By Rebecca Harnik
Caring for the environment is one more incentive (amid a whole host of ethical, nutritional and economical reasons) to become a vegetarian.
Speaking from the perspective of a biased vegetarian, I will attempt to tantalize you with the fruitful lifestyle of a vegetarian. Perhaps even if I can’t convert you, some of these facts might make you order the vegetarian option a few times a week, for the sake of the planet. (And your own well-being, too!)
Energy:
Raising animals for livestock requires an immense amount of energy, compared to how much energy would be required to stay at the same trophic level. Producing one pound of beef requires seven pounds of feed grain, and 7,000 pounds of water, according to a Time article.
Eating lower on the food chain (more vegetables, grains and fruits) requires fewer energy inputs, and helps to prevent unnecessary usage of water, fertilizers, and chemicals.
Water:
Agriculture in the United States, which is predominately geared towards the demand of livestock industries, contributes to nearly ¾ of all water quality issues in U.S. rivers and streams, according to studies by the EPA. Excrement, antibiotics and pesticides are key players. Also, many countries experiencing severe shortages of water can attribute their issues to meat production, because of the tremendous amount of water needed to raise livestock.
Greenhouse gases:
According to a recent New York Times article, a 1,100 pound beef cow can produce 14.6 tons of manure annually. The resulting emissions create a very large environmental footprint. In the U.S., livestock produce 130 times as much waste as people do!
Antibiotics:
Use of antibiotics has become very prevalent in order to allow for mass production of meat. This can be dangerous because it can result in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten effectiveness of medicines for people.
Degradation of natural resources and habitat:
Agriculture is the world's number one cause of deforestation, and the growth in the demand for meat is the largest force for expanding agriculture. Destroying natural habitats decreases biodiversity and puts many species at risk.
This list is not all-inclusive, it simply lists a few of the main issues.
For more details on effects from livestock farming, check out Factory Farm. A good resource if you are thinking of becoming a vegetarian: the Vegetarian society. Another great resource for eating locally, finding hormone free dairy near you, and other community farming organizations is the Eat Well Guide.
Live green: Eat your greens
Giving new life to things destined for the dump
By Christopher Forestieri
I still like the mantra, popular when I was growing up, of “reduce, reuse and recycle.” But for years I have felt that it can be a bit misleading.
Without a doubt, there is a need to reduce the amount of natural as well as non-biodegradable items we use. Equally important is the need to recycle what we do use. But, in the end, the focus should be on reusing what we have first and foremost. If something can be reused, the need to replace the item is reduced and the item it self is recycled.
And so I began to think about the things I bring home each week which can be reused; here are five.
1. As it is for many others, a trip to the grocery store, or even the occasional leftovers from a restaurant, leaves me with many, many containers. Most of them are re-sealable and perfectly good after their intended use-life has ended. And yet, a cottage industry has sprung up from Tupperware containers.
While these reusable containers are an environmentally friendly upgrade from one-use plastic bags, why waste your money? Next time you look in your fridge, check out all of the “free” plastic and glass containers you have, filled with salsa or cottage cheese, as well as the plastic container you brought home your leftover pasta primavera in. Most of these containers hold up in the dishwasher and can be used many times.
2. And what about Ziploc bags? They have made huge strides in the quality of Ziploc bags since I was a kid. These too can be washed and reused. But, again, why waste your money? Did you ever notice all of the re-sealable bags that come home with you from the grocery store? Tortilla bags (really any bag with a seal on top) work just as well as their expensive Ziploc counterparts. Plus, they are free and deserve a second trip around the circle.
3. While I am a big proponent of bringing one’s own bags to the grocery store, it’s not always going to happen. Inevitably, I end up needing to run to CVS without my canvas bags by my side. But I don’t feel so guilty that I carry everything home in my hands (though this is not a bad idea if I only buy a few items). That plastic bag they hand back my purchase in can find a new use. It works great as a trash liner or a lunch bag (to name only a few uses).
4. Jars are always easy enough to throw in the recycling bin. But don’t forget, assuming the lids can be reattached, jars are not that different from other containers; they can be reused too. I find that they are good for food products that come in non re-sealable containers. This way you can add to the shelf life of your food while making sure that a jar finds another use.
