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A reader named Marylin sent this months Site-o-the month in, a site that she runs for kids that teaches them about recycling and art. It's really cool and I highly suggest checking it out. The idea for the site revolves around using found objects to create art. Its got lots of tips on projects to make and has a cool section called the Trash Matcher where kids can find art projects that use things that they may have. It's really cool.
Garbage:
I've always been a big fan of Pixar pictures and as I wrote this past summer, liked WallE for the reasons you might expect. An animated movie from one of the best studios going, about a trash machine that is cleaning up the planet after humans have trashed it due to unchecked wasteful practices. Sign me up.
So I was quite dismayed when I visited a friend down the street the other day and found what had come in their Los Angeles Times that day. A 10 oz, glossy printed, beautifully bound, 12" x 9 1/2" booklet on the movie. You see here in Los Angeles, Oscar fever is already starting and apparently the folks at Pixar wanted all of the voting members of the Academy to think of WallE. And what better way than to send them to all 815,723 subscribers (I'm guessing here but if the neighbors and several other non voting, non industry folks got them, I'm assuming a lot more did).
What an incredible waste. A waste of resources (paper, ink, time) and a waste of energy (to print them and then to deliver the extra weight). But it doesn't stop there.
WallE was all about how we as a planet need to shape up and start wasting less, start living a little cleaner, dare I say, more sustainably. So I opened it up hoping to find tips on how to waste less, conserve more, recycle, repurpose, you name it. Instead I found quotes from the top film critics on how great the movie was, and truly beautiful images from the film itself. The only thing remotely environmental was on the bottom left corner of the back cover of the entire thing.
This holiday season, instead of going out and buying stuff, why not give a lesson or two. Music lessons, art lessons, gardening lessons, pottery lessons, you name it. If you surf your local craiglist, paper or even ask at the library, you can find knowledgeable folks who can teach just about anything. Find out what your loved one has always wanted to do, and give them the gift of knowledge! No packaging, no standing in line, and your pumping money back into your local economy. Sure i want a turnip twadler, but compared to learning how to play the bagpipes (honey, are you reading this?) does it compare? I think not.
Today's Haul:
Today's Haul:
I'm the first to say that the holidays shouldn't be defined by gift giving, but there is a reality that can't be avoided. Many of us enjoy getting and receiving gifts this time of year, partly for nostalgic reasons and partly because it's fun to see what someone got you. The big problem isn't really in the receiving a gift column, but moreso in the receiving 20 gifts column. So how about changing things up a bit.
Technically speaking oil menorahs are supposed to use pure olive oil, but it seems like in today's world, why not re-use something you've already got. It works in cars, why not in your menorah? Besides, the turkey smell the oil gives off will make the room smell real nice.
Todays Haul:
A reader named Craig sent this in a few weeks ago. Seems like a little overkill for software that could probably be downloaded no?
Todays Haul:
A lot of people get Christmas trees this time of year and there is a fair amount of debate about fake, real, live, you name it. Your best bet on the enviro front is to plant one and use it year after year. If that's not an option, how about renting one? Don't believe you can? Check out this piece from Terrapass all about Christmas tree options including rental opportunites in the left coast.
Dave
I wrote this up for Care2 and thought some of you may find it of interest.
I just finished tallying the numbers for December and things have grown but only slightly. According to my scale, I have added no new weight on the garbage front which holds at 32 pounds. Of course this isn't true as the scale is inaccurate at best (bit hopefully consistently so) and only goes by .5 pound increments. My hope then is that i created less than a half pound of trash last month!
On other fronts, paper held at 55 pounds (go worms!), bottles, boxes and misc recycling were slightly up, and the ewaste was as well.
All in all, not too bad.
I do have to confess though, the fact that I only need to do this one more time does make me happy. I love what i have learned from all of this, but, truth be told, the record keeping is a tad tedious. There, I said it, it's out.
Back to the basement.
dave
As some of you may know I have been a guest on a local radio station here in LA at the beginning of every month since January. To cap it off (yes they are not coming back for one last stop in January) they invited me in studio this AM for some fun. Its a pretty funny interview and make sure to check out the farewell song at the end.
"Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning." - George Carlin
Let's face it, living sustainably is one thing but giving up your christmas lights is something entirely different. Of course the best thing to do is simply not use christmas lights in the first place, but for many, it's just not the same without them. Luckily, LEDs have come a long way and are here to save the day. (You can read a neat explanation here).
Forever Bright, a really cool (pun intended) LED company now sells L.E.D. christmas lights everywhere from Costco to your local hardware store and they are great. They last for 200,000 hours, contain no glass (no broken bulbs anymore), use only 2-4 watts (compared with 43 or so for similar incandescent), and give off almost no heat (compared with the 94% of the energy in the old kind that were given off as heat - christmas morning fire anyone?).
So let's do a quick break down here. Assuming that you are one of those folks who needs to be able to see your house from the moon around this time of year (I kid, some of them are actually quite nice) and you use 20 - 100 bulb strings, let's look at some numbers.
So between now and Christmas, I'm going to try to come up with some simple tip that will help lighten your impact this holiday season. For anyone who regularly reads this blog, you'll know that i may not do that, but my heart is in the right place right? We'll see. Here goes.
Holiday Tip #1: The Yearly Letter
Wow. Not sure what else I can say. 11 months down and 1 to go. Its pretty wild to have actually come this far and look back at this whole thing. Of course, as Yogi Berra said (or was it Yogi Bear) "it ain't over till it's over".
Here's a list of waste-lite holiday tips. I'll be adding to it daily until the end of the month or I run out of ideas (whichever comes first). Feel free to add your own thoughts as well.
Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, Black Friday/National Buy Nothing Day has come and gone, and sadly, I missed every opportunity I had to talk about any of it. I had planned to write something up about Thanksgiving on the day, but got kind of caught up in friends, kids and stuff and figured I'd write up something the following day. The next day, I woke up and found that our dog was in serious dire straights. I'll spare you the details but suffice it to say it was a really ugly day spent making some impossible decisions and T-giving and Black Friday were the last things on my mind (although, as the title suggests, it was a darker day than I had expected). Thankfully our beloved Biscuit is home snoring in the other room, but sadly, I think that we may have simply bought her some more time and are nearing her eventual demise shortly.
Today's Haul:
