Letting it Rot: Composting in a Techno Century

Here is an easy green exercise that handles several core greenie values all at once: compost your kitchen scraps.

Now before you dust off that "would-but" and laugh, let me remind you what a little simple composting does for one's green-foot-print.

First, it takes stuff out of the landfill. Some 8-10% of most city trash is easily compostable vegetable matter (setting aside woody things like branches and stuff). Next, it returns nutrients to the soil instead of putting it out of reach of plants and bugs, which in turn can reduce your own need for chemical and petroleum-based fertilizer. And finally, as you become more aware of the compostable food you waste -- and we all do -- it is easier to get motivated to be a little more careful in one's consumption.

What is composting? In a nutshell, vegetable matter like grass clippings and carrot peelings and coffee grounds are dumped in a special container and they rot. As they rot they get hot; the heat kills germs and helps the stuff rot more. Eventually all that rot decomposes into finished compost -- something you can pay extra for at the garden store in 1.5 cubic foot bags!

There are three basic methods to compost: (1) ground contact (2) sealed and (3) worm bin. We can talk more about worms another time, which leaves only the first two as Easy Green options.

In ground composting, one piles up the compostibles, keeps the pile moist, and it rots. Insects, worms and the like help with the decomposition. Microbes in the soil do likewise. After awhile you have good clean organic fertilizer.

In the old fashioned version this was done in open piles. There are potential health and animal issues though, so these days it is possible to buy prefab plastic bins, about the size of a trash can, open to the earth, in which to compost. Simplicity: Small, neat. Little or no smell, if you keep it mixed. We fill and empty about 1 1/2 - 2 such bins each year, depending on how often I mow the lawn.

Sealed composters, usually some sort of tumbler, range in size and complexity. A simple one is about half the size of the ground-contact composter and can be "rolled" in place. Tumblers often require some kind of microbes to get the process jump started, and do not, usually, have help from bugs and worms. Still, they seem to do a fine job, and can even be used on an apartment patio or car port without the need for ground contact. (Above, right, in neglected corner of the yard is our ground-contact composter and a handy "mixing rod.")

Add a bucket for daily scraps in the kitchen -- we use a restaurant container that does not hold smells available at Smart & Final, among other places. (Manufactured by Cambro, intended for salad bars and the like.) Other compost buckets can include elements to reduce smells, but in my experience if one can smell a compost bucket it needs to be emptied.

So, every day or two, the compost bucket goes into the bin; leaves and grass clippings go into the bin, along with some shredded newspaper and a little water. Every week or two a quick stir, et voila, reduced waste stream and excellent organic fertilizer. The tumbler-style even eliminate the need even for additional stirring!


Here (below, left) is a photo of about 10 gallons of compost, about one summer's worth of grass clippings and food prep scraps for us. It looks like a rich, dark, clean planting mix -- because that is exactly what it is!


Local county governments have tons of info. Basic composters like the one pictured here are available at numerous places online, and even at local Orchard Supply Hardware store and some garden supply centers.

The most interesting thing is that composting gets you instant green-cred among even die-hard treehuggers, many of whom are stuck on their own "would-buts" when it comes to this easy activity. The look of horror and scrambling for excuses when one asks, ever-so-casually "oh, do you compost?" is priceless . . . so long as too many people don't figure out that it is both an easy and effective way to reduce your trash and fertilizer bill.

The Story of Stuff (Yours and Mine)

Now that the holiday gift giving frenzy is over, and resolution making time is upon us, it would be a good time to try to be more mindful of the amount of pure STUFF we accumulate, eco-stuff and otherwise.


When you have 15 minutes or so (now would be a good time!) click-on over to The Story of Stuff, a really neat, engaging little animation / movie that at the very least will getcha thinking about it all.

Water Without Poison: Avoiding Plastic-Bottled Water

Clean, cold water. It's good stuff -- unless you pollute it or the greater environment by drinking it from a plastic bottle!

In a previous post, it was noted that plastic reusable coffee cups were not preferred over metal. (See below for details of why.) So it is a bit ironic that folks who drink bottled water instead of tap water or soda for health reasons often do so by drinking water sold in little plastic bottles.

As with most of our disposable, chemicalized culture there is a green alternative available: The reusable, stainless steel water bottle.

But first, a reminder of why plastic is bad . . . .

Plastics = Poison?

The question over plastic products poisoning packaged food and water is one reason to avoid plastic water bottles. Although various mechanisms have been suggested for plastic byproducts leaching into bottled water (leaving bottles in hot cars, re-using plastic bottles), Snopes.com purports to have debunked these.

Other sources of plastic-based poison remain; see for example the very even-handed article at the National Geographic "Green Guide" on the most recent findings of reproductive harm from plastics. As the article notes, 100% of plastics-industry studies find no chemical leaching, and 100% of government funded studies find harmful chemicals. Hmmmm.

Plastics = Oil

Plastic bottles, of course, are made from oil -- and so come with the pollution and carbon overhead of all petroleum products. Although a fraction of Plastic bottles are recycled, for every bottle that is reused there said to be the equivalent of 70 bottles of waste generated in the process. In addition, manufacturing plastics requires energy for each bottle; less energy per bottle than a steel one, for example, but not if the steel bottle is reused for its likely long lifetime.

