The Seattle City Council approved a proposal (by a 6-1 margin) that will charge shoppers 20 cents for each plastic shopping bag they use. This is great news. The fee will go into effect in January.

Opponents of this proposal have said that it taxes those who cannot afford to purchase reusable bags. So to alleviate that cost, the city of Seattle will distribute reusable paper bags to all residents, also giving lower income residents additional bags to use.

The council also passed a ban on plastic foam food containers that is a two-phase project. The first phase will address take out containers and it will take effect in January as well. Restaurants will not be allowed to use plastic foam in their takeout containers. The second phase will take effect July 2010 and focuses on all plastic food containers and utensils. Businesses will be able to use only recyclable or biodegradable products for their food containers.

I’m glad to see that our city is taking steps to reduce the unnecessary waste produced by convenience. If you live in a place that is using plastic bags and you feel like you want to make changes to that, Bring Your Own Bag is a great organization that is fighting for that. They also recently posted to their blog specifically addressing the situation in North America.

Co-op America posted a list of 21 things you didn’t know you could recycle and I am sharing it with you.

1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances, www.goodwill.org, or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them. 800/YES-1-CAN, www.recycle-steel.org.

2. Batteries: Rechargeables and single-use: Battery Solutions, 734/467-9110, www.batteryrecycling.com.

3. Cardboard boxes: Contact local nonprofits and women’s shelters to see if they can use them. Or, offer up used cardboard boxes at your local Freecycle.org listserv or on Craigslist.org for others who may need them for moving or storage. If your workplace collects at least 100 boxes or more each month, UsedCardboardBoxes.com accepts them for resale.

4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing, and they’ll work like new: 888/454-3223, www.auraltech.com.

5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or shelter. Donate wearable women’s business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs, 212/532-1922, www.dressforsuccess.org. Offer unwearable clothes and towels to local animal boarding and shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding. Consider holding a clothes swap at your office, school, faith congregation or community center. Swap clothes with friends and colleagues, and save money on a new fall wardrobe and back-to-school clothes.

6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling: www.ikea.com.

7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won’t be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at www.findacomposter.com.

8. Computers and electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers, local and national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html.

9. Exercise videos: Swap them with others at www.videofitness.com.

10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion’s Club or eye care chain may collect these. Lenses are reground and given to people in need.

11. Foam packing: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept foam peanuts for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 410/451-8340, www.epspackaging.org/info.html

12. Ink/toner cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1/each.

13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them. Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org listserv, or try giving them away at Throwplace.com or giving or selling them at iReuse.com. iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle.

14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state: 202/682-8000, www.recycleoil.org.

15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone and sell it to someone in a developing country: 770/856-9021, www.collectivegood.com. Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 and gives them to domestic violence victims: www.donateaphone.com. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, 814/386-2927, www.reclamere.com.

16. Sports equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, 800/476-9249, www.playitagainsports.com.

17. “Technotrash�: Easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, cell phones, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk’s Technotrash program. For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK, www.greendisk.com.

18. Tennis shoes: Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program turns old shoes into playground and athletic flooring. www.nikereuseashoe.com. One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti. www.oneworldrunning.com.

19. Toothbrushes and razors: Buy a recycled plastic toothbrush or razor from Recycline, and the company will take it back to be recycled again into plastic lumber. Recycline products are made from used Stonyfield Farms’ yogurt cups. 888/354-7296, www.recycline.com.

20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK.

21. Stuff you just can’t recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

This is the slightly longer version of the “10 small changes you can make for the benefit of creation” list I made for my church back in April for Creation Sunday. It has some good and interesting information in it so I thought that I would go ahead and share it with you guys.