5. NOTE: This one is kind of far-out, but I thought it was worth mentioning if only as an example of how far reuse can be taken. Recently I played drums in a band which put out an album. We had no money for production costs and we wanted to keep the price of the CD as low as possible. Our bass player began a campaign of collecting all the cardboard cereal boxes and beer containers that he could get his hands on. After a few weeks, he showed up with a whole stack of CDs contained in cardboard sleeves he had fashioned by stapling together squares cut out of the aforementioned cardboard. It worked out great and made for a novel (and cheap) selling point.
The point is, while it’s easy enough to throw something with a recycling symbol into a box every week and hope for the best, who knows what happens to it. Whatever percentage of the material that can be reused, there is significant debate as to weather the energy expended by recycling materials is as degrading to the environment as adding waste to a landfill. The only way to know for sure that what you are doing is best for the environment is to reuse.
Perhaps, in 2008, that classic mantra should be restructured: “Reuse = reduce + recycle.”
Papa's got a brand new reusable bag
By Christopher Forestieri
Every time I go shopping, I notice more and more people bringing their own bags. I made the decision to start doing so a few years ago for primarily selfish reasons.
I lived on a third floor apartment and carrying 20 plastic bags up the narrow staircase just didn’t work for me. Then, there was the matter of what to do with my growing bag collection; my recycling service wouldn’t accept them and I felt too guilty to throw them in the trash.
Switching to four durable canvas bags made sense to me and has worked now for several years. However, such is not the case for everyone.
One Illinois farmer learned the hard way that getting his customers to switch from plastic to reusable bags is no easy task.
According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, Henry Brockman began charging a quarter for four plastic bags after realizing that his business was adding “30,000 petroleum-based plastic bags into the environment a year.”
At the Evanston farmers market where he sets up shop weekly, many of his regulars were outraged. Some threatened never to return and one even went as far as to carry their produce home in their hands as a sign of protest.
However, Brockman’s plan has worked. Without a substantial loss of business, he has managed to hand out 90 percent fewer bags so far.
One way merchants can produce Brockman’s results without drawing the ire of their patrons is to follow the lead of another Midwestern town.
This month, the AP reported that the Shorewood Conservation Committee delivered free reusable bags to every household in Shorewood, Wisc. The article noted that, “the group has calculated that if each household used the reusable bag twice a week, it would save 720,000 or more bags from going into landfills.”
The best part of the plan is that that, instead of passing the cost on to customers, they have solicited and received funding for the bags by local businesses which, in turn, have placed their logos on the sides of the bags for advertising. This should make for a smoother transition that more people are likely to turn into an everyday habit.
At a time when many feel they are being nickel-and-dimed at every turn to fill the gaps of a slumping economy (be it fees at the air port or the daily rise in gas and food costs) the last thing that is going to win people over is another “tax.”
In the tough business of encouraging people to make lifestyle changes, it is always smart to find someone else to pick up the tab.
Recycling e-waste
By Rebecca Harnik
As a student I recently invested in a laptop computer. After I made my purchase, I no longer needed my slow, bulky desktop computer. I boxed it up and it ended up in a corner of our basement, where it still lies today. I gave little thought to the old computer until a few months ago, when I began learning about e-waste.
E-waste is the leftover, discarded, highly toxic waste that results when consumers no longer need their old refrigerators, computers, CD players, cell phones, etc. Electronics contain a massive list of toxic metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium for manufacture, and when they are broken down, they can be very dangerous.
Less than 10 percent of our nation’s e-waste is properly recycled and large amount of the e-waste in our country that is turned in for recycling is exported to Asia or Africa. The U.S. is currently not equipped to deal with this highly toxic waste and instead of properly managing it, we export most of our hazardous e-waste because it is much cheaper.
As I have learned, these facilities we export to are dangerous for workers and public health—most workers use bare hands to sort out valuable materials, while unusable parts are simply incinerated, with complete disregard of health consequences. These sites result hazardous drinking water, poor air quality, many health problems and a myriad of issues in the surrounding ecosystems.
As I thought back to that rejected computer sitting in my basement, I worried, where would it end up when I finally got rid of it? If I turned it into a recycling program, how could I guarantee that it would be properly recycled? What about the spiffy new laptop I bought? I must admit: when I purchased it, I paid no heed to the company’s environmental record.
