Green Options » waste

Turning Trash Into Treasure: How Diverting Waste is the Ultimate Act of Sustainability

Caroline Savery — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:40:33 +0000

Note: My inspiration for posting this is attributable to the many radically creative and excellent ideas in Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community by H.C. Flores.

The clock is ticking. On Wednesday, I am to shoot a segment for the Sust Enable film project in which I construct a draft box (alternative to a refrigerator), solar cooker (alternative to a stove/oven), and hot water solar shower, in order to illustrate how easy and cheap it is to build such items for the average person. Once applied, these technologies can divert significant amounts of energy that would normally come from the plugs in your home, to free energy provided by the sun and wind. (Of course, the issue of winter and weather conditions arises, but I believe that every little applied creative technology helps in the approach toward sustainable living.)

But there is one obstacle looming… can I overcome it in the hours before the shoot begins?

How do I sustainably acquire the necessary materials?

If I am claiming to live a 100% sustainable lifestyle, then certainly I cannot acquire anything new–all supplies must be redeemed from the waste stream of others. Or must they? I began to realize that the likelihood of me garbage-picking a 55-gallon drum, spigots, fixtures, tools, aluminum foil and black hose was rather slim in the time frame given, and with the transportation resources I have (i.e., a bike).

Hence, I must consider the tradeoff of my actions as thoroughly as I can. What are the consequences of the manufacturing of a metal spigot, bought new from Home Depot? What’s the tradeoff if I were to continue to use conventional hot water heaters for all of my showers for the next few years of my life? …Ah. Maybe I can be a little less strict with myself!

Nevertheless, there are shockingly abundant resources for ANY home sustainability project you wish to undertake. All you have to do is learn to look in the right places first! And, these resources are completely free. People seem shocked to hear that my cost of living is under $100 a month. But when you are trying to live sustainably, operating without superfluous commodities becomes a given (also discussed in Food Not Lawns, under “Quit Your Job”)! But that’s another post…

There is nothing more sustainable than trying to get the most use out of the embodied energy of any material. That means: if you’ve got an old cupboard you don’t have a place for anymore, don’t smash it and use it as firewood! Countless gallons of water and petroleum went into turning that wood into a cupboard, so brainstorm other ways to use it in its high-energy state, or give to someone who can use it. In Cradle to Cradle, the authors talk about how recycling materials often results in “downcycling”–where the subsequent use of the material results in low-grade, un-recyclable products. Since this is the current state of design, recycling is nowhere near “sustainable.” On the other hand, reusing materials and not thinking of them as “waste” leads to a more ecologically-responsible lifestyle.

Last night, an old garden hose was coiled up on a neighbor’s garbage pile, awaiting the morning’s collection truck. Instead, it found a new home and a new use with me (see it in the Solar Shower segment). Anything you dream, you can create… and using found & available materials makes it all the more specific, original, and creative!

Here are some tips for where you can find just about anything you need.

“Garbage picking” in affluent neighborhoods. This is by far the most successful means of acquiring excellent materials. Simply driving or biking around the streets on trash night (easily determined on the Internet), I have spotted a solid wooden draft table, soundproof foam, gardening supplies, a mint-condition armchair… even a child’s scooter! The neighborhoods don’t have to be affluent either, but I think you’ll find that the rate of good materials is higher on a house-to-house basis in such neighborhoods. Shame on them for being so wasteful… but good for you and your projects.
Freecycle or the “Free” section on Craigslist. Dozens of furniture items, building materials, and miscellaneous household stuff are being given away right now in your neighborhhood on these online forums! For FREE! When was the last time you could get loads of lumber for free? Also, check out the barter and other sections for good deals.
Dumpsters. Ever driven around to the back of a grocery store or a strip mall? Well, it’s time to start. I have found clothes, picture frames, CD racks, notebooks, food (of course), and even a printer… all sorts of usable, high-quality materials that for some reason had gone “out of date” with the store supplying them. Hours earlier you could have purchased that printer… now, it’s yours for the taking.
Tag sales. Sometimes people just don’t know what goodies they are tossing out.
Free box. Some community projects, especially cooperatives, may offer a free box. Common items incude clothing, slightly damaged tools, and miscellaneous small items.
Wholesalers. Occasionally you will find large, unusual items from food distributors, retailers, supply stores, etc. This includes 55-gallon drums. And don’t forget…
The Junkyard! Want to build a wind turbine for home use? It’s a pretty simple procedure… and it requires a car alternator. Get one for a couple bucks at a junk yard! Your mind will run wild with schemes for using some of the awesome, bizarre objects they offer.

