Anagain, Inc.

Census Pre-Notice: Government Waste At Its Finest.

david — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:07:01 +0000

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Did you get a “About one week from now, you will receive a 2010 Census form in the mail. When you receive your form, please fill it out and mail it in promptly.” notice from the government in the last week? I am really bothered by the fact that our government, which has no money to begin with right now, chose to send out millions of sheets of paper by mail letting us know that yet more paper is coming next week. Why was this necessary? As much as I appreciate how important the census is, I cannot help but wonder if that money could have been used towards something a little more needed – like school textbooks or medicine and food for the poor. You won’t hear me complain about the government wasting money on “socialized” things like roads, bridges, parks, airlines, libraries, etc – but you will hear me complain about this kind of waste. This is the kind of thing that really irks me about government waste – totally unnecessary, expensive, and a waste of resources. I really do wonder what these people are thinking some times…

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Do One Thing: Stop Buying Physical Media.

david — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:30:54 +0000

Like reading The Good Human every day? Then I need your vote! Please vote for me in the Best of Green over at Treehugger You can vote once per day until April 2, thank you!

In the last 6 months, I have given away or sold all the physical media I had been hauling around for years and years. CD’s, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, DVD’s – all gone and never to fill up my house again. I now buy all my music in MP3 format via digital downloads, rent DVD’s from Netflix, or stream them directly to my TV if they are available in that format. Physical media requires so much to make (and dispose of) – toxic inks, dioxins, solvents, PVC, toxic metals, plastic, shipping around the world, etc.. Digital media, on the other hand, lasts forever and creates no waste – and thus my decision to Do One Thing and stop buying physical media. If you can’t stop altogether, I suggest starting with DVD’s that you can always rent when you want to watch them again. That alone could really reduce the amount of physical media we all use and dispose of!

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Greenwash Of The Week: A $24.3M 15,000 Sq Foot “Green” Mansion.

david — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:30:33 +0000

Like reading The Good Human every day? Then I need your vote! Please vote for me in the Best of Green over at Treehugger You can vote once per day until April 2, thank you! Sometimes, a press release ends up in your inbox that makes my job way too easy. Last week I received PR about a “real estate rock czar” who had created a home he called “Acqua Liana” (Water Flower), a $24.3 million, 15,000+ square-foot mansion in Manalapan Beach, Florida that claims to be the Greenest Mansion in America. From its “unique glass water floors and water walls, to its serene gardens, waterfalls, pools and reflecting ponds, Acqua Liana is on over 1.6 acres of waterfront property. Sure sounds “green” to me…how about you? Check out some of these “green” gems:

“The home offers the unique combination of enjoying a private stroll on the estate’s white sandy beach and the ability to keep a yacht up to 120’ at your private dock on the Intracoastal Waterway immediately across from the residence.”

“2,000 gallon arched aquarium wet bar (walk below with over 100 exotic fish swimming above!)”

“7 bedrooms, 11 baths, oceanfront master bedroom suite with sitting room and his/hers oceanview baths – hers with mahogany soaking tub”

“Hollywood-like movie theater”

“Golf course grass driveway”

“Air-conditioned and oversize garage with sub-surface windows peering into pool”

Yes, it has some solar panels. And yes, some reclaimed wood was used inside the house. But a house this big, using this much raw material, that air-conditions it’s garage and is basically surrounded (inside and out) by water is NOT green. It is a greenwash, and it makes me sad to think that some actually fall for the idea of the words “green” and “mansion” being used at the same time. I wrote back to the woman who sent me this release and asked her how something so massive and so expensive could really be called “green”.

I never heard back.

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Golite Tier 1 Recycled Fabric Use Recognized with Backpacker Magazine Green Award

Rider Thompson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:35:00 +0000

GoLite, a leading producer of technical outdoor apparel and products has been honored with Backpacker magazine Editors’ Choice Award in recognition of their outstanding innovation in design, materials and/or performance.

The Backpacker Editors’ Choice Awards, bestowed annually since 1993, honor the products that Backpacker editors have chosen as the best of the year based on months of trail testing by teams of highly experienced hikers and climbers.

