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So-called biodegradable or compostable flatware come with their own problems, an L.A. Times article pointed out yesterday. Since most of these only biodegrade in industrial composting facilities that get things really hot -- and since few cities have such facilities, let alone city-wide collection programs for these newfangled disposables, most of the allegedly greener food containers and utensils go to landfills, just like non-recyclable goods.
But if you live in Santa Monica and have a green bin, you're in luck. The city of Santa Monica's green bins now accept compostable food containers and utensils, in addition to yard waste and food scraps. To make sure all the compostable containers break down properly, the collected waste's then taken up to an industrial composting facility in Sun Valley.
Although the city's already trucking all the green bin waste to Sun Valley, public outreach about the program hasn't yet begun -- which, according to Wes Thompson, solid waste supervisor for the city of Santa Monica, means the program hasn't officially launched. "Our fliers are at the graphic designers," Thompson says.
Santa Monica residents don't have to wait for the fliers to hit their mailboxes, however. Start putting their compostable containers and food scraps into your green bins now!
Of course, if you live in an apartment like I do, you don't yet have your own green container. "We're working on that," says Thompson, who says multifamily housing units in Santa Monica tend to be landscaped more -- and thus produce more yard waste -- than similar units in other cities. "If we're going to get to zero waste, [expanding the green bin program] will be the only way."
 Getting a city-wide green bin program in place for multifamily housing units, however, will likely take a couple years, says Thompson. In the meantime, Santa Monica will get a smaller program: Green bins where people can drop off their compostables will be placed in a couple spots around the city. Thompson doesn't have the spots picked out yet, but said the bins will definitely be in place by the end of the summer.
If you don't live in Santa Monica, this green bin program sadly does NOT apply to you. The city of L.A., for example, cannot handle compostable food containers in its green bins -- though vegan food scraps are allowed. You can try to push the city to go the Santa Monica route -- or just get into the habit of using your own, non-disposable utensils.
Top photo by Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times; bottom photo courtesy of reusablebags.com
Your eco-questions answered:
Question: Do you have any sources on recycling in Orange County? We live in an apartment [in Yorba Linda], where there isn't (apparently) recycling available. (Management says that the trash stream gets recycled separately, but I'm way skeptical.) I used to live in Seattle, and I can't get used to not recycling stuff. — Greg
Answer: Your management is actually telling the truth. The city of Yorba Linda contracts with Taormina Industries for trash and recycling services. While homeowners get 3 bins (one for yard waste, one for mixed recyclables, and one for everything else) in Yorba Linda, commercial and apartment trash all goes into one bin, which then gets sorted to fish out the recyclables.
As I mentioned before, this unsorted recycling process (a.k.a. dirty MRF-ing) tends to have lower recovery rates than pre-sorted recycling -- so pushing your local government for apartment recycling bins could still be a good idea.
In the meantime, use Earth911.org to quickly locate the recycling center nearest you.
Photos by concrete cornfields via Flickr
>> The problem with compostable flatware: Unless they make it into an industrial composting facility, these forks and spoons don't biodegrade easily.
>> Six green-ish dishwashing liquids reviewed at Grist. Unfortunately, it appears that all of them contain carcinogen 1,4-dioxane, over which California's attorney general recently sued Whole Foods, Avalon Natural Products.
>> The greenest way to dry your hands in a public bathroom. Wiping them on your pants is one option, but Slate.com's The Lantern also notes that "The bottom line is that hand dryers will be the greener choice in about 95 percent of circumstances."
>> Tap water gets popular, due to both economic and environmental concerns. "Although it is difficult to track rates of tap water use, sales of faucet accessories are booming." Earlier: A prize-winning, almost-free drink: L.A. tap water.
>> Get ready for the Bicycle Film Festival, which rolls into town July 17-21. (via Westside Bikeside)
>> Of the 100 most congested metropolitan areas, L.A. tops the list according to INRIX, a traffic information provider. Check out the list of top 10 worst bottlenecks in Southern California.
>> L.A. parking fines are going up by $5 starting late July. The extra money won't go toward improving roads or public transit, but will be used to help fill the city's budget shortfall. (via LAist)
Photo by Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times
Wine drinkers: You can now up-cycle your corks! In addition to the juice pouches and cookie wrappers and other detritus from our grab-n-go culture, the eco-company TerraCycle's now accepting wine corks -- both natural and synthetic -- which the company will turn "into cool products that will be available nationally at major retailers."
It's unclear what exactly these products will be, but the illustration provided on TerraCycle's Web page looks like a doormat will be one of the goods produced.
Best part of this dealio: While other TerraCycle programs require you to sign up and are really geared towards groups and organizations, this wine cork program makes up-cycling easy for mere individuals. If you've got fewer than 100 corks, all you have to do is mail them in to TerraCycle, ATTN: Cork Brigade, 121 New York Ave., Trenton, NJ 08638.
Got more than 100 corks? Then go ahead and sign up with TerraCycle to get prepaid return shipping labels.
Image courtesy of TerraCycle
 >> Speed date environmentalists. A Green Speed Dating event happens on Sunday, 6:15 p.m. - 9 p.m., at The Hideout, 112 W. Channel Rd., Santa Monica.
>> Take a staycation in downtown L.A. Eric Richardson of blogdowntown wonders, however, whether downtown L.A.'s public transportation system is up to the task, especially for those evening hours and the weekends.
>> Get rid of those vinyl shower curtains -- and vinyl in general. "Vinyl shower curtains sold at major retailers across the country emit toxic chemicals that have been linked to serious health problems, according to a report released today by a national environmental organization."
>> Start a no-dig garden and grow your own food using "a low-water, sustainable technique." Farmer Pat Marfisi practices what he preaches in the Hollywood Hills: "I haven't watered in 10 days," he says. "This is what I want people to know: You can have beauty and abundance without a lot of water."
>> Grow your own alfalfa sprouts using cheesecloth, clean pantyhose, or other alternatives.
>> Follow the trend and get on the bus.
"The MTA released its May ridership numbers for its buses and rail
lines and ridership on the rail side was up six percent over May 2007
from 7,192,173 in May 2007 to 7,625,541 this past May."
One yummy benefit to procrastination: If you hit the farmers' market during the last hour or so, you can get some really, really great deals on organic fruit.
Yesterday, I got two 3-packs of strawberries -- for $6! Yes -- that means just a buck for each one of those little green baskets. The Bautista Family Organic Farm booth was trying to sell all its strawberries before the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers' Market closed, and I lucked out.
Regular prices got me great deals too though. I got six sweet organic nectarines for $6!
And five heirloom tomatoes plus three zucchini -- all organic from Tutti Frutti farms, all for $6.