Lastly, if you have a deadline (like I do), and must pay for your reclaimed materials, then do so at a reuse warehouse like that of Construction Junction in Pittsburgh, PA. Construction Junction “promotes conservation through the reuse of building materials.” They collect an assortment of materials from home remodeling, building demolitions, etc., thus diverting valuable resources from the landfill. The store looks not unlike Home Depot, but all of the contents had a life before they arrived, and will have a life again in your project.

The vast, serious issue of environmental degradation requires creativity, gumption, and flexibility. In my opinion, the best way to exercise all three of these is to get a-garbage pickin’! When you come home with a car full of veggies (from a broken-down cooler at a grocery chain), a whole patio set and some paint cans (from a neighbor’s curbside), then we can talk about getting creative! In my experience with dumpster diving for food, you can never count on exactly what kinds of food will be thrown out. You can, however, swear by its abundance.

(Re)Cycle Waste. Close the Loop. Reap the Rewards!

Read more about

Zero Waste, Dumpster Diving

top photo credit: Romary on WikiCommons under the GNU Free Documentation license

How Much Food Do We Waste?

Eva Pratesi — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:47:48 +0000

The FAO’ Food Security Summit, recently held in Rome, gathered together the international community to discuss about the state of poverty around the world. In 1996 the Millennium Goal aimed to cut by half the number of hungry people by 2015, then estimated at 800 million; today the goal is not only far from the original prediction but other 50 million are suffering. We need more food, we have to increase the production and Europe is starting to look at GMO cultivations to face this global crisis.

A worrying alarm arrives now from the Italian Farmers Association (CIA): mass amounts of food is sitting and rotting in their fields because sale prices don’t cover all of the costs of production. The result is a 1.5 million of tons wasted every year and 4 billion of Euro frittered away. All this with rising costs for Italian consumers and farmers.

The organization Altroconsumo (AC) is fuelling a much needed debate on food supply in Italy. About the issue of food prices AC is claiming a supply chain with a reduction in the geographical distance between producers and consumers may provide a solution to many problems. Reduced prices, according to AC, are among the many benefits of a shortened production and distribution process. Fruit prices have increased by 5% in the last year alone. With the average household in Italy consuming approximately 200kg of fruit and vegetables every year, price rises of this order are not insignificant.From producer to retailer the cost of fruit and vegetables increase dramatically: from the moment of picking to when they are displayed at the local grocery store the price of apples increases by 45%, tomatoes by 46%.

Food waste is also harmful to the environment. The food we throw away needlessly is responsible for a huge amount of carbon dioxide emissions: it’s not just the methane that’s released when the food goes to landfill that’s the problem, but also the energy spent producing, storing and transporting the food to us. Food waste is an enormous challenge, especially because most of us don’t yet recognise the amount we all produce. But it is also a massive opportunity to reduce waste, save money and minimise our impact on the environment.

Altroconsumo claims that a shorter supply chain wouldn’t only keep costs down but also provide indirect benefits to consumers such as improvements in freshness and nutritional value. There are also potential benefits to the environment. Transporting 1kg of Argentinean cherries to Rome, for instance, involves a plane travelling 12,000 km and producing around 16kg of CO2 emissions.

