Green Pug is More Environmental Than You

Happy Earth Day everyone!  And since I spent the entire day doing wedding invitations and not being particularly earth-friendly, here is Green Pug.  Go Green Pug!

Recycle that newspaper!  Change those CFL's! Gooooooo GreenPUg!

The Pacific Garbage Patch: "One big unfathomable bummer"

I keep hearing rumors of an island of debris from the Japanese tsunami floating toward California and while I can't really find much hard evidence on that, I did find some interesting things about the Pacific Garbage Patch. This is an area in the Pacific Ocean that is as big as Texas.

You are probably thinking that this would look like a giant island of trash and should be visible on satellite images from Google Earth or something right? Also, you're probably thinking, "why haven't people started cleaning this up, if it's so bad?" Well...Here's an article that explains it well on the blog "Vegan Skeptic". I highly recommend watching the video starting at 1:45 or so.

The Pacific Garden Patch is not this....
(there's a city in the background sheesh)

But, the short answer is that the Pacific Garden Patch is not made up of giant buoys and coke bottles, but tiny pieces of buoys, coke bottles and more. So tiny that you can't really see them unless you trawl the ocean for hours. Plastic breaks down in the sun and surf and some of it gets eaten by fish, some sinks to the bottom and the rest just swirls around endlessly getting smaller and smaller.

So please, please, pleaseeeeee recycle and try to use reusable stuff as much as possible - water bottles, plates, forks, mugs etc.

It's more like this.
(Vast expanses of beautiful blue ocean with the occasional trash ball).

This makes me really want to be a scientist so I can help. Maybe school is in my future somewhere....Not a Marine Scientist though...oceans are scary.

Candy Bars Stand In Way of Zero Waste

Oh plastic...why must you exist? And how could we live without you?

This article from Plastic News is related to my previous post about Honda and Zero Waste.  It seems that food packaging - candy bars and chip bags - are hindering Honda's Mexico plant.  In other Zero Waste Honda plants, plastic would be packaged up and shipped to factories to be incinerated and used to produce electricity. However at this particular plant, there are no facilities nearby and transporting tons of plastic across the country to the U.S. would be more waste than benefit. So unfortunately, the candy bar leavings just go to the landfill.

Very interesting...I would really like to learn more about how Honda defines Zero Waste. However, I have to wait until the Peloton Sustainability Group has gotten some stuff done before I research it. But hopefully soon!

Here's a link to the article:

"MARYSVILLE, OHIO (July 18, 1:30 p.m. ET) -- Plastic candy wrappers and a sticky ethical question are the only two things standing between Honda Motor Co. and its ambitious goal of declaring that every one of its 14 North American factories is producing zero landfill waste."

http://www.plasticsnews.com/headlines2.html?id=22578

Holy Moly! It's BEST BUY!

While I was researching my "How Do You Recyle That?!" post I came across some awesome info that deserves its own post. Best Buy just started a new program called E-Cycle with the catch phrase "No matter where you bought it, we'll recycle it." Why haven't I heard of this sooner? Oh yeah...because I don't watch ANY TV and only listen to PBS kids when the kiddo's awake and I'm half-asleep.

Here's the info for Colorado.
What they take (from their website):

• Three items per household per day.
• Nearly everything electronic, including tube TVs and monitors up to 32", flat-panel TVs and monitors up to 60", peripherals, DVD players, home and car audio, cell phones, MP3 players, and cables.
• Desktop or laptop computers with the hard drive removed. See this Geek Squad video for Do-it-Yourself instructions, or they will remove it for $9.99.
• Small electrics, fans and vacuums.
• They charge $10 for televisions and monitors, but you immediately receive a $10 Best Buy gift card good toward future purchase.
• $10 fee does not apply to any Insignia®, Dynex® or VPR Matrix® products. Best Buy accepts these brands free of any charge.
• The bubbly sales-girl on the phone also told me that they take VHSs and Floppy Discs too but that wasn't on their website so check first.

What they don't take:

• Internal and External computer hard drives.
• Console TVs of any size, or tube TVs and monitors larger than 32". Use their  haul-away or pickup programs for these items.**
• Electronics containing refrigerants, such as mini refrigerators or air conditioners. Please contact your local waste disposal department.
• Appliances. Use our haul-away or pickup programs for refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, washers and dryers, ranges and microwaves. **

This is in addition to the stuff they already took which was inkjet cartridges, rechargeable batteries, CDs/DVDs, and gift cards. How cool is that? Mega cool, I say. 

**The fact that they have haul-away and pickup programs is great to!

These Peanuts Don't Make Good Butter

It's Christmastime, you get a package in the mail. Who's it from? Grandma? You can't stand the excitement as you jam scissors into the tape. Maybe your 3 year old helps and gleefully rips the box apart. Suddenly...an EXPLOSION! Your excitement for the gift momentarily flags as you look around your littered living room.

 

OH NO! PACKING PEANUTS! 

The bane of package-openers everywhere!  Oh sure, kids and cats and static cling love them but the rest of the world, you think, would be better off without them. You resign yourself to cleaning up the mess, carefully pulling your gifts out so as not to anger the peanuts. Finally success presents itself to you and now you have a shiny new whatever from Aunt Fannie as well as a giant box of pink and green Styrofoam balls of death.  How thoughtful.... Packing peanuts- 1, you - 0.

