Fresh Greens
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Michael Pollan's Prius-Hummer Blunder
Continue reading… 7 CommentsWhat a soundbite it was, for all of two days: Michael Pollan, sustainable food guru and author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," told the crowd at the 2009 Poptech conference, "Our meat eating is one of the most important contributors we make to climate change. A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius.”
That line was blogged and tweeted countless times over the next few days. The only problem? It isn't true.
Reuters' Adam Pacisk refuted the claim shortly after, and here's his math: -
22 Tips for Minimizing Trash
Continue reading… 1 CommentIt's been said before that the most important of the three R's—reduce, reuse, and recycle—is the first. The best way to keep garbage out of landfills is not to make so much of it in the first place. It's a notion that's starting to take hold across America, where some communities and restaurants are going waste-free. According to the New York Times, the community of Nantucket has a stringent recycling and trash sorting program that has caused the percentage of residents' trash that is landfill-bound to drop to 8 percent, compared with 66 percent for the rest of Massachusetts. Their mentality is similar to that of many Europeans, who generate far less waste than Americans: After all, if your trash was only picked up a few times a month, you wouldn't want to make much of it either. Restaurants and corporations are getting in on the act, too, by composting their food waste, and Honda has jettisoned their dumpsters at eight plants—recycling has eliminated the need.
The Times' waste-free story was fortuitously timed to coincide with the first No Impact Week. You'll recall Colin Beavan, the New Yorker who tried to live with the smallest possible impact on the planet for a year, taking his wife and daughter down the rabbit hole with him, and emerging with a book deal. Beavan found that a waste-free lifestyle with a tinier footprint actually made him a happier person. He thinks it could make you happier, too. So with his non-profit, the No Impact Project, Beavan has designed a one-week program that encourages anyone to replicate his feat (or stunt), and decide how they feel: inconvenienced? satisfied? restricted? relaxed? Each day has a different focus, from food to transportation to energy. And this week—the Inaugural No Impact Week—Monday's focus was on eliminating trash. Another blog, EcoSalon, has accounced the beginning of "Trashless Tuesday" to encourage waste-free living at least one day a week (The day is a companion to "Meatless Monday," an initiative that goes back to World War I).
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Bisphenol A: Another Reason You Don't Need Your Receipt
Continue reading… 12 CommentsIt's been found in baby bottles, water bottles, and cans, but here's a new item to avoid that contains the estrogen-mimicking chemical Bisphenol A: paper receipts. Science News reports that John C. Warner of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry has found that both carbonless copy papers and the thermal imaging papers that form most receipts today are coated in a powdery layer of the chemical. He believes that our exposure to BPA through receipts is many times greater than through bottles or cans.
So why should you be concerned about BPA? Recent studies of the chemical have found that, when ingested, it is linked to diabetes, heart disease, liver toxicity, and birth defects. Warner told Science News that BPA found on receipts is dusted off on the fingers, where it either makes its way to food, or is absorbed through the skin.
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For Quick Cash, Drop Your Gadgets at an EcoATM
Continue reading… 0 CommentsIf dropping off old cellphones and iPods were as easy as taking cash out of an ATM, recycling rates for these devices wouldn't be so absymal. Enter EcoATM, a machine that will buy your old gadgets for you, instantly determine their worth, and spit out cash or coupons for your effort. The very first EcoATM has been installed in Nebraska, but a larger rollout is slated for Texas, Washington state, Vermont, and San Diego this year.
Before EcoATM, the process of recycling gadgets responsibly could be time-consuming—and inertia kept many from giving up their old technology. The average household has five unused gadgets lying around. And if their owners were too busy to mail them in to a service like Gazelle or BuyMyTronics, they would be forgotten in a drawer, or simply be thrown away. But when high-tech toys make it into a landfill, they can leach hazardous chemicals into the ground and water—so that's why recyling these items is worth the extra effort. The extra spending money it will put in your pocket certainly won't hurt.