Best way to make sure you get the most out of your organic, local strawberries: Wash and cut them as soon as you get home, and eat the really ripe ones during the process. This morning I had steel cut oats decorated with strawberries.
Photos by Siel
If you're not ready to make your own green cleaners -- but cringe every time you throw out another plastic spray bottle (into the recycling bin, but still), TerraCycle has a solution for you: Green cleaners packaged in reclaimed soda bottles!
Yep -- The anti-waste people who brought you the eco worm-poop fertilizer in used soda bottles are now packaging eco-cleaning products in the same reclaimed containers. TerraCycle's 5-product line includes all-purpose, window and bathroom cleaners, as well as a degreaser and drain maintainer. All products are non-toxic and biodegradable; they're also free of 1,4-Dioxane, fragrances, and dyes.
According to James Artis of TerraCycle, the 1-liter bottles are either used bottles collected from local recycling centers or end-run and off-spec bottles from larger bottling companies. The spray trigger heads, too, are end-run or off specs. "The shrink label is the only part of TerraCycle’s product that is not rescued from the waste stream," Artis notes.
I tried out both the all-purpose cleaner and window cleaner during a cleaning frenzy this weekend. Both work great -- I can finally see clearly out my balcony windows! Want TerraCycle cleaners of your own? Get them at Office Max and select Targets across California. Cost: $3.99 for all products except the drain cleaner, which costs $8.99.
Earlier: TerraCycle turns juice pouches into pencil cases
Image courtesy of TerraCycle
 Celebrate World Environment Day by signing up for a green workshop series! The next round of classes for the 6-week Sustainable Works Green Living Workshop program starts next week.
Each week will tackle a new area of your life, from water to food to energy. The materials fee ($25 for Santa Monica residents, $50 for L.A. residents) -- waived for those who can't afford it -- gets you a workbook, a resource guide and some useful eco swag. The dates are:
- Tuesdays 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., starting June 10. Sustainable Works office, 1744 Pearl St., Santa Monica.
- Wednesdays 7 p.m. - 8:30 p.m., starting June 11. Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica
Space is limited, and after those series, new classes won't start until the fall -- so sign up now by calling (310) 458-8716 x1 or e-mailing roth_barent@smc.edu.
Photo courtesy of Sustainable Works
Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, who write the blog Homegrown Evolution chronicling their adventures as urban gardeners and farmers, recently released their first book, "The Urban Homestead" from Process Media. Last Friday, Erik, who is also a board member of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, sat down in his garden with Streetsblog's Damien Newton to talk about the new book and sustainable transportation.
DN: So the book's called "The Urban Homestead." How did you come up with the name?
EK: It's a phrase that's been floating around since the '70s. That's the earliest I've seen a reference to an "Urban Homestead." The magazine Mother Earth News, a classic resource for back-to-the-land hippies, and still a wonderful resource, had a bunch of stories in the 1970s that used the expression "Urban Homestead."
There's also a classic example in Berkeley from the early 1970s that was an experiment in self-reliant living in the city called the Integral Urban House. It was a very ambitious project based in Berkeley aimed at setting up a self-reliant urban household. For instance, they had fish ponds with bee hives over the fish ponds. The dead bees would fall into the ponds, providing food for the fish. The goal was to apply principles of the back-to-the-land movement to living in the city.
I'm actually not all that happy with the phrase Urban Homestead because the word homestead suggests a sort of Little House on the Prairie, completely self-sufficient life. Our focus isn't on that kind of extreme living, but on small things that anyone can do. It's about integrating things like growing some of your own food into a normal urban or suburban life. It's not about becoming completely self-sufficient. Community is a good thing, after all, and we still need to work with each other, not focus on running off alone.
DN: Does your family have a history of farming?
EK: Half of my family moved from Germany to Missouri and they are farmers. Some of them are farmers today, but like most family farmers, can't make a living off of it so they have to do other jobs as well. Kelly's family does not have any farmers in it, at least in the last century. But all of us are descended from farmers. In 1900, a majority of people lived on farms. Today, less than 2% of the population feeds the other 98%.
DN: Is that the inspiration to do all this? You have the gardens in the front and back, the chicken coop... Was that all a master plan from earlier in your life, or was it something you came up with as you went along?
EK: It kind of evolved. Like a lot of people we're concerned about where our food comes from.
DN: So you've been at this house...
EK: ...ten years now.
DN: And what was it like when you got here?
EK: The reason we picked this house was because it had everything inside from when it was built in the 1920s. Unfortunately, that also meant it was incredibly dilapidated. But there were also a lot of charming details. This is a modest house, it's a small house. But we prefer a small, nicely detailed house rather than a large dry-wall pup tent.
DN: But when you got here there was no chicken coop.
EK: No chicken coop. We did some vegetable growing when we still lived in an apartment, but we didn't start doing all this stuff until maybe 2000 or 2001. Originally we were spending all our time on fixing the house.
DN: When you began to convert it from the traditional urban yards, full of green grass, to the style of garden we see now, what was the first step? Put another way, if my apartment in New Jersey ever sells and I buy a place out here and want to convert a grass yard into this type of garden, what should I do?
 EK: The first thing I tell people is to start small. The mistake that a lot of people make is trying to transform the entire house and yard all at once. There are all these examples of people doing these really heroic projects to try and maximize the space all at once. The easiest thing you can do if you have a yard is to build something like a small raised bed to grow a few vegetables in. The one we have is 4x8 feet made out of wood, but it could be made out of other stuff like broken concrete or whatever you have at hand. You make a box with no bottom, then you buy soil or make compost, and then start vegetable gardening because you know the soil is good.
Do you know the expression, "you don't grow plants, you grow the soil?" The first thing you really need is the right soil, and in most places the soil you'll start out with is really bad. Using a raised bed is a way to jump-start growing while you amend the existing soil, which can take years.
If you want to take over the lawn or do something more ambitious, the first step is to really grow the soil. Make compost, but most people won't be able to make enough to fertilize a whole yard so you might have to import compost. We get horse bedding material. Did you know L.A. has more horses per capita than any other large city in the country? There is tons of compost around here...
We don't believe in tilling the soil. We believe you should amend it from above. Soil has a symbiotic system of fungus and worms that work with the roots of plants. If you till it you're going to destroy that relationship. The way to build it is to add organic matter as mulch. You might have to gently break the soil up a little bit, with a tool called a broadfork, but do it gently. You definitely shouldn't till it. Tilling isn't just bad for the soil, it contributes to pollution because it releases CO2 into the atmosphere.
