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
Although Best Buy's recycling page doesn't mention it, you can indeed recycle CDs and DVDs at Best Buy stores!
I first read about this recycling opportunity in Best Buy press release about its new trial e-waste recycling program. So yesterday, I stopped by a Best Buy store for the first time in years -- and found that a three-section recycling bin at the front of the store takes not just the usual cellphones and ink jet cartridges, but CDs and DVDs too.
 So I duly dropped off a big stack of CDs into the bin. The sign on the bin says "drop off or mail" -- but the mail-in option only exists for the cellphones. To get rid of your CDs, you will need to go to your nearest Best Buy.
Find recycling this stuff a hassle? Just keep a little box in your closet or under your bed, and throw in your cartridges, small gadgets, and rechargeable batteries as they become obsolete. Let them collect -- it's not as if the stuff's organic garbage that'll go bad -- and make a recycling trip once or twice a year.
Photo by Siel
Love Korean BBQ? Missed the Great L.A. River Cleanup? Here's your second chance -- a big clean up of the Glendale narrows section of the L.A. River's happening this Saturday morning. You're invited to join in the cleaning fun -- then nosh on Korean BBQ afterwards.
When: Saturday, June 14, 8:45 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Where: Griffith Park Recreation Center, 3401 Riverside Dr., Los Angeles
Cost: Free. Just show up with a hat, sunscreen and drinking water.
In addition to cleaning up the river, the event's intended to bring together an ethnically and culturally diverse group of volunteers "for a day of hands-on environmental stewardship and cross-cultural connection," according to Heal the Bay's press release. The Glendale Narrows is a community hub, Heal the Bay says: "Only if all communities work together will we be able to restore and revitalize California’s natural settings."
The NAACP, Pacific American Volunteer Assn., and Anahuak Soccer Assn. have all signed on! More than 2,000 people are expected to participate -- including L.A. City Council president Eric Garcetti and leaders from the involved organizations.
Everyone -- of any experience level -- is invited. Rub elbows with your neighbors and maybe pick up a few words in another language (clean-up instructions will be provided in English, Spanish, and Korean) during the BBQ.
Photo of Glendale Narrows 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
Check out the yummy catch from our own beaches! In a guerrilla education effort, Surfrider Foundation collected the detritus from our beaches and packaged them up as the "Catch of the Day," then displayed them at farmers markets (via Treehugger). Above are "Condom Strips" from Newport Beach, below are "Styrofoam Bites" from Long Beach.
Malibu, true to its efforts to keep the public from actually enjoying public beaches, gets a "Private Beach Mix":
Venice Beach gets "Butts-n-Bits." Stop smoking, beachgoers!
You can watch a little video clip of the Surfrider Booth at the Hermosa Beach farmers market here.
In other Surfrider news: Quicksilver's made some 100% organic board shorts dubbed "Slightly Choppy" to benefit the nonprofit. How much of the $59.50 per pair goes to Surfrider? The press release I received said "a portion," so I asked for more info -- to find out that each pair will net Surfrider just a buck. I get the feeling that amount won't be specified on the tags, but now you know. The shorts are available in Quicksilver stores now, and will be available on Quicksilver's website in about 2 weeks.
Earlier: L.A. beaches get cleaner -- due to drought
Photos courtesy of osocio.org
 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
 Nowhere would a plastic bag monster be so popular as at a Heal the Bay party. Earlier tonight, Heal the Bay -- a nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up SoCal beaches -- threw its 17th Annual Bring Back the Beach Benefit Dinner party.
And people were lining up to take pictures with the plastic bag monster, who became a bit of a celebrity!
The event brought out a big crowd to the Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport on a beautiful, if a little windy, day. I randomly met Jack Sahl, director of environment and resource sustainability at
Southern California Edison, an eco-initiatives person at Warner Brothers, then ran into the usual westside eco-peeps like Andy Lipkis of TreePeople. 
 Everything from a guitar signed by Maroon 5 to a Ford Escape Hybrid was auctioned off while people tucked in "an organic and sustainable menu" catered by Patina
Restaurant Group while sipping on local beers and "sustainable" but
not organic certified wine from Kunde Estate Winery. Amy Smart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (left), and Ingo Rademacher all took part in the ceremonies.