In addition to this it’s estimated that 450 thousand tons of food go to waste every year in Italian supermarkets. Fortunately something is going to change locally: the Last Minute Market. This system was tested in a concrete initiative that allowed the transfer of perfectly eatable unsold food products (otherwise transported and destroyed elsewhere) from a food shop to a number of charity associations. The project was launched by Prof. Andrea Segré, chair of the agriculture department at Bologna’s University.

Starting in 2003, the organization has recovered (from cafeterias, supermarkets and farmers) high quality 140 tons providing each day a meal for 250 people and 500 dogs and cats in Bologna. By providing a cost-effective service for both profit (food shops) and non-profit (charity associations) organizations, the model resulted not only useful from a social point of view but also economically viable and environmentally sustainable. The experiment was expanded to another seven towns, including Ferrara, Modena, Verona and Florence, and a study to extend abroad the Last Minute Market will be soon developed in Argentina and Brazil.

A nice source: Love Food Hate Waste

Image courtesy of Teresa at Flickr under Creative Commons

Fabulous Recycled Fabric Paper from Soolip

Skye Kilaen — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:11:04 +0000

This week in Fabulous Fabrics, I’m venturing a little outside the normal to include a recycled fabric product that’s halfway between fabric and paper. On Kim Kight’s yummy fabric blog True Up, I saw this recycled paper/fabric hybrid from a company called Soolip. It’s a wallpaper weight paper made out of “recycled cotton rag that comes from unused off cuts of clothing from India’s garment district.” Kim speculates that it might be good for sewing projects as well as the gift wrap that Soolip suggests.

You can see all of the patterns here - but make sure you notice there’s a page two, navigation is in the upper right. Most of them come in additional colorways and you have to click through to see them. Each sheet is about 22×30, and they sell for $6 or you can get 3 sheets of the same pattern for $12.

Soolip says the material is produced “produced using fair trade partnerships,” but strangely there is no additional information on the website about this. However, I also don’t want to assume that just because it’s not certified, it’s not a valid claim. Certification of any kind, from organic to fair trade to the quality of a child care center, is a product that costs money. Not every business, whatever their ethical standards, can afford to pursue it - or they simply may choose not to.

What kinds of sewing projects can you do with wallpaper-type quasi-fabrics? Kim has a couple of suggestions in her post about Soolip. Anyone else have any ideas? (I know there are tons of crafty ideas where wallpaper is used as, well, paper - but since I’m trying to sneak this into the Fabulous Fabrics series, I have to at least make an effort!)

[Image from Soolip.]

New Carbon-Negative Community Loves Their Waste

Michelle Bennett — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:44:52 +0000

… for production of renewable energy and maybe carbon sequestration.

Carbon neutral is gaining popularity these days, but Mantria Corporation is taking it a step further.

“We pledge Mantria Place will be the first carbon negative community in the nation by 2011,” states Troy Wragg, Mantria Corporation Chairman and CEO. “Carbon neutral is simply not good enough given today’s environmental issues. At Mantria, we believe that we must go much further to truly help our planet. Our goal is to be carbon negative.”

Located in Sequatchie County, Tennessee, Mantria Place will be Tennessee’s largest master planned community weighing it at 5,500 acres. Nearly half of that will be green space in addition to two championship golf courses. A big question looms: can new, luxurious development really be green? With luxuries like two golf courses, how can their carbon footprint make it below par? Mr. Troy Wragg was kind enough to speak with me to answer that very question.

There is a conflict between sustainability and new development. On one hand, there’s the argument that our world is finite and expanding farther out from cities, into undeveloped lands, it not sustainable. Generally speaking, urban dwellers have a smaller footprint than suburbanites or rural residents. One the other hand, there’s the argument that if you’re going to develop, do it right with as little environmental impact as possible. That is exactly what Mantria does.

