I Wonder Why

A negative and growing trend in recent years raised a perplexing question for me: Why would anyone travel out of their way to trash or deface public lands?

To be honest, I haven't really found a sufficient answer to that question. However, in pondering it, I did realize that littering, dumping, or tagging on public lands, including parks, wildlife areas, preserves, and hiking trails, destroys more than just the environment of those spaces; it also destroys a shared commitment.

I don't know why people leave litter or graffiti in out-of-the-way public spaces. (It seems like a lot of effort to make when the same things could be done without having to drive anywhere.) No matter the reason though, these actions undermine our sense of connection to the defaced places, the commitment we make to caring for the places, and the societal bond that forms through such commitments. 

Maybe that's the point of leaving that trash or graffiti. If it is, I'm still left with my question: Why?

College Material

Colleges and universities produce a lot of waste, but they also generate many great ideas, so it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a way to address all that waste.

Last year, Brett Chamberlin and Alex Freid, two recent graduates, started the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) to help institutions of higher education better manage their waste. What began as a concern about the trash generated when students move in and out for the school year has spread into a movement aimed at minimizing waste across higher ed. To hear Freid discuss the idea and how it's grown, watch the video below:



PLAN ingrains sustainability and waste reduction into the fabric of institutions. Through its consulting, the organization allows each participating college or university to respond to its respective waste problems. Also, the approach accounts for an institution's entire impact. Finally, PLAN employs communication for outreach and education programs to ensure the campus community takes full advantage of the sustainability initiatives.

Chamberlin and Freid see the big picture. They understand that individual impacts add up, and they realize what this means for the future of a planet already taxed by the human population. For more information about PLAN, click here.

College has expanded the perspective of many individuals, but Chamberlin and Freid demonstrate the potential for students to turn the tables (or couches or whatever).

An Idea Comes to Life

My big idea last week was suggesting to some people that they make a video starring plastic bottles.

As odd as that idea might seem, the Sustainability Club at the University of South Dakota (USD) used it to create a cool video raising awareness about proper recycling habits at the university. Check it out below:

Face Your Waste from Vermy Green on Vimeo.

The video addresses a problem the university has had with trash being thrown in recycling bins. Obviously, trash contaminates recycling programs. Another common problem at USD has been people throwing recyclables in the trash, creating unnecessary waste.

The Sustainability Club came up with the plan of putting eyes and arms on plastic bottles that held signs encouraging people to recycle. As a faculty consultant to the club, my suggestion was to introduce the bottle characters through a video. That's pretty much all the credit I can claim though. The club took the idea and ran with it, bringing to life the bottles as well as a renewed emphasis on recycling at the university.

Without a doubt, plastic bottles as stars in recycling initiatives is an idea whose time has come at USD.

The Year of Living Plasticlessly

Just because plastic lasts just about forever doesn't mean it can't die.

For the sake of environmental and human health, the age of plastic needs to end. With a new year getting started, now is as good of a time as any to start phasing out plastics. To get things going, the Natural Resources Defense Council is providing 10 suggestions for reducing the amount of plastic in our lives.

The stainless steel straws are interesting, and so are the bamboo utensils, but my favorite ideas are giving alternative gifts and adopting a "no-buy" goal.

Living without plastic--now, that's something that should last forever. Let's have forever begin in 2014.

Leave It

Contrary to modern custom, leaves don't fall in autumn to give people something to rake up.

I admire how the "waste" trees shed in the fall returns to nourish the ground. It took humans to come around for those leaves to be considered waste, and now, the nourishment leaves might provide often gets sacked up and thrown away.

This year, the National Wildlife Federation is encouraging people with trees to leave the fallen foliage. NWF provides a list of reasons why this practice is beneficial. Among other benefits, letting leaves lie provides habitat for animals, creates less waste, and, of course, keeps those nutrients in the area. The list also points out that clean-up equipment like leaf blowers pollutes (to say nothing of the awful noise it makes).

When it comes to leaves, their remains are best left to nature. However, if you absolutely have to rake them up, compost them instead of putting them in the trash.

Trim More Than the Tree

Less is more, but "more is more" is heard more, especially when it comes to the holidays.

Two days ago, I blogged about my present-free Christmas list. It's one of the ways I'm trying to minimize my environmental impact during the holidays. However, a lot more goes into this time of year than presents, and that means we have additional opportunities to decrease our consumption of resources.

In this green spirit of the season, The Nature Conservancy is giving people ways to "REthink the Holidays." These include buying local food, additional alternatives to giving presents, reducing waste, and several more. One is about starting green holiday traditions with a young child. I really like these ideas, and they cover just about everything involved in the holidays. Click here to see the full range of suggestions.