But never fear! For there is a solution in hand! In fact, this solution has been around for almost 2 decades but it seems not many people know of it.  RECYCLE the peanuts! The Plastic Loose Fill Council has been working since 1991 to "develop, promote and implement the original use and subsequent recovery, reuse and recycling of polystyrene loose fill, commonly known as "packing peanuts."" Who knew? They arrange drop-off sites as well as operate a hotline to deal with these little buggers. So check for a location near you and maybe next time, packing peanuts won't be so scary! (Still...keep the cat away from them. If you've never had to remove packing peanuts from a cat's fur, you've lived a privileged life).

Here are some locations in the Denver-Boulder area:

CENTENNIAL CONTAINER, INC. 13105 EAST 38TH AVE, UNIT 58 NEAR 1-70 AND PEORIA STREET DENVER, CO  80239-3551 (303) 371-7700

I SOLD IT ON E BAY CO. 7506 EAST 36TH AVE, UNIT 450 SHOPPING CENTER DENVER, CO  80238-3444 (303) 539-6915

Pak Mail 2075 S. University Blvd. Denver, CO  80210-4300 (303) 744-6245

PostNet 1312 17th Street Denver, CO  80202 (303) 595-0500

PostNet 200 Quebec St. Bldg. 300, Suite 111 Denver, CO  80230 (303) 340-0998

THE UPS STORE 1685 SOUTH COLORADO BLVD, UNIT S COLORADO BLVD & MEXICO AVE DENVER, CO  80222-4040 (303) 753-0888

Pak Mail 2525 Arapahoe Ave., #E4 Boulder, CO  80302-6720 (303) 444-0831

    

AIM MAIL CENTER 2205 W. 136TH AVE, STE 106 KING SOOPERS CENTER ON 136TH & ZUNI ST BROOMFIELD, CO  80023 (303) 280-6245

THE UPS STORE 1685 SOUTH COLORADO BLVD, UNIT S COLORADO BLVD & MEXICO AVE DENVER, CO  80222-4040 (303) 753-0888

Lucky #7 - 7 things to reuse, 7 things to avoid

I just found this site called Greenopolis and while I haven't explored it fully, I found two fun and useful articles for the time being.

#1:

The Magnificent Seven: 7 Top Materials To Use And Recycle!

For millennia we used leather, wood, clay, and stones along with animal and vegetable materials for nearly everything. When we threw something “away”, it went away- really back into the natural systems it came from.

But 7 billion of us can’t rely strictly on grown materials, and most of our modern materials don’t go away very easily. Does that mean we should not use them? Not at all. We just need to get as smart as Ma Nature and learn to reuse and recycle those materials again and again. These Top 7 materials are safe, recyclable and just work really well for so many things. They include 2 metals, 3 plastics, and 2 natural materials. Here’s my list:

1. Steel. Steel is probably the most recycled material on earth- about 70 % of all steel is recycled and nearly all the steel you use has recycled steel in it. Works great because of its strength and malleability. I’m a big fan of steel roofs, among other things.
   
   
2. Aluminum. Abundant in nature, strong but lighter than steel, and it doesn’t rust. Aluminum is what caps the Washington Monument because it was once so prized. But mining and smelting aluminum is very energy intensive and polluting. That’s why recycling it is so important. Right now about 50% is recycled- we need to get that up into the 90% range like gold.
   
   

MORE...

What I want to know about this article is how it mentions recycling bottle lids. If anyone knows how to do that or can point me in the right direction, I'd be grateful! Sometime soon I will research this myself.



#2

7 Deadly Sins: 7 Materials To Avoid

In the Church Of Green Living, some sins are more deadly than others.


Little sins like forgetting to recycle paper can be overlooked, unless you are a newspaper publisher. But some are to be avoided at all costs. Here’s a list of 7 substances that cause real problems in the environment, and that we can avoid by taking a few simple steps in our lives.

1. Polyvinyl Chloride, aka PVC, aka Vinyl aka #3 plastic. We’ve all got some vinyl in our houses, on furniture clothing, plumbing pipes- it’s the third most common plastic. But it usually has bad stuff that can leach out of it, like diethylhexyl phthalate, which is banned in Europe, vinyl chloride and dioxins.  The U.S. Green Building Council states that the "risk of dioxin emissions puts PVC consistently among the worst materials for human health impacts”.  You probably don’t have to strip off your vinyl siding, but avoid toys (including sex toys) with PVC. You don’t want it in or near you or your kid’s body.
   
2. Polystyrene, aka Styrofoam, aka #6 plastic. Polystyrene is not easily recycled because of its light weight (especially if foamed) and its low scrap value. Discarded polystyrene does not biodegrade for hundreds of years. Commonly used in coffee cups and clamshells for food, it contains benzene, a known carcinogen, and while the FDA claims it is safe, there are studies concerning polystyrene containers used for food packaging which find that styrene oligomers migrate into the food and may increase thyroid hormone levels. It’s your call if you want your hot coffee or entrée served up in polystyrene. I avoid it.

MORE...