1. Eat Local (Grow your own veggies, buy a share in Community Supported Agriculture, shop at farmers’ markets)
   Info: Supermarket food travels an average of 1,500 miles by the time it gets to your plate. Buying local strengthens the local economy. A dollar spent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy. You get to celebrate the seasons by eating local in-season food.
2. Buy fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee and fair trade, organic tea.
   Info: Sun coffee (grown with no shade canopy) destroys natural habitats and cannot be sustained for many years without intensive management (additions of chemical fertilizers and a range of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides). The few studies that have been conducted have found that the diversity of migratory birds plummets when coffee is converted from shade to sun (studies in Colombia and Mexico found 94-97% fewer bird species in sun grown coffee than in shade grown coffee) ¹.
3. Buy organic food when possible, especially organic chocolate.
   Info: Non-organic cocoa is 2nd only to cotton in terms of the most pesticides used on the crop. Exposure to pesticides is being increasingly linked to various kinds of cancer. Industrialized agriculture produces food that is deficient in minerals and nutrition because it has over-cultivated the land. Crops get their nutrients and minerals from the soil that it is grown on. If the soil is not taken care of and becomes unhealthy then the food grown on it will also lack nutrition and health.
4. Buy products with minimal or reusable packaging or buy in bulk (like the bulk bins at Madison Market Co-op or Whole Foods) and use your own containers when shopping and bring your own shopping bags.
   Info: Around 33% of trash in the average American household comes from packaging.
5. Start an indoor or outdoor compost bin.
   Info: “The landfill is not designed to help things biodegrade, which requires contact with air and water. Instead, landfills hermetically seal their contents away from the environment to protect it from the toxic things in the landfill that aren’t biodegradable. What this means, is that organic things like apple cores and yesterdays newspapers and cornstarch cups, when dumped in the landfill, either don’t break down at all—and certainly don’t end up returning nutrients to the earth—or they break down anaerobically, which means they produce methane, a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.”²
6. Buy recycled paper toilet paper to help protect endangered forests.
   Info: Every day, the amount of toilet paper used equals about 270,000 trees.
7. Make your own household cleaners.
   Info: The EPA says indoor air pollution is often 2-5 times worse than outdoor air pollution, and harsh cleaning chemicals contribute.
8. Switch to compact florescent light bulbs (CFL)
   Info: CFLs are some of the most efficient lights available - they can replace incandescent bulbs that are roughly 3 to 4 times their wattage, saving up to 75% of your lighting energy.
9. Buy used products when possible (books, clothing, furniture) and make repairs when possible instead of buying new.
10. Print only when necessary and on recycled paper.
    Info: Offices use 1.5 lbs of paper per person per day.
11. Use a coffee mug or travel mug.
12. Reduce your carbon footprint caused by travel (buy a TerraPass, use flexcar, carpool, public transit, bike, or walk)
    Info: Every gallon of gasoline burned creates about 20 lbs of climate change-causing CO2.
13. Enjoy God’s creation by being part of a community garden (or start your own community garden in your own backyard), volunteering on a farm, or getting out and enjoying nature with loved ones.

¹Smithsonian, National Zoological Park, Migratory Bird Center; ² No Impact Man;

Lights, camera, take action! Ha.

Tom Shadyac, director of the film Evan Almighty, wanted to make the first major motion picture that was a zero emission (carbon neutral) production. He describes Evan Almighty as a film that speaks of our need to be good stewards of the Earth and he didn’t want to contribute to the destruction of the Earth while trying to get this message across. So, they worked with Habitat for Humanity, Conservation Fund, and Hope to Others to create a movie that left no trace (similar idea to “leave no trace” camping or hiking).

“Green” activities/efforts during production included:

• The film’s production was carbon offset through a donation to the Conservation Fund.
• All the landscaping, lumber, windows and other reusable materials were donated to Habitat for Humanity.
• All crew members were given bicycles by director Tom Shadyac to reduce car usage.
• Recycled paper, plastic, aluminum, and glass were used on set.
• After production was completed, trees were planted near the site of the ark in Crozet,VA as a thank you to the community.
• HtoO water was used -(Hope to Others, a company founded by Tom Shadyac, donates 100% of the profits after taxes to charity).

Go to their site to find out ways in which you can Go Zero (as individuals and businesses).

photo from Flickr (SpooSpa)
My lovely friends Amy and Lee just got married this past weekend! They are in the process of opening gifts, which of course means a houseful of wrapping paper, boxes, and an assortment of packaging materials. The resourceful and very cool, D. Lee did some research and found two sites that help you figure out what to do with that (and any other) miscellaneous waste.

This one will only be directly helpful to those of you living in King County (Seattle, WA). However, it may serve as a reference to help the rest of you find a similar site or resource in your neighborhood.

Have you ever bought a new appliance and wondered how to get rid of your old one? Found stacks of old business periodicals you want to recycle? Upgraded your organization’s computers and ended up with a mountain of old electronic equipment? Every day, King County residents and businesses run across unwanted items that make them wonder: “What do I do with this?”

This site was designed to answer that question! The What do I do with…? directory is a database that contains listings of hundreds of businesses and organizations that accept unwanted items from residents and businesses in King County, Washington, for reuse, recycling or proper disposal.