If you're just moving into a place, another thing to think about is the tree situation since it takes awhile for a fruit tree to mature. You may have to take out some existing trees and put in some new ones, making sure to plant them carefully so that they provide shade where you want it -- say to cool the house, while at the same time not shading out areas where you want to grow sun-loving vegetables.
Overall we're guided by permaculture, which can be a difficult thing to explain. Permaculture came out of Australia, from the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and mimics nature. Rather than industrial agriculture, which has a lot of artificial inputs such as fertilizer ... with permaculture the plants work with each other in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The best example of this is the "three sisters" that the Native Americans used to plant: corn, squash and beans. The idea being that beans are nitrogen-fixing plants, they pump nitrogen into the soil to fertilize the ground for the corn and the squash. The corn grows up as a trellis for the beans. The squash serves as a mulch for the other plants. And together these three plants provide an ideal diet for humans.
DN: I noticed out front you're growing clover to nitrogen-fix the soil a little.
 EK: This sort of gardening is the opposite of American agriculture. Too often they're putting in petro-chemicals temporarily into the soil to try and grow plants. With permaculture you use nature to do that and create a beneficial feedback cycle. It also simply requires less labor.
And that's an important part of gardening from home. I mean, you have a 9 to 5 job...
DN: Or you blog from your living room...
EK: (laughs) Right, or you blog. Or worse, you garden then you have to blog about the gardening, which takes twice as long.
Anyway, in permaculture you try to use plants that thrive in your region. If you think of gardening as a whole system, such as the "three sisters," you end up with what we see here. You see those artichokes there. The nearby fennel flowers attracts the kind of insects that deal with the bad insects on the things that we eat. You try to mix things in here such as Mexican sage, which attracts birds that also eat the insects we don't want.
One of the main goals of permaculture is to require as few human inputs as possible. There's a phrase local permaculture expert David Khan taught me that I really like, "work makes work..." If you plant a grass lawn you have to mow it every week, you have to fertilize it. I just don't have time for that kind of work. I don't want that kind of work. I also don't want to pay someone else to do it.
If you work with nature rather than against her, you don't have to do as much work. Nature doesn't need humans to make it go.
DN: So let's talk about apartments for a moment. What can the apartment dwellers do?
EK: If you happen to have a sunny balcony, what I would recommend most people do is make their own self-watering containers. There are really great directions for self-watering containers on the Internet by Josh Mandel. (Writer's note: here's a cool You Tube video from Homegrown Evolution.)
A self-watering container has a reservoir of water at the bottom, and really only requires watering about once a week. Vegetables need moist soil, not soggy, and self-watering containers do that perfectly.
You can also grow herbs. You don't need a self-watering container for herbs. Just grow them in a regular pot. If you don't have a balcony that's sunny, there are community gardens where you can rent space. There's not enough of them, and that's a real problem.
Or you can forage for food. Foraging is something for people that don't have land or access to a community garden. Especially in L.A. where there are a lot of wilderness areas close by you can go out and find plenty of plants you can eat. They're quite good. There are many cultures that still forage for food. Italians still forage regularly. Armenian people forage as well.
I can literally walk two blocks away in the spring and there are fields full of mustard seeds. Dandelions, you can eat the leaves or use the flowers to make dandelion wine. There's also a group -- Fallen Fruit --that makes maps of where the public fruit trees of Silver Lake are.
There's a whole world of mushrooms to forage if you know what you are doing, but you, of course, need to be very careful. Go to the free lectures the Los Angeles Mycological Society puts on.
The book is about a lot more than gardening and foraging. It's also a home economics book. Stuff our grandparents used to do that we forgot somehow. Lots of immigrants still do this stuff, but they don't have blogs so nobody knows about it, I guess (writer's note, he was either picking on me or being self-deprecating here). There's a whole world of fermentation you can do right in your kitchen. You can ferment stuff from the farmer's market, you can make your own beer...
...the reason to do your own fermentation is you can't buy this stuff. There's a type of fermentation called lacto-fermentation, and you may have heard of probiotics. It's a type of health food that has living organisms in it. Yogurt is the most obvious example -- yogurt with active cultures in them. These yogurts are important for our health.
Our environment is too clean for our own health because we're missing these organisms from our bodies. Lacto-fermentation method can replace some of those essential organisms. Kimchi is an example of this, but most pickles you buy in the supermarket are pickled in vinegar instead of the traditional lacto-fermentation method.
People in apartments can also make wild yeast (sourdough) bread. It's important to use wild yeast...
DN: What qualifies yeast as "wild"?
EK: I'm glad you asked that because it's very simple. To make sourdough bread all you have to do is mix flour and water together and every day throw out half the mixture (or make bread with it) and add more flour. The wild yeast is contained in the flour itself, and the air in smaller concentrations. It's there naturally. It's very easy to make good bread without commercial yeast.
Bread without commercial yeast lasts longer, tastes better and some say is better for you.
DN: Talking about energy, is there anything easy one can do to take better advantage of solar energy without buying solar panels?
 EK: There's lot of fun things you can do, if you like to tinker. That's the excitement I get from these kind of projects, that I can make them myself. For example, a solar cooker. You can make one out of cardboard, aluminum foil and a black pot.
DN: I saw a woman at the bike expo in Pasadena the other week pulling an oven baking cookies with solar power on her bike. I thought that was cool.
EK: That's nice. It's amazing how easy these things work. We cook our rice in a solar cooker now and it's easier than cooking on the stove. We just throw it in the solar cooker and two hours later you have perfectly cooked rice and you can't burn it. That's the kind of thing we show how to do in the book and the kind of thing that someone in an apartment or someone who can't afford solar panels can easily do.
There's also the solar dehydrator, which we showed you earlier. It's a little more involved, it's made out of wood, but it's a lot easier than installing solar panels. Nothing against solar panels, but it's not possible for everyone. Solar cooking is for everyone. Even if you don't have a balcony in your apartment you can always use your solar cooker for a picnic.
EK: I was talking about the tragedy of modern agriculture. You and I can see the impact of our failed transportation policies. I think more and more people are beginning to see the tragedy of our agriculture policy, which is equally appalling in this country. The power of industrial monocultural agriculture, i.e. growing tons and tons of corn for corn syrup and the resulting health crisis is something people are starting to be aware of.
In our supermarkets you can get all kinds of vegetables all year round but they taste out of season all year round. And so as we come to grow more things ourselves, and you can see that this garden isn't that ambitious, it's small and modest. This is not Versailles obviously. But, just growing a few flavorful unique varieties of vegetables and fruits opens a whole new world of flavor. Especially in the winter, because the winter here is the best time to grow food in Southern California. But, we grow all kinds of food, mostly Italian styles of vegetables and they are much more powerfully flavorful then anything you can get in the supermarket. Bitterness as part of our flavor palate alone is something that's been lost in North American cuisine.