In this article it's these first two that bother me the most.  Partially for their poisoning rap but also (and, let's face it, MOSTLY) for the fact that I'm so good about not throwing away all kinds of other stuff, including stuff that breaks down faster (food --> composting) but I still get styrofoam take out containers and plastic crap off of the kid's toys. I think my next big goal is going to be to figure out how to cut back on using these items. NO STYROFOAM! grrrr....

Green Holiday Tips

IT'S CHRISTMASTIME! Ok, well, at least I'm trying to psyche myself up for the Holidays even though I'm guessing this year I'll probably get coal (getting older is a bitch) and only a couple people have RSVP'd to my White Elephant Gift party =(. However, what I'm still psyched about is being green and luckily, green is one of the colors of Christmas! So here are some tips courtesy of the Denver Zoo and modified by me. Did you know that the Zoo is doing it's part to be green this year by using all LED lights in their Zoo Lights display? LED lights use 1% of the energy of traditional lights and 10% of the energy of little lights.  Also, if you guys are local, definitely check this out...it's going to be AWESOME!

Denver Zoo Lights!

Go green this year for Christmas
Your Christmas Tree

• After the holidays, don’t just throw your tree away- Recycle it! Denver Recycles offers free pick up of your Christmas tree.  Visit their website, www.recycleyourchristmastree.com, for specific rules and regulations regarding when and how to have your tree picked up.  They list tree pick up by county to make it easy for anyone in Colorado to recycle their tree. (out-of-staters check for something like this in your area!)
• Instead of purchasing new ornaments this year for trimming your tree, try edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberries on a string, gingerbread cookies or items made from recycled objects around your home.
• Or...get a fake tree! Reuseable every year!

Your Holiday Decor Purchase holiday lights made with energy-saving, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. LEDs use only a fraction of the energy of conventional bulbs and are much better for the environment. LEDs use only about one percent of the power of standard (C7) holiday lights, and about 10 percent of the power in mini-lights. Try www.environmentallights.com.  Get outdoor light strands that are wired in parallel. These have separate circuitry so that if one bulb blows out the rest will keep shining; all you have to do is replace the bulb rather than the entire strand of lights. Strands sold with series wiring stand or fall together, making it almost impossible to find and replace a single blown-out bulb. Sending Your Holiday Cards Send E-Cards and you will not waste a single tree. Send cards made of 100 percent recycled paper or tree-free cards made by environmental organizations. In addition to "tree free" cards, you can get cards made of old subway maps, cards made of recycled junk mail, and cards that you can plant which are imbedded with a seed mixture that will grow in the spring. Glue pictures from old cards onto homemade or store-bought recycled paper to create new cards.Yay crafty! Glue pretty paper on the inside of old cards to cover previous writing--and send them again. Avoid cards with glossy, shiny or gold foil coatings since these cannot be recycled. Look for the PCF label on cards (Processed Chlorine Free) -- they're printed on unbleached paper.   What to Buy During Your Holiday Shopping Try making something for those that you love.  People love to get homemade cookies, fudge, bread, or jam Other gifts that will create little to no waste include things like concert or movie tickets, a gift certificate for dinner, or an IOU for services such as a massage, cooking a meal, or baby sitting. Planting a tree is great because you can do it together. Make it a contest for your kids to see how many old toys they can come up with to donate to a local charity; and then the one who collects the most wins a prize. Give someone a gift that keeps on giving, such as a live plant or a donation to Denver Zoo or other local charity to support worldwide conservation projects or the construction of the Asian Tropics exhibit for endangered Asian elephants.  Gifts that don’t require batteries are a great alternative and don’t create as much waste when having to dispose of and replace these batteries.  Try also to look for gifts that are made from recycled materials. Best of all, adopt an animal at Denver Zoo or give a Denver Zoo Membership (or your local zoo)  in someone's name.  Your friends and family will think of you every time they visit! Also, shop on Ebay. There's a lower chance of the toys and stuff being "new in box" which will cut down on all the plastic waste that cannot be recycled. Wrapping Your Gift Try using colorful pages torn from magazines or last year's calendar pictures to wrap small gifts, and old maps, posters or the Sunday comics for larger boxes. Use crayons or sponge paint to decorate brown grocery bags and wrap with natural raffia ribbon. Reusable cloth ribbons can be used in place of plastic bows or you can save bows and reuse year after year. I swear, my mom has bows from when I was like 5!! Avoid using paper entirely by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes, fabric bags (canvas grocery bags are great!)or give a gift in a gift. Un-wrap gifts carefully and save wrappings for reuse next year. Use old scraps of wrapping paper or cut up old cards to make gift tags. If you do buy wrapping paper, look for ones made of recycled paper. Avoid conventional wrapping paper with metallic colors. Such paper is often produced in an environmentally unfriendly manner. If you have wrapping paper left over from last year and want to have different paper for this year’s presents exchange it with a friend, co-worker or family member’s paper from last year and you will both have “new” paper.<-- I like this idea a lot b/c I get bored of things easily! Gift mailing You can re-use packing peanuts. Call the peanut hotline at (800) 828-2214, for locations of mailing centers that reuse the packing peanuts or go to www.loosefillpackaging.com. If there is no location in your community, check with local gift or craft shops, artists galleries or elementary school art programs for reuse opportunities.Great idea! I didn't know this but will try for the future. Use corrugated boxes. More than 70% of corrugated cardboard is recovered and recycled into new boxes and paper products. The fibers from one corrugated box can have up to seven or eight lives. Breakdown and flatten your boxes for easier transporting before taking them to your local recycling center. If you do not have a center available, check with a local grocer or department store to see if they will bale your cardboard in their in-house recycling program. Shred your old catalogs to make great packing material when mailing gift packages.  Reuse tissue paper from clothing store purchases as packing material or gift paper. Holiday Parties Use "real" dishes, cups, and utensils that you can wash and reuse year after year. Switch to cloth napkins. Make it easy for your guests to recycle bottles and cans. If you must use disposables, buy napkins and plates made from recycled material. Try www.biodegradablestore.com.  Get corn-made cups and utensils which can be composted afterward. And if you don't have compost, at least if you throw them away, they'll break down faster than plastic! Serve sustainable seafood and fish.  Check out Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch page, www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp, for consumer guides and more. Serving local organic food at your parties will help to protect the environment because organic products don’t require pesticides and local food doesn’t have to travel far, creating more carbon emissions, to get to your table. You can make a difference just by being aware of the ingredients you are using in preparing holiday foods.  For instance, palm oil or palmitate is included in many of the foods that we eat and the harvesting of palm oil in Indonesia contributes to the destruction of critical habitat for endangered orangutans and Asian elephants.

