Green Options

Should environmentalism be taught in public schools?

It always makes me laugh when moving companies try to sell their own boxes. Who would pay for a box with so much cardboard already going into the landfills? In the last month or so my husband has been picking boxes up all over the city. He goes to liquor stores, bars, grocery stores, and restaurants.  MORE BOXES is on the top of the moving checklist every week. Gulp. I suddenly get how this is not the most eco-friendly option. Every time hubby goes on a box run, we’re using that darned car. Need I mention the amount of tape required to make sure the toy hippos don’t fall out?

If we lived in California, we would most definitely use RecoPacks from rentagreenbox.com, a company that takes zero-impact very seriously. Not only do they scour the landfills for trash that is difficult to recycle, such as old car seats and bottles that once held bleach or laundry detergent, they also deliver the containers (when you rent them for a buck a week) in a truck that runs on veggie oil and bio fuel. When you’re done you simply place the RecoPacks on a “poopy pallet” (made partially from the shells of old diapers) outside your new home and the veggie truck picks them up. No secret dumping of boxes in the cover of darkness necessary.

Whole Foods Markets will stop using disposable plastic grocery bags on Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Banning plastic bags is undoubtedly good for the environment–is it also a boon for Whole Foods?

According to the Whole Foods Market website, Americans toss out about 100 billion plastic bags annually (we recycle a pitiful 0.6% of our plastic bags), crowding landfills with an energy-consuming product (it takes 430,000,000 gallons of crude oil to make the 100 billion bags) that lasts for at least 1,000 years. Whole Foods estimates that their action will save 100 million plastic bags in 2008, alone.

By drawing attention to their company policies that are good for the earth, Whole Foods also gets some good press. Was this part of their plan?