It's Earth Day!!!!

[sway2sway]

and mother earth is saying, "what have you done for me lately?"

http://www.seql.org/100ways.cfm

here's one list, of many, to give you ideas, if you're stuck for an idea for what you should do for the mama of all mamas, on this day or any.
I think I am finally going to get started on my compost.
Of course it is great to switch from plastic bags to reusable; but, I was always left wondering about the dilemma of the plastic bag in the kitchen garbage can, you're still using those without abandon. I was thinking they should make kitchen garbage bags out of something biodegradable, which I guess they do somewhere now, but the making of it can cancel out the effects of the biodegradability. I thought, why can't we make a garbage bag out of leaves and orange peels? or palm fronds, or hemp , or something like a gelatin capsule?
Anyway, back to the compost, what intrigued me here, is that I read, with recycling of all the plastics, cardboard etc. and with composting of all the food waste, there should be no reason to need a plastic bag for the garbage can. Now, if I could accomplish that...no plastic bags, I would feel wonderful. That is my 2007 earth day initiative, we'll see how I fare. Anyone else trying anything new?

[angischy]

and mother earth is saying, "what have you done for me lately?"
...
That is my 2007 earth day initiative, we'll see how I fare. Anyone else trying anything new?

I need to buy a new toilet, because the original one (my condo was built in 1965) is leaking from the base. I think there's a crack or something.
Anyways, I was looking for toilets online that use less water. Then, I happened upon these waterless toilets (http://www.envirolet.com/wt.html), most notably, The Loveable Loo (http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/loveable_loo.html)...and lots of info about composting. It kind of freaks me out, but I can see how it is more eco-friendly.

I can't compost where I live, but if I lived in the country and had a little garden, it might be something that I could imagine doing...once I got over the idea of handling the "humanure (http://journeytoforever.org/compost_humanure.html)" :eek: involved.

[sway2sway]

ugh, I'm not composting my own fecal matter by hand. imagine if you had to compost kaka like food waste. nasty. i think I'll just start with coffee grounds, egg shells, toast crusts, that kinda thing. If I was building a house from scratch though, a composting toilet wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd definately incorporate some sort of grey water recycling into the design, or I guess it can be done anytime, if you've got the $. might as well throw in a wack of solar panels, maybe a windmall, and an elaborate rainwater collection & distribution system.
I'll start small, it's enough work just to figure out composting kitchenkrap.

[angischy]

ugh, I'm not composting my own fecal matter by hand.

LOL, by hand, especially!

Yeah, I don't know who thinks of these ideas initially, but gross is an understatement.

Then again, alot of people have cats and litter boxes and it's kind of the same thing. Pets are great, but...

Who owns who?

(Or is that whom owns whom?)

[the duke]

hmm, i'm a massive recycler, and we do green waste too...I go as far as taking plastic bottles and cans home with me when I'm out and about to make sure they go in the recycle.

We're also trying to conserve as much water as we can...but that's a necessity rather than a because we care....

[ramble on rose]

We have been composting hear in the ramble house and man I can notice a difference in the grass already. it is so much greener and much more full. We recycle too. We are also doing some planting in the yard and starting an herb/veggie garden. This year we are going to try to help keep our neighborhood clean and pick up whatever trash we may find. We do have to work on our using of plastic bags though. I purchased reusable bags from the grocery store, so I say that is a good start. I also was going to try to implement recycling at my daughter's school, I figure they may go for it if I offer to take it where it needs to go. So, we shall see. One Love.

[the duke]

hmm, veggie garden sounds good...not sure it could be maintained here with water restrictions. Only way to water it would be to gather buckets in the shower etc etc...so that might be an idea.

Plastic bags are also a good one....we only shop with 'green bags' and get plastic for meat, but then those bags are used in the park for 'doggy do' so they're being reused too...

Wish these things had've caught on longer ago...

[angischy]

I HATE plastic grocery bags, and they always want to double bag your groceries and you end up with like 17 of them for just a basic shopping trip.

Even if one reuses them, they are such a waste.

I grew up with paper grocery bags (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html), but they are actually worse, of course. We always reused them as school book covers and for newspaper recycling.

These days, the only purpose the brown bags serve for me is to avoid ending up with 79 plastic grocery bags in my kitchen cupboard.
I finally gotten into the habit of bringing my own bags and/or boxes when I go grocery shopping, but I get alot of funny looks at Publix when I tell them "I have my own bags" and proceed to use my tote to bag my own groceries.

If I shop at the health food store, this look is absent, but I still find it odd in this day and age that more people don't bring their own reusable bags.

[the duke]

depends on where you come from I guess...people in supermarkets get bad looks if they don't have reusable bags here. A lot of people don't understand the effect it has on the environment...

We were having a debate at uni (my group of mates) about whether or not diposable diapers should be used...interesting to see what everyone's opinion was...

[sway2sway]

with my 1st, I used a lot of cloth diapers. which are stinky soaking in a pail in the bathroom. which take soap, water, gas/electricity to clean. which it is practically impossible to take a child out of the house in. even if you have an outer cover, or the kind with a plastic layer sewn inside...one pee and that thing is done for. if luck be on your side it hasn't trickled out the comfy cotton leg hole, which then means you need another change of clothes as well.
with my 2nd, I mostly used disposables, I think I'd lost the freshness and vigor that the maiden voyage of motherhood brings. compromise. if I was at home and the tot was just crawling around in a t-shirt, for sure I'd throw on a cloth, but if I was going out somewhere. nah uh, not going to happen.
it's a streamlined process, trying to balance sanity, diaper rash control, and environmental impact.
i think cloth is better definately, but it can be difficult to manage. the world needs better products, practical and green

[angischy]

Interesting fact:
"Conventional disposable diapers are the third largest contributors to landfills in the world and yet only five percent of the population uses them."