Plastics = Trash

Because the apparent dollar cost of a plastic bottle is low, they are considered one use and disposable. Most plastic bottles end up in landfills, or worse, as non-degradable litter on the landscape or in our waterways. Again, the lifetime of a steel or even glass bottle is many times higher, and thus the embodied energy and pollution is many times lower, than using an equivalent number of plastic containers.

Bottled Water = Transported Water

By now most people are aware that bottled water is not appreciably different than ordinary tap water, at least if you live in a modern American city. (Individual locations and buildings may have specific local ground water or delivery system issues, or unwanted additives.)

For the most part, however, bottled water is not local water; bottled water gets part of its cache by coming from far off exotic locals (Fiji Water, for example, or Perrier, or even simple Arrowhead water). The folks at http://www.thebottledwaterstore.com/ boast that they are "[y]our source for unique high-quality bottled water products from around the world." And that means its value as a "green" commodity is further degraded by the addition of the carbon and oil use from its long distance ride to the market shelf.

(In an interesting study, the National Resources Defense Council has found that 82% of people drink bottled water due to concerns about pollution, as an alternative to other beverages, or both. Only 7% of folks who drink the stuff drink bottled water for the taste, according to the NRDC. Taste, according to the The Bottled Water Store, is a primary reason to drink it -- which leaves some 93% of us able to avoid one-use, transported bottled water. )

Clean Alternatives

More than a few companies sell stainless steel, reusable water bottles, some with sports tops some without. We have five "Klean Kanteens" available from many suppliers online. Ours are not insulated, so are light and small, just like a plastic bottle. We use them only for water, so washing is required from time to time, but not in the same way as if there were three day old fermented juice in them. (We have a two-year-old -- can you tell?)

Many other suppliers also sell other versions. They key is stainless steel over plastic, or aluminum.

Wacky Idea

The idea of reusable water bottles may seem a little weird if you are not a bottled-water fan already. If you drink a bottle of water once in blue moon because you are thirsty and there is nothing else handy at the picnic, then a reusable, non-plastic water bottle may not make sense to you.

But if you are one of those folks that buys water by the case, who always has a water bottle handy to sip at in order to stay well hydrated or as an alternative to soda or alcohol -- then you will find a reusable bottle is a small step indeed.

Coffee Tastes Better Green

I like coffee. I like it a lot. For years I have struggled with a Starbucks habit; my youngest was practically raised by baristas during my year off work as a stay-at-home dad, and by the age of one she knew the Starbucks logo well enough to exclaim with glee when we passed one. ( A "vente" cup of hot water makes a superb bottle warmer, by the way. See my old sbxfairtrade blog for handy hints if you are a stay at home dad.)

Thankfully, however, I have managed to ratchet my Starbucks habit way down over the past year. Oh I still drink coffee everyday, but thanks to a serendipitous gift of a reusable mug last year, my growing green sentiment, and the realization of the budgetary effects of store-brewed coffee, I only occasionally indulge in a stop at the "coffee store."

Green Issues, Black Coffee

Coffee is an interesting beverage in many eco-respects, as it embodies several different green issues. Correcting even a few of the bad things about the way you get your caffeine fix can make a big difference.

The issues range from the use of non-recyclable paper cups and plastic lids, to where and how the coffee is grown; from your choice of brewing method to how you keep the java hot. Each separately can be a significant factor in the green-color of your coffee's history. But let's start with one easy one: the kind of cup you use.

Buy the Cup

I was given a gift of a Starbucks brand 16 ounce reusable travel cup last year for a holiday gift. I have used it every day, sometimes several times a day, ever since then.

Our friends over at the Bring Your Own Blog have already made the paper-cup point succinctly.

Which is Greener: Recycled Paper or Reusable?

There are several elements that must be considered to demonstrate that a reusable cup is better than a one-time use cup; most analysis take into consideration only one part of the multifaceted problem.

First is the embodied energy used in manufacturing the cup. A reusable cup will have more energy in its initial manufacture, and has to be washed, but over time it will save energy each over a similar number of paper or foam cups. One major factor is how the cup is washed: I rinse mine daily in warm tap water with a little soap; most studies assume the use of an energy hog dishwasher, albeit a relatively efficient energy hog as those things go.

On this basis, a reusable cup is relatively more energy efficient, at least if it is used repeatedly as intended.

Next is the issue of the resources used to create the cup. Plastic and foams come from oil. In generally, the fewer products made from oil, the better; whether you want to reduce the impact of oil drilling or think gas prices should be lower, less oil for cups is desirable. Paper cups, of course, come from trees, and in some cases a small percentage of post consumer recycled paper.

Then there is the disposal issue. Although paper cups may degrade over time, they take up landfill space in the meantime. And since many paper cups are, in fact, plastic coated, that degradation is not total, or quick. Neither plastic nor foam cups degrade in any reasonable amount of time (hundreds of years even in a landfill), and many spend time drifting around the landscape or floating around the ocean, where they kill wildlife.

Using an average of one disposable cup per day adds in the range of 25 lbs of solid waste to the landfill stream, and creates a larger pool of trash which can becomes "feral" and degrades the environment directly. (See, e.g., Report of the Green Restaurant Association and Report of the Starbucks Coffee Company / Alliance for Environmental Innovation Joint Task Force, p. 8-9.)

