Regardless of your political inclinations, you have to admit that Mayor McHottie (aka Gavin Newsom) of San Francisco is doing a pretty decent job in promoting “greenness.” In fact, a recent independent study noted that San Francisco has cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent from 1990 levels and is on track to meet its goal of a 20 percent reduction in four years.
That’s pretty impressive if a 20% reduction can really be had in a mere four years.
Below are just some of the ways our city has taken steps to be more green (not all of these are necessarily related to greenhouse gas emissions):
- SF has the largest City-owned solar installation in the country – a 75 kilowatt solar array atop Moscone Center (convention facility)
- 100% of SF’s taxi fleets are to be converted to hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles by 2011
- SF has a new green building ordinance which imposes strict new green building requirements on newly constructed residential and commercial buildings, and renovations to existing buildings – by 2012, it is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 60,000 tons
- Local restaurants are now banned from using Polystyrene foam (Styrofoamâ„¢) disposable food service ware
- In March 2007, SF became the first U.S. city to ban plastic shopping bags
- SF currently has a 70 percent recycling rate. The city’s goal is 75 percent by 2010 and zero waste by 2020
But enough about us – tell me how your city stacks up and what is being done to curb global warming in your neck of the woods.
We’ve written about plastic bag bans before such as Seattle’s proposed ban as well as the evils of plastic bags. It now appears the L.A. City Council is also jumping on the plastic “ban wagon”.
Last week, L.A. City Council voted to ban disposable plastic bags by 2010. However, L.A. put a new twist to this ban. The ban would only take effect if California failed to implement a 25 cent bag fee on shoppers who request them. In essence, L.A. is really hoping to effect wider change, not just a ban within its own city limits.
As you can imagine, this is a controversial subject. The plastic bag industry, represented by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, filed a lawsuit against L.A. County’s plan to reduce plastic bag usage 30 percent by 2010. They argue factories will be closed and jobs will be lost. I don’t disagree with their arguments completely, but there must be a way to use plastic bag fees to help these workers get new training or find new jobs. Sticking to our old ways because it’s comfortable isn’t a great reason to me.
I won’t reiterate the all the various evils of plastic bags, but I think we’re starting to see more support for bans. In fact, I think all disposable bags should have a fee, including paper bags. I don’t see a reason why we aren’t all carrying and utilizing reusable shopping bags. I’m sure a fees and bans will get us there much more quickly.
Happy Fourth of July… almost!
To me, the fourth of July is synonymous with barbeques, picnics and fireworks… oh yeah, and all that patriotism stuff too.
Here are a few green tips to consider as you enjoy your extended weekend:
- Use dishware and silverware – no paper plates & cups and plastic utensils if you can avoid it.
- Eat locally grown fruits & veggies.
- Avoid red meat – try a veggie burger. It’s not that bad, I promise!
- Compost your garbage.
- Cook with charcoal, not propane. I just learned that it’s a better alternative since it comes from wood, rather than fossil fuels.
- Friends having a party? Carpool with others and help spare the air…and your wallet!
I’m sure our readers have dozens of other tips to share – don’t be shy in sharing!
From all of us at TTMYGG, we wish you all a safe and wonderful fourth of July!
When someone asks paper or plastic, what’s the right answer? A couple months ago, I wrote about the evils of plastic bags and how many cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, have legislation in place or proposed to ban them. As it turns out, plastic bag bans may not be so great after all.
If plastic bags are banned, retailers will turn to their next best (economical) alternative, which are paper bags. As luck would have it, paper bags not only kill trees (although many are manufactured from recycled paper), but they cost more to transport due to their increase weight to volume ratio, require 40 percent more energy to manufacture, and take 91 percent more energy to recycle (pound for pound) when compared with plastic bags. Paper bags contribute more to global warming than plastic bags. It turns out plastic bag bans and paper bags aren’t so great after all. Boy, this environmental and global warming stuff sure can get complex with these second the third order effects.
Should we just throw up our arms in protest and give up? Of course not! Give up is never an option at TTMYGG. If you don’t know already, the answer to my question above turns out to be neither! What we all should do is carry reusable shopping bags. There are numerous places to buy them, and many only cost a few dollars (or less!). Some supermarkets such as Whole Foods even give you a credit for bringing your own bag, meaning you can recoup the cost of the bag fairly quickly. Trader Joe’s enters customers carrying reusable shopping bags into a monthly lottery to win $50 in free groceries.
If you’re feeling particularly flush with money and want to make a reusable bag fashion statement, don’t worry, there are many options. If you really don’t want to donate this money to a good cause, you can buy designer reusable bags. Castiglioni has a folding nylon bag which retailers for $843, while Stella McCartney has an organic canvas tote for $495. Not to be outdone, Hermes sells its Silky Pop grocery bag for a mere $960, but at least it collapses into a wallet-size pouch. Trader Joe’s bags come in at a whopping $3. Decisions, decisions,…
Did you know that the ‘gentle exfoliating microbeads’ that are in many facial products are made of plastic? That’s right, the same plastics that take hundreds if not thousands of years to degrade, and every time you wash your face with them, they go right down the drain, and eventually into the ocean. And while there haven’t been any studies about what happens to them when they reach the ocean, it surely cannot be good.As the blog Low Impact notes:
There haven’t been that many studies on what the long term effect is of these plastic granules floating around the ocean. It appears likely that the particles do end up inside of marine creatures. Zooplankton in particular, tiny marine creatures that filter particles out of the water for food, can end up “swallowing†these little beads. It’s not clear whether the plastic ends up harming these little critters, or if it can start to build up in higher levels as it goes up the food chain.One study has found that these plastic beads can act as a sponge for such poisons as DDT and PCBs. So wherever these bits of plastic end up, they bring some unwelcome baggage with them!Â
If you’d like to avoid making this problem worse, look for “polyethylene” in the ingredients. Olay Smooth Skin Exfoliating Scrub with Gentle Microbeads, for instance, has plastic microbeads, as you can tell from it’s ingredient list:
Water, Cetyl Betaine, PPG 15 Stearyl Ether, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Glycerine, Oxidized Polyethylene, Stearyl Alcohol, Salicylic Acid, Distearyldimonium Chloride, Cetyl Alcohol, Steareth 21, Behenyl Alcohol, PPG 30, Steareth 2, Fragrance, Disodium EDTA, Ferric Ammonium FerrocyanideÂ