The U.S. palate has tilted towards the sweet. And when we started growing these Italian varieties we were like, 'Wow, this is so powerfully bitter.' But we eventually realized that this is a different part of the palate of food that we're missing and it's really wonderful. These bitter foods also tend to be highly nutritious. That's the real motivation for us, to have flavorful, unique food that's in season.
When you're growing food it ties you to nature. No, you don't have oranges year-round, you have it at one time of the year. You have avocados another and artichokes another. It depends on where we are in the sun's course in the heavens through the seasons. Growing food ties you to the real world rather than the virtual world ... the blogging world where you and I are for a lot of our lives.
I don't want to come across as a technophobe either because I think technology is really important and can do wonderful things. I like having a computer and blogging and all that. I think that's really important. I'm not a Luddite at all. I don't like Luddites. I don't like that rejection of technology.
The important thing is to have a balance. To know how to grow your own food. To know how to take care of chickens and that sort of thing. To know how to make beer and bread. The important thing is balance.
The transportation portion of this interview appears at Streetsblog. "The Urban Homestead" is available through Homegrown Evolution.
Photos by Damien Newton
 Good news: Best Buy's going to let you drop off your e-waste at its stores, free of charge! (via grist) Bad news: This e-waste recycling effort's only a test program in 117 U.S. stores -- none of which are in SoCal.
Hopefully the program will expand, because it'll be a nice, convenient, eco-friendly recycling option for those of you storing old TVs and VCRs in your garages. In the meantime, you can take advantage of Best Buy's haul-away and pick-up program; the company will pick up and recycle your old electronics if you buy a replacement from one of its stores.
Best Buy will also pick up your items without your buying a replacement -- if you're willing to cough up $100 for the service. A better option, in that case, would be to recycle the e-waste via Staples for $10 (downside: no TV take-backs) or via your nearest city e-waste recycling center (downside: inconvenient hours). Here's your full range of options for getting rid of e-waste in eco-fashion.
While reading about Best Buy's test program, I found out more about some of the company's other cool eco-programs that have already been instituted in all stores. Did you know that each Best Buy has a recycling kiosk at the front that will accept small items for free recycling? The stuff you can recycle there ranges from the more common ink cartridges, rechargeable batteries and cellphones, to more difficult-to-recycle products like CDs and DVDs.
I have a huge stack of CDs collected from press kits (many companies use CDs to distribute images) over the last few years, and will be making a trip to drop them off this week!
Photo by Lief K-Brooks
 What perfume did you wear as a teenager? I went through a lot of Poison -- and now I find out that toxic stuff contained four different phthalates!
This I discovered reading "Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry," a new book by Stacy Malkan, cofounder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. The reason for the book? Many of the personal care products people use on a daily basis contain lead, formaldehyde, phthalates, parabens, and other carcinogenic chemicals. Why? Because cosmetics companies are allowed to use the stuff -- and the stuff is cheap.
Instead of taking a precautionary approach as many European countries do, the U.S. goes by a "prove harm" approach. Writes Malkan: "The Environmental Protection Agency must prove a toxic substance 'presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment' before regulating it -- which roughly translates to 'show us the dead bodies.' "
Nor does the Food and Drug Administration require manufacturers to demonstrate that cosmetics products are safe. This means that the cosmetics industry regulates itself -- meaning products are only tested for short-term obvious health effects (rashes, eye irritations and the like). "Most chemicals in cosmetics have not been tested for their potential to cause long-term health problems such as cancer or reproductive harm," Malkan writes.
To prove its point, "Not Just a Pretty Face" covers a lot of ground, from scientific studies to the history of the Environmental Working Group (including its popular consumer cosmetics database, Skin Deep) to the inner workings of the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Assn. And while there's much to be distressed about, Malkan also points to some positive signs -- most of which is actually happening in California!
For example, the California Safe Cosmetics Act, which mandates that companies let the state know if the ingredients used in products are linked to cancer or birth defects, went into effect January 2007. More recently, the California Toxic Toys Bill passed. That bill, which goes into effect January 2009, bans phthalates from children's toys sold in California. In addition, the California Green Chemistry Initiative was unveiled early this year, with three fundamental policies: "creating a new regulatory and enforcement system, strengthening consumer protection laws and better informing consumers about toxic substances in products," according to the L.A. Times.
"Not Just a Pretty Face" in fact, is also an encouraging and empowering story -- in which most of the heroes are women! Jane Houlihan of EWG, Jeanne Rizzo of the Breast Cancer Fund, and of course, Malkan herself, are all leading the fight to make consumer products safer. Even new beauty innovations are being done by women. "Not Just a Pretty Face" tells the story of Amy Cannon, the world's first PhD in green chemistry, who's used UV light to shrink-wrap hair into a non-toxic perm.
You too can be part of the effort to ensure the products on store shelves all become safe products. Until that happens, read "Not Just a Pretty Face" to get educated and get tips on making wise consumer choices. And when purchasing products, use the Skin Deep database to help you pick the safest and greenest products on the market.
Earlier: Simplify your beauty routine for your health and the environment's, says Stacy Malkan.
>> Santa Monica's Green Business Certification is getting popular, with beauty shops, hotels and consulting firms all going after the green sticker. Earlier: Office eco-audits and certifications.
 >> Want a Green Business Certification for the city of L.A.? City Councilman Richard Alarcon's expected to introduce a motion to fund a $200,000 pilot certification program with city money. Call your council member to show your support for it.
>> What to expect from a home energy audit. Anh-Minh Le gets her home audited, then details the process and offers tips in the San Francisco Chronicle. (via Re-Nest)
>> D.J. Waldie on why you should take the bus and support public transit funding, even if it sucks sometimes. "All of us should know that we are actually making a new citizenry for a different city." I've actually rarely found the 720 or 704 to be as crowded as Waldie describes, but I guess I generally ride during off-hours. Earlier: D.J. Waldie and going green at Antioch College.
>> Some compromises between environmentalists and big business are beneficial, say Audubon California and Natural Resources Defense Council people as they tout the deals they helped broker between conservationists / environmentalists and oil / development companies.
Your eco-questions answered:
 Question: I was reading your blog and noticed that you've been hanging out in the 818 (the Valley). I recently just got rid of my car (long story, but it was a lemon) and have been somewhat car-less for the last couple of weeks and enjoying it. I freelance, so I commute only about twice a week and for those occasions I carpool with my husband (he still has his car, hence the "somewhat" car-less).