I heard about this diaper on the radio the other day.

gDiapers (http://gdiapers.com/)
"the breathable diaper you can flush"

Oh, and they're cute, too!

It's a good solution to disposables and it eliminates the need for a diaper pail, but...it still seems like a pain and kind of stinky mess. But, I suppose if you're changing dirty diapers already, this isn't much further of a step to take.

(Thought to self: What's up with all my posts here on this thread having to do with hands-on handling of human waste? :confused: )

I guess the real thing of it is most people are so used to having everything made so convenient. Many of these eco-friendly solutions are not-so-hard, yet they require an extra step besides just grab 'n go, or throw it out when you're done.

Most people, I think, would agree that a little inconvenience would be worth it, in theory. But in practice, I think we're not all as idealistic as we'd like to be.

I wonder...
What will it take for our words and thoughts and best intentions to become daily actions?

[sway2sway]

(Thought to self: What's up with all my posts here on this thread having to do with hands-on handling of human waste? :confused: )
yeah, ya shit head :eek: ;)



I wonder...
What will it take for our words and thoughts and best intentions to become daily actions?

well I've heard it said, it takes 30 times of something at least once a day to make it a habit, like flossing your teeth, wacking off, eating breakfast (anywhere you set your sights for self improvement) . Maybe if government provided more incentives or subsidies or kickbacks or whatever they do to help in the creation of more green companies, more green products, which might force the hand of the regular old big companies to invest more money greenly, which might possibly reduce prices on some of these things which just aren't viable for most people because of the cost, even if they are willing to take a little of their habitual convenience out of the equation for da big Mama.


how about this? what if you had a grocery store that you had to bring all your own containers for? like for a start up fee of $99.99 you could have an elaborate system of plastic containers made from recycled materials which you get filled at the store with whatever, they could all interlock somehow to save space in your trunk, they could go right to the fridge, freezer, hell...

[angischy]

Maybe if government provided more incentives or subsidies or kickbacks or whatever they do to help in the creation of more green companies, more green products, which might force the hand of the regular old big companies to invest more money greenly, which might possibly reduce prices on some of these things which just aren't viable for most people because of the cost, even if they are willing to take a little of their habitual convenience out of the equation for da big Mama.

Incentives are good, but I think what people really hate are fines and/or taxes. Maybe the tax idea works better...

"In 2002, Ireland introduced a 15-cent levy on plastic bags, resulting in a 95% decrease in their use."

There's news of San Francisco banning non-biodegradable plastic bags (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/us/28plastic.html?ex=1332820800&en=4f98921d03434225&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink)banning non-biodegradable plastic bags starting in fall.

how about this? what if you had a grocery store that you had to bring all your own containers for? like for a start up fee of $99.99 you could have an elaborate system of plastic containers made from recycled materials which you get filled at the store with whatever, they could all interlock somehow to save space in your trunk, they could go right to the fridge, freezer, hell...

I like this idea, Sway, but it's kind of elaborate & would require major change by near everyone to be successful. It would be great if the store made this decision for you and started selling or giving away these reusable plastic containers right in the produce area. You would just put your produce directly in them instead of in the plastic bags used now.

If the stores simply stopped having the bags, people would be forced to do something else.

Aldi grocery stores are kind of already like that. They're actually a German retailer, and it's a smaller, not fancy place.
There's no special fee, there just aren't many of them around. They charge per bag, or you can use (for free) the boxes that they would otherwise throw away when they're done stocking the shelves. Makes sense to me.

And then there's this (http://www.cafepress.com/ecoresponsible.59429148), for you activists out there
http://images.cafepress.com/product/59429148v11_240x240_Front.jpg

[Miss Shark]

We have a grocery store like that, bring your own bags, boxes what have you, Aldi. It's cheaper than the other stores in the area as well.

As for the diapers, having had 3 in diapers at one time, and having read some about these gDiapers, having to change them every 3 or 4 hours, oh my, do the math...Not to mention that they weren't available here. So I had a lot to contribute to our local land fills I'm afraid to say. I read some reviews, and they sound like they work fairly well, so long as your plumbing can take it. Perhaps they'll catch on.

[sway2sway]

Incentives are good, but I think what people really hate are fines and/or taxes. Maybe the tax idea works better...


yeah for the bags, I hear ya. I was really referring to just everything that is greener or organic, most of it is the minority in the production world, therefore all the costs associated with it are more. If time is money, as is the popular belief; then if you're asking people to use a product which may have more time associated with it's use and it also costs more in the actual dollar sense, it's a double whammy. It's all relative I suppose. Which means, I think, that the relative situation can't be ignored, it needs to be factored. Everyone likes the ideal or utopian, but if people don't adopt it, then it's of no use.
So, more work needs to be done to change peoples' perceptions of what they are able to do, what they are able to change, and what they really don't need- even though they may have already become accustomed to having it.
Or, more work needs to be done to make these things that people don't want to give up, more affordable, yet more environmentally sensitive.
well, both I guess