As consumers, there are actually many things we can do to ensure proper waste disposal and minimize the dangerous effects from e-waste. Research your current computer company and see what they recommend for disposal. Dell and Sony, for example, offer free take-back programs for their electronics. Still, it is important to research appliances before buying them—support companies that will help manage waste from all of their products after they sell them.
The U.S. Postal service has started a great recycling service in which you can send back cell phones and small electronics for free in the mail. These small envelopes are available in 1,500 post offices across the country.
For a list of the most eco-conscious companies in the U.S. check out Ban.org or the Take it Back Network.
Eliminating the concept of waste
By Sarah Kneezle
Even the most eco-conscious consumers can’t escape the burden of trash. From plastic bags to non-recyclable food packaging, some things are just meant to be thrown away.
But the problem may be more about our relationship to waste, according to William McDonough and Michael Braungart, who wrote the book Cradle to Cradle in 2002.
In this clever and captivating manual on how to eliminate waste, McDonough and Braungart explain that the current way we view trash is a cradle-to-grave system. Everything we toss in the trash goes to a landfill to die and there is no further need for the product.
In the new world imagined by this chemist and designer pair, waste equals food. Old products turn into new products and sometimes have different purposes.
In the first chapter, “This book is not a tree,” they explain that trees are not the most efficient resources to make paper, while highlighting their personal stories and inspirations for rethinking trash. Cradle to Cradle, is, indeed, not published on trees. In fact, it is made out of synthetic “paper,” a highly durable, recyclable and waterproof material.
The ink is non-traditional, too. At a certain temperature range, the ink will disappear from the page, making it easy to transform this book into…another book.
Using this same approach, McDonough and Braungart have taken it a step further by instituting a Cradle to Cradle certification for products and goods and hope to spawn the next industrial revolution—one that uses green thinking to eliminate the concept of waste.
Products are also rated based on their risks to human health and environmental relevance. Like the LEED system, C2C offers four ratings: basic, silver, gold and platinum.
McDonough and Braungart have certified companies whose products range in function—from office chairs to diapers and carpets. But the most recognizable may be packaging from the United States Postal Service, which has eight products with a silver rating.
“We are proud that the collaborative efforts of so many businesses, suppliers and production companies will result in improved human and environmental health,” said Postmaster General John E. Potter, back in 2007, when the deal was announced. “At the Postal Service, we continue to find innovative ways to help the environment without passing added costs onto our customers. Consumers will not see any change in price, service or convenience.
In addition to Cradle to Cradle certification process, McDonough and Braungart have overseen eco-conscious design projects at Nike and outdoor clothier
Check out the documentary Waste=Food to learn more.
As cyclists aim to go green, drivers are inconsiderate
By Sarah Kneezle
Last week, the Boston Globe ran a column called “If only drivers shared the road, cyclists would be safe.” After it was posted online on their Green Blog, it became apparent that not too many Boston Globe readers were eager to share the road.
As a cyclist who commutes six miles every day to work and who has been hit head-on by an SUV while riding my bike and have had several friends that have been hit by a car while riding (or running!), some of the comments struck me as unreasonable:
“Bike riders are a hazzard [sic] on the road much like dogs and squirrels. The roads should not allow any pedestrian whether on bike or walking TRUCKS RULE!!!!”
Others were downright unacceptable by bragging that they’d hit the next cyclist they saw while driving in their car. But the majority of them cited that cyclists often blow through red lights and cut off cars.
What shocked me the most was the fact that so many people in the state of
How can motorists be so peeved by people who are out to get exercise, save money on gas and protect the environment?
Sure, I’ve gone through my fair share of red lights (and for the record, bicycles are allowed to pass on the right). And I’d guess that 90 percent of Bostonians have the same audacity to jaywalk.
But these same readers who hold cyclists in such disdain are writing from the same state that has the highest accident rate in the country. These are the same drivers that I see blow through red lights on the busiest streets, honk aggressively in traffic and literally, start fist fights with each other.
As the article pointed out, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino started bike commuting to work and began working harder to make
Somehow other cities harbor less ill-will towards cyclists.
Cycling has even helped the economy as independent frame builders and even bicycle attorneys spring up around the city.
Though Mayor Menino has appointed a former Olympic cyclist as bike czar, Beantown has a long way to go.
Tales from the drive-thru
By Christopher Forestieri
Like many working people, I once fell into the routine of getting up, hurrying to work and hitting a drive-thru at lunch time. The stomachaches, long waits and the trash in my car became commonplace.