Finally, plastic and plastic coated food products have recently been implicated in all sorts of health problems, including reproductive defects in children born to women exposed to certain kinds of plastics. These plastics leach byproducts into our food, and into the environment for as long as they are around.

The Whole Story

Looking at the whole story, then, it is easy to see that the reusable to-go cup is a significant ecological improvement over one-use paper or plastic cups.

Reusable to-go cups also have a psychological advantage, too, by stepping away from the disposable mindset.

Which Reusable Cup?

So far the best reusable cup appears to be stainless steel. This metal is well known to be inert and resistant to just about anything you put in it. It washes up quick and easy by hand, and works equally well with hot and cold drinks. Many coffee outlets sell metal ones . . . to take it one step further, one can skip plastic water bottles too: One supplier of disposable cup and bottle replacements is the KleanKanteen company.

Plastic reusables are, at least, reusable; but since the use of plastic in food products is increasingly suspect, as noted above, a plastic mug cannot be recommended. Ceramic mugs have some of the lowest embodied energy, according to research studies, but for travel a steel mug is extremely durable and about the cleanest choice.

Paper, whether made from all virgin wood or some small percentage "post-consumer recycled content" still contains a lot of new tree material, and requires a reasonable amount of water and energy to make into each new cup, even with recycled content.

My stainless steel travel mug took a lot of energy to make, more than a few paper cups worth, certainly. But it's energy cost is spread out over hundreds of cups of coffee and years of use. And there is an additional benefit: I never throw it away (at least until it finally wears out), so it does not add to a landfill or pollute the local environment they way disposables do.

And yes, that cardboard cup almost certainly gets buried in a landfill somewhere. Even if you rinse the cup and toss it in your recycle bin, more likely than not this is not helping: Most paper products used for food are not recycled. Greasy pizza boxes and used paper cups are routinely plucked from the paper recycling by most companies and disposed of as simple landfill garbage.

Although plastic food containers can sometimes be recycled, and most plastic cups have a recycling number on the bottom, many many jurisdictions do not accept them, and few recycle the kind of foam from which foam cups are made.

Moreover, plastic cups get into the environment by accident too (or deliberate littering) and do not decompose at all. Instead they wash into storm drains, helping to clog them, and as often as not wash right out to sea.

It hardly seems like a big deal, but there is, after all, a lot riding on the cup from which you drink your coffee. And somehow that morning cup 'o joe just tastes better green.

Skip the Plastic! Let's Talk Reusable Cloth Bags . . .

It's a funny thing about Americans. We expect free paper or plastic bags to carry home whatever we buy at a store. And the thing is, both kinds of bags are a terrible waste of resources. So here's an Easy Green Thing to Do: Bring Your Own Cloth (or string) Bags.

Sounds simple minded, but take a look at the counter in the right-hand column. According to the folks at www.reusablebags.com, that is the number of plastic bags that have been used, and mostly tossed into the landfill or allowed to destroy marine environments, so far this year.

That's a lot. And the number is getting bigger. If you have 6-8 plastic bags from grocery shopping today, and another of two or three from other stores, and one for the thingmabobber from the hardware store and and and -- well it adds up!

Three reasons to bring your own reusable cloth bags:

1. Plastic bags are mostly made from oil. The folks at MidAmerica Energy explain this in detail here or by clicking their picture, above. The fewer plastic bags we use the less we need oil from the Middle East, the less fossil fuel pollution we create, and the less energy we use manufacturing and transporting the darn things in the first place.

2. Some plastic shopping bags can be recycled. Most are not. Less than 10% of plastic bags are currently recycled. Some city trash collections, even though they accepted numbered plastics, do not do plastic shopping bags.

3. Plastic ends up in the landfill, and does not decompose (paper can be recycled and does decompose. Cloth can be reused thousands of times). It is also a notorious killer of marine animals, being washed down the storm drains and into the oceans.

Dealing With The Would-Buts

I would use cloth bags, but:

. . . I don't have any reusable bags. Many stores sell them cheaply now. An early pioneer was Trader Joe's, which has sold its (now larger and stronger) cloth shopping bags for many years. I am partial to the canvas bags, but there are many alternatives available at TJ's. We recently purchased a $4.99 insulated bag from TJ that handles all the cold stuff quite well if we have an extra stop on the way home. Ikea now sells it's store bags and is phasing out plastic; many reusables with cool art can be found at CafePress.com, including www.cafepress.com/walkstuff; and of course our good friends at www.reusablebags.com/ . For more ideas have a peak at the Bring Your Own blog.

. . . I don't want to buy $30 worth of bags. Don't. Buy one at a time. Each trip to the store, get one more new cloth bag. Soon you will have plenty of bags. NOTE: You will need fewer cloth bags than either paper or plastic, if you can carry them. Each bag is stronger and can hold more than either paper or trash-plastic. If you want lighter bags to carry, bring more bags.

. . . I can never remember to bring them. Simple: Leave a nest of 4 or 5 bags in the trunk of your car, or the bike trailer you use for groceries. Put them all inside of one and roll 'em up. When you empty the bags in the house after shopping, put them *right* back in the car. Then they are always handy.