In general, the event itself was very eco -- aside from all the driving people did to get there (I received a free parking pass but no biking instructions; in the end I eco-cabbed it). Heal the Beach's little brochure for the dinner -- printed with soy based inks on 100% post-consumer recycled paper processed chlorine free -- bragged that the event used neither single-use serviceware nor bottled water.
 Strangely, each gift bag given to attendees contained a plastic (#1) bottle of water -- something Anna Cummins, also at the party, pointed out to me. To be fair, the stuff isn't just plain water -- it's organic certified "Bone Water," (right) meaning that the concoction also includes evaporated cane juice and other juices, oils, and flavors -- as well as calcium and other "nutrients" that make the "water" taste a lot like a less-sweet but still synthetic Gatorade.
Heal the Bay's dinner brochure included a plastic warning educational page of sorts, which said this about #1 plastic: "Unfortunately, studies indicate that with repeated use, PET containers may release di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, an endocrine-disrupting compound and probable human carcinogen." 
Granted, the info mainly advises against reuse of #1 plastic bottles, but in general, Heal the Bay is no fan of plastic. I mean, most disposable water bottles are made of #1 plastic, which Heal the Bay bragged about avoiding -- outside the gift bags. Plus the nonprofit's leading the fight against plastic bags.
Of course, Heal the Bay has to make a lot of compromises -- something I wrote about when the L.A. County Board of Supervisors' decision on plastic bags came down. Bone Water wasn't even the only plastic bottle issue of the night. Heal the Money must've also gotten money from FIJI water -- because that company got a page in the dinner brochure.
The entire evening was full of conundrums such as these. The Escape Hybrid -- auctioned off for $30,000+ going directly to Heal the Bay -- has better mileage than other SUVs, but it's still an SUV made by un-eco Ford. Both the Paul Mitchell and Murad products included in the gift bags have some eco-properties -- but are preserved using parabens. Even the gift bags themselves are reusable totes -- but appear to be made of pesticide-intensive conventional cotton.
I'm not saying Heal the Bay was wrong to accept these sponsorships or products, necessarily. I'm just pointing out the quandaries to say I don't envy the jobs of the people who work there. Sure, I really do have a bone to pick with this Bone Water thing -- but every environmentalist has her pet peeve, and every little compromise the nonprofit makes must bring forth a cacophony of complaints --
 Recycling odd, small items brings out two camps: The "Why're you wasting time with small meaningless things when we've got big problems" crowd, and the "Finally -- a solution for my mini quandary" crowd. This post's for the people in the latter granola group.
And I mean "granola group" literally, as in people who enjoy eating granola. Sign up for The Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade to get 2 cents per used granola bar wrapper and the peace of mind that those trashy things'll get upcycled into backpacks, purses, and other more permanent products.
That program's sponsored by CLIF bar, which has teamed up with the worm-poop eco-fertilizer company TerraCycle to create this upcycling project. CLIF isn't alone; companies ranging from the Stonyfield Farms yogurt company to the rather biz-as-usual Nabisco are also sponsoring TerraCycle projects. Got a Chips Ahoy or Oreo addiction? Pack your kids Capri Suns every day? Save the trash, earn money, and feel saintly green.
Of course, some die-hard environmentalists will argue that the real problem is not the disposal of the packaging but our addiction to single-serving convenience foods -- especially unhealthy, processed stuff like Oreos. I hear that, but still eat the occasional CLIF and Maya bar. I also get the local Redwood Hill Farm's yogurt sometimes, and once, I bought organic oreos.
The companies selling the food products are the ones paying for the projects, from the shipping costs of the materials to the 2-5 cent incentives. This allows TerraCycle to obtain zero-cost materials. "We don’t make a profit from the funds that [the sponsor companies] provide us with," says James Artis of TerraCycle. "We simply use those funds for operating expenses. Where we as a company look to turn a profit is the affordable eco-friendly products that we make from the garbage."