Maybe I Should Move to Canada

Go, you eco-friendly Canadians, you!

Sun Chips, Canada is keeping their eco-friendly bag. And if people have a problem with it, write them and they'll send you a free pair of earplugs. Epic!

Canada Stays Loyal to Noisy SunChips Bags

I wonder how much it would cost to get them imported?

Cloth Diapers - Guest Blogger!

Diapers. Thousands, no MILLIONS, of them are probably sitting in landfills as we speak. Think about it....Ok, who's grossed out now? I know that I am!  For not being pregnant or a mom of a kid in diapers, I find this topic fascinating! It just seems like one of the most icky forms of waste and the (continuing) existence of cloth diapers shows that there are alternatives to help the environment gives which in turn, gives me hope for the future.  So let's find out why cloth diapers are FULL of waste but not wasteFUL

Today, I am pleased to present my very first guest blogger, the lovely Jen E. from mommablogsalot.com. Jen blogs (a lot) about family, family products and green-friendly products as well as a host of other topics. She has written up an exciting account of her experience breaking into the cloth-diapering world as well as a list of links for more info. I love her practical and non-preachy approach to this topic, especially her unashamed use of the occasional disposable diaper. This proves that we do what we can which is leaps and bounds more than if we didn't do anything! (And being kind of a girly girl, I love the idea of pretty diaper covers!)

*******************

Why Cloth Diapers? Thoughts on diapering from the not-so fanatic cloth diapering mom

 

Jen's daughter helping with the now-famous cloth diapers!

I think people come to cloth diapering for different reasons. Maybe you are hoping to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, save some long term money (by age 2 1/2 babies use about 7,000 diapers - costing about $2,000. Comparatively, we’ll spend about $500 or less on cloth diapers total) or avoid the weekly or monthly trips to the store to buy diapers. I know my husband loves never having to go out in the middle of the night or in bad weather to buy diapers last minute. All of these are great reasons to consider cloth diapering!

Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses. Nothing that smells like poop is ever an entirely happy story, if we’re going to be honest. I don’t think I liked cloth diapering per say for at least six months - and I’ve heard this is normal but I sort of wish someone had mentioned it to me when I was getting started. After using disposable diapers with my first child for the last three years, the transition to cloth with my second child was a little bit of a culture shock. The smells were different, the work was, yes, a little bit harder. And I was already tired, sleep deprived and grumpy.

But my husband, who wasn’t in the  throes of post pregnancy hormones, convinced me to stick it out a while longer and before I knew it, cloth diapering had become a normal part of our life that I now wouldn’t trade for anything. The cost savings is exponential, the work just isn’t that hard and the diaper covers are seriously cute.

  

Cute diaper cover!

There are options to choose from as cloth diapering has become awfully trendy over the past few years. Find a style that works for you : prefold / diaper covers, all-in-ones, pocket diapers and even hybrid styles like the GDiapers - you have a lot to choose from! We use mostly prefolds with a few pocket diapers on hand as back ups when I’m running behind on my laundry. Mix and match and find a method that works for you - there is no right or wrong answer here!

If you are considering cloth diapers but are still on the fence, here are a few things to consider:

·           First, understand that cloth diapering need not be all or nothing. Try it for a few months to see how you like it. Traditional prefold diapers can be used as spit up cloths if you decide to throw in the towel. Why not buy one or two covers and a 6 pack of diapers and give it a shot before going all in?

·           We use cloth at home but disposables when we are on the go. Some people use cloth while out of the house, bringing a wet bag along with them, but I opt for convenience first and find the amount of diapers we end up using on the go isn’t very much in the long scheme of things (we buy disposables once every couple of months as opposed to weekly).

