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Check out this cool site where you can get info on the quality of your tap water here in the US. For another option, the EPA keeps info that you can check out as well. And once you've checked those sites out and realized that you're in fact not a scientist with a massive attention span for boring reports (sorry folks but they are), here's a good guide to how to decipher them for the average person. By the way, if your water report shows trace amounts of something which sounds scary don't totally freak out. There are a lot of things that we eat and drink every day that don't necessarily do us harm so do a little research before you rip out all your taps.
Dave
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
How's Your Tap Water
Day 155 - Wednesday 6/4/08
Today's Haul:
- 16 ozs paper from mail (mostly political) - recycle/worms
- 1 car lightbulb - ewaste
- 1 plastic packaging cover from car headlamp - recycle
- 1 cardboard packaging cover from car headlamp - recycle
- 1 oil covered paper towel from car oil check - ewaste
- 1 cardboard ice cream box - recycle
- 1 plastic ice cream wrapper - recycle
- 1 aluminum tuna can - recycle
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Isn't About Time To Give Up On Plastic Water Bottles?
I'm kind of shocked that with all of the info out there, people still continue to use plastic water bottles. I've asked around and the two main reasons I hear are that it's cheap and it's readily available.
Cheap- OK, I may be cheap, but water bottles are not. Let's say that i drink 3 bottles worth of water every day 300 days out of the year. At $1 a bottle (averaging a bit) that's $900 a year out of my pocket. On the flip side, here in Los Angeles, the same amount of water out of my tap will cost me about $1 from the city. So the cheap thing doesn't really add up. A good metal water bottle will run you $15 or so, but will last about 10 years or more, so that won't put it over the top either. Even if you are one of those folks who thinks your tap water is not good, and want a filter for your house, you're still talking about less than $1 a day. Bottom line is that tap water is cheaper.
Readily Available - Here in the US there is excellent drinking water almost everywhere you go. We've got running taps in houses, businesses, public places and at the beach. In fact, there is water many places (your house) that bottles will never be sold at. So the idea that it is easier to grab a plastic bottle than grabbing your aluminum water bottle is truly ridiculous especially since there are so many places to fill them up.
Now let's look at what drinking out of plastic bottles have going against them.
- Most bottled water is not regulated (meaning you don't know what you are drinking) while tap water is.
- Manufacturing and shipping a bottle of water wastes 5 times as much as is in the bottle.
- Single use plastic bottles can leach BPA (Biphesenol a) which is a hormone disruptor in humans.
- While many bottles are recycled (actually downcycled), over 3 million bottles end up in landfills each day in California alone, and many more end up out at sea and in our rivers.
I can go on and on, but seriously, do you really need more of a reason. Buy yourself a re-usable water bottle and say goodbye to single use plastic containers forever.
Dave
Save 25% on Eco Oriented Products
For those of you wanting to try out a new eco friendly lightbulb, compostable bags, or any of a number of other eco products, but don't want to break the bank, check out Let's Go Green. While I haven't gotten anything from them myself, they seem to have a pretty decent range of products and if you type the word FRIEND in the coupon box at checkout, you'll receive 25% off your order.
How cool is that? Go green and save a little at the same time.
Dave
Junk Sets Sail For Hawaii
On Sunday my friends Marcus and Joel set sail for Hawaii on their raft made of and named "Junk". The raft came together quite nicely and they set sail (or more accurately were towed out of the harbor) with the full confidence of the crew and crowd of about 300 who came out to wish them well. One of the cool attendees, shown in the video above, was a guy who sailed across the pacific back in the 50s on a homemade raft. Cool stuff.