Bringing shopping bags has gotten to be so easy, that we take our TJ bags -- and reusable bags we have received elsewhere -- in to shop just about everywhere now. It may just be *one* little plastic bag -- but take a look at that counter over there, spinning by, one little bag (your little bag!) at time.

By the by, the cloth-bag habit is a good one to start now. Several cities have banned plastic shopping bags outright, and many more are looking at the idea seriously.

A word of warning about reusable bags, though: Be sure to save some for shopping. They are so handy, and so easy to grab, that they get used for all sorts of transporting jobs -- and you can and that all your shopping bags are otherwise engaged!

How to Get Off Your "Would But" and Start Doing Something

I Would But . . .

You know you should do it (whatever green thing “it” is) and you would but, well this thing and that thing and the other thing really make it impossible for you to do right now.

Welcome to Stage One Denial.

I’ve been there; every time I stop doing some green thing for awhile, I go through it again to get started. Breaking through Stage One Denial -- the "would-buts" -- is the hardest part of doing the green thing, at least sometimes.

An Example: Bike to Work Day, Just Today.

Take, for example, the green goal of riding a bike to work. Last summer I rode nearly every day to work. It was hot, but bearable. I got to wear summer clothes to work (shorts, polo shirt) so it was a fairly comfortable bike drive.

But the fact that I had to carry a laptop to work every day changed the ride. I was nervous carrying it unpadded in a backpack. (The computer case I had weighed a great deal, so I did not want to carry it on the bike.) And the backpack made me really hot. Although I rode most days in the summer anyway, the laptop-in-the-backpack became my “would-but” for the fall semester.

In the fall semester, without a way to carry my laptop conveniently, I rode a car to work every day. I would have driven my bike, but carrying the laptop was a problem. See how this works?

Over Christmas I received a really cool Jandd pannier bag. Folds up to look like a canvas briefcase, has a padded holder for a laptop, and a built in waterproof cover(!)

This week, my laptop and I drove a bike to work every day.

How about you?

What’s your bike-riding “would-but?”

For most of us it is one of these top ten:

1. “I don’t have a bike.”
2. “I have a bike, but I haven’t ridden it in years.”
3. “I’m scared of the cars.”
4. “I have to work in dress clothes, like a suit or high heels.”
5. “I work too far away.”
6. “I have to carry stuff to work.”
7. “I have kids to pick up.”
8. “The weather is too severe.”
9. “There is nowhere to park a bike when I get there.”
10. “I have bad knees/back/balance and can’t ride.”

I have used at least seven, maybe seven and a half of these personally.

We’ll deal with these Top Ten Would-But excuses in future posts. For the moment it is enough to recognize a "would but" excuse for what it is – a temporary obstacle to be overcome. And once overcome, most of these would-buts seem terribly insubstantial.

In general, though, the top suggestions for more bike driving are to get a good used cruiser bike if you don’t own one (try www.freecycle.org for a potential free bike!), or clean yours off and get it out of the garage! Drive your bike on weekends from time to time to get back in the groove; find a “Road Cycling” course online to help you understand and deal with the driving a bike instead of a car for transportation -- versus riding a bike for fun only.

_____________________

COMING SOON: Puncturing the First Five "Would But" Excuses . . . .

IDEA: Green Your Brain!

Going green is all the rage, but many still see the process as all sacrifice and conservation -- when nothing could be further from the truth.

What is wanted is a simple but complete change of mindset that allows one to make green choices without particular sacrifice, and as second nature.

The culture of waste and despoliation of the planet has been in place a long time, however, and such a fundamental change can be frightening, even daunting.

Even the mental change to so-called "conservation" can be daunting, not the least because it carries images of sacrifice and deprivation. It (wrongly) foreshadows the end of America as the land of endless everything.

Worse, mere conservation is, in fact, an inadequate response to a growing population made up of folks who each also want a growing piece of the pie.

Again, what is needed is a change of mind, as much as a change of habit.

One Example

Consider: At my house, according to the electric company, we've managed to conserve 90% (yes, ninety percent) on our electric bill last year. Even with the hottest summer on record this year and the AC running 24/7, we are on track this year to "save" 50% of the electricity we would have used in the past.

But we've made NO sacrifices. Really.

We have made a green choice that was so painless, and seems like such a no-brainer from our changed mindset, that we don't understand why most homeowners, builders and city governments haven't made the choice too.

Remember: No sacrifices.

We have only one compact fluorescent light bulb on in the house, have four TVs, five computers, and a microwave, central air and heat that runs non-stop. We have kids who leave the lights on. Our change costs us only about $40 per month, and has reduced our electric bill by 90 percent.

We have solar cells.

We didn't want the approximately 70% coal-fired electricity that our local utility offers. It didn't make sense when there was an affordable option.

Forty bucks a month -- with price rises, ever, and no coal.

And because right now we can afford to do so, we splurged and pay a tiny premium to the electric utility for wind and small hydro for our remaining electricity.

No Pain, All Gain

Although Pasadena gets nearly 70% of its electricity from coal, ours is 100% renewable, clean and green. No sacrifice. No actual conservation. No big deal.

And it is no big deal precisely because we have come about half-way 'round to changing our mindset.