Unfortunately, unless you know of or have signed up an organization you're involved in with the upcycling program, disposing of all this packaging in an eco-manner still isn't easy. TerraCycle's website puts the recycling program info upfront, but the sponsoring companies' websites don't have anything about the programs in a place where consumers could easily find out about it. In addition, while many organizations have signed up with the program, those organizations aren't listed in any kind of public database that would let would-be upcyclers drop wrappers off at a nearby location.
My guess is that too much publicity -- like installing collection bins at every major supermarket -- might overwhelm TerraCycle's resources. Already, TerraCycle's taking a break from adding "brigades" for energy bar wrappers, yogurt containers or soda bottles.
Still, if your school or other group wants to participate, signing up is pretty easy -- and free. Plus the money collected could be used toward fundraisers. I'm wondering if my favorite grocery store, Co-opportunity, can be talked into getting a collection box.
 On the same day Anna Cummins wrote about the crazy "huge bowl of dilute plastic soup" in the Pacific, guess what we were doing in SoCal? Dumping thousands of plastic ducks into the ocean.
The thoughtless dumping was actually for a good cause: The 16th Annual Duck-A-Thon, a fundraiser for Community Care Health Centers. But as Patt Morrison writes in L.A. Unleashed: "In our part of the Pacific Ocean, there's six times more plastic than plankton -- six times. Along the North Pacific shores, a hundred thousand sea mammals are killed every year from gobbling plastics that they thought were edible. The plastic poisoning of the oceans isn't getting better, and the once-amusing spectacle of tides full of yellow rubber ducks isn't helping."
Maybe Anna's crew will run into some of these duckies on her Junk trip next month.
What I'm wondering right now is whether or not these duckies contained scary phthalates, as most rubber duckies do. Yes, the "California Toxic Toys Bill" banned phthalates from children's toys sold in California, but that law doesn't go into effect until January 2009. Phthalates are "endocrine disruptors linked to problems of the reproductive system, including decreased sperm motility and concentration in men and genital abnormalities in baby boys," according to the environmental nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
I have a call in to the Duck-A-Thon people to find out more. In the meantime: Don't want plastic duckies unceremoniously dumped into our oceans? Here's Duck-A-Thon's contact info.
Photo from Duck-a-Thon.org
A guest post from Anna Cummins (photo at right), education advisor of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
 The average Emerald City reader has likely heard of the infamous "Pacific Garbage Patch," that mythical swath of debris in the Pacific, the size of Texas. Or was it two Texases or wait, twice the size of the moon?
Having recently returned from a month-long research trip through this massive marine landfill, I'll clear up a few misconceptions:
• The garbage does indeed exist. HOWEVER it is not a "patch" of garbage, nor a trash island. It's more like a huge bowl of dilute plastic soup, from California to Japan.
• We can't clean it up, net it away, or sieve it out. It's an area twice the size of the United States, and the debris is too spread out. Imagine a handful of plastic cornflakes sprinkled over a football field. Now imagine 9 million football fields in the Pacific Ocean.
12 years ago, Captain Charles Moore accidentally "discovered" the plastic debris debacle in the North Pacific while sailing an infrequently traveled route from Hawaii to Los Angeles. Stunned by the endless river of plastic junk he found -– toothbrushes, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments –- Moore decided to return with research tools and scientific sampling methods, to better understand what he saw.
In 1999, Moore et al. published the groundbreaking study, 4,200 miles across the Pacific, collecting surface samples the entire way.
What we found this year: the problem has gotten much, much worse. Though our samples are still being processed, Captain Moore guesstimates a fivefold increase in 10 years, bumping plastic to plankton ratios up to 30:1.
And still, we tear through plastic bags and bottles like they're going out of style...
Actually, we'd love to see disposable plastics go out of style. So to bring public attention to the junk in our ocean, we're sailing from Long Beach to Hawaii -- on Junk (photo below).
For the last few months, Dr. Marcus Eriksen, Joel Paschal and myself have been creating Junk -– a raft made of 15,000 plastic bottles, an old Cessna 310 airplane, and other assorted junk, to sail from Long Beach to Hawaii.