Dave
365 Days Of Solutions
I get asked every now and again to post a simpler list of solutions to waste problems that i've come across in my little experiment here. So, I finally got around to it. I've set up a new blog at 365 Days Of Solutions. There is a link under the banner called Solutions that will open it up in a new window as well. The idea is that if you are looking for a specific resource, recycling tip, etc, it'll be simply and concisely written up there and you won't have to bother with reading every detail about my trash (although you know how much you want to do that don't you?). It's a bit sparse at the moment as i have just started up but hopefully it'll grow with time and I will back post the things I have been doing so far. Any comments or tips are greatly appreciated.
Best
Dave
Day 154 - Tuesday 6/3/08
Today's Haul:
- 2 packets of sugar - worms
- 2 ozs of receipts - worms
- 2 pieces aluminum foil - recycle
- 6 pieces of cloth tape - garbage
Day 153 - Monday 6/2/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 plasticoated plate - garbage
- 1 coffee cup - recycle
- 1 set of film sides - worms/recycle
- 1 staple from film sides - garbage
- 4 sugar packets - worms
- 1 emergen c packet - garbage
Sunday, June 1, 2008
It's JUNE!!!!!!!!!
Wow, time truly does fly doesn't it? How is it possible that i have been continuing on with this insanity for 5 full months? Definitely doesn't seem like it, but then again when I look back, a lot has happened as well. I dare say that i didn't truly think I'd be at it for this long (I figured my wife or my better judgement would have gotten to me long before this), but what do you know, here it is June and I'm still hoarding. Who knew?
So I was reading this great article on the Puente Hills landfill the other day that was written up in Mays GQ magazine (the must have style magazine for all us hoarders). It's a really good article and I highly recommend it. On the last page I came across this quote that really hit home and was a way that i had never considered looking at the whole waste problem we've created, or more accurately, succinctly stated what I felt but hadn't been able to do as well.
The article is talking about LA's ambitious Zero Waste Plan which is truly visionary in nature.
"The goal is to stop thinking of waste as a problem and to start thinking of it, simply, as the result of a design flaw in manufacturing".
It's really a great way to look at the whole issue because it brings in to play our acceptance of this as a necessary evil within our society when in reality, if packaging design and manufacturing requirements were changed, it wouldn't be, or at least wouldn't be as big a problem as it is.
Think about it, the problem is not ours to fix, it's theirs, and they won't do so until we start to demand it.
Dave
What's in the Basement - June
Garbage:
- 1 plasticoated plate
- 1 ice cream wrapper
- 1 tea bag wrapper w/chewed gum
- 1 tea bag staple
- 1 chips bag
- 1 sticky cover from netflix package
- 2 staples from tea bag
- 1 staple from film sides
- 1 plasticaoted mailer
- 1 tea bag cover
- 1 plasticaoted bag of pasta
- 1 gum packet w/two pieces chewed gum
- 2 chips bags
- 1 sticker from fish place
- 1 metallicy cookie wrapper
- 1 juice concentrate container
- 2 plasticoated show tickets
- 1 plasticaoted ticket jacket
- 1 plasticoated cardboard frozen samosa box
- 1 staple from film sides
- 1 emergen c packet
- 6 pieces of camera tape
- 2 staples
- 2 aluminum coated takout tops
- 1 mac and cheese cheese packet
- 1 aluminum coated container top
- 1 chips bag
- 1 piece of tape from end of tape roll
- 3 pieces of gum in wrappers