The Plastic Loose Fill Council helps you find a place near you to bring all those packing peanuts.

The Plastic Loose Fill Council (PLFC) was founded in 1991 to develop, promote and implement the original use and subsequent recovery, reuse and recycling of polystyrene loose fill, commonly known as “packing peanuts.”

The Peanut Hotline, 800-828-2214 and loosefillpackaging.com, is the national reuse program for plastic packing peanuts. Consumers can drop off their leftover plastic packing peanuts at Peanut Hotline collection sites. There are over 1,500 collection sites in the US.

Earth 911 is also to good site to check out. It will help you find a local place where you can drop of anything from plastic bottles to electronics to hazardous waste to be reused, recycled, or properly disposed of.

Co-op America put together a list of 10 things you should never buy again, with some facts and alternatives choices. I thought this would be perfect for you one/changers so here it is with a few added links:

1. Styrofoam cups
Styrofoam is forever. It\’s not biodegradable.
Alternative: Buy recyclable and compostable paper cups.
Best option: Invest in some [if possible used] reusable mugs that you can take with you.

2. Paper towels
Paper towels waste forest resources, landfill space, and your money.
Alternative: When you do buy paper towels, look for recycled, non-bleached products. Search the National Green Pagesâ„¢ for recycled paper products.
Best option: Buy dishtowels or rags to wash and reuse.

3. Bleached coffee filters
Dioxins, chemicals formed during the chlorine bleaching process, contaminate groundwater and air and are linked to cancer in humans and animals.
Alternative: Look for unbleached paper filters.
Best Option: Use reusable filters such as washable cloth filters.

4. Overpackaged foods and other products
Excess packaging wastes resources and costs you much more. Around thirty three percent of trash in the average American household comes from packaging.
Alternative: Buy products with minimal or reusable packaging.
Best Option: Buy in bulk and use your own containers when shopping.

5. Teak and mahogany
Every year, 27 million acres of tropical rainforest (an area the size of Ohio) are destroyed. Rainforests cover 6% of Earth’s surface and are home to over half of the world’s wild plant, animal, and insect species. The Amazon rainforest produces 40 percent of the world’s oxygen.
Alternative: Look for Forest Stewardship Council certified wood.
Best Option: Reuse wood, and buy furniture and other products made from used or salvaged wood.

Learn how to become WoodWise at home and in your office »

6.Chemical pesticides and herbicides
American households use 80 million pounds of pesticides each year. The EPA found at least one pesticide in almost every water and fish sample from streams and in more than one-half of shallow wells sampled in agricultural and urban areas. These chemicals pose threats to animals and people, especially children.
Alternatives: Buy organic pest controllers such as diatomaceous earth.
Best Option: Plant native plants and practice integrated pest management. Plant flowers and herbs that act as natural pesticides.

7. Conventional household cleaners
Household products can contain hazardous ingredients such as organic solvents and petroleum-based chemicals that can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into your indoor environment, positing a particular danger for children. The average American household has three to ten of hazardous matter in the home.
Alternative: Look for nontoxic, vegetable-based, biodegradeable cleaners.
Best Option: Try making your own green cleaner using vinegar, water, and castile soap [click here for some easy recipes].

Find safe, green cleaners in the National Green Pages™»

8. Higher octane gas than you need
Only one car in ten manufactured since 1982 requires high-octane gasoline. High-octane gas releases more hazardous pollutants into the air, and may be bad for your car.
Alternative: Buy the lowest-octane gas your car requires as listed in your owner\’s manual
Best option: Make your next car purchase a hybrid. Or ditch the car and take public transportation, ride a bike, or walk.

Learn more about green transportation »

9. Toys made with PVC plastic
70% of PVC is used in construction, but it is also found in everyday plastics, including some children’s toys. Vinyl chloride, the chemical used to make PVC, is a known human carcinogen. Also, additives, such as lead and cadmium, are sometimes added to PVC to keep it from breaking down; these additives can be particularly dangerous in children’s toys. PVC is also the least recycled plastic.
Alternative: Avoid plastics that are labeled as “PVC� or “#3.� Look for #1 and #2 plastics, which are easier to recycle and don’t produce as many toxins. Use sustainable construction materials.
Best option: Take action to tell manufacturers to stop using PVC plastics, especially in children’s toys.

Find safe toys in the National Green Pages™ »

10. Plastic forks and spoons
Disposable plastic utensils are not biodegradeable and not recyclable in most areas.
Alternative: Use compostable food service items. Companies such as Biocorp make cutlery from plant materials such as corn starch and cellulose.
Best option: Carry your own utensils and food containers.

