Green Options

I have always hated KB Toys, and I have honestly only been the store three times in my life. I’ve searched the packed shelves of junk toys for a glimmer of something that I could give my children that was not made of plastic, commercialized, oversexualized, gender specified, or Chinese made.  Thus, I was not saddend to hear this junk toy store was going out of business.

For the second time in four years, KB Toys filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed doors for good after the winter holidays.  NorthJersey.com describes the company’s financial downfall:

KB blamed the difficult economy for the filing, but toy industry experts said wrong decisions by the retailer hastened its demise. It had shifted its focus to mall-based stores, saddling itself with high rents just as shopping-center traffic was dropping; it stopped selling video-game consoles; and it moved its merchandise mix away from hot toys and toward closeouts.

In today’s world, is it really possible for a family of four to completely eliminate waste and still enjoy a normal healthy lifestyle?

The Strauss family are about to find out as they undertake a Zero Waste Challenge during the first week of September, in an attempt to cut their household waste altogether. The idea first came about following concerns over the impact of plastic bags on marine life, said Rachelle Strauss in an interview with EcoWorldly;

“..In May of this year I read an article about the effects of plastic on marine life. When I showed this to my husband he was clearly shocked and moved by what was happening. From that moment he declared ‘no more plastic bags’ and here we are 4 months later carrying out the idea of reducing our waste to the ultimate.”

I’ve just seen Gomorra, the movie recently came out in Italy and based on the bestselling book Gomorrah: Italy’s Other Mafia, by Roberto Saviano.

Never before south of Italy has been so popular on media and newspapers like in this period and not for good news! Naples, a city long defined by both its loveliness and its squalor, is collapsing for a garbage emergency linked to the local mafia, the Camorra.

Where is the connection between rubbish and Naples’s crime system?