- 1 can abrasive cleaner
- 1 candy bar wrapper
- 1 cream container top
- 3 plasticaoted plates
- 2 gum wrappers w/gum
- 1 lollipop stick
- 1 lollipop wrapper
- 1 waxy pizza tray cover
- 3 candy wrappers
- 1 tea bag packaging w 3 pieces chewed gum
- 1 staple from film sides
- 2 pieces chewed gum in wrappers
Recycle:
- 2 plastic gnocchi bags
- 2 pieces scrap paper
- 1 plastic wrapping from cut flowers
- 1 glass beer bottle w/top
- 1 plastic nuts bag
- 1 cardboard top from plastic nuts bag
- 2 styrofoam plates
- 1 plastic mayonaisse jar PETE 1
- 1 pasta box
- 1 set of film sides
- 1 plastic packaging from tofu dogs
- 1 glass sauce bottle w/top
- 1 cardboard pasta box
- 4 vidoetpae wrappers
- 4 videotape plastic shells
- 1 plastic edamame bag
- 2 plastic cups PS 6
- 4 videotape cardboard backings
- 1 plastic soda bottle
- 32 ozs paper/receipts/bills
- 1 phone book
- 1 plastic juice jug
- 1 plastic tofu tub
- 1 cardboard gum packet wrapper
- 1 cardboard cereal box
- 1 plastic bag from cereal box
- 1 cardboard pasta box
- 1 plastic cup PS 6
- 1 plastic plate
- 1 plastic drinking cup with top
- 2 drinking straws
- 1 plastic cookie tray
- 2 glass snapple bottles w/tops
- 1 piece torn cardboard
- 1 plastic frozen blueberries bag
- 1 plastic gnocci container
- 1 cardboard blintz box
- 1 cardboard veggie links box
- 5 pieces scrap paper
- 2 plastic chips bags
- 1 cardboard pasta box
- 2 styrofoam food containers
- 1 plastic fork
- 1 plastic cup
- 3 plastic water bottles w/tops PETE 1
- 2 plastic food containers
- 2 plastic straws
- 2 plastic drink cups PETE 1
- 1 plastic veggie hot dog pack
- 1 milk ring
- 2 plastic straws
- 2 plastic sampler cups
- 2 plastic drinking glasses PS 6
- 1 plastic water bottle PETE 1
- 1 plastic cream container PS 6
- 1 plastic soda bottle w/top
- 1 plastic frozen rasberry bag
- 1 cardboard tape roll
- 1 plastic cup PS6
- 2 beer bottles w/tops
- 1 cardboard beer six pack holder
- 1 plastic dog bone bag
- 1 cardboard top from dog bone bag
- 1 small grape juice bottle Other 7
- 1 plastic container of cucs PETE1
- 2 aluminum takeout containers
- 1 mac and cheese box
- 1 plastic frozen peas bag
- 16 ozs paper from mail/receipts
- 1 plastic packaging cover from car light bulb
- 1 cardboard backing from car light bulb
- 1 cardboard ice cream box
- 1 plastic ice cream wrapper
- 1 aluminum tuna can
- 2 pieces aluminum foil
- 1 plastic video tape wrapper
- 1 coffee cup
- 1 set of film sides
- 1 takeout styrofoam container
- 1 aluminum takeout container
- 3 pieces of tin foil
- 1 cardboard mints box
- 1 plastic tray from mints box
- 1 grape juice container PETE 1
- 1 local paper
- 1 plastic ramen package
- 1 tuna can
- 1 bottle red wine vinegar
- 1 bottle white wine vinegar
E-Waste
- 1 oil covered paper towel from car oil check
- 1 car lightbulb
- 1 broken blue cold pack
- 1 laptop battery
- 2 plasticaoted fish wrappers
- 3 plastic shopping bags
- Aprox 20 paper towels
Day 151 - Saturday 5/31/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 ice cream tub - garbage
- 1 plastic pasta bag - recycle
- 1 glass olive oil jar w/top - recycle
- 2 plastic cups - recycle
- 2 paper napkins - worms
- 1 metalicy cereal bar - garbage
- 4 lollipop sticks (plastic) - garbage
- 4 lollipop covers - garbage
- 1 local newspaper - worms
Day 150 - Friday 5/30/08
Today's Haul:
- 1 cardboard cereal box - recycle
- 1 cereal box bag - recycle
- 1 plastic wrap from bulk toilet paper - recycle
- 1 toilet paper tube - recycle
- 1 cardboard box from toothpaste - recycle
- 1 wrapper from cookie box - garbage
- 1 beer bottle w/top - recycle
- 1 plastic wrap from flowers
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