Awareness of one's impact; a commitment to minimizing the impact; and, in these early decades of serious environmental change, a commitment to push past "business as usual" mindsets to get the green thing, or do the green thing wherever possible.

Green. It's all in your head, really.

Five Percenters, Changing the World

The premise of this blog is that if one makes a few, easy green changes and choices, the few easy things will add up to a whole lot more than the parts.

Turns out, at least a few folks have invented a term for it, calling it the "Five Percent" approach.

Blogger Noreen's Five Percent (which I stumbled across four or five links down into a read of some favorite eco-blogs) uses this as her premise:

Imagine if every single person on the planet invested 5% of their
energy in working toward a better self and a better world. I decided to try it,
since it's something I can do not just once, but every single day. These are the
stories of the little efforts I'm making while living my ordinary life. I'd love
to meet you along the way!

She's been offline since August, but her blog has some great back-posts, and a host of neat "impact" links, which are worth a look-see.

Another way to look at the 5% is what I call the "stone soup" effect. If you don't know the story of Stone Soup, you can read it here. But in a nutshell, but doing things one little bit at a time, moving reluctant change slowly and stepwise, it is possible to create something larger and more magnificent than anyone thought possible.

Easy Green is a reference of some of the things one person can do to do one's own 5%.

QUICK GREEN: Change Your City!

It turns out, maybe the easiest way to be green is to change your city's culture so that the city government helps you do it.

At the city level, it is shockingly easy to have a voice, and an impact. It may not seem that way to someone not currently involved in local city politics or policies, but that is usually a misimpression.

One of the easiest methods is to find a city web page and discover who is in charge of issues that are important to you, and email away. In addition to department heads, Mayors, City Council members, and City Managers should all be on your one-person email campaign list.

Some things to consider emailing about:

1. Walkable, livable cities (requires special attention at the Planning and Transportation departments for creating a human scale environment);

2. Green building requirements, such as LEED certification or mandatory solar, for new construction;

3. Municipal Utility policies: Renewables mix, solar incentives, more.

4. City operational concerns, ranging from efficient use of natural resources to reducing emissions from city equipment like buses or skiploaders.

In the City of Pasadena, there are also a number of commissions -- staffed by citizen volunteers, not politicians -- to which you can take your ideas and concerns.

These quasi-insiders can often translate your issue into terms that the local government can work with effectively. They can also become a champion of your issue, and came at the issue from the inside, at the same time you work on the outside.

Some recent examples: The City of Pasadena recently became signatory to a UN document setting goals for combating global warming; and after citizen input the City dropped efforts to extend coal generation contracts for the local electric utility. ("No new coal" is now the official city policy(!).)

Bring your city around on key issues, and help yourself -- and thousands of your neighbors -- to an easy, Green future!

Coming to Your City: A Fix for Global Warming

I am sitting, right now as I type and post this, in the September 18 meeting of the City of Pasadena City Council. Currently an expert from Caltech is describing why cities need to be mindful of greenhouse gases, followed by an expert from Caltech's JPL. Why?

The city is about to adopt a simple global warming checklist, and create its own Environmental Commission to spearhead efforts to reduce citywide environmental impact.

Go to the City Web Page and view the video and check the agenda items. More detail soon.

GREEN IDEA: It's Time!

ATTENTION All Greenies! If you live in Southern California, its time!

For the next month you can dump your old gas lawnmower, and get yourself a $400 cordless electric mower for just $100.

Details in a moment.

Meanwhile you may remember that mowing your lawn once puts out more pollution than driving your car for a week. (See, Easy Green: Kill Your Lawnmower, 10/27/05) While electric lawnmowers are good -- for lots of reasons electricity pollutes less than gasoline -- the cord is a hassle.

Starting May 13 the AQMD is once again selling cordless electric mowers for $100, plus the trade in of your old gas mower.

The event is schedule is as follows, and there are residency requirements, so check the AQMD website at www.aqmd.gov or call 1-888-425-6247 to make a reservation. (Yes, reservations are required! They sell out every year!)

(To verify the retail price, click the mower picture to the left for the company website, then go back to the AQMD.)

program Schedule:

May 13, 2006 Riverside
May 20, 2006 Van Nuys
June 3, 2006 S. Pasadena
June 10, 2006 Santa Ana
June 17, 2006 Inglewood

If you still haven't replanted your lawn in xeriscape or something edible (we haven't, but we have Big Plans) at least don't dirty the air while mowing that pretend-prairie we are all so fond of, hmmmm. Thanks. See, it is easy being green. . .

IDEA: Greening Your Schools

One way to effect the environment is to help green your local schools. This can take the form of urging greener policies with respect to the physical plant and operations, or can affect the curriculum both directly and indirectly. There are many ways to do this, but there are three over arching themes to keep in mind. For Part I, then, an overview of key considerations:

All Politics Are Local

Trying to get a district-wide policy change in any district is about the toughest way to make a change in schools. The larger the district or the more "under attack" district administrators feel no matter the size, the harder it is to get changes made.

In the end, however, each classroom teacher has pretty high level of professional discretion about classroom procedures and how to teach the curriculum. They also work together and share ideas more than people realize. So an easy place to start greening your school might be your own child's classroom.