Anyway, I was curious how you traveled to the Valley from Santa Monica. I ask only because I'm trying to gather other recommended modes of transportation from fellow car-less folks. Did you cab it or do that hourly car rental thing (forgot the name)? I live in the Valley and I love to hear the best way you've found to travel between the Valley and Santa Monica. Cheers, Liza
Answer: First of all, congrats on the de-car'd lifestyle! Second, it's car-free, not car-less :)
Third, to say I've been "hanging out in the Valley" is not quite accurate, especially as I have many readers who get angry because I allegedly don't give the Valley enough attention or because I make fun of it (my ribbing's just jovial teasing, people).
In any case, I only go to the Valley a few times a year! It's simply that I happened to make two trips last month. Once in a blue moon, I have to rent a car for the weekend -- and when I do, I make a trip to a relatively faraway L.A. spot and hit all the places there I've been meaning to visit. That's why I have a buncha recent posts highlighting places in the Valley -- all of those were from one trip.
The second trip was to a party at my friend's who'd just moved to the Valley. I did that by bus, and it wasn't a happy trip due to the buses not showing up or being late.
This also answers your main question: No, it is not easy getting from Santa Monica to the Valley sans car, IMHO. However, I did notice that the Valley itself has gotten somewhat nicer, with lively shopping and arts districts, colorful sidewalks, etc. The main concept of de-car-ing isn't so much about taking public transit to far-off places, but being able to avoid having to travel far at all because you have everything you want and need near you. For ex., lots of people in less-than-lively places in the Valley (and the O.C.) drive into Santa Monica and spots in L.A. because they have no good shopping/restaurants/bars near them -- at least not more than 1 or 2 (which one can get tired of relatively quickly).
What I'm saying is, if you really need to get to Santa Monica or environs relatively often, not having a car may not work so well right now, unless you have a masochistic streak. (Though I'd say any driver who fights traffic to cross that distance on a regular basis also must have a high threshold for pain.) A cab ride between the Valley and Santa Monica's gonna be quite pricey -- and Flexcar, the car-sharing service you were referring to -- has pulled all the cars out of its L.A. locations except at USC and UCLA.
So what I'm wondering is if you live in a part of the Valley where you have easy access to important amenities. If so, definitely stay car-free and just borrow your hub's car once in a while when you need it.
Part of the de-car-ing effort might simply be an adjustment in your habits, i.e., finding more fave restaurants in the Valley instead of sticking to the tried-and-true ones you may have in the Westside. It may take a lil more effort at first, but over time, you are likely to derive more satisfaction from discovering nice neighborhood spots that become your new favorites that you can walk or bike to.
Lastly -- If you bike and can do the bike-plus-bus thing, you may very well be able to travel between the Westside and the Valley with relative ease. Zach Behrens, editor of LAist, lives in the Valley and manages to get all over L.A. sans car. He does, however, still own a car...
Earlier: Freeways have failed us -- Valley girls
Photo of Sherman Oaks' gas station by Gregg Moscoe
 Sure, you've heard your shampoo might have unhealthy synthetic chemicals in it. But scary stories about one chemical or another -- contained even in supposedly "green" personal care products -- hits the news so often that many people throw up their hands and just keep using what they've been using, health scares be damned.
Now L.A.'s getting a green beauty event based not on fear, but around organic fun. Organized by Opportunity Green, "Beauty and Sustainability: An Eco-Evening of Networking, Pampering and Discovery" brings enviro-health education together with a fun night of pampering, complete with organic appetizers and wines, manicures from water-based nail polish company Acquarella and mini-facials from paraben-free beauty company Jurlique.
When: Tuesday, May 13, 7:30 to 10 pm
Where: lululemon athletica, 334 N. Beverly Dr., Beverly Hills
Cost: $20, of which an unspecified portion will be donated to the Breast Cancer Fund. RSVP online.
The night will feature a panel of experts, including Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and author of the "Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry." (Read her recent interview with Grist here). Joining Malkan will be Rachelle Carson (a.k.a. Mrs. Ed Begley Jr.), Jolene Anello of Jurlique, Renata Helfman of Venice's Vert beauty store, and Mark Deason of Acquarella.
I'm most curious about the Acquarella nail polish, having recently read Sarah van Schagen's review of "less toxic" nail polishes from major companies. Van Schagen's conclusion: "The chemical smell from all of these suggests that pursuing your polish habit may not be the best bet for your health." However, she stuck to the major brands, none of which are water-based, as Acquarella's line is. Will Acquarella nail polish work as well as the "regular" stuff? RSVP online to attend the event and find out.
Opportunity Green, originally an annual green business conference, is keeping busy lately. Its launch party last night for Room 367, a green business networking event for young professionals, brought out a diverse crowd of twenty- and thirtysomethings to talk enviro-biz over organic wine and appetizers (above). No news yet, however, on when the next Room 367 event will take place.
Bottom photo by Siel
 Want a free buck? GreenDimes, a service for reducing the junk mail you receive, will now pay you to join their service. In fact, GreenDimes is offering $1 to the first 5 MILLION people who sign up for its FREE service.
Too good to be true? Well, sort of. The free subscribers won't get the full service that GreenDimes offers. What freeloaders will receive: Do-it-yourself removal from common junk mail and catalog lists. If you want GreenDimes to do the work for you -- for ex., auto-removing your name from lists and monitoring your junk mail -- you'll need to fork over $20.
You may ask how exactly GreenDimes is providing a free service when you have to, you know, do the work yourself. That's a fair question. In fact, the "service" GreenDimes is offering for free now is already offered free by Catalog Choice and ProQuo (reviewed here).
However, no company besides GreenDimes will actually PAY you to reduce junk mail, to my knowledge. Even if you're not that impressed by the free "service" GreenDimes is offering, you can still sign up to get that dollar. If you prefer, you can elect to have a tree planted on your behalf, or get a free trial issue of Plenty magazine, in lieu of the buck.
Perhaps that dollar incentive will entice some people who wouldn't have bothered to reduce junk mail otherwise. If all of them seriously take advantage of even just free service, we'd reduce paper waste fairly significantly.
I guess GreenDimes is betting some people will come on the site to sign up for the $20 or $35 services they offer, instead of just taking their free buck. I just hope this green company doesn't just end up $5 million in the red...
Earlier: Get the 'Do Not Mail' registry started
That's Katie Ricketts, community/market organizer at Southland Farmers' Market Assn. and contributor to Emerald City, giving out bags of yummy, farm-fresh produce in front of the Santa Monica Main Public Library!
