alter eco project

toxic america on CNN

 don't miss this.seriously.

my parents love CNN. it pretty much runs like muzak, non stop, all day, every day, in their house. in fact, six years ago, my parents came for a holiday visit and my dad was so disappointed with our basic cable and lame tv that within hours, not only had he called comcast to upgrade our service to premium levels, but he returned home with a spanking new panasonic that was probably triple the size of our original. and guess what?  ta da! we had CNN round the clock too. it was the same year of the thailand tsunami, so in all honesty we were completely glued. of course that's all history now but don't tell him . . .

next wednesday however, i have to insist that they sit front & center and pay attention because "Toxic America" is on. "Toxic America" is an hour long investigative report with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. this two part program, airs on June 2nd & 3rd at 8 est. here is an in depth description of both nights:

June 2nd -  Toxic Towns.  Wednesday evening will focus on CNN's year-long investigation into the residents of Mossville, Louisiana, who for decades have claimed that toxic chemicals in the air have been making them sick.  And for just as long, they say government agencies have done next to nothing to protect them. This once rural, African-American community in southwest Louisiana is now surrounded by 14 chemical plants, spewing tons of cancer-causing chemicals and other toxic chemicals into the air. Chemicals have also seeped under Mossville and into the nearby bayous. Since CNN began its yearlong investigation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has started testing to see whether Mossville qualifies as a Superfund site, meaning federal funds for cleanup and, possibly, relocation. Also, the Organization of American States has agreed to hear a human rights case brought by Mossville against the U.S. government for failing to protect the community against toxic chemicals.

June 3rd - Toxic Childhood - Folks in Mossville, Louisiana say the culprit making them sick can be seen – chemical plants causing severe health problems. But what about the rest of us? If we don’t live near a chemical plant, does that mean WE breathe easier? Truth is, on any given day, potentially harmful chemicals are all around us. In the air, in our homes and in many of the products we use. Just what’s out there that we don’t know about yet? And, for the millions of women who are pregnant right now in America, just how much is being passed along to their babies? As a father and a doctor, Sanjay Gupta will find out. 

take a look at dr. gupta talking with ken cook from the environmental working group here about toxic chemicals in the womb / body:

my biodegradable graveyard . . .

 lillian wilke : pere lachaise

when you want something done you have to do it yourself. so i have decided to try a little experiment here in my back yard. a biodegradable graveyard. i am going to bury all these thing in my planter to see how long it takes them to break down completely.

here's what i will be burying:

1 bio bag from trellis earth : www.trellisearth.com

1 greenware cup : www.f-k.com/green

1 taterware fork : www.taterware.com

1 bio-plus earth 100 recycled paperboard take away box: www.fold-pak.com

1 unbleached paper sample cup, 1 piece of waxed biodegradable deli paper, 1 piece of natural value, unbleached natural waxed paper (landfill safe (whatever that means))

 the cast of characters

like me, i'm sure by now you have been hit by the wave of biodegradable products that are finding their way to the supermarkets and eateries in your home town. in fact, i had to snap a photo of this "new product" :

 
oh hey, just an fyi. here's another piece of earth friendly cutlery. it's called a fork

anyway, i decided it was time to just see how fast this stuff actually breaks down so here goes. we have a planter and i marked off half of the one side as my "experimentation area". tune in next month when i dig up everything to see if we're making progress. 

little green lies and my new "plastic allergy"

 the new green lie logo . . .

minor lies which could be considered to be harmless, or even beneficial, in the long term. white lies are also considered to be used for greater good

let's face it, telling little white lies keeps the peace. things like "that looks great" or "everything is going to be alright", are so common place that we hardly even think twice when we're saying them. 

by definition, a white lie can be used for the greater good so maybe a green lie greater could be defined as a lie for the greater good and the good of the planet? i decided to try on a little green lie to see if it would stick.

i was in the baked good section of a local grocery store buying cookies for a last minute school event - a tea party. the cookies were in a self serve case but the only option for picking them up was a box of those little tissue sheets. but wait! these weren't the normal tissue sheets, they were those ridiculous plastic sheets.

 my nightmare . . .
 