Marcus and Joel will set sail on June 1 from the Long Beach Aquarium, carrying hundreds of individual messages about plastic debris, to be delivered to D.C. legislators next winter. I'll be charting their daily progress from land, keeping up the blog, and praying for gentle, steady winds.
Come on board! To support our mission, write your message in a bottle here. And to see history in the making -- the first ever plastic bottle boat cross the Pacific -- come on down for the June 1 launch party, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Long Beach Aquarium.
Follow the journey at the JUNK blog. And for information, e-mail me at annacummins@gmail.com.
Top photo by Joel Paschal; bottom photo by Peter Bennett
On Saturday, I took advantage of the free valet bicycle parking at "Revel With a Cause," the eco-themed Santa Monica Festival happening at Clover Park. There's my chainless white bike to the right, being rolled away to be locked and guarded. I got a raffle ticket too, for my chance to win an unspecified prize.
Children seemed to be having the most fun, making recycled crafts in what seemed like every other booth.
Most trash stations had a volunteer letting people know what to throw where, though
whoever was supposed to be watching this one must have taken a break.
I left too early to win the raffle. But I collected my bike right after this very cute bicycling father-daughter duo (or uncle-niece or big bro-lil' sis). You can't tell very well from this picture, but both were expertly biking one-handedly while holding Icees in their left hands.
Photos 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
In case you missed the news, the city of L.A. is aiming to drastically reduce its trash. The goal: A 70% recycling rate by 2015, eventually getting to zero waste within 2 decades. Doable? I hope so, because landfilling's costing us a lot of money -- and we're running out of room.
L.A.'s Zero Waste Plan, also known as SWIRP (Solid Waste Integrated Resources Plan), kicked off last August with a number of public outreach efforts. So far, we've had numerous regional workshops and two big public Zero Waste Conferences.
From those efforts, the city's come up with 12 guiding principles for the zero waste effort, which will be used to create an action plan to eliminate landfilling -- after which we'll actually start taking action. Yes, it's a very long process, a.k.a. "a 6-year stakeholder-driven planning effort."
But for now, the public's invited to a third Citywide Zero Waste conference (PDF), where said 12 guiding principles will be announced and "confirmed":
When: Saturday, May 3, 8:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Where: The Center at Cathedral Plaza, 2nd Fl. Ballroom, 555 W. Temple St., Los Angeles
RSVP: Call Vikki Zale at (310) 822-2010 or email vikkizale@aol.com
In exchange for your time and input, you'll get complimentary meals and free parking -- though really, de-car-ing's recommended. Early birds can get there before the rush for an optional Zero Waste Film Festival from 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
 So many beaches and parks, only one Earth Day. If you like to get your hands dirty, then get up early join fellow environmentalists to clean up our parks and beaches this Saturday, April 19. You've got three locations to pick from:
- Heal the Bay will have its own “Nothin' But Sand” Beach Cleanup. Show up to work from 10 a.m. to noon, just south of the pier near the Ainsworth lifeguard tower in Redondo Beach.
- Help restore a watershed at Rio de Los Angeles Park by pitching in at Earth Day at Rio. You'll clean up the park, plant trees, and even distribute free trees at this kid-friendly event. The fun happens from 9 a.m. to noon at Rio de Los Angeles Park, 1900 San Fernando Rd., Los Angeles.
Remember to wear sunscreen!Thanks for making our beaches and parks pretty before Earth Day rolls around on April 22.
Image courtesy of calparks.org
 If you do one thing for this Earth Day, I'd advise this for your own sanity as well as financial benefit -- in addition to environmental goodness: Get a Bring Your Own Bag system in place once and for all, so you're never caught empty handed.
First, let me go into why this one action will prevent stress and save you money. Then I'll show you how easy it is to be bag-ready at all times.
Plastic bags are slowly becoming a relic in California. The disposables have already been banned in San Francisco and Oakland, for one. Santa Monica's well on its way to enacting its own ban. And Bakersfield, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz are considering similar measures. Even the Calif. assembly's considering a bag fee.