If you help your child's classroom with a recycling project, for example, with the procedes used for an Earth Day Celebration in April, the next year all the other classrooms in that grade are likely to want to play too. As your child moves along, you have a new chance each year to help a fresh set of teachers with some green idea. A recycling program in a classroom can tie into any number of other activities, and is likely to have a lasting effect on these future leaders and voters.

Meanwhile, principals can affect policies and practices at their schools -- and successful programs often get copied and carried to other schools much the way as with classroom teachers.

If you get a principal excited about an idea for greening your school, very often it can be implemented at that level. The same sort of "we want that too" effect happens among principals the way it does with classroom teachers, so one school's new green policy will often spread. Occasionally a really good idea can jump from one school to an entire district, but the process is usually slower.


Tie it to the Budget

Many Green practices have unintended or unnoticed benefits for school budgets, and school budgets are always tight. So an administrative change that can reduce costs while being green is more likely to be noticed and implemented.

One example: recycling may be seen as creating extra work for custodians who have two kinds of trash to empty in hundreds of rooms and as being hard to "enforce." But recycling can save money by reducing the costs for ordinary trash. Moreover, many firms will provide a recycle "roll off" bin that they will pick up and process for the school for free.

In Southern California there is even an organization that will provide the recycle bins, empty them, haul the products and then write the school a check for the value of the recyclables.

Tie It To the Curriculum

Teachers are forever looking for ways to provide hands on, concrete experiences that reinforce classroom lessons. That same simple recycling program easily has ties into the science standards at the k-8 level, often directly related to resource use. Or it could be part of an extended math lesson on statistics and graphing. Or it could be part of an English unit on persuasive writing as students advocate for -- or against -- applying the program to the whole school. And when you can provide a program that happens to integrate several disciplines, you have found educational nirvana.

Coming Soon: Specific Programs to Ask for and Implement

QUICK GREEN: Finding Green Stuff

Many in the greenie and Green blogospheres already know this, but for my not-so-green-yet friends and visitors, let me point out that there are more than a few cool sites that help you find green alternatives to every day purchases and lifestyle choices.

Alternatives to turn your scorched-earth "brown" lifestyle a little more green.

Lisa, of the LA Greens,the Green Party local for that city, introduced me to the New American Dream site: Although a bit earnest in its exhortations, the site serves up equal parts of consumer help finding green goods and services with non-preachyreminders to "buy wisely locally," and easy-to-use tools to help you help others see the (green) light.

The subtitle of the site, "Conscious Consumer," says it all: In the end living green(er) is about being aware of the products you buy and the choices you make, and trying to make the good choices where possible.

Also helpful, and a darn fun read too, is the Treehugger website. All products green and greener show up here, both currently available and those as yet a futuristic concept. Reminds me of the old "Popular Science" magizine, only for greenies.

There are probably -- no certainly -- other great sites out there. Many are quite product specific, or really local, or both. For local (Greater LA) area farmer's markets (a fun way to buy green) try Farmer Net.

Or check out the M.O.O. site (Mothers Of Organic) which actually has some very good essays on that topic in general. It is underwritten by Organic Valley, a large organic farming co-operative, but does not seem to suffer for its origin as a promotional site. (Organic milk and milk products, and organic meat, being Organic Valley's chief products.)

The QUICK GREEN take-away idea then is that in the age of technology there are more than a few resources to help you quickly locate a green or greener option anytime you want or need to acquire something! And if what you need is absolutely nothing, then, of course there is always www.nothing.com

IDEA: Less Poison for Breakfast

If you want to eat green, I will suggest chocolate chip cookies and Pop Tarts.

It may be hard to believe, but at our local Trader Joe's they stock organic chocolate chip cookies and Pop-tart-like toaster pastries. Really. And at least 20 different types of organic breakfast cereal, some of which are quite familiar -- like raisin bran -- and even what in another brand and era were called "Super Sugar Crisps."

We are all pretty clear that none of this food is particularly good for you. But it's organic!

This is actually an important moment, when even junk food is at least organic. It means that organic has transcended the rarefied bins of the health-food store. It means that organic food (and especially fruits and vegetables) are available at any major Supermarket (at least in California).

That Trader Joe's now stocks a staggering array of organic food, including the aforementioned cookies, toaster pastries and dry cereal.

(Actually Trader Joe's is itself a green practice. Not only do all the TJ brands not contain artificial preservatives, they are all non-GMO even if the product is *not* organic. It's hard to go "brown" at a TJ store these days.)

But remember, organic means, generally, that all the ingredients were grown without chemical and petroleum-based artificial pesticides or fertilizers. Which means no poison residue for you to eat, and no spoliation of the earth to produce your food. Good for you, good for the environment.
Organic foods used to be shockingly healthy too. If a loaf of bread was organic, it was also probably a 32-grain, sprouted-health wonder, made by hand by chanting monks in a Zen monastery. But the one-time association between organic and a spartan healthy-ness is no more.

So if it is junk food, how can it help if it is organic junk food?

1. No Poison on the Food.

Many folks prefer not to have to scrub toxic chemical residues off of their food. If they really do all come off.