I learned about this list via The Worsted Witch.

Now that Spring is here I want to encourage all of you that can to do two things: 1) Buy a share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)/any local sustainable organic farm or grow your own food; 2) start either an indoor or outdoor compost bin/pile.

I finally ordered the worms I needed for my own indoor compost bin and last Thursday evening Kendall and I had a fun evening working on the project. The bag of worms aren’t as bad as I thought they would be (the worms are mostly concealed by the dirt they are packed with). I am great with all sorts of creatures when they are outside, but when I find them or bring them inside my home I kind of… become… a big sissy. On Friday morning we went out of town for the weekend and I was nervous that I was going to come home to a kitchen overtaken by worms that had cleverly escaped from the compost bin. However, to my delight, they were right where I left them and after an afternoon of cooking up a bunch of fresh veggies from our CSA share I was able to gather the scraps, open the lid, and toss them to be composted!

I am a huge fan of CSA’s. They are generally less expensive, more convenient, and more sustainable than buying organic food at the grocery store. As for composting, getting it setup and maintaining it is SO easy and the cost to set it up is minimal. Composting makes extremely rich soil and is better than anything you can buy.

Happy Spring to you all!!!

I am hoping that you all get that this isn’t about bread specifically. The bread is only a specific example of a general idea…now that you are more in-tune with the waste you produce, where has your thinking led you?

My thoughts led me to what people did before our obsession with putting preservatives in and packaging everything. (It’s like we are always preparing for some huge disaster and living in fear that things are going to be taken away from us and we aren’t going to have enough.) They either made it themselves or bought it directly from the person(s) that did make it. Food may not have stayed fresh as long, so, people bought what they needed as they needed it. (I know that it wasn’t as always as rosy as this sounds, but I am trying to get at a general idea and not at a full historical account of consumerism.) It may sound strange but, this realization has made a big impact on my thinking. Part of me didn’t understand why this hadn’t occurred to me before since community, connection, and interaction are so important to me. Yet, I also understand that there is a timing to things and when we are ready and the time is right, things will settle in and take root just as they should. In the same way that I feel the need to know the people producing my fruits and vegetables and the land where they are being grown, I need to know those baking my bread and even bringing as much of that into my own home as I can. I have been baking my own bread for about 3 months now and love it. There are times where I love it less and it feels like a chore, but I love baking it in my home and then breaking bread with family and friends. I no longer have to throw out packaging (woohoo!) and when I bought a special loaf of delicious peasant bread, it was from a small, local bakery called The Monkey Tree.

My challenge to you is to begin to find creative ways to reduce the trash you create. Whether it is baking your own bread, buying it from a friend who loves to bake, make your own household cleaners, find a health food/natural remedies/body products store that sells shampoos, conditioners, lotions, etc. in bulk (You can reuse the containers you have and you pay by the once.), buy used clothing or recycled clothing, etc. Basically, begin to rethink and find solutions for what you regularly (or not so regularly) buy and the trash you are creating in the process.

I would love to hear any ideas you come up with!

My awareness about the amount of trash I produce started when I got to a point where I couldn’t stand throwing away the packaging my bread came in. I usually try to buy whole grain bread and default to whatever brand is on sale. However, many times this meant that I would throw away the plastic wrapper and the plastic bag the bread was wrapped in (occasionally the bag would be recyclable). We make sandwiches for our lunches so we go through a loaf of bread fairly quickly and I was left regularly throwing packaging away and hated it.

This led me to think about why in the world they had to package one loaf of bread twice and it also made me consider what else I was throwing away and what was happening to all of the trash I accumulate every week.

Let’s look at the packaging situation first. The conclusions that I came to about the reason behind double packaging were as follows: They need to keep the bread fresh and uncontaminated as it travels across the country on semi-trucks from the factories where the bread is made to the grocery stores where they will sit on the shelves. The bread that I buy is usually on sale which means that they are trying to get rid of it because there is a “fresh” shipment of bread to take its place. Even though my bread is on the older side the packaging with a lot of help from preservatives keeps my loaf soft and easily mold free. This made me think about the “footprint” of a loaf of bread which then becomes part of my “footprint” since I bought it. Are you following?