i decided to ask the girl behind the counter for some tongs so i wouldn't have to use the plastic sheets and of course, they didn't have tongs. game on, i told her " i have a plastic allergy. i can't use those plastic sheets". she sprang into action thinking i had something akin to a latex allergy and she took a plastic sheet out and picked up the first cookie for me, i had to stop her and say  " i can't buy that, the cookie still touched the plastic." she went into the kitchen area and returned with a spatula and picked up the cookies and put them in my glass container. i asked her if she could make it a point to keep tongs or a spatula in the case so the plastic sheets could be avoided and she seemed to agree that it "might be a good idea". 

i have been asking at the local health food store for over a year to have tongs in the self serve case and they just don't seem to be able to get on it, so i had to change tactics.  i don't really like to play games but i have to admit that this felt like a small victory.

tell me - have you ever told a little green lie ?

feeling fresh?

 it's business time
 

if your in santa cruz you might want to check out whole foods film series "let's retake our plates". tomorrow evening, tuesday, april 20th, a film called "fresh" will be playing at 7pm at the rio. all proceeds benefit ecology action and tickets can be purchased for 5.00 at the box office or at whole foods on 41st or soquel (less than a block from the rio). i had an opportunity to see the film and it's fantastic... here's what fresh is all about:

FRESH is more than a movie, it’s a gateway to action. Our aim is to help grow FRESH food, ideas, and become active participants in an exciting, vibrant, and fast-growing movement.

FRESH is a grassroots efforts for a grassroots movement. It’s been tremendously exciting to see the movie catch on and spread like wild fire, being used all over the country as a platform to raise awareness and connecting people to the solutions available in their community.

take a look at the trailer here:

eco mojo

green11

sometimes i wonder if it's possible to lose your eco - mojo . . . 

i look around and think, is my little contribution even worth it? am i really making a dent? could progress seriously come by declining one plastic hummus container at a time? honestly, i get overwhelmed daily when i read the news or fire up my computer. my twitter page should be called "land of a million depressing links" and facebook is riddled with snippets & stats about the environment and the increased plastic parts per million in the ocean. some days, i open it long enough to see that i should just shut it down. have you ever seen the "real housewives of orange county" carrying a reusable cloth bag? why am i working so hard? it's like eating donuts while running on a treadmill. right?  

i had to snap out of my funk, so last week i decided to get my groove back. you know, find my eco mojo! and what better way than a field trip to Green 11 in noe valley. i've been tossing around the idea of an unpackaged store so it was nice to have a look around. they have some great brands and you can take in your own containers to fill or buy some that they have there. 

   

bulk cleaning products & biokleen concentrates

i also got this little cheer me up from the lovely sonchia ( who has her own blog here about all things wonderful ) take a peek at these designs,  they made me laugh:

 
 from black sheep heap on etsy : http://www.etsy.com/shop/jpharris

and i'm loving this, cargo's completely green line, planet love will make any girl feel better . . .

 be*you*tiful

paraben & phthalate free, no petro-chemicals or synthetic dyes or fragrances:: comes in corn packaging and environmentally certified. sounds good to me.

and to really get me back on track, it was just announced that the santa cruz film festival is going to show "tapped: the movie" on Saturday, May 8th! get tickets here and if you're unfamiliar with tapped you can take a look here:

i'm "not" mc lovin' it . . .

 

call it curiosity or whatever, but i have to find things out for myself and oh how i love an urban legend!  i remember as a kid hearing that if you ate pop rocks and a coke at the same time your stomach would explode! i even recall that my friends and i went so far as to mix the two together to actually see if the mixture would foam, explode or at the very least melt the mixing cup . . . 

so it stands to reason that when i heard that a happy meal from mcdonalds doesn't break down or decompose, i had to try it! and guess what? two months later it looks exactly the same as when i bought it! in fact, george who always walks around in a state of perpetual hunger said "it still looks sort of appetizing", take a peek here:

   

a happy meal two months old : the interior landscape : happy days, just purchased

here's a little quiz, can you tell which fries are old and which ones are new?

i apologize for the craptastic photography (double click the image to open a new window, it's much more clear ) but if you guessed the ones on the right are older then you win a happy meal ;)  

 a couple interesting observations regarding the aging happy meal :