So how do you develop a carbon-negative community (PDF)? Begin by calculating carbon usage. Mantria seems to have covered their bases here. They’ve calculated everything from long-term water usage for the golf courses to the CO2 emissions of residents as they drive between local towns and cities. They even calculated paper usage in the community restaurants. Mantria will try to minimize their impact on the land itself by building with and around natural contours. Mantria fuels their bulldozers with biodiesel. They offset uprooted trees by planting new ones, acre for acre, through various non-profits. They use organic concrete and faux rock, and synthetic lumber to reduce reliance on non-renewable resources. More details are offered here.

Yet these measures alone do not subtract to carbon negativity. Mr. Wragg admitted to me that buying offsets are a large part of this claim. But even offsets can’t make a community carbon negative, so Mantria Place will generate all of its own electricity from a clean, renewable source: their own waste. We’re not just talking about garbage. They can use agricultural and landscaping waste, old tires; even their own sewage if they so desire. It will all go into an inconspicuous 1/4 acre lot and come out as clean, green electricity.

Flash Carbonization burns biomass under high pressure. The result is charcoal and the exhaust is mostly steam, which turns a turbine. With this system, Mr. Wragg expects to generate enough power for 3,000 homes with excess to sell to the grid. They receive this technology through a partnership with CarbonDiversion.com and the University of Hawaii. These devices are portable, scalable, and relatively inexpensive. They capture carbon and transform it into charcoal, which we can safely bury in the soil as a natural fertilizer AND carbon sequestration. It can also absorb other chemicals, including toxins and poisons. Traditionally charcoal was burning for fuel until the Industrial Revolution.

So this fancy development sounds expensive, right? Mantria Communities are not exclusively for the super-rich. Rather, the corporation tries to keep the price low for retirees, and to prove that “going green” does not require spending green. Lots in many of their other communities tend to be small, ranging from less than an acre to five acres. Since Mantria Place is still being planned, information on lots (and by extension house sizes) are not yet available.

I’m eager to hear readers’ opinions on this one.

Related Articles:

The Future of Garbage another way to make energy from waste

Charcoal and Terra Preta

Plasma Gasification for ethanol from garbage

Images of Indian Trails Development and Mantria Bluffs Development courtesy of Mantria Corporation. Flash Carbonization charcoal fuel cell via the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute.

Many thanks to Amber Kealy and Troy Wragg for their valuable time!

How Safe and Green Are Your Crafting Supplies? (Part 2)

Skye Kilaen — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:28:03 +0000

In Part 1 of How Safe and Green Are Your Crafting Supplies?, I went on a quest to find out about the safety of my test case crafting product, fusible web. (As you’ll recall, it’s a synthetic product that’s like a cross between fabric and glue, and it works as an adhesive when you iron it.)

Though I was not 100% reassured by what I found, there are at least some safety regulations in place for arts and craft supplies, and fusible web does meet those standards. So let’s move on to my next challenge: assess the environmental impact.

The environmental impact of many products is pretty evident. Oil is a non-renewable resource and it creates toxins when you burn it, so I think it’s a no-brainer to bubble in “No” on the sustainability question in the answer booklet. Bottled water exchanges an efficient public delivery system for an inefficient private one and creates a massive pile of barely recyclable containers.

Fusible web, though, isn’t as immediately apparent to me. Obviously, any product that is manufactured (unless it’s Cradle to Cradle certified, Autumn reminded me) uses up resources and thus isn’t as environmentally benign as going without or re-using something that was already made. But beyond the issues posed by using any manufactured product, is there anything else going on with fusible web that is praiseworthy or less so?

