout stand. It's no longer just "Paper or plastic?" -- now there's also a re-useable bag for sale, typically around 99 cents, silently and awkwardly perched somewhere within arm's reach, quietly vying with the entertainment rags and candy racks for your attention. More often than not, however, nobody at the grocery store is educating the consumer, offering the re-useable option as the only way to go, serving up the exact reasons behind why making that decision is so potentially important.
Here are the facts:
-- According to the Environmental Protection Agency, we consume over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps in the United States alone, every year.
-- In the U.S., consumers throw away about 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, with an estimated cost to retailers at $4 billion.
-- Plastic bags are petroleum based, and they litter countless landfills, often taking more than a thousand years to break down. This means that polymers of literally every single bag ever produced still exist somewhere, in some smaller form, on our planet.
-- It takes over 400,000 gallons of crude oil to produce 100 million plastic bags. Less than 1% of these will be recycled.
-- Hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine mammals, including whales and sea turtles, die every year from eating discarded plastic bags that they mistake for food.
-- Plastic bags don’t actually biodegrade; instead, they constantly break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits (photodegrade). In the process, they contaminate soil and waterways. Eventually, they are accidentally eaten by many animals, and end up in the food chain, later to be consumed in many cases by humans.
-- Despite efforts to reuse and recycle, studies have shown that plastic bags are consistently among the twelve items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups (Center for Marine Conservation).
Many other countries have banned or actively discourage the use of plastic bags, including Australia, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan and more. Still others have instituted a tax on all plastic bags that get used at the grocery stores. Mumbai has formally banned the use of plastic bags since 2005.
A little bit of consciousness and simple, practical action can go a long way if all consumers make the choice to abandon plastic bags, make their voices heard with their super market and grocery store corporations and make the switch to re-useable shopping bags. Whole Foods estimates that from May to December of 2008, they will be preventing 100 million disposable plastic bags from entering the environment.
The goal now is to confront all other CEOs of major grocery store chains with this evidence, with Whole Foods example, and with our voices -- and a demand for change and a new collective policy towards the environment. Time is running out.
Take a minute to sign this e-petition, and spread the word. Copy and paste the link from the petition, and pass it along to all of your friends.
When we reach a significant amount of signatures whose collective voice will have the ability to make an impact, we will then draft a formal letter along with this petition, and send it to all major U.S. super market CEOs and leadership.
This includes:
The Vons Companies, Inc.
Albertsons LLC
Ralphs Grocery Company
Safeway Inc.
The Kroger Co.
Gelson's and Mayfair (Arden Group, Inc.)
D'Agostino Supermarkets, Inc.
Pathmark Stores, Inc.
With your help, we will reach that number of signatures quickly, and foster positive environmental change.
On January 22, 2008, Whole Foods Market, the global leader in the natural and organic foods market space, formally announced that it will permanently end the use of all disposable plastic grocery store bags. This decision affects all of its 270 stores, and is set to be completed by Earth Day, or April 22, 2008. We at Green Eggs and Planet (http://www.greeneggsandplanet.com), are fully behind this small but significant step forward in terms of global consciousness and environmental awareness. And this got us to thinking.
What about the rest of the super markets and grocery stores out there across the land? What are they waiting for?
We don't believe that it should only be the province of the environmentally aware, eco-friendly "organic" or "health" food store, regardless of how large and seemingly important Whole Foods may have become in recent years. Those of us who have awoken to the reality of the planet's state, rather unfortunately, still represent only a growing minority. The fact of the matter is that the issue at hand, specifically that of eliminating plastic bags from use across the country, is a concern for all people -- whether they realize it yet or not. The time, however, is now.
Many of us have begun to notice a small change creeping up in our local grocery stores and super markets -- with some stores currently offering alternatives at the checkout stand. It's no longer just "Paper or plastic?" -- now there's also a re-useable bag for sale, typically around 99 cents, silently and awkwardly perched somewhere within arm's reach, quietly vying with the entertainment rags and candy racks for your attention. More often than not, however, nobody at the grocery store is educating the consumer, offering the re-useable option as the only way to go, serving up the exact reasons behind why making that decision is so potentially important.