Besides the state and local government initiatives, there's the corporate ones. As of this Earth Day, Whole Foods will no longer offer plastic bags. IKEA will getting rid of all disposable bags, period, come August 2008. And while most grocery stores will still be saying "paper or plastic" for a while, many of these -- including Ralphs -- will still give you a nickel back for bringing your own bag.
So adapt now to prevent headaches -- and to avoid getting nickeled and dimed -- later. Here's how:
1. Put most of your reusable bags in the vehicle you use to get to and from your grocery shopping. For most of you, this will be your car. For the more intrepid of you, this'll be that trailer attached to your bike, or the "basket on wheels" type thing you roll over to your farmers' market. This vehicle needs to be where the bags "belong."
Do NOT have a spot in the house where you keep the reusable bags; not having a designated in-house spot will remind you to always "return" the bags to your vehicle after you unload your groceries.
 2. Keep one minimizable bag in your purse or other favorite bag, like a laptop bag or backpack. Organic cotton tote bags are great, but they're rather bulky, and it's the rare person who'll tote one of those around everywhere. Instead, invest in one bag that converts into a teeny object, and keep that in your purse or bag as a standard item, like a lipstick or condoms.
The one downside of these bags is that they tend to be made of synthetic materials. This is why I advise you just get one of these -- and reuse it forever and maybe even pass it down to future generations :P A few options:
flip & tumble. (above left) Made of ripstop nylon, this cute bag can be "flipped" into a cute ball-shaped object -- great for an impromptu game of catch or for juggling, if you have a couple of them.
 Envirosax. Made of polyester, Envirosax fold up into what the company describes as "the size of a piece of sushi." This is the bag that sits folded and buttoned up at the bottom of my purse. I unfurl it when I need it -- like I did today at Co-opportunity.
ChicoBags. (below left) Made of nylon, ChocoBags can be stuffed into its "integrated pouch." The bags come with a carabiner, so you can attach the pouch to your beltloop, if that look jives with your personal style. ChicoBags also notes on its website that it has a recycling program to repurposed old bags into door mats, dog beds and prayer flags -- but I can't find any info about where to send the old bags on the website.
I know the boys are gonna say they don't carry purses (though I've noticed that more of you guys do these days) and usually don't carry other bags either. I feel your pain -- and encourage you to use this awesome business idea of mine: Create a bag that folds flat into the shape of a short stack of bills, which can be fit into any regular wallet -- maybe even a recycled Jimi.
Make millions as plastic bag bans gain popularity around the world, then email and thank me --
Top photo courtesy of envirowoman
Get your hands dirty in preparation for Earth Day! Join thousands of Cali residents from all over the state to pretty up the parks in your own communities on Saturday, April 19.
The 11th annual California State Parks Foundation’s Earth Day 2008 Restoration & Cleanup event invites all to "help restore the beauty of California’s treasured state parks." Volunteers will plant trees and community gardens, repair fences and boardwalks, restore trails and wildlife habitats, and remove trash and debris.
A bizzaro aspect of this event is that Chevron's an associate sponsor. I hope the irony of an oil company known for polluting California's own land and waterways -- and fighting tooth and nail so as not to have to pay to clean it up -- trying to align itself with a cleanup event done for free by volunteers, isn't lost on anyone.
In any case -- Let not the involvement of Chevron sully your eco-experience. You might consider taking alternative transportation to the park, keeping your money away from the oil companies. Unfortunately, the Cali State Parks Foundation provides only driving directions.... Hmmm....
Two separate events are planned for L.A. County, so check out the details and pick between the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve or Malibu Creek State Park. Remember to sign up; space is limited!
Orange and San Bernadino counties have their own sites too. See you in the park --
Green advice givers are all talking about diapers this week. Both Slate's Green Lantern and Salon's Pablo tackle the subject -- and give conflicting advice.
The Lantern says that cloth diapers are greener -- but that he uses disposables themselves due to time management issues, and will consider switching to cloth or flushable gDiapers later on.
Pablo too says cloth diapers are greener -- but is not so keen on the gDiapers -- and recommends diaper services that'll launder the dirty diapers for you.
In an earlier column, Umbra of Grist concluded that "the disposable vs. reusable diaper fight is in a stalemate for the foreseeable future," and suggests diaperless parenting -- an option Pablo deems impractical.