Unlike what I found when I looked for safety information, I only found one online resource concentrated on environmental impact of using art and craft supplies. Pollution Prevention for Arts Education by the Pollution Prevention Regional Information Center, jointly operated by the Nebraska Business Development Center (NBDC) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), contains tips and information on non-toxic and least toxic supplies and disposal issues. There are no federal laws yet requiring that arts and craft supplies, or anything else, be assessed for their environmental impact throughout the product’s lifecycle, so there’s no uniform standard. Unless the product has some kind of eco certification label on it, manufacturers probably aren’t addressing the issue, and even if it’s labeled you don’t necessarily know what that label means without additional research.So I set out to answer four basic questions on my own:

What is it?
How is it made? (What are the ingredients, process, and waste products?)
What happens when you throw it away?
Is there anything better we could use?

Though what I found is specific to fusible web, answering these four questions about any product should be a good start in understanding whether a product is green or not so much.

What is it?

First stop, the manufacturer’s websites. The Steam A Seam website yields no clues. The Stitch Witchery website offers this: “Stitch Witchery is a polyamide fusible web that permanently bonds two layers of fabric together.” Polyamides, says Wikipedia, can occur naturally but are also produced artificially. Polyamides are a type of plastic, and more specifically they are what’s known as a semi-crystalline plastic. One of the main synthetic polyamides is nylon, which leads me to believe that fusible web is fairly related to nylon. I found several other articles in various places that describe nylon as the trade name for polyamides, so I’m going to proceed under the assumption that I can evaluate fusible web by evaluating nylon.

How is it made?

If I were going to make fusible web, what would I buy? (Aside from a factory.) What process would I use to make it? What waste would be generated? I’ve always seen people saying that synthetic fabrics are less environmentally friendly than natural ones, but I didn’t really know what that meant.

The Chemical Heritage Foundation, “dedicated to preserving and promoting the progress of science,” has an educational website called “Spinning the Elements: Wallace Carothers and the Nylon Legacy.” It says this about the manufacturing process:

… adipic acid is mixed with hexamethylene diamine at room temperature… The nylon salt is then purified. This nylon salt is a crystalline solid. When the time to make nylon comes, one just has to heat the nylon salt to over 285 ^oC, and it reacts to become nylon polymer.

Back to Wikipedia. Adipic acid was historically made from fats, but now it’s made from cyclohexane. Cyclohexane “cannot easily be obtained from natural resources such as coal” and must be manufactured from benzene or petroleum using other chemicals. The International Chemical Safety Card for cyclohexane is really scary as far as health effects and risk of explosion, but the Australian fact sheet on cyclohexane seems to indicate that environmentally it’s not that bad. Hexamethylene diamine is “highly toxic and can cause serious injuries.” It’s made from adiponitrile. If follow adiponitrile back in the process, you’re looking at a petrochemical origin.

Anyone else having a sinking feeling?

After I did all of that Wikipedia-ing, I did a little more digging to see if I got it right. How “Green” is Your Gear? The Environmental Impact of Nylon by Geoffrey Skinner, written in the Spring of 2000, discusses an article in the National Outdoor Leadership School’s newsletter The Leader from 1999 and a 1998 article in the respected journal Science. Skinner reports that the manufacture of nylon, from petroleum products, involves the release of pollutant nitrous oxide. A method for reducing the nitrous oxide emissions had been developed, but at the time of his article it was more expensive and not in wide use.

UK website GreenChoices describes nitrous oxide as “a greenhouse gas 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide” and notes that nylon manufacture uses a lot of energy. A 1991 paper in Science estimated that manufacture of nylon may account for 10% of the increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide, which contributes to destruction of ozone.

Is this a rigorous scientific review on my part? No. Is it enough for me to get the gist? Yes.

What happens when you throw it away?

Nylon doesn’t biodegrade, and we know that’s bad. Nylon carpet has some possibilities for recycling, but I didn’t find any other examples of nylon recycling and it gives off toxic fumes when incinerated. Ugh. Granted, fusible web, like many arts and craft supplies, is made to be used up and not tossed out.

Is there anything better we could use?