GoLite’s extensive use of Tier 1 recycled fabrics won the “Green Award” and was one of only 15 innovative products honored with a 2010 Backpacker Editors’ Choice Award.

GoLite has replaced virgin, petro-chemical based materials in all of our main pack fabrics and travel luggage with 50% Tier 1 recycled nylon, and in all of our sleeping bag collections with 100% Tier 1 recycled polyester. The impact reduction for recycled textiles varies, but it has shown to have up to 70% (for nylon) and up to 80% (for polyester) reduction in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while performing on-par with their conventional alternatives.

GoLite’s product director Kevin Joyce said, “We’re honored Backpacker has chosen to recognize our use of Tier 1 recycled fabrics. Our integration of these fabrics significantly advances our goal of achieving sustainability without sacrificing our commitment to high performance apparel and equipment.”

GoLite and other outdoor product producers like Patagonia and Mountain Equipment Co-Op are using recycled materials in many of their garments and outdoor gear products. The increased use of recycled textiles by outdoor equipment companies has had a significant impact on reducing waste and use of resources.

GoLite also recently announced the Product Take-Back Program. As part of the program GoLite will take back and reuse, repurpose, recycle, and/or store for future recycling any GoLite apparel or equipment, regardless of its condition, that the company manufactured since its founding in 1998. Customers can learn more by visiting their website www.golite.com.

An Interview with Beth Terry: Live life with less plastic.

La Mama Naturale' — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:57:09 +0000

Beth Terry is someone I consider a plastic less eco pioneer. She is the woman behind the Take Back the Filter campaign and is a motivator and inspiration when it comes to living life without plastic. If you haven’t yet visited her site, Fake Plastic Fish, be sure to do so; it’s filled with a tons of knowledge regarding the perils of plastic and helpful tips on living a plastic free lifestyle.

Beth was kind enough to take some time away from her busy schedule to do a little Q & A …

La Mama Naturale asked:

What motivated you to start collecting plastic?

In June of 2007 I saw a photo that changed my life. It was a dead albatross chick filled with plastic pieces from daily life: bottle caps, toothbrushes, lighters, plastic toys… At that point, I had never heard of the North Pacific Gyre (the area in the ocean now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where so much of our plastic trash ends up) and I had no idea that our lifestyles were causing such harm thousands of miles from civilization. I looked at my life and realized I had to change.

The plastic collection was a way for me to see just how much plastic waste I was generating in the first place and the blog was a way to keep myself on track.

How did you come up with the blog title Fake Plastic Fish?

It’s actually a reference to a Radiohead song, “Fake Plastic Trees.” (Radiohead is one of my favorite bands ever and pretty environmentally conscious.) I came up with name Fake Plastic Fish because if we don’t stop polluting our oceans with plastic, they could be the only kind of fish we have left.

Who are your mentors?

My first inspiration was actually Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man. I had heard about him and his project to live for a year generating no negative environmental impact on a radio program. It was via a link on his web site that I stumbled upon the photo of that albatross chick. He helped me believe that my personal actions could make a difference.

Closer to home, one of my mentors has been Stuart Moody, the coordinator of Green Sangha’s Rethinking Plastics campaign. Green Sangha is a spiritually-based local environmental organization whose philosophy is that there is really no separation between us and that if we want to heal the planet, we need to come from a place of love rather than creating enemies. The Rethinking Plastics program is one of their major efforts, and they give presentations to schools, businesses, and community groups about the problem of plastics for health and the environment. I’ve actually given that presentation a couple of times myself.

And finally, one of my heros is Captain Charlie Moore who first discovered the plastic in the gyre over 10 years ago and has worked tirelessly to bring awareness to this issue. I love that he never minces words. He says that plastic pollution is just the visible symbol of our global crisis of over-consumption. He came up with that in a strategy meeting I attended, and I was so moved that I wrote it down and memorized it.

Honestly, the people I admire are those who stand up for what they believe and don’t worry about looking foolish. That’s what I aspire to.

What are some of the challenges you face when choosing an alternative to plastic?