Here are the facts:
-- According to the Environmental Protection Agency, we consume over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps in the United States alone, every year.
-- In the U.S., consumers throw away about 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually, with an estimated cost to retailers at $4 billion.
-- Plastic bags are petroleum based, and they litter countless landfills, often taking more than a thousand years to break down. This means that polymers of literally every single bag ever produced still exist somewhere, in some smaller form, on our planet.
-- It takes over 400,000 gallons of crude oil to produce 100 million plastic bags. Less than 1% of these will be recycled.
-- Hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine mammals, including whales and sea turtles, die every year from eating discarded plastic bags that they mistake for food.
-- Plastic bags don’t actually biodegrade; instead, they constantly break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits (photodegrade). In the process, they contaminate soil and waterways. Eventually, they are accidentally eaten by many animals, and end up in the food chain, later to be consumed in many cases by humans.
-- Despite efforts to reuse and recycle, studies have shown that plastic bags are consistently among the twelve items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups (Center for Marine Conservation).
Many other countries have banned or actively discourage the use of plastic bags, including Australia, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan and more. Still others have instituted a tax on all plastic bags that get used at the grocery stores. Mumbai has formally banned the use of plastic bags since 2005.
A little bit of consciousness and simple, practical action can go a long way if all consumers make the choice to abandon plastic bags, make their voices heard with their super market and grocery store corporations and make the switch to re-useable shopping bags. Whole Foods estimates that from May to December of 2008, they will be preventing 100 million disposable plastic bags from entering the environment.
The goal now is to confront all other CEOs of major grocery store chains with this evidence, with Whole Foods example, and with our voices -- and a demand for change and a new collective policy towards the environment. Time is running out.
Take a minute to sign this e-petition, and spread the word. Copy and paste the link from the petition, and pass it along to all of your friends.
When we reach a significant amount of signatures whose collective voice will have the ability to make an impact, we will then draft a formal letter along with this petition, and send it to all major U.S. super market CEOs and leadership.
This includes:
The Vons Companies, Inc.
Albertsons LLC
Ralphs Grocery Company
Safeway Inc.
The Kroger Co.
Gelson's and Mayfair (Arden Group, Inc.)
D'Agostino Supermarkets, Inc.
Pathmark Stores, Inc.
With your help, we will reach that number of signatures quickly, and foster positive environmental change.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Alguita Returns Home
"For a solid two hours, we fished as fast as we could, pulling up floats, toothbrushes, plastic and glass bottles, a golf ball, a billiard ball, an unused glue stick for a hot glue gun, and several rope boluses filled with crabs and tiny striped fish - But most appalling was the plastic confetti. An endless stream of delicate, white snowflakes, like plastic powder coating the ocean’s surface. This, remarked Charlie, is indicative of the gyre, “where the trash comes home to roost and degrade…..” - From The Alguita's Blog
My friends Anna and Marcus are returning tomorrow from their trip across the Pacific to study the Pacific Gyre. I fear that I have been less than active in passing on their words from the voyage, mostly due to being sick at first and then overwhelmed by all of the things I didn't get to while I was sick. Theirs is an unbelievable journey and story and one that should be heard by everyone. As soon as they have settled in, I will surely be speaking with them to hear first hand accounts of what they found and pass along what I learn.
In the meantime, here are a few links to some stories that have been written about them, and links to the remainder of the posts from their voyage.
Common Dreams
San Francisco Chronicle
LA Times
London Independent
And from the blog
Calm After The Synthetic Storm
Following A River Of Trash In The Sea
It's A Plankton Eat Plankton World
Algalita’s message traveling around the world. Day 18 – Travel day
Day 19 - Sifting The Sahara
Entering the Eastern Garbage Patch "Where Our Trash Comes Home"
Dinner Dissection and A "Safe Seafood" Recipe
Return To the Garbage Patch Sampled In 1999
Creatures of the Night Emerge
Words From The Crew
Valentines Day
Keeping Our Wits In The Doldrums
No Title Today
Questions Lead To Questions
72 hour Countdown
Come join us in welcoming ORV Alguita back to Long Beach!