Stop by between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. today and you can meet her in person -- and sign up for the Santa Monica Market Basket Program. Want in-season strawberries but don't want to fight the crowds at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market? If you join the Basket Program, all you'll have to do is choose a pick-up location -- either the SM Main Library or the parking lot at the SM City Hall -- and a pre-packed bag will be waiting for you between 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. every Wednesday.
Cost: $25 for a "classic" bag, which'll contain 8 to 10 pieces of produce. You can opt for a $30 "specialty" bag that includes a few items with higher price points or a $38 family bag. Yes, prices have gone up a tad because some of the summer produce costs more.
To sign up, just stop by either location during the pick-up time on a Wednesday -- or contact Katie at katie@sfma.net or (310) 740-7544. After prepaying (credit card, check or cash), you can start picking up your bag o' goodies every week! Eating local's never been easier.
I believe the Basket Program's still trying to implement a viable bag reuse program, but having a hard time making the process simple and feasible for produce buyers. Got suggestions?
Photo by Siel
>> Ousted from the South Central farm 2 years ago, some South L.A. farmers are commuting via an old bus to farm at Buttonwillow, Calif., west of Bakersfield. "The group sells weekly at farmers markets in Watts, Leimert Park, Atwater and Hollywood, as well as at a monthly tianguis, or marketplace, set up outside the 14 acres they once farmed at 41st and Alameda streets."
>> How to haul things on a bicycle -- coffee mugs, flasks, boxes, etc. "Once you find the right gear for your particular bike needs, biking becomes a whole lot easier and more enjoyable."
>> How to whiten your teeth naturally -- and cheaply! Organic strawberry plus baking powder will do the trick, according to health.com (via lifehacker).
>> How to be healthy: Save other species. "That's the message from Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein from Harvard Medical School in Boston, who say that human health depends crucially on biodiversity."
>> Congress is looking into why the FDA relied on two studies funded by American Plastics Council to decide that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA) is safe -- in the face of more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about the chemical. BPA is often present in plastics marked #7, such as some Nalgene and Camelbak bottles. (via grist)
Photo by Carlos Chavez / Los Angeles Times
Eco-advice columnists are all over the web now. There's Grist's Umbra, Salon's Pablo, Slate's Green Lantern - and even me with my Q&As. But Sierra magazine's Mr. Green -- a.k.a. Bob Schildgen -- is the first of all of these to have his own book out.
Published earlier this year, "Hey Mr. Green" is a compilation of the advice Mr. Green's doled out since Feb. 2005, when his column launched. The Q&As, loosely organized into sections like "At Home" and "Food for Thought," are humorously informational -- not the least because Mr. Green takes on even the oddest and rudest of questions.
Seriously, Sierra magazine appears to attract some strangely angry readers (vegans?) -- many who are unnaturally attached to their air conditioning. (David: "You really ticked me off with your condescending attitude about air-conditioning." Mary: "I'm supposed to sit at home sweating it out? ... Don't make us don sackcloth while our corporate friends wear silk!") Who knew people could get so passionate about AC?
The random questions mean that the columns go anywhere from the big picture -- i.e. changing one's quality of life by spending time to cook healthy meals, instead of spending time "working to pay for processed, instant, plasticized food" -- to the almost inconsequential -- i.e. paper or plastic? Mixed in there is a passionate argument pro eating meat -- in condiment-style moderation, of course -- as well as recipes for yummy chili and salsa, and a number of money-and-energy saving tips.
Mr. Green even gets poetic sometimes -- especially when talking about lawns, which he seems to have a mild obsession with. "Lawns make the landscape look bleak, like a cemetery without tombstones," he says, then adds in another column:
Lawns are a type of death denial, in that they're replicas of cemeteries where the owner glides on the mower, godlike and immortal, over the pristine green, enjoying the illusion of immunity from burial and decay below.
I'll never look at a grassy lawn the same way again.
Of course, there were times in the book when I laughed at, not with, Mr. Green. One avid knitter wrote complaining that her daughter refuses to wear the handknit acrylic sweaters, the girl's argument being that acrylic's bad for the environment. Mr. Green dutifully points out that acrylic yarn may not be any worse than conventional cotton or wool (he neglects to mention there are organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, and eco-wool yarns) -- never considering that the reason this poor girl doesn't wanna wear her mama's handiwork probably has nothing to do with the environment at all....
Photo by Adam Drewes via Flickr
Locavoring and freeganism tends to get all the attention these days, but when it comes down to reducing carbon emissions, eating less meat will produce more dramatic results than picking local lettuce over greens shipped from China.
That's what the recently-debuted Low Carbon Diet calculator tries to illustrate. Put together by eco-conscious food company Bon Appétit Management, the Low Carbon Diet calculator aims to show consumers the environmental impact of their food choices.
Would-be eco-conscious eaters can calculate roughly how much carbon dioxide emissions are created by their meals by dragging and dropping food items onto a pan. The LCD calculator assigns a number of points to each food item, with roughly 450 points equaling a pound of CO2 emissions.
Planning to eat a 4 oz. steak? That'll cost you 6977 points. Swap that out for 4 oz. of grilled tofu, and you can bring your score down to just 367 points.
Of course, BAM isn't suggesting that choosing to eat local doesn't matter at all. In fact, BAM plans to phase out out-of-season produce flown in from faraway places from the menus of the 400 or so cafes it serves, including The Getty Center. But BAM's first move for its low carbon menus is cutting back on beef and cheese, not obsessing over which tomato farm is closer to the locations it serves.
In a way, the Low Carbon Diet calculator encourages consumers to first focus on the food items that'll create big changes instead of sweating the small stuff. Die-hard locavorians might be peeved by the calculator though, because it doesn't distinguish between beef from locally-raised grass-fed cows and factory farm cows pumped full of antibiotics, even if the resulting CO2 emissions are bound to be quite different.
My breakfast (above), I found out, wasn't quite as green as I'd hoped -- though I'd like to think that the actual carbon footprint of my meal is smaller than calculated here, partly because the food was all organic, but mainly because the milk in my cereal was made from soybeans, not by cows.
Still, I found using the calculator an informative exercise. We can often lose sight of the big stuff because of the details in the little things. Meaning that yes, everyone should bring their own bags to the grocery store -- but there is a certain irony in watching a Whole Foods customer rant about how plastic bags are made of oil and create pollution -- before loading up her SUV and gas-guzzling her way home.
>> Top 10 ways to go green in the ghetto. "stop driving that SUV? i don't even know how to drive.... everything that's green -- from the houses to the organic food and everything inbetween -- is so expensive. the question persists: how do you go green in the ghetto?"
>> 20 free ways to save energy, from Consumer Reports. For those with a few bucks to spend, check out four more energy-saving tips that require a little investment at the end of the article.