I'm more psyched than ever that I don't have to deal with diaper issues, but having read all these diaper articles in detail, Pablo's option sounds like the most practical green option, assuming you can afford a diaper washing service -- something you likely can do if you can afford to buy disposable diapers at a buck a pop.
Any green parents got more practical advice or stories?
Photo of baby in gDiaper by Donna D via Flickr
Your eco-questions, answered:
Question: Hi. I am trying to figure out if Los Angeles accepts compostable food scraps in its green bins. I gather from it's website it does not, but i am hoping, perhaps, it is out of date?? Thanks, Tracy
Answer: Yes, you can put food scraps in the green bins -- as long as they come from fruits, veggies, and grains. Don't put any food scraps that contain animal products, even if it's just milk, eggs, or cheese. Your green bin's vegan!
Other things that can go in your green bin: grass, leaves, weeds, tree branches, and clean wood (no nails, etc.).
Unfortunately, compostable food containers, bags, and forks that look like their plastic counterparts cannot go into the green bin, as our composting facilities are not set up to handle these newfangled disposables. Paul Gomez in the L.A. Department of Public Works says plastic-like compostables still need to go in the black bin, though the city is "looking at various aspects" to change that in the future.
And just as an FYI: Here's what goes in the blue bins. Don't have one yet? Get one -- Apartment dwellers can get blue bins too!
Photo by Leo Reynolds via Flickr
There are two types of junk mail haters. The first type want it all gone. They may wage a personal, time-consuming war against it -- or even hire companies to wage that anti-junk mail war for them. Either way, they get their mailboxes cleaned up in 4 - 12 weeks, letting unfelled trees breathe a collective green sigh of relief.
The second type are the kind that say they hate junk mail but don't actually do anything to get rid of it -- usually because there's one piece of junk mail they want to keep getting. It's amazing what people will put up with -- and what they're willing to do to the environment -- simply for a coupon for free iced tea with a pad thai order.
But enough eco-guilting: Now you can get your free iced tea and downsize your mailbox too -- easily. ProQuo, a FREE anti-junk mail website, lets you quickly opt out of -- or opt in to -- mailing lists.
ProQuo reduces all different types of junk mail, from weekly circulars to marketing lists to ValPak envelopes. All you have to do is create a profile, and you'll get a full screen of different lists you can opt out of:
For most lists, simply clicking on the "stop" button will let you ditch that mailer. But some lists do annoyingly require you to either mail in a printed form, or go to their site to input your info again. In these cases, ProQuo will give you a little "Action Required" popup that either lets you download a PDF letter you can just print or send, or gives you a link to send you to that outside site.
How is this awesome service free, you ask? Well, the key thing here is that ProQuo lets you opt IN, as well as opt out. If you click over to the catalog section, you'll see a whole lot of popular catalogs. If you simply want to opt out, you can -- but if the Victoria's Secret catalog lures you into getting more junk mail, well then you can opt in too. The opt-inners' contact info's then sent to that mag -- and ProQuo makes money in the exchange.
That said, your contact info will NOT be sent to any random magazines. To get on Vicky's list, you have to specifically select and hit "I want to start receiving this catalog" for Vicky's.
If that opt in OR out option bothers you, there's also Catalog Choice, which lets you just opt out of catalogs you don't want. However, while this site does let you get rid of catalogs at a click, Catalog Choice doesn't remove your name from general junk mail directories or get rid of any of the non-catalog flyers and mailers.
Whatever method you opt for, remember that it'll take one to three months for your mail box to really clear up. Next up: How to get rid of junk mail with even less effort than ProQuo -- for a price.
 Love the Do Not Call Registry? Wish you had a similar one for junk mail?
The good people at ForestEthics have gotten the battle against junk mail started with a petition -- addressed to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- calling for a Do Not Mail registry.
Junk mail's not just a daily annoyance. The unwanted stuff destroys forests and contributes to global warming. Junk mail also tends to create an eyesore in urban neighborhoods; I see supermarket fliers littering roads and alleyways all the time.