Of course, if you do end up with stuff, it's important to know how to deal with it. For that, the Natural Resources Defense Council has tips on how to reuse and recycle.

Cutting back may be the best gift we'll ever give to the planet.

Save the Date

As Captain Barbossa would say, "They're more like guidelines."

It turns out that the "best by" dates on food are no less arbitrary than the pirate code in a Disney film. Arbitrary is good for a laugh on the silver screen but bad for the amount of food waste we produce. As the Natural Resource Defense Council points out on its Switchboard blog, the expiration dates on food aren't governed by any regulation, so they are relatively meaningless.

The problem is that people are throwing away good food because those dates tell them it has expired. As a result, food is wasted, and so is the energy used to produce it. In addition, unless the food waste is composted, it becomes part of our trash.

Standards are needed to preserve the usefulness of expiration dates, and until we have that, saving good food comes down to our own judgment.

Duck, Duck, Plastic

The writers of all those messages in bottles were on to something: If you want to find connections, the ocean is the place.

However,  today's connections are being established through plastics, not bottle messages, and it's not a love story in the making. The following video helps explain how plastics accumulate in the ocean and what some of the consequences of this might be:



Although the video makes some great points, especially those concerning how our actions are interrelated, I disagree with one point: the idea that the only option for dealing with this problem is to make plastics that break down. This may be a good option, but it isn't the only option. A stronger solution would be to cut back on our consumption, decreasing the need for plastics.

I think understanding how we are connected to the plastic problem is a step in the right direction. The video helps with that. Another tool is offered by Adrift.org, which uses a virtual rubber ducky to give people a sense of how their plastics can spread in the ocean. Simply place the duck in an ocean somewhere and watch as the plastic it represents spreads. Click here to check it out.

The masses of plastics floating in our oceans are sending us a message: The accumulations start with a single purchase. It's time we get that message.

Up, Up, and Away

It is easy to think of children when we think of balloons, but after reading the following piece of good news, we may only ever again think of one child.

Cameron Koporc, a Georgia nine-year-old who has already amassed quite an environmental résumé, has created a petition aimed at protecting endangered sea turtles by banning mass-balloon releases in her home state. To read the full news article click here. If you'd like to sign on to Cameron's campaign, go here.

The story was uplifting, and I was honestly blown away by how much this girl has already done. I have no doubt she'll accomplish her goal of becoming a marine biologist. She's also a great example of the impact individuals can have when they decide to make something happen.

I applaud and thank Cameron for helping make dreams of a better tomorrow, not the balloons of today, take flight.

Deep Impacts

Trash may leave our homes, but that doesn't mean it goes away.

A video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute gives new insight into the far reach of human actions on the environment by revealing the trash on the ocean floor. Watch it below:



Chances are pretty good that something each of us once bought and owned now lies at the bottom of the ocean (or floats on the surface). That will be part of our legacy.

Instead of going, going, gone, our trash just keeps going.

A Truly Smart Phone

My cell phone is eight years old. In other words, it's from a time before smartphones were all the rage.

I don't like to buy a lot of stuff, and despite all the cool gadgets on smartphones, I have thought the smartest thing to do was stick with my old phone. After all, I really didn't need what a smartphone could give me. In addition, smartphones seem to be another piece of technology that requires, either through software or hardware updates, constant replacement.

Admittedly, smartphones do provide some benefits and can actually eliminate the need for other devices, so if they could be made to last with easy fixing and updating, they might become truly smart options.

FairPhone is a new idea that is taking steps in the right direction. Watch the video below:

Fairphone: Buy a phone, start a movement from Fairphone on Vimeo.

I like that FairPhone is working to put consumers back in control of their stuff. The company is also addressing concerns about resource use, pollution, fair trade, and the entire life of a product. Importantly, the phones are made to be opened up and fixed. For instance, an owner can easily replace the battery when it dies. For more information, visit the company's Web site.

It would be great if the company applied its approach to other devices (like computers) as well.

Hopefully, FairPhone is successful. Maybe it'll be the option I turn to when it's finally time to replace my current phone.

Throwing a Line

Scientists have estimated that in the not-so-distant future, technology will exist that allows us to talk to dolphins, but it appears as though dolphins already understand us.

The video below shows a dolphin seemingly asking divers for help in untangling from a fishing line:

What is most remarkable is how the dolphin appears to know and trust that the divers can help it. First, it approaches them, and then, it positions itself to make removal of the line easier for the diver.

This example of the connection between people and other species may preview the type of interaction that we will have in the future. Interestingly, we are the ones having to develop the technology to understand dolphins while they seem to know us pretty well.