Given the choice of carefully washing then eating an apple that was repeatedly bathed in a petroleum-based, carcinogenic, mutagenic nuerotoxin while being grown on the one hand or eating one that was not so bathed , I think I'll take the clean apple, thank you. It may be all in my head, but if its all the same to you, I've noticed that the famous last words "It's perfectly harmless" often are just that. Last words.

2. No Poison on the People

Although not strictly a green (small g) issues, workers that pick the food you eat, and nearby residents, get a good dose of the herbicides and pesticides intended for the plants. This is not good. Organic avoids this part of the farm problem.

3. No Poison on the Earth.

Organics use sustainably, biologically sound farming principals. No poison residue in the field, or poison run off in waterways, or leaching into other water supplies. No accidental over-kill of beneficial insects. No soil killing residues from chemical fertilizers. Not only do you not have to eat the poison residue, neither does the rest of the environment.

4. Low on Oil

We've mention this: Organics do not use petroleum based chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. The key words here are "petroleum based." Agriculture competes for one heck of a lot of its "modern" tools with your automobile and the plastics industry. The fewer petrochemicals used in agriculture, the less demand for oil and price competition.

5. No Food production degradation.

Organics use the natural process that work well together to produce optimal food product -- the most that can responsibly be taken from the land without causing large scale damage, and without producing crops that are largely tasteless. Organic processed foods also avoid the heaviest processing and artificial ingredients. This is at least three sub-points on its own, but we're trying to keep things easy.

In that respect, although there are a half-dozen additional reasons to eat as much organic as possible, trying to keep it all straight is a job for a dedicated tree-hugger. Around the Easy Green household we have simply started referring to organic food as "clean food" and the rest as "poison food" or, in polite company, "unclean food." Simplistic, but it makes the choice easy.

Oh, and it does not mean that one must be a Vegetarian; there are organic meats, poultry, eggs, milk, cheese and more for the carnivore (or at least omnivore) who prefers not to eat poison food. (See how appealing that makes organic feel? Grin.)

More to the Story

There are other elements that make your food more green, and better for you. Worry about those next week. As ever, an *easy* first step is intended to lead to more. Some of the other considerations:

Fresh, locally grown, in season food. Some folks believe that the petrochemicals burned transporting an organic apple from far away offsets the organic elements. That is perhaps true, but starting with organic is an easy way to become aware of your eating habits. If you can find good organic local food, eat it! Frankly, given the choice between eating a chemically-bathed but local apple or an organic one from far away, I'll go with the organic one. The always thoughtful Ardent Eden concludes other wise. You might too. (She has a great take on GMO food too, which you really ought to read here.)

For me, organic is the big growth area in food right now, and while I love my local farmers, I do not like their local use of poisons and poisonous fertilizer. We do go to the Farmer's market, but go out of our way to go to the one that has organic local products over the more convenient one.

Minimally Processed. Pop-tarts and Ragu are not health food. You knew that. Whole grans and fresh fruit and vegetables are health food. You knew that too. Organic doesn't change the disadvantages of over-processed over refined foods. On the other hand, I'll rather have clean junk food than junk food with poison too. In the end, organic is as much about encouraging sustainable farming practices and not poisoning yourself outright.

AGAIN, The Easy Green Part:

Look for and choose the organic label. We'll all be better off for it!

IDEA: Less Imported Oil? Eat Organic (Pt. I)

You heard the President: "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world," he said it, really he did, in the State of the Union.

Bu-Oh-My-Goodness; Texas Oilman Bush says we use too much oil? oh dear oh dear . . . how much worse must it be than we thought? Well here's a thought about how to use less oil: Eat Organic.

That's right, buy all that weird "organic" and "certified organic" food that has been showing up in the regular markets, not just the specialty stores. Why? Ordinary food uses tons upon tons of petroleum products for bug poisons, weed poisons and fertilizer. Organic does not. Cutting out the use of petroleum based farm products would go a long way to weening us from foreign oil.

Organic food is good in many other ways, but this is an easy one. Turns out all us treehuggers were actually just being patriotic all along! (More about the other benefits next post.)

IDEA: Green? My Choices Don't Matter, I'm Just One Person, Right?

What's the point of all this fussing over green living? Does it really matter which coffee filter I use or where I get my electricity?

Yes it does. And there are at least three major reasons why this is true.

But note first, these are not reasons to be a greenie in the first instance; you already know some of those, from global warming to poisoning yourself with non-organic food. Rather, here are three basic reasons why making small personal changes yourself really does make a difference:

1. Many Small Changes Add Up

Small changes get easier, and easier, and build up within your life; one day you wake up and realize you have made a lot of changes in your life, and have reduced your personal threat to the survival of your family and others by a great deal.

This "slippery green slope" was the basic premise for this blog, as one little green thing after another lead to a significantly healthier, more sustainable lifestyle -- painlessly.

2. Many Small Changes Add Up, II

Many individuals making the same small change can add up to a larger cultural change. Folks that pushed for organic foods in the 70s probably never foresaw the day of FDA Organic Certification or that Organic Pop-Tarts (ok, generic "Toaster Pastries") would actually exist.

There is a large enough vocal demand for organic -- and what I call casual demand, where people will buy it if it is available and not much more expensive than the other options but won't go out of their way for it -- that stores like Ralph's have whole Organic sections and Trader Joe's has an organic choice (or several) in almost every category.

