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Problems and Solutions--Enviro Tips for a Better Life
Enviro Problem: Plastic Bags Everywhere
Have
you noticed that, when you go to the grocery store, you are rarely asked “what
kind of bag would you like?” anymore? The ubiquitous plastic bags have taken
over. We see them in swamps and meadows, at the beach, in the trees.
Though
there are collection bins at the front of Roche Bros., Shaws, and Stop & Shop to
recycle these bags, most people don’t use them. Additionally, it is unclear how
many bags actually get recycled. It is not cost effective. Americans throw away
between 80 – 100 billion plastic bags every year. In 1990, a study found that
most carrying-capacity differences are between 1.5-to-1 and 2-to-1 plastic to
paper (how can you stack anything in a plastic bag?).
The following is a link to an informative chart published in the Washington Post, comparing plastic bags to paper bags. There is no “better” bag – the production and disposal of both have serious environmental impact (see the “Enviro Tip” about paper production!). Though paper is biodegradable, most landfills allow NOTHING to biodegrade – the contents are shielded from air and water to prevent groundwater contamination & air pollution. (In Sherborn, our trash is hauled to an incinerator, which is regulated and more environmentally sound). Plastic bags will never biodegrade, but will photodegrade, breaking up into smaller and smaller toxic bits of plastic, contaminating the environment and food sources for animals, and so, eventually, for us.
They are well known to
kill many types of marine life,
dolphins, whales,
turtles because they are
mistaken for jellyfish. In some parts of the ocean, there are
six pounds of plastic for every
pound of fish. For more information:
Globally and increasingly, plastic bags have been completely banned or are “taxed” to discourage use: Shopkeepers in Modbury, England, voluntarily decided to stop offering plastic bags after seeing a documentary that followed a plastic bag to it’s “final” resting spot among thousands of others – Hawaii. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11253591
Bangladesh has banned plastic
bags after they blocked drains and caused widespread flooding after monsoons in
1998. Ireland has imposed a consumer tax on plastic bags and
decreased
consumption measurably. Paris and San Francisco have banned bags,
joining South Africa (where you
could be sent to jail if found guilty of distributing plastic bags), Rwanda,
Bhutan, and Mumbai. http://www.enviroliteracy.org/article.php/1268.html
A better solution has come forward: Reusable shopping bags!
When you see these bags
folded up, or hanging flat on a rack at the grocery store, you will likely be
skeptical about how many will be required to hold your week’s groceries (we
were!).
The surprising answer is that these bags hold an enormous amount – much more than the average plastic bag, in fact, more equivalent to a large double paper bag in terms of volume and strength.
CSA Pine Hill
Store
is now selling
reusable grocery bags!!
Kim Bellchester has ordered red bags (with the PHS logo, of course!) that fold down to the size of a large envelope, and yet hold a full bundle of groceries when fully opened up. If you keep these in your car, and use them when you food shop, you will not only be helping to reduce pollution and resource consumption, but you will likely get some money off at the check-out counter (Roche Bros.)!
To order, contact Kim at Kbellchester@aol.com . And don't forget to take them into the store with you.
Enviro Problem: We're Running Out of Space
One
of the issues we can easily address with the help of our children for both our
trash AND our RECYCLING, is decreased volume. As a town, we get paid for the
recycling we generate. Of course, we do not get paid for our trash. Every pick
up costs the town money.
Enviro Tip:
SMUSH Your Recycling!
Smushing your recycling before putting into your bin at home does these three things:
a) Reduces the number of receptacles you personally need to handle your family’s recycling (less to take to the dump! or out to the garage!);
b) Reduces the volume of our town recycling, generating more income per receptacle, which, in theory, could be used for the school;
c) Allows you to use the word “SMUSH”! Fun! Sounds Yiddish! Actually just a merging of the words “crush” and “smash”, 2 things kids love to do!!
Yes, this is an activity the
kids love! It is educational and fun for them to be invited to collapse the
various paper milk cartons, or egg cartons, or paper cups, or milk bottles, or
plastic cups, or juice bottles, or cans into flat items that take up 1/20th
of the space they originally did. Conversations ranging from, “what is volume?”
to “what is a landfill?” to “isn’t there anything else I can stomp on and smush?”
can be enjoyed. Recently, the Mirowitz family saved the whole bin of recycling to be smushed all
at once. You should have seen those feet flying! Whoa, that was a good time!
Reducing the volume of our trash and recycling helps everyone. Thanks for
pitching in.
Enviro Problem: That Water Bottle May Contain More Than Water
An important thing to think about, heading into the sports season, is water, and how we give it to our kids.