What a Waste

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing global problem because of the increasing prevalence of electronic devices and the speed at which new electronics are produced and consumed.

However, we tend not to see the effects of e-waste because, like much of our trash, it is shipped away from us. Terra Blight, a new documentary hopes to shed light on the human and environmental impacts of electronics. Check out the trailer below:



This makes me very happy I decided to improve my computer rather than get a new one. It also makes me thankful for Web sites that help people fix their devices.

You can watch Terra Blight on YouTube or iTunes.

App Reporting

One of the most disheartening experiences I have when I'm out in nature is finding a place where people have dumped their trash.

The dump sites ruin the land, break my connection with nature, and leave me feeling powerless. After all, the offenders get away, and the number of dump sites is increasing.

However, technology might be providing a way to fight back. As TreeHugger reports, a new smart phone app allows people to report illegal dump sites. If tools like this are used successfully, I think they could help cut down on dumping by providing information to law enforcement and letting dumpers know they are being watched.

I also think the app can be a tool that empowers us to "build our environment," which is an idea I blogged about last week. For those of us who enjoy the outdoors, the environment is our community, and it would be great to take it back from those who are ruining it with their trash.

The Skinny on Lunch

For the last three months, I have been making and eating packed lunches without the help of plastic sandwich bags.

In January, I started using reusable sandwich bags from LunchSkins. The bags are made from food-safe fabric that contains no lead or BPA (Bisphenol A). They can be washed in the dishwasher and are good for holding many kinds of food in addition to sandwiches. Also, they are made in the United States.

I really like them, especially when I think about all the plastic I'm not using.

One small issue with the bags is that they do not offer the same kind of airtight seal provided by a plastic bag. As a result, the very top part of the sandwich bread tends to dry out a little after a few hours in the LunchSkin. That's a price I'm willing to pay for chemical-free food and using less plastic.

For more information about LunchSkins, click here.

So That's What it's Called

I've blogged about reducing waste by considering the packaging and the life of a product a couple of times, including here. It turns out that someone else has given such an approach to shopping a name: precycling.

It would be great if "precycle" became a word we hear even more frequently than recycle. Recycling is a good idea, but not having things to recycle means less energy is used in producing and cleaning up products. For some ideas about how to start precycling, click on this article from Earth911.

Ideas You Shouldn't Throw Away

In the past, I've blogged about the need to reduce trash and also shared one of the ways I remind myself that trash starts with a purchase. Today, I wanted to share someone else's ideas for dealing with trash.

Terri Bennett recently gave her top seven ways to be less trashy. I like that the ideas address all three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle. In particular, I find the suggestions for reusing electronics and recycling clothing of great use. Also, I enjoy seeing that her seventh suggestion echoes my call to think about the trash that might result from buying something.

If you like Bennett's suggestions about trash, be sure to check out the rest of her Do Your Part Web site.

Where the Grickle Grass Grows

Today is Valentine's Day of course, but it is also the 40th anniversary of CBS's airing of The Lorax, a television special based on the book by Dr. Seuss.

Although I wasn't around for the initial airing, I remember watching a taped version of the show when I was a kid. Because of the impression it made on me with its messages about pollution and greed, I thought I should mark the anniversary with a post about it.

I think many of our ways of interacting with the environment have improved since 1972, and I hope that trend continues.

Plastic: Time to Wrap it Up

Besides doing away with my need for gasoline, cutting down on the use of plastic is one of my biggest environmental goals. The problem is that plastic comes with so many things we use all the time.

It definitely takes a conscious effort to avoid plastic. For example, when I think I want to buy something, I ask myself if it or its packaging contains plastic. If the answer is yes, I often decide against buying it or choose to look for alternatives.

Sometimes, my attempts to keep plastic at a distance need a little help though. I found some in this article about five packaged foods you never need to buy again. It contains information about making things like soup, soup stock, and, my personal favorite, cereal.

Now, I can take my anti-plastic life to the next level.

A New Voice for the Trees

Last month, when I found out that a new movie version of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax was in the works, I wondered and worried how the story's original messages of consuming less and preserving nature would line up with the film industry's typical promotional campaign strategies, which tend to rely heavily on consumption (think Happy Meal toys).

It turns out that thanks to a fourth-grade class in Massachusetts, my worries weren't totally necessary. Initially, the film's distributor, Universal Pictures, developed a Web site that contained no information about what people can do to help the environment. When the children discovered this, they petitioned the studio to correct the problem. As this story shows, they were successful.

That's totally awesome. I tip my hat to the children. Dr. Seuss and the Lorax would be proud. Now, we'll have to see how many thneeds are produced in support of the film's marketing campaign.