>> Companies: Save money and the environment by ditching the annual report. In Slate, Daniel Gross writes about why those glossy annual reports sadden him.
>> Bridging the "green gap" between black and white Americans. "While whites express more concern about climate change, wilderness preservation and endangered species, African Americans express more concern about pollution, locally undesirable land uses and human health outcomes. Asthmatic children are far more likely to turn African Americans into environmental activists than disappearing polar bears."
>> Ed Norton on plastic's many dangers.
"Obviously plastics have served very important purposes and been
incredibly convenient but as we begin to witness the long-term
consequences of the chemical components leaching into our water and our
bodies, we're going to be forced to look for alternatives to how we
package goods and food."
>> Bottled water's many dangers, both big and small. "This rampant commodification of water, while in one sense a terrible thing, does make it impossible to ignore a future reality: The fact that we probably are going to end up paying for water." Earlier: Bring Your Own week: Bottle up.
>> GreenYour.com: A searchable green wiki with a good compliation of facts and tips to help you live green.
Photo by Mike Innocenzi via Flickr
 If $3 a lb. for heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market is more than you can afford, why not make it your Earth Day resolution to grow your own veggies? In the latest New York Times Magazine, author of "An Omnivore's Dilemma" Michael Pollan waxes lyrical about growing your own edible garden:
It’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
Feel daunted by the prospect of creating your own edible estate? Then give the girls at Heart Beet Gardening a call. Run by three Marlborough School alumnae -- Megan Bomba, Sara Carnochan, and Kathleen Redmond -- Heart Beet Gardening is a little local company that'll help you set up your own private, organic edible landscape.
 According to Megan, the organic gardening biz is booming, especially with the popularity of the local food movement. "People are looking at where they're getting things from," Megan says. "A lot of people are realizing they want their kids to grow up with a home gardening experience, even if they didn't."
I met Megan and Sara (right) at a native-and-edible garden Heart Beet recently set up for Megan's parents (below). This 1,000-square-foot garden was planted just a few weeks ago with mostly native, drought-resistant plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Right now, the garden looks rather bare, but according to Megan and Sara, each plant will expand out about a foot, prettying up the landscape. Once the plants are set, very little water or grooming will be needed. After all, these are perennial plants that don't require replanting.
In addition, the garden has an edible component. Three fruit trees -- pomegranate, fig, persimmon -- are each surrounded by a number of herbs and edible plants, including artichokes, lemongrass, fennel, chives, blackberries and grapes. These edible areas will of course require more water and care, but will also produce local, organic food at a very low cost.
Cost to set this up: A little under $5,000, including the recycled concrete walkway. $5 a square foot doesn't sound too bad, considering the fact that the yard will save water while providing food for years to come.
Most of Heart Beet's work, however, isn't large yards but smaller vegetable gardens and edible landscapes. Want Heart Beet to help set up yours? Call them, and you could have your own garden in just a week. The cost for a 100-square-foot garden with a raised bed runs between $1,500 to $2,500 for set-up, depending on the condition of the soil, the type of irrigation system desired, and other factors particular to your garden.
Once you have the garden set up, Heart Beet can help you maintain it for $75 a month, which includes weekly visits to your garden. Of course, a vegetable garden really needs to be looked at more than once a week, and Heart Beet's overall goal is to get more people gardening themselves. Says Megan: "It's not rocket science."
Heart Beet Gardening. (310) 460-9365.
Earlier: Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, Apartment gardens and auto sprinklers
Top photo courtesy of Heart Beet Gardening; other photos by Siel
Big clothing companies offering eco-friendly items isn't really new anymore, since Levi's, Guess, Urban Outfitters, and many others have been offering organic jeans and T-shirts for a while. Still, this Earth Day will bring more new companies into the green market, making eco-friendly wear cheaper, easier to find -- and more confusing than ever.
First, the cheaper and easier to find part: Forever 21's teamed up with BBC's Planet Earth to offer a 100% organic cotton "Freeze" T-shirt (right) at a very affordable $14.80. I'm hoping these T-shirts are made to last, unlike most of the clothes offered at Forever 21, a store's that helped make clothes "disposable." The shirts are available now.
Second, the more confusing than ever: Banana Republic's come out with a green collection -- but would-be eco-shoppers must read the tags wisely! Notes Emili Vesilind of the L.A. Times: "A knit tank top is made from a fabric that's just 5% soy silk. That's diet green, at best." The collection will be available starting Earth Day.
If your closet's already full, get rid of those unwanted conference T-shirts by dropping by Barneys New York. There, you can take advantage of a new T-shirt recycling program dubbed "Tune In. Turn In. Drop Off," created via a partnership between Barney's, green clothing company Loomstate, and the Sundance channel.
Just drop off an old T-shirt in exchange for a 20% discount on women’s Loomstate for Barneys Green and men’s Loomstate merchandise until April 27. The donated T-shirts will be recycled into new Loomstate T-shirts for Barneys Green Holiday 2008 Collection.
Eco-fashionistas will be getting still more choices in the coming weeks. A couple new L.A. eco-boutiques -- Romp and Vie -- will be celebrating their grand openings on West 3rd Street (in L.A., not the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica) on Earth Day itself.
And the eco-company Nau will finally be opening an L.A. store in the Beverly Center at the end of this month. More on that to come --
Top photo courtesy of Planet Earth; bottom photo by Siel
(Alex Thompson writes about cycling over, under, around, and sideways of LA)
Last week I began writing about how you can get a bicycle. I wrote about what one's goals should be in buying their first bicycle as an adult, briefly explained the types of bicycles, and shared my opinion on budgeting for a new bicycle. In this entry I'll explain the basic options for where one can buy a bicycle in LA, share my opinions as to which are best, and I'll briefly discuss helmets, locks, and lights.
If you've figured out the right size and type of bike, and decided about how much to spend, then you're ready to look for a bicycle. In LA there are five basic options:
Craigslist: Local and used is the greenest option! There are a ton of inexpensive bikes available on Craigslist, and most bikes are priced fairly. However, buyer beware, some of them are a bit run down. I think this a good option if you don't have a lot of time to invest, and you're looking for something functional and used. Find a few bikes in the right size and type, and then contact those sellers.
eBay: eBay sellers have a reputation for overpricing their bikes. On the other hand, the quality of merchandise is very high, high enough that you don't need to worry about being unable to test ride the bike. However, if you get a bike on eBay it will arrive in a box, so you're going to have to assemble it somehow. We'll talk about that later.