·           Make your diapering schedule work for you. How often do you want to do laundry? Your baby will use about 8-10 diapers a day so if you only want to do laundry every other day, you’ll need at least 20 diapers - buy more diapers and a big diaper pail if you hope to do laundry less. We have about 2 dozen diapers for good measure and I wash diapers every 2-3 days. And remember if you fall behind on laundry, you can always throw your baby in a disposable while you get the laundry done - once in a blue moon (or more) won’t hurt anyone.

 

·           You might consider a diaper service if you have one in your area. You might not end up saving any money that way, but if the environment is your first concern, this is definitely an option and perfect for anyone who doesn’t have the time to get the laundry done themselves.

·           Don’t forget accessories! Just like in fashion, they will be your best friend. If you use prefolds - get yourself a package of snappis instead of the dreaded diaper pins and please please please pick up some diaper liners to ease in the clean up of poopy diapers once your baby is on solids (before solids, poopy diapers are water soluable, just toss the soiled diaper in the wash and all will be well). Liners are a god send and can be flushed or tossed quickly. You might also look into a diaper sprayer - I know a lot of people use and love these!

·           There are a lot of accessories, detergents and options out there. Some cost more than others. Some work better than others. Just find what works for you and give it a shot. Change your mind as you get there and figure out what you like. For a diaper pail, we honestly just use a big trash can and wash it when we need to. They make cute diaper pail liners that can also be used on the go - but to me that just seemed to make things more complicated instead of easier. For detergent, you can use any laundry detergent that has no dyes, scents or softeners. We use whichever “free and clear” detergent is on sale that week. They all work fine. We also use a laundry booster like borax for good measure.

Here are some cloth diapering links to check out:

•   Say goodbye to diaper pins and hello to the snappi - makes diaper changes a breeze!
• Imse Vimse is without a doubt our favorite diaper liner.
• A diaper sprayer which connects to your toilet for easy clean up
• Simple Mom is a great recource for anyone looking to try cloth diapering. She has loads of articles with tips on choosing diapers, cleaning them, setting up a diaper changing area, shopping for diapers and accessories, etc.

 Even your kids will love the cloth diaper!

Sun Chips Bag Update

 

Sun Chips' non-compostable bag and MY favorite flavor - IN FRENCH!

Ok, I figured I'd just make a new post about this since people barely read my blog as it is, I'm guessing that no one is going to go back to read posts if they've already read them.

First off, you might be wondering, "Lyndsie, why do you care so much about a stupid chip bag? I know you don't even eat chips that often..." Well, I am excited because this is evidence of a big corporation getting on board with the eco-friendly stuffs. Even if it's only a drop in the bucket as far as big companies go, every drop still counts! This is the same reason why I care that Big Red made a Big Deal about their paper wrappers.

For the original post, go here.


So, I discovered this weekend that it seemed like Sun Chips had run away like a scared little girl from all the "bag's-too-loud whiners". Now the only bag that's compostable (according to their Garden Salsa and Harvest Cheddar bags) is the Original "blue" flavor. Which is still good but way inferior to the other two. However, according to Sun Chips' website they are actually working on a new, quieter compostable bag. In their words, they're "putting the finishing" touches on this product which makes me think that it's going to come out soonish. I really hope that's the case. And hey, quieter would be good but I'd be happy with the old crackley bag.
Interesting side note, Sun Chips' website also has links for following them in their journey for the best bag, how-tos for composting and their "mission statement" for their compostable bag. So that's pretty cool.

Frito-Lay makes a variety of tasty products. (I don't believe in their "Natural" Ruffles tho b/c most potato chips only have 3 ingredients anyway - potatoes, oil, salt).

Now time for a tiny rant. Sun Chips is owned by Frito-Lay so why didn't Frito-Lay make all their bags compostable? I can see that maybe they were just testing it out w/ Sun Chips, but I have never heard anything about F-L considering going 100% compostable. So this whole composting thing that is making people (me) so excited is, in some ways, just a bs marketing scheme or "green washing" as they say. *sigh* At least is aa start...I guess. Let's hope that the quite compostable bag is a success and then the company decides to switch all of its brands, sizes and products to this same bag. Is that too optimistic? I'm tryin' really hard!

Sunchips bag - Loud AND PROUD

Oh Sun Chips...How I love your multigrain taste and your Harvest Cheddar flavor is like the crack of the chip world. I really don't care if your ingredients are healthier for me or not (54 grams of fat anyone?) but I like to think that the whole grains are really givin' my body the love because they sure are giving my tastebuds some lovin'.

Now, Imagine my surprise when I learn that my beloved Sun Chips have made a compostable bag! WOOHOO world! Now I can buy the most ultimatelytastey chips in the whole world and not feel bad about throwing away the bag. So I do just that and first off I think "HOLY MOLY this bag is loud!" I had to go into the kitchen at work and pour the chips on a plate so I could eat them. 

However, I didn't really give this event much thought. I mean...so what? It's a loud bag, but it will biodegrade fast and turn into dirt. I can't complain about that. Though it seems that my fellow Americans took this loudness a bit too seriously. According to the Facebook page: I'm sorry but I can't hear you over this Sun Chips bag Frito-Lay, maker of Sun Chips, is considering switching back to the normal bag because of secret snackers. (Article at bottom).

Here are a few comments from the site.

Negative:

• "My hubby said not to buy them anymore because of that bag...."
• "I'll be honest-I love the fact they were trying to go green...but that thing is SO annoying!"