Let's Talk About The Weather
Live Sustainably
Calm After The Synthetic Storm
Following A River Of Trash In The Sea
It's A Plankton Eat Plankton World
Algalita’s message traveling around the world. Day 18 – Travel day
Day 19 - Sifting The Sahara
Entering the Eastern Garbage Patch "Where Our Trash Comes Home"
Dinner Dissection and A "Safe Seafood" Recipe
Return To the Garbage Patch Sampled In 1999
Creatures of the Night Emerge
Words From The Crew
Valentines Day
Keeping Our Wits In The Doldrums
No Title Today
Questions Lead To Questions
72 hour Countdown
Come join us in welcoming ORV Alguita back to Long Beach!
Let's Talk About The Weather
Live Sustainably
Dave
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Packaging Insanity
I ordered some tapes online for my video camera and look at what they came in. 10 tapes (they are on the right there) and 14 other pieces of stuff. Incredible. I'll give you that the plastic air bags are better than the styro-foam peanuts which end up blowing all over the place, but come on. This could have been packed in a box half it's size and used much less packaging. No wonder we're in trouble.
Everything in the pic goes into our mail area and will eventually be re-used for shipping something else, except for the tape box, which will be used to organize shot tapes.
Dave
Thursday, February 14, 2008
VD (no not that one)
I was just listening to the radio in the shower and heard a statistic that today, Valentines Day, $17 billion will be spent on flowers, cards, chocolates and little tiny stuffed bears. The piece went on to talk about the chocolate market, which gets cocoa beans from places in Africa like the Ivory Coast, where the majority of the workers are underaged minors. Kind of amazing to think that a greeting card company has somehow convinced us that on a certain day of the year, it is imperative that we buy gifts made by children in order to convince our significant others that we care about them. Does anyone else think this is nuts? $17 Billion? Imagine if that money went into schools, or solar research, or feeding the poor (preferably not minor produced chocolate though). I know that's naive because it doesn't really work that way, but talk about waste.
Now to the cards and gifts and flowers. Here in the US, most of the country is not in flower growing season, so most of the flowers purchased have probably come from fairly far away requiring a tremendous amount of energy to transport them to us. They probably come in a plastic and paper wrapper which in most cases will be thrown away. Most of the cards that are bought are going to be looked at once and thrown away, if not recycled, but most won't be. The store that sold the card most likely gave it to the buyer in a small plastic bag that most people will probably throw out when they get home. And I'm not even going to get started on the waste from those chocolate boxes.
I don't mean to be all bah humbug on romance by the way, I'm all for it (as much as someone who keeps his trash in the basement can be anyway). I'm just bummed out that the concept has been hijacked and turned into something involving consumption.
So what''s my suggestion? If you want to celebrate today, why not do something that doesn't involve simple consumption - make dinner, draw a picture, sing a song, show up at work and serenade someone, call out of the blue and simply tell them that you were thinking of them and couldn't wait until the end of the day to let them know, the list is endless. Just use your imagination and don't let the corporations tell you how you have to show your emotions. And better than all of these, do nothing today, but do something else 4 other times of the year and let your partner know that these "surprises" are in place of Vday because you don't need someone else to remind you when to act romantic.
Off to make a lovely bouquet of garbage for the missus.
Live Sustainably
Dave
P.S. And don't shoot the messenger, I was just passing along what I heard
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Every Little Bit Helps
My friend Duane just sent me an email that made me smile. It seems that his wife Rebecca was working at their kids school book fair, I'm assuming at the area where you purchase the books.
"She noticed everyone asking for bags to carry their (usually) single book back to their SUV so they could drive the 2 blocks home and then leave the book in the car until later. This annoyed said wife, who started asking, "Would you like a bag with that, or would you like to save some of the planet for our children?"
Apparently some still took bags, but many did not. I love this because basically what she did was ask people to consider the reality behind the choices that they were about to make. My thing is always - if you want to take a plastic bag, go ahead, just make sure you are being honest about what you are doing first. Also I should note that Duane tends to be a bit acerbic so my guess is that Rebecca was a bit nicer in how she put it (but part of me hopes she wasn't).