An unsophisticated and incomplete look at the footprint of a loaf of bread*:

• The electricity used to power the factory in which the bread is made.
• The toxic manufacturing of the plastic in which the bread is encased.
• The gas used and emissions created in transporting the bread.
• The electricity used to power the grocery store in which the bread is stored until bought.
• For some there is the gas used and emissions created by driving to the store.
• For some there is also the paper/plastic grocery sack which the bread will be placed in upon checking out.
• The throwing away of the twisty tie and two plastic wrappers.
• The gas used and emissions created by the garbage truck that comes to pick up the trash.
• Finally, it will either be taken to a landfill (it takes hundreds to thousands of years for plastic to decompose) or it will go to a recycling center where energy will be used to recycle it into something else.

*This doesn’t even touch upon the footprint of the ingredients used to make the bread.

This then made me think about all of the trash that I have created and accumulated of the span of my life so far and wondering how many landfills we have all filled up. We take out our trash once a week and never have to think about that bag(s) again. Most of us don’t have to be exposed to toxins, smells, and sight of landfills. The damage of our trash is left to affect those that can’t afford to live anywhere else.

I know this can be a little overwhelming. However, we need to take a realistic look at the impact of our actions and the affect that they have on other people and on the environment. This really isn’t as scary as it initially feels like it will be, but it definitely does take intentional actions to change the way our mind thinks and the way we approach life. A shift in our thinking needs to be made from one of convenience and carefree carelessness to one of respect for ourselves, each other, and the Earth. There is a beauty and ease to treading lightly on this earth and having respect for the shared world in which we live. The difficulty is in not everyone seeing that. I will write a post tomorrow that talks about some ways that I have begun to try to reduce my trash and some ways in which I have been re-thinking the way in which I consume.

photo courtesy of dM.nyc

The day of the Academy Awards I was on day three of being really sick. I am telling you this because I am about to admit that I watched the Academy Awards and I am a bit embarrassed to share this information….but I really was very sick so please don’t judge me too harshly. Anyways, during the award show Jerry Seinfeld did a little stand-up schtick (I think it was his consolation prize for not being picked to host the Oscars) about our attitude towards trash when we go to see a movie in the theater. The gist of it was that an unspoken deal has been made between the patrons and the establishment. The patron agrees to pay a ridiculously high price for an admission ticket, food, and beverage and in return the patron has earned the right to drop his/her trash wherever he/she desires and gets to not have to give one thought to who is going to clean it up, but can walk away with the peace of mind that someone is in place to take care of it. Unfortunately, this attitude has moved beyond the theater and we have come to possess this carelessly care-free attitude toward trash in general. We pay our fees and in return our only duty is to put our trash/recycling in their respective containers, place them on the curb, and someone will dispose of them. We feel that we have earned the right to not have to think of where that trash goes, what happens to it when it gets there, or how it effects our planet. However, that is not the way it works and our trash doesn’t just disappear.

I want to issue a challenge to your awareness regarding your trash. Each one of us leaves an imprint on this Earth and one of the very tangible ways that we can exam the size of that imprint is in the amount of trash we individually accumulate. This weekend I want you to track everything that you throw away (if you have kids their trash is your responsibility). It doesn’t matter if you mentally keep track or if you actually write it down. The goal is for you to become more mindful of the trash you accumulate and the imprint you are leaving.

Throwing things away has become second nature and in many ways a thoughtless action. Here is a list that will hopefully trigger your awareness this weekend:

Facial tissues
Paper towels
Tin foil
Plastic wrap
Grocery bags
Various beverage containers (juice, milk, soda, etc.)
The trash bag itself
Plastic storage bags
Paper
Disposable cups and lids
Tea bags
Food scraps from fruits, veggies, and cooking
Napkins
Straws
Toothpicks
Twisty ties
Diapers
Diaper wipes
Various food wrappers (granola bars, bread, butter, jam jars, etc.)
Personal hygiene containers (toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, lotion, etc.)

That should be enough to get your brain moving in the right direction.

Here are a few things to think about while you are increasing your awareness:

1) How many wrappers does this one item have? (Ex: Bars of soap usually have a plastic wrapping that holds all the individually wrapped bars together or loafs of bread many times have a plastic wrapping and a plastic bag.)

2) Recycling paper, glass, and plastic is better than throwing them in the garbage, but it is still trash. Keep track of your recycling too.

3) Notice even the little things you throw away (like the plastic band you peal away from your milk container when opening it).

Hopefully in this process of becoming more mindful, you will begin to think about and examine the impact that this has. I have been working on this for a couple of months and on Monday I will let you know the things I have been thinking about as a result.