Positive:

• "Dump them into a tuperware container and get over it."
• "oh yes because a little noise is way less important then the filling of our landfills. If they switch back, I wont eat them again."
•  "Score: tender ears of the consumer: 1 the Environment: 0"  (sarcasm= positive?)

Smart Facebooker?

"....I suspect that, if these bags break down in a few months, that really limits their shelf lives - especially if the chips were packaged more than a few weeks since the bags were manufactured. And what breaks them down? Do they break downs with moisture? Does a humid environment like Nashville in August shorten the life of those bags? Frankly, I think it was a good idea, but probably didn't work very well."

Maybe the smart Facebooker does have a point. I don't presume to understand how plant-based products work fully, but I can see a valid concern here.  And when you combine that with the noise factor, should Frito-Lay drop its loud bag in favor of garbage dump clogging pastic? Um...NO! Hello people! Really? Did anyone say yes to this? If you did I'm ashamed of youz!  However, there is talk of discontinuing this bag. There is also research going on to reduce the noise factor. I like that latter and I hope they continue with being earth-friendly rather than indulging lazy, overly-sensitive, salt-and-fat-loving Americans. 

I am just here to give some of the love back to Sun Chips and to send my encouraging voice out through the blogosphere. YOU GO, SUN CHIPS! Let's hope these negative complaints dissolve as quickly as your awesome bad in a compost heap!

You can read more about the bag's challenges HERE. 

P.S. what do I have to do to become a secret snacker? ROCK!


EDIT: Apparently Sun Chips ran away like a scared little girl from all the "bag's-too-loud whiners". Now the only bag that's compostable (according to their Garden Salsa and Harvest Cheddar bags) is the original "blue" flavor. Which is still good but way inferior to the other two. Way to drop the ball on that one, Jerkfaces...

Plastic Waste: Ignorance is NOT Bliss (once you learn)

Ok, so I really am not trying to sound preachy in over the environment b/c I hate it when people act condescending about stuff like the environment, but I figure if you're reading this you are at least a little bit concerned about your waste habits. However, I found two news articles today that actually make me feel sick about the world's waste. Sick to the point of wondering how the hell we're going to fix this problem. There are billions of people in the world and I'm sure billions who don't recycle, compost or try to reduce their consumption. And these billions include companies who manufacture this detritus. It's absolutely horrible.

The first is a video from the BBC about a beach in Hawaii that's just being littered in plastic trash. Yes, Hawaii, a place that seems to you to be island paradise. Well, this is not at all paradise.

The second is a note with pictures about how plastic is becoming the diet of albatross chicks, leading to the death of thousands each year. The pictures are not for the faint of heart, showing pictures of partially decomposed bird skeletons with their stomachs full of bottle caps, lighters, door stops and other unidentifiable bits of plastic. It makes me wonder about those plastic bottle caps. This infuriates me to no end - both the fact that they're not made to be recyclable and also that recycling companies won't do it. I have no idea WHY this is the case, but it's absolutely inexcusable! There are millions of these bottles made a year and we still haven't figured out how to get rid of the caps? Christ......

Vacations are wasteful!

(Ok, so the title isn't really clever, but I couldn't think of anything to rhyme with "waste-maker"). So, I've kind of fallen off the bandwagon of keeping track of my waste since I got back from vacation, but there's a reason why.

Let me explain first...

I went on vacation to New Orleans with my M.a.t.h., his colleague and her bf for the ACLA Conference. And while the trip was fun and great, I was struck by something.

1). How many bottles of toothpaste, shampoo, water, soda etc. are thrown away at the security lines? Do they recycle them? Who knows? I'd like to find out more about this.
2). We threw away A TON of plastic cups/paper trash etc. just because we didn't want to deal with carrying them around. I even decided to throw away my novelty plastic gator cup b/c I didn't have room to pack it in my carry-on.
3). And the wastefulness wasn't just us, it was EVERYBODY on Bourbon St. there were cups up the wazoo lying by the curb, being kicked into piles then shoveled in big garbage bags.  Now the city of New Orleans has a really great street-cleaning team, but I bet that stuff just lands in the landfill.
4). There are SO many beads there - they are hanging from the telephone wires, tress, cars, houses, signs EVERYWHERE.  And so many more are dished out every night.  They go from this:

To this: 

Do you see the beads on the lamp post?  It's probably not that hard to get THOSE down, but what about the ones I saw hanging from a power line over the cable car tracks? Yeah, those are not coming down by any human hands. Also, it's apparently taboo to pick beads up off the ground (though I did a couple times cuz they were pretty. And I was freaking out about all the plastic) so people just leave them sitting around everywhere. And it had rained that day so there was water in the gutters. The beads would roll into the water then slowly slink their way to the drains. The drains DO have bars on them so cups can't go down, but they don't stop those persistent little strings of beads.... Here's another picture of beads hanging on the wire just below the deck:

And the funny thing is that we weren't even there on Mardi Gras or any holiday really. OK, it was Easter the next day, but do people party and get drunk and throw beads on Easter Eve? Apparently in New Orleans ANY weekend night is appropriate for that. Weekday nights too? Maybe So. And if this was just an average day, think about what it would be like on Mardi Gras, or St. Patrick's Day or New Year's Eve or any day that involves raucous consumption, destruction and waste for that matter.....