Huzzah Rebecca, thanks for fighting the good fight!
Live Sustainably
Dave
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Our Plastic Seas - The Pacific Gyre
As i mentioned a while back, my friend Anna and Marcus are on a trip through the Pacific Gyre, a twice the size of Texas patch of plastic debris that is floating in the Pacific Ocean. Due to illnesses and everything else, I've been behind, so here are the first posts they have put up. I highly recommend following their voyage. The above video was made by the foundation they are working for and explains the problem at hand.
Live Sustainably
Dave
While i would highly suggest reading all the post, if you are short of time, I'd check out "First Day at Sea", "Entering the Plastic Soup" and Fundamental Properties".
Meet the Crew
First Day At Sea "...a picturesque, volcanic coastline, far from any visible development, clear blue waters and spectacular beaches - entirely covered in plastic debris."
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
NYC Misses The Mark On Plastic Bags
NYC just passed a plastic bag recycling law that will require stores to have highly visible plastic bag recycling bins in their stores and print a recycling message on the bags themselves.
While I applaud the city for recognizing the problems, I gotta say this is a pretty disappointing response to the problem. By simply asking companies to encourage recycling, they are really accomplishing next to nothing because the people who don't will continue not to and the people who already do will continue to do so. In addition, those few who do start to recycle, will feel as if they have "done their part" when the real way to help is to fore go the bag to begin with. A few years ago, Ireland, finding themselves drowning in bags, imposed a plastic bag tax that eradicated 95% of the bags that were used, and China just outlawed thin bags altogether. Why is it that we in this country find it so hard to ask folks to step up to the plate in a way that will mean something?
Sorry to sound negative about this as I do applaud them for attempting to fix the problem, but if this is the best they can come up with, I fear that it is too little too late. The city of Los Angeles is attempting to deal with the same issue (LA'ers use 5 billion bags a year). Hopefully they'll come up with something a bit more productive.
Dave
Friday, January 11, 2008
Naples is drowning in trash
Check out this story from NPR I heard on the radio today. Naples has had no garbage collection since the end of December, less than one month, and they are in serious trouble. While there seem to be politics behind the reasons for why the garbage isn't being picked up, just imagine what would happen in your town if the trucks stopped coming. Seems to me that if there was less packaging, less waste, and more worms, they'd be a lot better off than they are right now.
Living Sustainably
Dave
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Home Brewing Waste Solution
If you're like me, you can't really do too much without a good cup of Joe in the AM. We make our own coffee here at home and I always use a re-useable travel mug, but what has been bugging me since the beginning of this project (and why you haven't seen so many coffee ground listings in "the haul") are those crazy plasticoated bags they come in that are not recyclable and have limited re-use potential.
So this morning, I headed over to Whole Foods and had a really interesting talk with Richard, the guy who's in charge of the coffee area there (and incidentally it's his first day at that, after being promoted so way to go Richard). I explained to him what I was up to and told him I wanted to figure out a way to be able to come to Whole Foods and buy coffee without wasting a bag each time. I asked him if I could just bring in my own container to fill, but he mentioned that when they weigh it up front, the weight of the bag is already calculated in. While I might not mind paying the extra charge for this I'd have to probably explain everything again each time I bought coffee and don't really want to go that route time and again.
So what we ended on was this. Next time I head there I am going to buy my coffee in one of those sturdy little coffee bags that I hate so much, filling it up from the bulk coffee bins (they have fair trade shade grown so it's pretty good stuff). I'll bring that home, pour it into our coffee bean mason jar, and fold up the bag until next time I need a fill-up. Ironically, the thing that makes these bags such a nuisance, the way they are sturdily built and therefore not recyclable, is going to be an asset because I really don't see why I can't get through the year (and then some) on one bag.
At home we have a little grinder and french press manual coffee maker, so that's all relatively waste free, and the grounds can go in the worm composter, the garden, the lawn, or a number of other places. If anyone has any other thoughts, I'm game.
I'm psyched (and amped on coffee).
Live Sustainably
Dave
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