Archive for March, 2010

Life and times at landfills

March 29th, 2010

Ok, obviously not what your were expecting me to lead with today, but it’s true. Last week I go to spend the day at South Florida’s largest landfill owned and operated by Waste Management. I wanted to see first hand how landfills actually operate and if my preconceived (misconceived) assumptions about landfills were actually remotely accurate. I’ll start by saying this- it didn’t smell! Unbelievable, I know, but true. Maybe it would have been worse on a hot day, but if you couldn’t see the rectangular grassy hills, you wouldn’t know where you were.

Landfills today are very high tech, sophisticated, efficient operations. They line the landfills so that nothing seeps into our water supply, only have one cell open at a time, harvest the methane, incinerate whatever possible, and clean the fumes so they never enter our atmosphere. Moreover, the people who work there are very serious about protecting the environment and the safety of their fellow co-workers.

All that being said, these landfills are huge and that’s our fault. We as a country produce such an obscene amount of garbage it’s truly baffling where it’s all going to go. The landfills are brilliant, but things end up there because we haven’t found a better solution. I’m glad our bags are going to help chip away at the problem.

I could go on and on, but her are a few shots from my excellent field trip…

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Posted in Landfills, Living, Sustainability, Waste, energy

Tags: Business environment Landfill Methane Solid Waste Waste Management

No More Wire Hangers?

March 17th, 2010

Image by Solange C via Flickr

Don’t you hate when you go to the cleaners and you get the hanger marks in your clothes? Well in Canada they are moving away from that with biodegradable hangers. As a way to help promote green jobs and promote green awareness, a company in Canada is providing these recycled paper hangers free of charge to dry cleaners, hotels, retail stores and fitness centers. (http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/50998/)

Once again, this everyday used item is another small movement to slowly helping in conserving our natural resources, but will business use this source of advertising to help this company survive. The concept is a great concept but with the economic downturn, businesses are not spending advertising dollars. Something so little can make a huge impact on reducing the carbon footprint by just the elimination of 1 wire hanger.

At Play In The Closets Of The Lord (greg.org)
Only Hangers Launches Full Line of Z Hangers – Revolutionary, Award-Winning New Clothes Hangers (eon.businesswire.com)
How To Store Your Winter Clothes (howcast.com)

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Posted in Biodegradable Cleaners, Living, Sustainability

Tags: Canada Carbon footprint Dry cleaning Natural resource Retailing

What were we actually consuming in the first place?

March 10th, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Over the last few years, many companies have started pushing their products to us as “green” or “eco-friendly” or “organic”. Many of these products are actually consumed by their customer base and I am left to wonder what we were actually consuming in the first place. Please no one write me and give me a lesson in preservatives and growth aids as the previous question was more rhetorical than anything but what would have happened to our society had we continued on the path we were on?

My mother used to tell me all the time that she thought all of the additional hormones and preservatives added to our food was having a negative effect on our communities. She surmised that people are bigger, faster and stronger because of the residual effects of these hormones but that the negative effects were there as well. I tend to agree with her but wish we had a little more research to back us up. We know the obesity rate is constantly rising (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_95897.html) but is any of this contributed to the hormones and preservatives we have all unknowingly been consuming? Did the rate of cancer grow? Heart disease? Birth mutations?

I work in the world of adult beverages, liquor, spirits and beer and I love what I do for a living. While our industry is extremely conscious and diligent regarding issues dealing with consumption only very recently has “being green” become a fixture on many company’s radar. It has certainly gone beyond the packaging to how the liquor is produced and the resources it takes to get there. However most cocktails come in a cup with a mixer(s) and garnish of some sort. Are those eco-friendly? What about the bar stool you are sitting on and the clothes the bartender’s wearing?

It’s great to see brands taking their first steps but I hope these steps turn into a movement or a cause.