However, leafing through my thinning wallet one day, I stopped to consider the facts.
First, fast-food is extremely wasteful. You’re buying a lot more than grease and potatoes when you order up French-fries.
They are packaged in plastic, frozen, boxed, shipped, unpackaged, fried, repackaged in cardboard and, again, repackaged in any number of bags which end up either in your local landfill or on the side of your local highway. And that’s just the fries!
The forests in Southern North America Supply 60 percent of 
er, a large part of which is used by major fast food chains. According to Lauren Barnett, Dogwood Alliance Media Outreach coordinator, “Southern forests are (among) the most bio-diverse forests in the world. These forests contain high concentrations of rare and endangered species.”
Mongaby.com notes that “Americans use 15 billion disposable hot beverage cups every year, with projections reaching 23 billion by 2010.”
This number can be greatly reduced by consumers using their own reusable cups and containers. In fact, many coffee shops offer discounts to patrons who bring in “travel” mugs. If your local coffee shop doesn’t, ask.
But what if you’re not worried about wasting paper, what about wasting money? Let’s say I eat fast-food five days a week. The average fast food meal costs between $3-$10: at $6.50 per meal, that’s $32.50 a week.
Add in a coffee and muffin each morning, at say $3.50, that’s $17.50. Already I’m at $50 and that’s just for lunch and coffee. If I want to go out to dinner a couple nights or buy a snack now and then, you can imagine how the cost rises.
I went to the store with my girlfriend and we bought what the two of us needed for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for seven days. The total came to about $55 each.
For what I spent on lunch and coffee, I was able to feed myself good food for a whole week with much less waste.
Photos by Caw Recycles and the BBC
Bring your own!
By Rebecca Harnik
The average person in the
We can reduce our own impact without accepting the status quo of waste. Instead of tolerating the norm, try bringing your own bag, cup, plate, bowl or spoon next time you go somewhere where you know you’ll get one that’s disposable.
Bring a bag. Did you know that the world consumes about four trillion plastic bags every single year? Many governments are recognizing the problem: the Chinese government has recently passed legislation to eliminate certain types of plastic bags, and has completely banned the free giveaway of plastic bags.
Although I don’t necessarily condone imprisonment for the entire world, it would be easy to cut back on the wasteful consumption of bags. Bring your own cloth bags when you go grocery shopping, or even to the mall, and you’ll save many unneeded bags.
Get a reusable water bottle: Another easy way to save disposable beverages is to bring a reusable water bottle with you on hot days. A good bottle will help you fight against the trend of disposable bottles. According to an article by the Union of Concerned Scientists: it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil (enough to run 100,000 cars for an entire year!) to make plastic water bottles, and transportation burns even more. Not only that but 90 percent of used plastic water bottles don’t even get recycled!
Bring a mug. Next time you go to the coffee shop, don’t waste a cup. Keep your mug in your bag, car, on your bike or in your office and bring it with you. Not only will you feel cooler, but a travel mug will keep your coffee hotter. Also, many coffee shops offer a discount to those with their own mugs. If they don’t offer a discount, suggest it; many shops can be very responsive to customer ideas if enough people ask, and you might encourage others to bring their own cups.
As a college student, another great way of preventing cup waste is bringing your own cup to parties. Seeing hundreds of tossed red solo cups everywhere makes my blood run cold and most of them are not recyclable. Try having a bring-your-own-cup party next time.
But don’t stop just with these suggestions. Do you go out to lunch every day at work? Bring your own Tupperware through the buffet line instead of using one of those giant Styrofoam containers. Or, as green blogger Colleen Heenan mentioned last week, bring your own lunch in a reusable container to avoid the waste of eating out. If these options are not possible, you can at least bring your own utensils. I recently bought an all-in-one knife/fork/spoon from REI that I carry around in my purse, and its versatility has come in handy.
These bring-your-own ideas are just a start. Try making a conscious effort to pay attention to all of your trash as you are throwing it away. Think to yourself, “How much of these discarded items were actually unpreventable trash, and how much could have been avoided by bringing your own alternative?”
Power walking redefined
By Christopher Forestieri
Traveling through the Reagan National airport this weekend, I noticed a lot of energy was being created by the footsteps of hurried passengers. At the same time a lot of energy was being used by lights and escalators.