Some things simply cannot be replaced. That was the hardest lesson for me. I actually was addicted to convenience foods. Energy bars. And especially frozen dinners. But after stubborn trial and error, I found that there is no frozen convenience food that is not packaged in some kind of plastic. Even the cardboard trays are lined with plastic. I used to think I could order drinks in a disposable cup and just ask for no lid and no straw. Then I learned that all those cups are lined with plastic too — as are metal cans, which also contain BPA.

Can you tell us more about your job as the Plastic Sea Monster?

Ha! Don’t know how many more times I will do that because walking around in plastic all day is not fun. Especially in the hot sun.

I created the plastic sea monster costume for the SF Bay to Breakers (the annual foot race/walk across San Francisco). My friend Eli Saddler from Ocean Health (http://www.facebook.com/oceanhealth) dressed as a leatherback sea turtle (because sea turtles eat plastic bags) and I chased him around SF. We actually won the Bay to Breakers costume contest in the green category.

I wore an earlier version of the costume at Oakland’s Earth Expo and for two days in a row at the Marin County Fair. That was what turned me off from ever wearing it in the sun again. I think I need a cloth lining. Sweating in plastic trash is not a good time.

What is your biggest pet peeve with plastic?

Bottled water. Hands down. Not only is the bottle plastic, but the whole idea of bottled water is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated. Why pay so much money for something we can get for pennies out of our taps? Not to mention the environmental impact of extracting water, shipping it from the source to the bottling plant, using the energy and plastic that go into the bottles, shipping it to the store, and then the waste after the bottle is used. Why can’t we invest in our water infrastructure, making sure there is clean municipal water for all? And that our drinking fountains are plentiful and actually work?

Okay, my other pet peeve is overpackaging. Individual fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic. I recently saw an article about 7-Eleven trying out bananas wrapped in plastic. Bananas come with their own natural wrapper! And all the automatic extras you get at take-out food places. Utensils, straws, condiments, napkins, etc. The plastic containers are bad enough, but restaurants should ask if you need that stuff before automatically sticking it in the bag. Automatic unnecessary plastic that many consumers don’t even question or that they see as an entitlement.

If you had the opportunity to make/change the laws surrounding plastic what would be the first thing you do?

1) I would require full disclosure from manufacturers of the ingredients in their plastic packaging. We know about chemicals like BPA, phthalates, styrene, and recently antimony in #1 PET bottles; but what about the chemicals we don’t know about? Plastic bottles, bags, and containers rarely contain the simple plastic polymer. Companies use additives to affect the strength, texture, pliability, color, and even antimicrobial properties of plastic. And for proprietary reasons, they are not required to disclose any of those additives. If consumers don’t know what’s in the plastic, how can we really know it’s safe?

2) I would like to see packaging included in requirements for organic certification. Isn’t it ironic that we are willing to spend extra money to make sure no toxic chemicals have been added to our foods and personal care products, only to have them packaged in plastic that could potentially leach hormone disrupting chemicals back into them?

3) I would pass EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) legislation which requires manufacturers to provide for the full life cycle of a product. Currently, we as citizens spend our tax dollars to figure out ways to handle all the plastic and other waste generated from these products. Our cities have to pay for recycling services and figuring out what to do with the material. When EPR legislation is in effect, as it is in Europe, companies that make the stuff are much more conscious of the materials they use in the first place, because they are the ones who have to figure out what happens to it when it’s used up.

What do you want people to know about your plastic less journey?

First, I want to clarify that I am not against all plastics. I want to see an end to single-use plastic packaging, as well as plastic used for food packaging and storage. But in terms of durable non-food related items, I’m obviously using a computer made from plastic. My phone is plastic. My kitchen appliances are plastic. To me, the key is reducing our consumption over all. Taking advantage of resources like Freecycle, thrift stores, lending/borrowing programs, repair services. We are living in a disposable society, but it doesn’t have to be that way. For example, why does each home need to have their own lawn mower? Here in Oakland, we actually have a tool lending library, where we can check out tools just like we would books. In fact, it’s part of the public library system.

The other thing I want them to know is that I don’t expect anyone to be as extreme as I am. My goal is simply to show what is possible.