Obesity: Food kills, flab protects (newscientist.com)
If Only We Had an Electronic Way to Figure This Stuff Out (overheardinnewyork.com)

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Posted in Uncategorized

Sustainable Ideals…and the Oscar goes to…

March 7th, 2010

Can’t wait for tonight’s Oscars! 5 films have made the cut and were also rated as the top 5 picks on one of our favorite green sites Inhabitat.com.

We hope at least one of these 5 movies that support sustainable ideals are going home with Senor Oscar!

1) Avatar

2) Up

3) The Cove

4) Food, Inc

5) Fantastic Mr. Fox

After watching the preview of Food, Inc. we’re really hoping it gets some serious attention. Already added to the must watch list post Oscars!

The Cove

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Posted in Activism, Animal Protection, Organic, Sustainability

Tags: Academy Award Avatar Cove Fantastic Mr Fox Food Inc

Can you live without plastic bags?

March 2nd, 2010

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA - AUGUST 21: The wind blo...

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

How can one survive without the use of plastic bags? I remember when at the supermarket you would be asked – Paper or Plastic? Now they don’t even ask you. Or how about being caught out in the rain without an umbrella, a good make shift umbrella was always a plastic bag.

As much as they are convenient, the damage to the environment is increasing daily. Each year about 100 billon polyethylene plastics bags are disposed worldwide and only 0.6 percent are recycled. Many businesses look at the cost saving aspect to promote their business and for their consumer to carry their merchandise, but to make the transition to biodegradable bags is worth the cost. This article states that biodegradable bags should be considered as an investment instead of an expense for businesses.

We the consumer get our bags from businesses and we should encourage our local businesses to make this transition to biodegradable bags. I know I would not be able to live without this type of bag due to all the different uses for carrying things, storage or waste disposal; but to help the environment will be worth the few cents more to spend.

Plastic Bags in US _ to Pay or Not to Pay? (abcnews.go.com)
Eco Friendly Inflatable Air Pillows for Void Fill Applications (salazarpackaging.com)
Plastic Bag Ban for City of Santa Cruz (thepetitionsite.com)

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Posted in Uncategorized

NUCLEAR POWER NEEDS STRONGER REGULATION

March 1st, 2010

Recently, the issue of nuclear power has come back into the forefront with the election of President Obama. The US is the largest producer of nuclear power with 104 reactors producing more than 20% of the entire electrical output in America. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf41.html In reality, nuclear power has only come back to the forefront because for the most part no new reactors have been built during the last 30 years. However, it is now widely expected that 4 to 8 new nuclear reactors will be built by 2018.

The US Nuclear Energy Regulatory Commission (NRC) is a commission appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for 5 years. http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/organization/commfuncdesc.html

It is more than common knowledge that the biggest controversy surrounding nuclear power is the safety of the reactors and their effect on the communities surrounding them. Yet the commission appointed by the government to regulate these issues has passed off some of the more important industry decisions to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), which is essentially a global industry appointed governance. Their website boasts of 48 board members and includes representatives from 26 of the nation’s nuclear facilities. http://www.nei.org/aboutnei/governanceandleadership/

There are many industries that are regulated by government but maintain an internal commission to ensure the industry standards are beyond that requested by the people through government laws. It’s the NRC’s failure to hold companies responsible for unmonitored leaks and passing that responsibility off to the NEI that forced President Obama to introduce the Nuclear Release Notice Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:S.2348.RS: in an attempt to force the NRC to take a stronger stand in 2006. Unfortunately the bill never became law and now Obama is tackling the national issue of power conservation knowing the solution is nuclear power but unable to promise the American people that radiation will not contaminate their communities.

I don’t think there are many people anymore who argue that nuclear power is the energy of the future but its history is littered with terrible stories of the years of pain it has caused. What makes it worse is that all of these terrible stories are usually linked to mistakes that could have been prevented or minimized if reported. There have been a dozen or so operators that have voluntarily reported contamination since the national attention the industry received in 2006 but just like with steroids in baseball, I don’t think anyone believes everyone has come clean. If we are to really be able to move forward with nuclear energy the NRC needs regulate with a firmer hand and minimize the mistakes of the industry.