*Sigh....* In the end, all this excess made me wonder if what I'm doing is really worth anything. Am I just a drop in the bucket or am I really doing something? Is traveling really worth it? Well, actually, I don't think too hard about that one because, yes...it really is. But maybe I could try to change my habits in the future so I can at least contribute more to the solution rather than the problem. I guess the point of this blog is to just encourage me to do something...ANYTHING...because "any" is infinitely more than "none."

I'll try to get back on my tracking soon and I have many more good posts stored up for future use. So please come back often! Oh, that's another thing...I seriously need readers if I am to keep this up. Please tell friends! And if you have blogs I will return the favor and eventually, everyone will feel loved. ^_^

Change the World Wednesday - Reduce Packaging!

I got the title from a post I found on the Little Green Blog and since this is the reason why I started my blog I thought I'd post the tips from that site here and comment on how I'm doing with them.

Tip 1). Ditch the plastic carrier bag
Hopefully you’re all doing this already; but if not, why not treat yourself to a reusable bag this week? Find one you can keep in your bag, briefcase, car or pocket and set yourself the goal of remembering to use it. You might like an Onya bag which folds up inside itself and comes with a caribiner clip to attach to your belt loop, handbag or key ring. Or you might like to get a recycled bag, like these made from recycled rice sacks.

Me: Yup, I'm working on this. See my post "How I learned to stop worrying and love my reusable bag."

Tip2). Take your own container
If you use a local butcher, fish market or deli counter, take your own lidded containers with you. When y0u make a purchase as them to put your goods into your own container. This can reduce your packaging by a massive amount.

Me: I haven't done this yet, but I don't use a butcher/deli/fish market very often. I do buy stuff from the bulk bins and have been starting to save the plastic bags I get from there to reuse for the stuff later.

Tip 3).  Buy in bulk
If, for example, you buy one 5 litre container of fabric conditioner, the packaging weighs much less than five 1 litre containers. You’ll have to trust me on this - I’ve bought the goods and weighed them. I don’t remember the results now, but they were pretty impressive!

Me: I never thought of this before but I do try to buy things in larger containers b/c it's also a better value. So I guess I'll try harder now. And again, I've started using the bulk bins at the grocery store, so I think that helps too!

Tip 4).  Refills
Refills are not as popular now as they used to be, but they do exist. In ASDA some stores refill their own label fabric conditioner. Bio D and Ecover have refill stations around the country at health food stores and organic farm shops.

Me: I had no idea that this existed and I don't know if there are any around here, but it may be worth researching sometime. Has anyone heard of anything like this around the Boulder/Denver area? If so, please share!!

Tip 5). Shop naked
Buy loose goods wherever possible; sign up for a box scheme or use a farmers market. Use a company like LUSH who sell soap and shampoo bars without packaging.

Me. When I first read title of this tip I was like "WHOO-HOO! OH YEAH! Only in Boulder!" However, the author was obviously not implying that *I* shop naked (don't really know how that would help the environment anyway) but that I should buy good w/o packaging. I guess I can say that I do this w/ vegetables since I don't usually get bags to hold them in (unless they're really wet like lettuce or fragile like tomatoes). And I found recently that Ellie's Eco Home Store in boulder sells a 3-pack of mesh veggie bags for about $7.99. Which I definitely intend to buy soon. Also, we do have a Lush in Boulder on Pearl St. and I do love me some soap. Although, if you really get down to it, I could just make my own soap.  And I do also love me some summer farmer's market. CAN'T WAIT TILL SUMMER YEAH!
 

Tip 6).  Returns
When I was a child, many glass bottles has a 10p deposit on it. Alas this is no longer the case, but you can return your empties to Neals Yard and you’ll get something towards your next purchase. Elin at Nothing Nasty will accept your glass bottles for refilling and give you a huge 20% discount off your next purchase.

Me: This tip makes me think that the author of this post is living in England. Unless America switched its currency and I didn't even notice....Again, I don't know much about doing this around here in America, but it would be worth researching. I do have a friend who makes bath stuff and lotions and she will give you a discount if you return her bottles/jars - check her out at Om Shanti Handicrafts!

Here's the link in case the post title link is too complex for some: http://littlegreenblog.com/blog/green-news/reduce-packaging-waste-this-week/#more-2165.

While writing this post I thought of a couple other ways to reduce packaging but haven't had a chance to do any extensive research on them yet. If anyone knows anything about these, again, don't be shy! Post away!

7). Reusable mugs and cups would also be good way to reduce your waste. Also drinking/eating "for here" rather than "to go" at a restaurant. Some places will give you a ceramic mug or ceramic/reusable plastic dishes and silverware. (I want this cup, btw. It's totally cute!! I'm sure you're definitely seeing a trend in me putting cats into every single post?)