I got rid of all my son’s plastic toys, bottles, and dishes this past weekend, because I had finally decided that it was worth my peace of mind to replace them with wood, glass, and cloth (preferably thrifted or handmade). I guess the question for each crafter, like each parent, is when a product is bad enough that you’re willing to give it up. Fusible web and nylon are made from petrochemicals and create toxic byproducts, which doesn’t count as sustainable in anyone’s book.

Applique was not born with the invention of fusibles, and people somehow made clothes before fusible interfacing was available. How much is the convenience of fusibles worth?

In my post about the Amish and green quilting, I mentioned that quilters often point to the t-shirt quilt as a great example of recycling. However, the dominant method for stabilizing t-shirts so they can be easily pieced into a quilt is to back them with fusible web. (It’s like in Autumn’s post about making a bag out of playing cards, when she observed that a major component of that “recycled” craft project was duct tape and laminate.) Not all knits are fused before they’re sewn, or my cotton tank tops would be awfully stiff, so I imagine that there would be a way to make these quilts without fusibles. It would just make the sewing (a lot) more difficult.

I have a t-shirt quilt in waiting upstairs, and I have already purchased the fusible web for it, so I’m going to make it. Throwing the stuff away won’t un-do the damage caused by its manufacture. But I’m going to think long and hard about whether it’s worth making another one.

[Image by Joy Freschly.]

Low Impact Living: A Thirsty Nation (part 2)

Low Impact Living — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:19:50 +0000

Editor’s note: On Monday, we published the first part of Low Impact Living’s report on American water use at sustainablog. Today’s second part takes a look at how we tend to use water excessively in our own homes. Keep an eye out for part 3, which will give you tips for reducing your water consumption, or visit LIL for the original publication of the report.

Key Causes of Excessive Water Use

There are many sources of water waste across all sectors of the economy. But, as homeowners and consumers, which ones do we have the most control over? Low Impact Living suggests you consider the following ideas when thinking about lowering your water use.

Direct Household Water Use

The typical household with three members uses over 300 gallons of water per day, both inside and outside. If you live in a warm climate where lawn irrigation is needed, then typically this is your single biggest source of waste – most lawns are over-watered, irrigated with inefficient equipment, and planted with plants not suitable to the local climate.

Inside, toilets, clothes washers and showers are the largest water users, representing 19, 15 and 12 gallons per person per day respectively (see chart to the right). There are huge inefficiencies here as well, especially in older homes. New appliances and plumbing fixtures can often shave 50% off of your water use.

All told, an average water-conserving home could cut the 300 gallon average above to less than 150 gallons with no sacrifice in comfort or performance. Specific things you can do to achieve these savings are listed below.

Indirect Water Use

In addition to the water that you use directly, you also consume water via the products and services that you buy.

The largest single source of indirect water use is through the generation of electric power. Electric power plants employ water to generate steam and for cooling. Per capita water use due to power generation is a whopping 480 gallons per day in the US. This varies greatly by locality. In states using hydroelectric power plants or seawater-cooled plants, fresh water use can be less than one gallon of water per kilowatt-hour of power generated (Idaho, Oregon and California are among these). In other states with no hydro resources and only fresh water available, the use can be very high – Tennessee, Nebraska and Wisconsin power plants use on average over 30 gallons of water per kilowatt-hour of power generated.

Another indirect water use is the food and beverages that we consume. When you consider the entire lifecycle of a food product, from farm to dinner table, many foods require huge amounts of water to produce. Most meats (beef being worst), heavily processed foods, and some vegetables that grow in wet conditions use tremendous amounts of water. Some examples are provided below (representing global averages).

Home Energy Auditing Business Perfect Fit for Two Busy Women

Sarah Pressman Lovinger — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:38:00 +0000

Take two professional women who are busy raising their families, a growing concern about the environment, and the need for a flexible business, and what do you get? Well, if you are Catherine Flanagan and Jane Holt, you launch a home energy auditing business called Green Homes.