A local bike shop: Your local bike shop offers instant gratification, at a price. At most bike shops the lowest priced model will be $250 or $300, so it's easy to blow your budget. Still, you'll end up with a finished product, all new, and someone to hold responsible if something goes wrong. If you're cash flow is healthy, and you're short on time, this is a good option.
The Bike Kitchen, Bike Oven, or Bikerowave: There are three organizations in LA known as bike repair collectives. These are non-profit, all volunteer organizations which teach people how to fix bicycles, and provide them the equipment to do so. They also usually have "project bikes" which you can buy cheaply, but you will need to do some work on them. That's ok, depending on which collective you visit you can pay between $5 and $7 an hour to have a volunteer walk you through the repairs. The Bike Kitchen is in East Hollywood, the Bike Oven is in Highland Park, and Bikerowave is in East Santa Monica. All three organizations have late evening hours on most weekdays, and daytime hours on the weekend, so you should be able to make it sometime.
Goodwill, the Salvation Army, or garage sales: These are labor intensive options for finding a bike. However, it's your best chance at finding an insanely cheap bicycle, and the money spent goes to an excellent cause. The trouble is, while most thrift shops will have at least bicycle for sale, the odds that the bicycle is your size or type of bike you're looking for are low. So it is almost certain that you will need to go to multiple stores to find a bicycle that works for you.
When you're buying a bicycle it is good to test ride the bike if possible. If you have a friend who rides bikes, see if they'll come along to inspect the bike. If you don't, then you should try to inspect it yourself. Now, I can look at a bike with problems and assess accurately how much work needs to be done, so I'm sometimes willing to take on such a bike. However, it took me a year of volunteering at Bikerowave to get to that point. Unless you're bike mechanic (why would you be reading this if you were?) you should not buy a bike with obvious mechanical problems. There are plenty of used bikes without mechanical problems, so just skip the ones that clearly have issues.
Some mechanical problems should cause you to move on. Rubbing brakes or a wobbly wheel could mean only a minor repair, but might need a major overhaul. Find a bike without those. Lots of rust on any part of the bike other than the chain is a bad sign. A rusty chain is no big deal, you can easily replace it for $10. Flat tires are a sign that either the tires are damaged, or that the seller is just too lazy to pump them up. Either way I'd avoid a bike with flat tires if I was you.
If you don't spot anything obviously wrong, the bike feels ok when you ride it, and it fits your budget and goals, go for it! No sense being a perfectionist because your goal is to get out and ride it.
Once you have your bike you probably will want to tune it up, or if you bought a bike from eBay you'll need to assemble it. When you're ready, here are your two options for tune ups or assembly:
Local bike shop: You can go to a bike shop to get your bike tuned up. This is a good option for people who don't have much free time and can afford to delegate responsibility. On the Westside the waits to get your bike fixed are sometimes as much as a week. So, if you plan to ride a lot, like to be self sufficient, or don't have much money, I recommend visiting one of the:
Bike Kitchen, Bike Oven, Bikerowave: Most of us wouldn't even attempt to do all the maintenance on our cars. However, this is totally reasonable for bicycles. With about 10 hours instruction a normal person can learn how to maintain every aspect of their own bike. That means when you're 10 miles from home on a bike ride and something goes wrong, you have a good chance of being able to fix it. The Bike Repair Collectives will help you do a tune up or assemble a bike by having a volunteer walk you through the process. Afterward you'll be much closer to being able to maintain your own machine. Empowering, and it's all not for profit!
There's three other basics I want to mention. You should wear a helmet, use a lock, and if you ride at night, ride with lights. When buying a helmet don't spend more than $40. Some helmets are displayed as $140, and for some reason people buy them! Those helmets are for racers who are way too inclined to cut 10 oz of weight by spending money rather than pushing back from the dinner table. You don't need that - aim for $30, it will still protect your brain just as well.
There are also a wide variety of locks available. I recommend a U-lock, and I don't recommend spending a lot. Even U-locks can be broken, but with the low end bike I hope you went for, the lock should offer sufficient disincentive to prevent theft. Some U-locks come with a cable to help you lock up your wheels as well. That can be useful, but the best way to prevent wheel theft, or plain old bike theft, on a low end bike is to always lock your bike in a place which is well lit where there are people.
With lights, as with the bike, I recommend getting something affordable that you plan to replace if you enjoy biking. Lights break, fail, and fall off bikes, so you'll replace them anyway. However, it's important to have them, since the California Vehicle Code says you must have a front light after dusk, and you should have a rear light to be safe riding at night. Motorists know just how invisible pedestrians crossing dark streets can be. Cyclists are the same, so get lit up. You should be able to get an adequate set of lights, front and rear, for under $40 at most shops, and if you're lucky they'll carry a set for $20-$30.
I hope this is beneficial advice. Ride safe!
A new, updated version of nonprofit Redefining Progress' Ecological Footprint Quiz came out -- and so I took it. The result -- I require 1.84 earths!
How could this be? Turns out, a big chunk of my footprint was calculated by things beyond my direct control. According to the FAQ:
There are some portions of your footprint that are not the direct result of your consumption habits. For example, each resident of a city is "responsible" for a portion of the city's infrastructure, such as roads, schools, and government offices, regardless of whether the resident uses those services. In addition, some options that could make your footprint smaller are not available to you as a result of choices on the part of local decision makers, such as reliable and efficient public transportation as an alternative to driving. Therefore, an important path to reducing your footprint is to advocate for more sustainable decisions at all levels of government.
Well, okay then. But the quiz got me wondering if it'd be possible to live in L.A. and have a footprint that'd require just 1 earth or less -- so I took the quiz again basically checking off everything that'd lower my score.
In this imaginary greener life, I moved to a big apartment complex built only with green materials with a 100 square foot edible garden. My imaginary greener self also quit all travel, went vegan, and installed a graywater system for the imaginary garden.
This spartan lifestyle got me down to .98 earths! So I guess it is still possible to live in L.A. and have a sustainable lifestyle according to this calculator -- except we don't have any huge, LEED-certified complexes offering apartments smaller than 500 square feet....
As with most footprint calculators, this quiz tends to be geared toward home-and-car owners, and doesn't offer apartment dwellers extra points for not having a lawn, not buying their own washer / dryer or other appliances, etc.
Still, it's kind of a fun exercise if you have a few minutes to kill at work --
Let me know how many earths you require.
Earlier: My enviro impact score's lower than yours
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Getting a city-wide green bin program in place for multifamily housing units, however, will likely take a couple years, says Thompson. In the meantime, Santa Monica will get a smaller program: Green bins where people can drop off their compostables will be placed in a couple spots around the city. Thompson doesn't have the spots picked out yet, but said the bins will definitely be in place by the end of the summer. 