8). One thing that I was wondering about is the packaging for children’s toys. My Honey's daughter got a lot of birthday presents this and each one was plastic wrapped in plastic. I would love to find a way to reduce this plastic waste. I’d also be open to the idea of recycling it, because at least that’s better than it going in the garbage. I was thinking Ebay might be a good place for kid’s toys, especially if you’re buying gently used toys. Then your child could still get the benefit of the latest toy and you can feel good about the lack or reduction of plastic you’re receiving. I also heard that it’s possible to make package-less purchases on Amazon (I think the dog bags I bought, while not corn starch, are just packaged in 1 cardboard box). Does anyone know anything about this?

Anyway, I'd love to hear what YOU are doing to reduce your waste (eating less or holding it all day doesn't count!) so please post!

Compostable Bags - How much is too much?

On a side note, I'm going to try to title every post with some over-used catchphrase because I think people like that....or something.

(I was hoping to save my compostable bag post for a time when I learned more about them, but I had an experience yesterday that needs attention)

One of my ECO-goals is to go back to buying biodegradable bags instead of plastic shopping bags for scooping my cat litter. (And also using these for the trash can as well). Aside from being more eco-friendly, they also never have holes in them like 90% of grocery bags seem to. I was originally using BioBags that you can buy at Safeway, Sunflower Farmer's Market, McGuckins and other supermarkets or home-improvement stores.  These are slightly expensive at around $5.00-$7.00 for 30, though that is expected.  These come in a cardboard box, which can be recycled.

Recently, I have noticed how many bags my boyfriend (we'll call him M.a.t.h - Man around the House) uses for picking up his dog's waste so I decided to check the Whole Pets store in my area (a store that specializes in all natural/sustainable/eco and pet-friendly food and accessories) to see if they had biodegradable bags in the little rolls.  I thought these would also be good for the cat litter, so we could kill two animals' poop with 1 kind of bag (as they say).   Well, whole pets does sell several different brands of these bags and I opted with Bags on Board.  They were more expensive than I would like at $14.99 for 120 bags (8 rolls) so I also bought a package of Pooch Pickup, 30ct for $3.99 that weren't in the rolls so were slightly cheaper.   

When I opened up the box of Pooch Pickup here is what I found. YES! The BIODEGRADABLE bags were packaged in a presumably NON-BIODEGRADABLE plastic zip-bag. Why? It's not like these bags are food that will go stale if they're not sealed properly. What's the point in making biodegradable bags then store them in regular plastic?  Why couldn't they have made the bag holding the bags biodegradable? Or, why not just skip that whole step and store them in cardboard? At least that's recyclable.  Then as I started to think about it, the Bag on Board that I bought were also encased in plastic. I guess, maybe, if they are trying to let the consumer SEE what the product is, and since biodegradable products are not as strong as plastic products, then I can sort of understand the reason for the Bag on Board plastic. I guess the reasoning is "Well you're throwing away one plastic bag, but you're saving 120 plastic bags." Even so, I am thinking about writing the Pooch Pickup company and letting them know that they are going against their advertisement by using plastic at all.

Interesting factoid: In doing research for this article I learned something very interesting about biodegradable bags. The Bag on Board and Pooch Pickup brands are actually two different kinds of biodegradble. I found an article on The Compost Bin that breaks it down (pun intended) in great detail, but I will sum up here. There are 2 kinds of "biodegradable" bags. One - Pooch Pickup/BioBags- is made of corn starch (no petrol products) and breaks down in around 180 days and is ok to throw in the compost. The other - Bag on Board - is an additive-based plastic bag which has a chemical that causes it to break down in 6 mos-2 years (vs. ~100 yrs or whatever) but release CO2 into the environment while doing so. The former seem to be the "good" kind whose only drawbacks are that they are not as strong or rugged as plastic and they may reduce the amount for consumption of the foods they're made from (corn/potatoes). The latter seem to be known as the "bad" kind because they're still made of plastic.

HOWEVER.....thanks to Amazon.com, you can get 880 PURPLE bags on rolls for $23.93.  And the 120ct that I bought at Whole Pets for $14.99 goes for $7 on Amazon. Whereas, on PoopBags.com (not kidding about the name, check out the link!) you can get 480 BioBag dog bags for $82.99!!! Yikes. And double yikes. Especially when you have to pick up every single mess your dog makes individually.  My M.a.t.h. says he uses about 2/day  which equals 60 bags a month! That's 1/2 of the Bag on Board package (~$7), 2 Pooch Pickup boxes or 3 BioBag rolls, so roughly $8-$14.25/mo or $84-$171/year just on dog bags. Throw in use for cat litter boxes and you've got another 3-5 bags/week. That's A LOT of bags. Who has that kind of money?

Well, after reading the reviews on Amazon, I went ahead and bought the 880 purple bags.  I figure that on my budget it's better to do this (for now) than not do anything.  Also after reading the reviews, I think more people need to be made aware of the difference between "biodegradable" and "compostable" because I would think that the Bag On Board bags WOULD NOT be good for a compost bin. (Though, I'm sure very few people put dog poo in their compost. Yuck.) I still believe that everyone should use these bags at least, and the starch ones if you feel you can afford it, because every little bit helps.

I will, however, stick with BioBags when I start buying trash can bags and also if/when I start composting.  For dog and cat bags, though, the number of bags + the price + the still lessened impact on the environment still make these bags a win for me. And who knows? Maybe someday I'll be able to afford not only the corn starch bags but also an assistant who will pick up the poop for me. A girl can dream. ;-)