So sign the Do Not Mail registry petition. This campaign also has a tool to help you get off junk mail lists. However, the app basically asks for your contact info, then puts that info into a 9-page PDF -- each page being a letter to a different address registry -- for you to print and mail off. While somewhat handy, this app is oddly mail-and-paper intensive -- and will put you back at least a few bucks in postage costs.
To help you do this more cheaply and easily, I'll put up more posts today about what you can do to de-junk mail NOW without mailing a thing.
 Dumping e-waste isn't good for you or the environment -- which is why we should take old computers and TVs to an e-waste collection center. But what happened to reusing things and fixing things when they break? Is it possible to REDUCE the amount of e-waste we create?
While some old appliances just need to be replaced -- old refrigerators, for example, suck up way more energy than newer, energy-efficient ones -- other goods often get tossed simply because they break and we can't find any way to fix them. After all, companies make more money right now selling us new stuff instead of helping us fix existing things.
This is pissing off many environmentalists. Beth of Fake Plastic Fish, for example, discovered her HP monitor couldn't be fixed -- and after complaining to HP, took her rant about "the issue of planned obsolescence of electronics" to the Electronics Take Back Coalition, a group that's trying to get companies to take responsibility for recycling their e-products.
And now, the Electronics Take Back Coalition's collecting "Dead Gadget Stories"! Basically, they're looking for stories "showing clearly how products simply can’t be fixed or upgraded, because of clear choices made by the product designers."
Tried to fix a DVD player, only to be told it was unfixable? Then write up your story and send it to stories@deadgadgets.com with this info:
- Make and model
- Year bought and whether it's under warranty.
- Why it’s dead. (Doesn’t turn on, can’t upgrade it to run certain software, etc.)
- Steps taken to try to fix it, or cost to fix it -- in all their eco-obsessive details.
- Picture of the dead gadget (make sure the manufacturer name / logo's visible) for a soon-to-come dead gadget gallery.
The info'll be compiled to further Electronics Take Back Coalition's e-waste responsibility campaigns. If you send something in, feel free to share it in the comments too!
Extrapolating a bit -- I think there's a growing market for people who can fix electronics. In Wired magazine, Clive Thompson points out how fixing and reusing things can be a political act: "We've lost our Everyman ability to build, maintain, and repair the devices we rely on every day. And that's making it harder to solve the country's nastiest problems, like oil dependence, climate change, and global competitiveness."
While Thompson is referring specifically to personal fix-it skills, the problem goes beyond individuals to encompass our entire communities' inability to fix things. After all, not everyone has to be able to fix a computer monitor -- but it'd be great if every town had someone who could, and who could make a viable living at it. And it'd be even better if our TVs were MADE to be fixed, and if fixing cost less than buying new ...
For now, I try to upgrade electronics only when absolutely necessary. I've decided to keep my old LG flip phone this year, instead of upgrading to a new, sleeker one for free (provided I extend my contract). iPhones look cool, but I really spend enough time mucking around on the Web already, sans an ultra-portable do-everything celly.
I do, BTW, have a great recommendation for a local guy who'll come by to fix your printer, if you have a broken one.
Photo by David J via Flickr
That's the L.A. River above, awash with plastic bags after rain. The photo's a part of Guardian UK's 8-picture series on plastic bags, ugging up places from China to Somalia to everywhere in between.
What are we doing in L.A.? The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted for a voluntary program to reduce the use of plastic bags -- A disappointing move, because voluntary programs in other places have proved to be ineffective.
In contrast, the City of Santa Monica voted to draft an ordinance banning plastic bags outright. The ordinance now needs to get passed and implemented, but hopefully by 2009, we won't see any more plastic bags coming out of stores in this city by the beach. After all, plastic blight on the beaches isn't going help attract tourist dollars --
Write your city councilmember to voice your support for a ban on plastic bags in your city. Angelenos: Locate your councilmember by going here, scrolling down, then putting in your addy under "My Neighborhood" in the right column.