• it still has that " flame grilled" smell even though it is hard as a hockey puck
• the cheese is still bright orange the surface is slick and oily up close but color is exact!
• the sandwich now fits together like a puzzle, i like to show company my new parlor trick
• it doesn't smell and shows absolutely no signs of mold or decomposition
• after a year i'm going to take a knife and pry it open to see if i can find the pickles & onions
• the fries are spooky. they look just like new fries only less "plump"

follow the adventures of a "not so happy meal" *  become a fan on facebook here

tare it up

 guess what? no tare here.

just when i start to think i've got this no packaging thing wired, i have a humbling experience like last saturday at a "foreign" grocery store in a neighboring community. i met with my ocean stewards group at the local landfill (check out my photos below) and when we broke for lunch, i ran into a grocery store to get a bite. i had my pre-weighed jars, a lunchbot and my cup. this was going to be a no brainer. except for one thing i wasn't expecting. . .

this grocery store isn't set up for tare. what does that mean? 

that means that they can't sell bulk foods to you in anything other than a plastic bag.

what is tare? and how does it work?

tare is the weight of the packaging that food is sold in.  the store subtracts the tare amount from the weight of the item so you only pay for the weight of your food. check out price tags in any part of the store where food is sold by weight (ie, the meat department, cheese department or bulk foods) excluding most fruits and vegetables.

so when i bring in my jars, which weigh about a half a pound, i don't want to be charged for the weight of the glass jar, just the contents. it's simple! 

on the left: tare wt 1.00 / above nt wt and unit price

so when i got to the self check-out that meant that i had to dump out the contents of my jar to weigh the bulk walnuts. which was fine, i just put it on a piece of linen i had floating around in my bag. so this exercise after just coming from the landfill, was really sad because we are forced to use plastic. it's the only option they offer. 

oh, and to add insult to injury, after you scan your items you have to put them on another scale which is covered with - guess what? a plastic bag to carry all your items away. this is why we used over a million plastic bags a minute. 

and for real kicks, here's what we saw at the landfill :

    

  
agricultural waste from growing strawberries, these are flat hoses: misc. tossed items

tv rolling old school style: a little bird finds a perch among the garbage
 

* by the way, thanks to peggy for "tare it up!" clever bunny.
 
 
     

 

consider a plastic diet

 does this bubble wrap make me look fat?

i am not unlike bridget jones. i don't actually keep a diary, but i have spent the better part of 20 years getting up every morning and hopping on the scale.  i can't tell you what i did yesterday but i can tell you exactly how much i weighed when i graduated high school & college, got home after a summer in europe, walked down the aisle, finished a marathon or had a baby. i have tracked my progress and failures for most of my adult life by scale numbers.

this got me to thinking, " what would a "plastic diet" look like?"  you could apply the same philosophy from a food diet to a plastic diet, right? so i googled basic diet rules to see how i might make them work and surprisingly they are v. applicable :

• make better choices : this could easily apply, instead of milk or yogurt in plastic buy it in glass or better yet, make it yourself. just making little adjustments will help reduce your waste. besides, the best way to avoid plastic is to stay away from it. 

• don't expect perfection: consistency is key! drop one plastic product from your shopping list every month and stick with it. our family will never buy bread in plastic again. we love handmade artisan bread and i want to cry when i see it in a bag. we make the effort to buy organic if we don't make it ourselves, why contaminate it?  i love wrapping our bread in fabric, feels european (v. french )
  

• shop the perimeter of the store : all the packaged food is in the middle aisles. avoid it, if you can!

• eat fresh : enough said. however, nowadays many fruits are in plastic clamshells & netted bags. i always dump out the strawberries & leave those little green baskets at the market, the produce guys assure me that they return them to the grower who will reuse them. what and how you buy is an indicator to the store of what customers want. also, if i can't find what i want without plastic, i go elsewhere. eventually, the vendor will get the message or leave it on their suggestion board so they get it faster!

• plan ahead: i couldn't agree more. if you show up at the store without your zero waste tools for shopping, you will cave. it happens to the best of us, and not on purpose. retailers spend loads of money to encourage you to mindlessly shop. that's why they call it merchandising, my loves.

• exercise: i find that if i ride my bike to the store, i stick to the basics. limited space means i can't carry home a bunch of bulky boxes or a pie (which probably comes in a box with a plastic window) . besides, riding a bike is sexy work. 

what's the best part of a plastic diet? well, your pants will fit better. wait! i meant you're garbage & recycling cans will be empty. which means that our landfills will lose weight too and ultimately, that's what we really want anyway. 