We are
lucky to live in a town where the water is supplied by wells. It’s healthy,
plentiful, a
nd
it tastes good! Yet many of us have gotten into the habit of buying water for
our kids (and for ourselves) in individual bottles. Sometimes this water (Fiji,
Evian, San Pellegrino) is shipped thousands of miles from overseas (Nadi, Fiji
Islands, France), which creates a large carbon footprint. Add to that the
resources used in making the plastic bottles, the energy used and the
pollution generated from their production, and the added energy use and
pollution that is inevitable in their recycling (or, worse, the pollution caused
by their disposal) and you have expanded that carbon footprint beyond
Godzilla’s.
But this isn’t the only thing we should be concerned about. Some of the chemicals used in plastics, Phthalates, bisphenol-A, and BPA, have been shown to cause birth defects, hormonal disruption, obesity, and cancer in laboratory animals. There have been numerous studies of these chemicals over the past 10 years, and, depending on whether you are reading the reports generated by the plastics manufacturers, the National Geographic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the various organizations conducting independent studies, you will read varied opinions on the dangers posed to humans by these chemicals. On thing is indisputable, however. These chemicals, which do not occur naturally in humans, are now found in significant levels in people of all ages and in every corner of this country – even in the cord blood of newborn babies. And, consider: Obesity is rampant, cancer is ubiquitous. So are plastics.
Want to know more? Check these sites:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16112423
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/121/fat
http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/100/10uglies
Enviro Tip:
Lighten Up On the Plastic!
Pine Hill
CSA is now selling Kleen Kanteen
stainless steel water bottles for a “steal.” They are easily
washable, virtually indestructible, and safe from the worries associated with
plastics. They can be used countless times over a number of years. Buy several
now, and know that you and your kids are happily and safely hydrating themselves
when they gulp thirstily from their new steel water bottle on the playing field.
Never re-use or heat or freeze water in “disposable” water bottles (the clear ones your bottled water comes in). Increased leaching of phthalates has been confirmed with each consequent use, and heating and freezing water in the bottles actually draws the chemicals out. Also, refilling water bottles has been proved to be a practice that increases the bacteria clinging to the inside of the bottle.
Avoid plastic food containers and wraps wherever possible, and again, never heat you food in plastic containers or wraps. Transfer the food to a glass or metal container before reheating.
Here’s a tough one: avoid microwaveable popcorn (augh!) and non-stick cookware (no!), as well as cans lined with plastic. PFOA (tied to low birth weight and later obesity) released from popcorn bags accounts for over 20 percent of the chemical measured in Americans' blood.
Check the contents of your cosmetics, fragrances, and nail polish. Use cloth shower curtains and avoid the plastic liners, which continue to release chemicals long after the smell has receded.
Enviro Problem: Paper is Weighing Us Down
The paper industry leaves a Bigfoot-sized
ecological footprint. Americans use and waste too much paper.
According to Alan Herskovitz of the NRDC, the paper
industry
is the third largest industrial generator of global warming pollution. The
paper industry is the number one industrial cause of global deforestation.
The paper industry is the number one consumer of fresh water on the
planet. More than 11% of all the water used in the industrialized world
goes just to make paper. And, that's just the beginning.
We
make the problem worse by using too much paper.
Dr. Joshua Pierce of Clarion University in Pennsylvania says that Americans
discard four million tons of office paper every year--enough to build a 12-foot
high wall of paper from New York to California! That single ton of paper,
when disposed of, takes up nearly 8 cubic feet of public landfill space.
And that public landfill is approximately 36% waste paper products.
Enviro
Tip: Small Changes in Paper Use Equals A Big Difference in the Environment
When printing at
your computer, widen the margins on your page set-up from .75
inches to 1.25 inches, and you will use use nearly 5% less paper.
If offices and universities did this,
the nation would save 380,000 tons of paper every year, or 152 million reams,
which represents $400,000,000 - that's four hundred million dollars! - and a
little less than a Rhode Island's worth of trees.
Follow the great example of Sherborn's Pine Hill School: by sending home one sheet of paper per family, Pine Hill is cutting its paper use by approximately one third- - 150 sheets of paper per flyer distribution. This means that in the first 2 weeks of school alone, Pine Hill would have saved, conservatively, about 4 reams of paper. This is measurable savings - way to go!
When printing, use both sides of the sheet. You can cut your paper consumption up to half.
And don't forget to
use e-mail.
Look for results of a Pine Hill study of online responses vs paper in a future report.