Organic baby food, which used to be twice or three times the cost of old-style baby food (when it finally became available) is now 2 cents per jar more at Target than the old style from poison-covered food.

3. Cultural Change Can Effect Political Change

Which can, in-turn, effect more cultural change. By caring enough to use reusable shopping bags, or giving your car the weekend off, and telling people about it, we begin to create a cultural phenom. This, in turn, creates political pressure to be more green in how let the government regulate our society, which in turn can create broader understanding and appeal of how to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Not everyone will "get" it; not all of us will make every change we could, but as the social and political culture shift it will get easier and easier to be green.

In the final analysis, then, every easy green thing you do does make a significant difference. You may only see it in your own life at first, but individual choices do affect the rest of the world.

QUICK GREEN: Bicycle Valet at the Rose Parade

Pedal Power Meets Petal Power

Humberto Cortes had long dreamed of hosting secure bike parking at major events and venues in southern California to help us move into easier non-auto mobility. This year he made his dream come true, in a small way, with the first ever Bike Valet parking at the Tournament of Roses Parade Post Parade Viewing area.

With the help of Councilmember Steve Haderlein, (and a little nudge by yours truly on TAC), the Tournament of Roses will allow Humberto to offer a secure Bicycle Valet service during the post parade float viewing; although there is a suggested donation, no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

If you are even thinking about going to the post parade events, consider using the Bike Valet. If it is well received it can be expanded and will return next year! A reminder that the Metro Gold Line goes to within about a mile and a half of the valet parking, and the parade, so bike access is available from everywhere in SoCal. In any case, details are at the bottom of this T of R page.

IDEA: Politics Matters

It's time.

You've been doing a lot of little green things for a while now, but lately you've have begun to wonder if its time to do something bigger.

Easy, but bigger.

There is a one-time change you can make that has the potential to affect how politicians from both parties deal with green issues. And its super simple to do.

I will not suggest that deciding to make this change is easy. The physical acts required to do this are nothing at all for most people, but getting to the point where we can act may still require overcoming years of investment in cherished stereotypes and self-image.

Here it is: Change your voter registration.

It doesn't matter if you vote Republican, Democrat, Decline to State, or something else, I want to gently urge you to register Green.

The act itself is simple: In California a couple of clicks, and in a few weeks a form arrives in the mail. If you have changed your mind by then, don't sign the form. Otherwise, sign it and mail it in and you are re-registered Green.

Simple. Easy. Green.

Why register Green? The California Green Party website says it best:

• Registering Green is a way of 'voting' for the kind of world you want. Join a party which stands for your values, instead of one that is the 'lesser of evils' .
• Registering Green makes a clear and effective political statement. The more people who register Green, the stronger the Green Party will be, and the more all parties will take green issues and green voters seriously.
• Registering Green does not limit your voting options in the general election. Since you can vote for any candidate, choosing a party is really about what you believe in.

For all that, there are often decades of personal and family identification with a political party which may make it very hard to step away from your current registration. And of course there is the often strong sense of futility about registering in a third party -- one that is not currently one of the big winners in a national election.

But the interesting thing about registration, as noted, it does not affect who you can vote for: I Registered with a major party when I turned 18, but I pretty much never voted for any of that party's candidates based on simple party affiliation after that first election. It took 26 years for me to realize that my registration inertia gave comfort and support to candidates I would never support.

When I looked at the opposition party, I remembered why I had not bothered to switch previously. Although some of their candidates had personally impressed me, and I had voted for them enthusiastically, when I looked at the party platform I was hard pressed to see any real or effective effort to tackle issues that were important to me. Especially greenie issues.

Then I looked at the 10 Key Values of the the Green Party, and realized that they aptly described, in direct language and without the usual politician-speak, many of the things that I thought needed to be done.

The more I looked at the 10 Key Values, the more I realized the Green Party platform most perfectly encapsulated the hopeful-but-worried-and-frustrated view of politics I had begun to have.

So I re-registered as a Green.

Now I realized even as I registered that I was not interested in voting for some of the Green candidates, based on their personal qualifications or approach to governing. Others I have worked to elect and voted for when it seemed right.

But I feel that way about Democrat and Republican candidates too.

And especially in non-partisan local races I have been known to vote all over the unspoken party line to put a good candidate in office. But by leaving my registration in the back pocket of one major party or another, I was undercutting my own position as an advocate for sane, sustainable, human-centered, green governmental policies.

In California, many voters register without a party, as Decline to State. They often can't vote in a primary other than for their registered party, but they can vote for anyone and everything else -- every blessed proposition and every office.

But Decline to State suggests either an overwhelming interest in personal privacy or a non-specific disillusion with the two major parties, upon which no one can easily act. It does not say "I support stronger attention to personal responsibility and a greener, sustainable way of living." And that, I realized, was something the mainstream parties needed to hear.

Register Green -- Vote as You Will

The act of registration is a small step that has more import even than voting. By registering with one of the two major parties one gives the impression that a world that is a little more left or a little more right is okay; by registering Green you come down strongly on the side of diversity, personal freedom and a sustainable future, not left or right. Conservatives for conservation; progressives for progress; as Greens (capital G) both groups share the vision.

Consider it.

Register Green; vote your conscience.