Unfortunately, there was no connection between the two. It occurred to me that, were there a way to bridge the gap, a lot of non-renewable power could be saved.
With my ticket costing double that of last year’s flight, it is in everyone’s best interest to save as much as possible by harnessing wasted energy and lowering the airport’s power bill.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that British engineers have developed generators that can be placed underground to harness the energy produced by footsteps. According to a recent study, “34,000 commuters in
The generators work like those of a dam. Compression pads installed in the floor are depressed by foot traffic causing fluid to be pushed through turbines. The energy harnessed by the turbines can be stored in batteries and used.
An article on gizmag.com noted that “the first large-scale application of the technology could be to collect energy from visitors walking up and down the stairs to the
Assuming that that the installation of this technology would be cost effective, we could witness a revolution in terms of the way we think about renewable energy. Imagine supermarkets, stadiums, parks and even city streets utilizing the power of foot traffic.
And this technology can be utilized on a smaller scale as well. The engineers working on the
While these developments in energy production are unorthodox, they represent the type of thinking that is key to solving the energy problem. Not only do they find an alternative to carbon based fuel, but they go beyond the notion of “fuel” and instead utilize clean, renewable energy that is wasted everyday.
Hopefully in a few years, when I take my next flight, my underwear will power my Ipod, my Nikes will power my laptop and my footsteps will power the escalator. Who knows, maybe something we haven’t even thought of will power the 727.
photo courtesy of Guim.co.uk
Support your local Farmers Market
By Rebecca Harnik
A fresh strawberry from a farmers market is unlike any that you can buy in a store. The flavor, tenderness and juiciness are simply the best.
But shopping at local farms has more perks than excellent produce. Buying locally-grown food can bring more money into the community, reduce the costs of food shipment and create a better community atmosphere.
A few weeks ago, I went to the farmers market in
In
On average, produce in the
Supporting local farmers helps sustain local communities. According to Local Harvest, Inc., only 18 cents out of every dollar spent at grocery stores actually goes to the farmer who produced the crops because of all of the middlemen required to transport and sell produce at a grocery store. Farmers markets allow a greater percent of the money to go to the farmer, which can in turn be invested in the community and to further local interests, rather than going to big corporations that may not have the needs of the community in mind.
While shopping locally, keep in mind that buying organic ensures the health of the environment by preventing 
harmful chemicals from entering soil and water systems. Organic agriculture protects the health of the ecosystem, the producers and the consumers by reducing toxins involved in agriculture. Supporting organic farms is another important way to protect the health of the ecosystem and further the actions of farms that do not use pesticides.
I learned a lot about small environmentally friendly businesses in my area that I didn’t even know existed.
The search for greener pastures may not end in Midwestern corn fields
By Christopher Forestieri
As candidates rally to get the most votes, it’s hard to believe everything you hear. But the debate over ethanol has taken center stage in the wake of high fuel and food costs.
Ethanol supporters claim that the fuel is renewable because it can be made from corn, soy and switch grass. Others say that it will lesson our dependence on foreign oil because the product can be grown in the
But there are a growing number of people who do not see ethanol and other bio-fuels as the best alternative to oil. Critics cite the environmental and economic impacts caused by ethanol production as well as the emissions released when it is burned as fuel.
Others worry that government subsidies on corn for ethanol production has meant that the bio-fuel movement has been inflated to take advantage of increased government assistance.
- Ethanol adds oxygen to gasoline—helping it combust more completely and reducing the level of toxic exhaust emissions
- Ethanol reduces our nation’s dangerous and expensive dependence on imported oil
- The ethanol industry creates jobs and investment across the nation—especially in rural areas
- Ethanol increases
- Ethanol adds value to
However, some would say that their facts do not tell the whole story. Because ethanol is predominately made from corn, its production can have a negative impact on both the environment and the economy.
Just last week,
Other critics question whether ethanol emissions are better for the environment than gasoline.
According to a study by
“Our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than gasoline, which already causes significant health damage,” Jacobson said..
Despite its drawbacks, the attention ethanol is getting is certainly positive for the environmental movement. Whether or not it is the fuel of the future, it is a major step towards exploring alternative energy sources.
But it may be in
We may have not found the greenest technology, but we are starting to take the search seriously.
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