Catherine, a lawyer, sought out a more flexible career after the birth of her fourth child. The she and her husband added an addition to her house, and she began to realize the impact that she could have helping others to make their homes as green as possible. “It was also important that we do something meaningful and challenging,” she said.

Living outside of the US for a while helped raise Jane’s awareness of the need to become more environmentally friendly. Jane has always hated waste, but while living in Mexico, Jane wrote a freelance story about garbage that really opened her eyes to how wasteful the American lifestyle can be. “As things became more Americanized, the amount of garbage became colossal,” she said.

Making the change from more structured careers (Jane worked in marketing at Starbucks for many years) to Green Homes not only allows these friends and co-business owners the opportunity to work in a field they find very meaningful, it also gives them the work-life balance they need. Jane and Catherine can schedule home visits while their kids are in school, and catch up on paperwork at home at night. They provide very detailed reports for each client, but it’s a labor of love. “We are both research geeks,” said Catherine. “We love the research part,” she added.

Jane and Catherine are self-taught eco-auditors. Though they initially considered going for formal certification, they decided instead to research home energy efficiency thoroughly, but approach their audits broadly. They not only measure heat loss, cooling, air flow, and lighting usage in a home, but they also evaluate private car versus public transportation usage, consumption of organic and bulk foods, and even what parents pack in their kids’ lunches. “What sets us apart is more of a holistic approach [to home energy audits],” said Jane.

For more general information about home energy audits, read this post by Amy Stodghill: Daily Tip: Get a Home Energy Audit.

Readers: Do you know of other green women business owners? I would like to cover this topic in more depth, so please e-mail me with suggestions.

Human Interaction with Nature: Benefits of Biodiversity

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:11:21 +0000

Editor’s note: For the last few months, we have run a number of guest posts from students in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. We’ve all been pretty impressed with the work these students have done, so we were delighted to agree to publish a small-group final project from students J.J. DeSimone, Lindsay Crupper, Denzyl Janneker, Bobby Grace, and Adam Bowman. They focused on biodiversity in their project, and we’ll publish all five parts over the course of this week. Today’s post was originally published on May 9, 2008.

As humans, we collectively tend to be self-absorbed and not think outside our sphere of influence. More specifically, if something in the world doesn’t directly affect us we give little or no attention to it (I’m one of the worst culprits, myself). As such, it’s very easy for us not to think about what human wastefulness and global warming are doing to our plant and animal life. However, losing our earth’s bio and eco-diversity has frightening ramifications for humanity.

Photo credit: Adam Bowman

Taken in the Uintah Mountains, this photo illustrates what humans could lose unless they act to preserve open spaces.

According to Baker University Biology Professor and Natural Areas Director Roger Boyd, biodiversity is the amount of species in a given area. More broadly, eco-diversity refers to the number of ecosystems there are on the planet. If eco and biodiversity continues to decrease on the planet, then less food is available to sustain life. In essence, all of the earth’s biological life is interconnected; if our furry and scale-covered brethren run out of food, so do we.

But food purposes aside, bio and eco-diversity are extraordinarily important for several other reasons. Species contribute ingredients to human medicines. Less species means less potential lifesaving medicines.

“There are many species we aren’t aware of yet that could help us cure cancer,” Dr. Boyd said.

Additionally, we derive most of our industrial materials from biological life. Finally, biological life helps to moderate our ever-increasing carbon emissions. There are hundreds of additional benefits to maintaining eco and biodiversity, but you get the picture.

Scientists have concluded humans are changing the earth too quickly without taking time to understand or even become aware of all we’re doing. Needless to say, this is bad news.

Although there might not be a true panacea to our problems, we can act at the individual and governmental level to lessen our impact. Dr. Boyd said we do have the scientific prowess to protect our diminishing species. Unfortunately, the U.S. federal government has cut funding to multiple species protection acts. We have the obligation to ourselves and our longevity by informing our senators and representatives that decreased funding for these important acts is inexcusable.