* by the way, i have signed up to be an ocean steward for save our shores. you can check out what that means here! tomorrow we're going on a field trip to the local landfill.  i am pretty interested to see what we find. don't worry, i'm taking my camera and i'll tell you all about it next week . . .

when you know better, you do better

i work as an interior designer. my favorite thing, is that i am in & out of all kinds of homes and i really get to see how people live. about seven years ago, i walked into one of my most memorable jobs, a super modern loft where all the furniture was just so perfect.  sterile as an operating room, a place for everything and everything in its place, and seriously, not a drop of personality. 

except one thing, stuck to the stainless sub zero fridge was a handwritten slip of paper that read  " when you know better, you do better ". it stopped me in my tracks. i remember it because in this cold, controlled environment was a very human reminder about our true nature. . . we make mistakes. when we figure them out and know better,  we move to make the changes that are in line with our thinking and our actions. we do better. 

example: my mother used to tell me that her favorite time to have a cigarette was when she was breast feeding me.

so why i am i talking about this? because my friend jillian, who always tries to see things from a more loving perspective, was saying the other day that we can't just take a " i'm right, you're wrong "  tack on the green movement. she was explaining that activism (particularly environmental)  can't come from the threat of fear. in other words, in this situation, there is no hero, villain or victim. 

while we certainly have taken the ball and run with it, she suggested that we inherited these problems with our environment: the plastic, packaging and the indulgent sucking up of resources. previous generations that brought us the"conveniences"  we're now trying to do away with, actually thought they were making our lives better, more efficient and that they were doing us a favor. so now that we know better, it falls on us to do better. and, we have to do it asap.

  so now let's all go out and try to do better . . .

but how? here's five things you can do today :

• please stop buying bottled water (or any drink in a single use plastic bottle) carry your own cup / bottle
• please carry a reusable shopping bag when you go shopping (not just the grocery! everywhere!)
• please try to bike or walk instead of using your car ( just once or twice a week will help)
• when you're in the grocery store, please choose to buy items in bulk or glass (reusable) rather than in plastic or even eco - friendly packaging 
• please try to shop as locally as possible (i know that's easy for me to say here in sunny california) but give it a try and at the very least shop from your state (within 100 miles or so) and consider eating seasonally (trust me it tastes so much better )

one other thing:

** don't be sucked into the philosophy that "recycling" is the holy grail. we can go into this some other time but the reality is that most of our stuff doesn't really get recycled.  even the new "biodegradable" cups made from corn or PLA (polylactic acid)  benefit the very companies we should avoid.  just ask the king of corn or take a look at food inc (which is on streaming video on netflix watch it now).  the best course of action is to just refuse things that are pointless and wasteful. here is a fantastic article titled "eco corn cup: trojan horse for GMO's

  

got the will, now start the way

 

live for each other * or in other words, your problem is my problem 

the other evening i was staring at this tea tag and it got me to thinking. what if we really did live for each other? i'm not talking about in that really intimate way that you live for your partner, spouse or children but the bigger picture.  take out religion, politics and the financial stuff that confuses connections and what are we really left with? i mean living for each other in the broad community sense where we all want to see the best happening for everyone.

uh, huh? what does that mean? well, i guess what i'm trying to say is that we all have to safeguard each other. after my last post, i keep thinking if we want something done we have to do it ourselves. and of course, we have to do it collectively. take a look here at exactly what i'm talking about:

  

a heartfelt suggestion note *  having a not so nice day with that clamshell container * jeremy starts the styrofoam / alternative packaging discussion at a bagel place in l.a.

i guess what i am really saying, is that to make this change a reality, we all have to start the conversation. i will give you another example. my friend, jillian, contacted the owner of her gym about the bottled water they sell. upon her suggestion, not only did the gym raise the price of the bottled water to discourage impulse purchasing but they also requested everyone bring their own reusable bottles. in addition, they are going to start a new program to cut down on wasting towels (and laundry service, which in turn wastes less water etc) AND implement a reward token system that donates to local fitness charities. legend has it that at google, the best parking spots are for the hybrid cars. 

at the end of the day, it's our bagel shop,our gym, our grocery stores, our beaches, our water, our forests and all of our other resources . . . 

besides, do you really want to eat this:

 a local grocery store stores some peppers . . .yikes!