AND just for fun… if there were no issues with plastic whether in landfills or toxicity; what would you buy?

I’d do the same thing I am doing now. You know why? Because of all those things still require materials and energy to produce in the first place. The manufacture of so much stuff is one of the causes of global warming. But also? Living more simply with less stuff just plain feels better.

touche’

Thanks again, Beth!!

Hope everyone enjoyed the read as much as I did!

{Happy WW} Tot Fun: Planting an Herb Garden

La Mama Naturale' — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:12:41 +0000

Learning From My Neighbor Who Refuses To Recycle.

david — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:30:04 +0000

Sometimes, I just want to bang my head against a wall until I don’t care anymore. Last week I ran into my neighbor down by the trash and recycling bins out behind our apartment building. Picture the scene: On one side of the enclosure is a giant trash container and on the other side are 8 recycling bins. I was in the middle of sorting my recyclables when my neighbor walked into the enclosure, threw his “trash” into the trash bin, and then turned to me and said “I don’t bother recycling – it’s too much work. I have better things to do.” Head, meet brick wall.

Most people I know have been recycling for many, many years. At minimum, almost everyone has had recycling programs in place in their town for aluminum cans for what seems like forever now. Recycling is not some new fad that just started in 2008 and is only catching on now. (Although, Americans still throw away 1,500 aluminum cans per second) Everyone knows about it so there really aren’t any excuses not to do it… especially the “it’s too much work” one. Municipalities recycle most everything now – paper, plastic, aluminum, steel, tin, fabric, electronics, even styrofoam in some places – so that not much even needs to be thrown away to the landfill anymore. The more we can recycle, the less “stuff” we drop into a hole in the ground where it sits for a few hundred (thousand?) years trying to degrade. But I digress…

My new friendly neighbor here thinks it takes too much effort to recycle his 500 soda cans and plastic bottles of laundry detergent, insisting on throwing them all in the trash even though the recycling bin is less than 8 feet away. I tried, in a gentle manner, explaining to him why we need to recycle and why it’s worth doing. I even tried to explain to him how I have 2 bins in my house – one for trash and one for recycling, which makes it all even easier come disposal time. He was having none of it. “The earth is way more powerful than we are, there is no way we can damage it with some trash”, he replied. I tried to do my best to educate him, but he basically walked away before I could even finish. Now, I have only lived here for a few months so I don’t really know anyone (it’s not an overly friendly building), and because of that fact I can’t really say too much other than what I tried to say. After all, these are the same people who put their trash out in the hall overnight so the rest of us have to smell it and they don’t, so I do understand that they just don’t give a crap. But I was hopeful I could get him to start recycling – guess I was wrong. Sometimes you can’t change the arrogant amongst us, even if you try in earnest.

What did I learn from this experience? That not everyone gets it yet. And this just encourages me to try to do even more – hold myself more accountable, do more outreach, more education, more encouragement, more writing. Because if we cannot get people to even do the simple things like recycle, we have already lost them on the bigger picture items we need to encourage each other to do as well. You can’t win them all…but you sure can try.

Do you know people like my neighbor? If so, how do you handle their attitude towards the environment?

Photo by anne.oeldorfhirsch

I need your vote! Please vote for me in the Best of Green over at Treehugger You can vote once per day until April 2, thank you!

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Learning From My Neighbor Who Refuses To Recycle.

david — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:30:04 +0000

Do you know people like my neighbor? If so, how do you handle their attitude towards the environment?

Photo by anne.oeldorfhirsch

I need your vote! Please vote for me in the Best of Green over at Treehugger You can vote once per day until April 2, thank you!

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Go Barefoot for TOMS Annual Day Without Shoes April 8 (Video)

TreeHugger — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:14:33 +0000

TOMS Shoes has announced their third annual One Day Without Shoes campaign for Apr… Read the full story on TreeHugger

Go Barefoot for TOMS Annual Day Without Shoes April 8 (Video)

TreeHugger — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:14:33 +0000

TOMS Shoes has announced their third annual One Day Without Shoes campaign for Apr… Read the full story on TreeHugger