Photo by David McNew/Getty Images
Your eco-questions answered:
 Question: If traditional cleaning products (ie: 409) are so bad for the environment, what should I do with them if I want to throw them out and start over with green ones? Should I dump them, or is that just as bad for the environment? Should I just use them until they are gone and then buy green ones next time I need new cleaning supplies? -- Kelly
Answer: Ah -- This is the small but tough conundrum we environmentalists heart stressing about! My sister in St. Louis has been wondering about the same thing.
First, let's rule out dumping them -- that's definitely not a good solution. The real question is: Should I take the remaining cleaning products to the local hazardous waste facility, or use up the remainder before getting green products?
There is no "correct" answer to this, because basically, you're choosing between producing more gratuitous waste (in the form of empty bottles and the products within them) and landfilling it (albeit slightly more safely), vs. putting some harmful chemicals more directly into the environment.
Grist's eco-advice giver Umbra, for example, votes for NOT using up the toxic cleaning products -- but then confusingly says small amounts can be dumped down the drain (um, if you're gonna do that, why not get a little use out of the stuff first?) or that larger amounts can be given away (perhaps philanthropic, but doesn't actually take the toxic stuff out of circulation).
 My general advice to people is to use the remainder of the products -- then use the empty bottles to make your own cleaning products. This way, you can at least assuage some of your eco-guilt by reducing and reusing a bit.
The other reason I advise this is that most people just don't take their old cleaning products to the hazardous waste facility. YOU might, but few, except the most eco-committed, do. And I figure, if that stuff's going to be entering the environment anyway, we may as well use it to clean things up a bit first.
Of course, other mitigating individual circumstances enter into the equation too. If you're suffering from allergies, asthma, or other health problems, I suggest you get thee to your nearest hazmat facility ASAP. Your old cleaning products might be exacerbating -- or even causing -- these health issues. Or if you have kids or pets that might get into the stuff, again, go the hazmat route.
Most of all, whatever you decide to do with the remaining un-green products you have, the bigger issue here is what you plan to do next! Focus on the green steps you are taking in the future. The green cleaning you'll be doing in the years to come is the thing to focus on. Give yourself a green pat on the back.
Earlier: Green Cleaning week
Top photo by Beatrice Murch via Flickr; bottom photo by Jasmin Malik Chua
Whether it's composting or recycling or trash hoarding, more Californian environmentalists are getting obsessive about waste. Now, the City of L.A. as a whole is talking trash, working to develop a citywide Zero Waste Plan to turn L.A. into a zero waste city.
Can L.A. really divert 70% of trash from landfills by 2015? That's one of the main goals of this Zero Waste Plan, also known as SWIRP (Solid Waste Integrated Resource Plan). At the moment, SWIRP's still at the beginning stages of creation; after all, the effort started just last year. So far, the city Department of Public Works has conducted interviews with stakeholders, held 21 regional workshops, and organized the first Zero Waste Conference, which happened Oct. 2007 at the Los Angeles Convention
Center.
Now, we're having the second Citywide Zero Waste Conference (PDF), which will focus on "Policy, Program and Facility Options":
When: Feb. 2, 8:30 am - 3 pm
Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., West Hall 515 A and B
RSVP: Call Glenda Silva at (323) 349-0661or email glenda@victorgriego.com
Councilmembers Rosendahl, Smith, Reyes and others will be there to talk trash. Join them, and you'll get free meals and refreshments -- plus an optional Zero Waste Film Festival to kick off the day.
SWIRP’s key goals are to:
- achieve a 70% diversion (recycling) rate by 2015
- operate an alternative technology facility by 2010
- convert the Bureau of Sanitation fleet of over 750 trucks to run on clean fuels by 2010
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 35% below 1990 levels by 2030
- implement Council’s adopted RENEW LA Plan that recommends 12 key measures to make LA a zero waste city
This second conference will still only be the beginning for the Zero Waste Plan. The whole planning process is supposed to take six years, to eventually become a 20-year master plan for the City’s solid waste and recycling programs. After the conference, the city will hold 14 community workshops in February and March. Then on April 26, we'll have a third Zero Waste Conference, in which the guiding principles for this program will be announced in a signing ceremony, thereby concluding the first phase of SWIRP.
Get involved now and help shape the Zero Waste Plan from the start!
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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. 
Emerald City calendar