It’s inevitable: if we can’t make the earth habitable for organic life, what chance do humans have in the long run?

Is Recession Good for the Environment?

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:25:00 +0000

Whether or not we’re actually in a recession (it feels like one from where I’m standing), there’s been a lot of discussion about if that could be a good thing for the environment.

The pro side’s argument goes like this: Yes, because people spend less during a recession. That means fewer miles driven and flown, fewer factory items shipped, more items reused and recycled rather than replaced.

Sounds logical, right?

But the con side makes reasonable points, too. No a recession isn’t good for the environment, this argument goes, because less spending means less money for things that benefit the environment: clean technology, green innovations, fair-trade and organic foods, and so on.

Still, while I’m not wishing hard times on anyone, I do see an upside to the current tough economy. Look at all the news stories about moms who now make their own laundry detergent and grow their own vegetables. Or the features about upscale urbanites who are increasingly shopping at second-hand (designer) stores. Or the reports about companies establishing shuttle bus services to get their employees back and forth to reduce individual gas expenses.

From my own perspective, it’s been a little good, a little bad. I don’t always buy organic foods as much as I used to, but I am gardening more. And while I can’t make it out to my favorite co-op as often as I once did (too far a drive when gas is nearing $4 a gallon), I am making more meals from scratch, even baking my own bread and making my own tortilla chips and potato chips.

I have to conclude that, while a recession isn’t in and of itself a good thing for the environment, the awareness it raises of our frivolous spending habits and wasteful ways is a good thing. And if that lasts after the economy revs up again, that’s got to be a plus.

What do you think? I’d be interested to hear how all of you are dealing with tough times and whether you think it’s made you a better, greener person.

Going Green for the Family Dog

Beth Bader — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:16:58 +0000

While accompanying me on a trip to the more scary storage area of our house, my three-year-old spied an old “yard art” statue of a Rottweiler that belonged to my spouse. (The movers would not accept a bribe to, uh, lose a few items during the move).

Later that evening, she remarked to my husband, “Daddy, we need a real dog, not a plastic dog.” Between this plea and having to stop and ask to pet every, every, single dog we encounter in public, I set about the task of getting my spouse to agree to add a new member to the family.

It was not easy. He was heartbroken after losing his last dog, and pretty set against a puppy. This does not mean no — it just means choosing your moment wisely.

“Oh, I’ve got a dog for you. Chocolate Lab. I’ll spay her and everything,” my brother, a vet, offered. We were out for a family dinner. My husband was deep into his second beer. I gauged my opportunity. The moment looked right, or my husband looked a bit drunk. Either way, works for me. “Hey, Honey, guess what?!”

Yeah, I got him to agree while he was buzzed. A mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do.

Speaking of do, or rather “doo,” we have just a short while before we go pick up the puppy to consider how to “green” our new pet. A bit of internet searching and some recommendations included Paw Luxury, a site that offered eco-living for the every day dog. The products included many eco-friendly, fair-trade, and recyclable products from hemp collars to organic treats, toys, beds and things for the lesser exciting new pet issues such as the “wet dog” aroma, and doggy breath.

The site also offered a resource for biodegradable “scooperboxes” and “business bags.” The only thing the site did not have was a place to put the fully-loaded bio-bag. For that, I had to do some research.

Turns out, they do make compost bins especially for pet waste. You can make your own, or buy a ready-made model. Prices range from around $50 bucks to a fancy model with fans and an empty light (not-so-green for the brown, really) for around $500 bucks. I’m all for low-tech, kids. It’s poop.

The compost system uses a treatment similar to a septic system, or a bokashi bucket, using enzymes to break down the waste. This “compost” however, cannot be used on any kind of food garden. But the system sure beats the plastic bag method for environmentally-friendly.

Now, if I can just convince the spouse he will not mind some scooping. That’ll take a few more beers.