paper & plastic vs. reusable

I started off this morning searching for the answer to a question someone asked me recently that stumped me: “How many times do you have to use a reusable bag at the grocery store to cancel out the energy used to make the bag?” I had no clue and vowed to look it up.

There is no simple answer, I’m finding. One reason is that reusable bags can be made out of a variety of materials, and some are more natural than others. Take for instance the popular non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) bags which are recyclable only in some places, yet not biodegradable which means they can take “hundreds of years to break down in a landfill.” It also turns out reusable bags may contain lead and there’s been some studies that they may contain bacteria.

Some of this doesn’t surprise me. We live in a culture where news seems to highlight the scary end of things,  and most everything seems to be bad for you. If you’re worried about the issues mentioned above, avoid taking the chintzier reusable bags that companies pass out for free and invest in the more natural type, wash your bags occasionally, or (and you should be doing this any ways due to pesticides) wash your produce well. You can also support women in other countries who hand weave baskets by purchasing a fair trade basket to use at farmer’s markets and the store.

Overall, I’m not going to stop using any of the bags I have. There are still many great reason to use reusable bags, and according to #24 on this list your reusable bag lasts about 700 times longer than a plastic bag. Paper bags take more energy to produce (a lot more, apparently) and are heavier than plastic bags so they burn more resources to transport. Plastic bags are cheap but are subject to photodegradation, meaning when they finally start to break down they seep into soil and waterways, contaminating required resources for life in animals and humans. And when they get mixed in with recycling they clog the machines. In some areas you can recycle reusable bags– just check with your city (for PDX) first.

My favorite carrying satchel still remains my trusty backpack, which is the easiest way to transport groceries while biking.

2011- the year of great health

I had a whole long post typed up about deodorant, and how I’ve been  and hearing so many bad things about using products with aluminum as the active ingredient. But then I checked out the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep product rater and realized my “evil aluminum deodorant” was only ranked a mere one point eviler than my new natural deodorant (sans aluminum!) which scored a “2″. I did a bunch of research and just wound up really confused. Even though I would love to use products that the EWG awards the prestigious “0″ (which means no health concerns) I guess I’ll take a “3″ over the “8″ I just found in my body lotion. And I haven’t even searched their database for all my beauty products yet. Oh no.

Yes, I agree it’s slightly annoying and time consuming to have to do research before buying a new beauty product, but I think it would be WAY more  and time consuming to have cancer or develop Alzheimers  later in life, so I’ve decided that in 2011 before buying any new products I’m going to do some research on ingredients and consult the Skin Deep database. My theory is it will take some leg work at the beginning, but after I find safe products that I like re-buying will be easy.

Want the FDA to do a better job keeping toxins out of beauty products so checking to see if your products are dangerous isn’t necessary? So do I. Check out Annie Leonard’s (my heroine!) new video on cosmetics at safecosmetics.org.

ban the bag!

Yesterday I joined a bunch of other blue tee shirt clad passionate individuals at city hall to join in a Ban the Bag Day of Action.  What is Ban the Bag? It’s a grass roots campaign that will hopefully result in a city-wide ordinance that would require a 20 cent fee to be charged per plastic bag taken from a store, or a ban all together of single use plastic bags. Grocery stores are especially physched about this.

The first part of the day we sat in on the testimonials in city hall with Sam Adams, Nick Fish, and other fancy important people.  Sam Adams seemed to be on board and in full support of the ban. Rumor has it Ms. Fritz is not. Some of the testimonials were given by individuals my age. I would be a hot mess if I tried to deliver an important message to the mayor and tons of onlookers with a daunting red clock counting down my remaining time right in my face, but that’s why I was not talking. I decided my strategy if I was forced to talk would be to say how stupid the bags are to begin with, and unnecessary as there are multiple other methods to employ to get your items the 20 feet from point A (the door) to point B (your car/bike/bus stop). Besides, if people keep proving they can’t properly dispose of them (I suppose the best option is collect them and drop them off at local grocery stores, where bags are shipped over to China to be melted down, or give them to your dog owning friends), then take them away. Portland is so close to multiple waterways that lead to the Pacific Ocean, where bags are getting sucked into gyres that swirl the plastic around for decades and decades…

Anywhos, at noon we rallied in front of city hall. At this point I was asked to collect signatures for the petition, which turned out to be the easiest thing I have ever done. People in Portland agree we can find a better solution to plastic bags, as well.  I was amazed and motivated by the support, and encouraged by how excited citizens were to learn more. Eventually Sam came out (perhaps it was the drumming or the five “bag monsters” dancing around that caught his attention) and addressed the crowd/slew of tv cameras.

And that was the day. It was fun and invigorating to partake in a green rally, and made me wish I had been more involved or involved for longer.

Don’t forget to use those reusable bags! I keep a couple in my car, and the rest near the door so I can grab them on my way out.

aloha, lohas

It’s 11pm, the first day of summer, and I don’t have to wake up for anything tomorrow. Am I at a bar? Am I cruising around enjoying the summer (sort of) air on my bike? No, I am hunched over my laptop geeking out and learning more about LOHAS.

As mentioned before, I was a marketing major whose favorite college class was a green themed MKT 444- Consumer Behavior. We studied the purchasing decisions that drove Joe Schmoes to buy light bulbs and how we could use our marketing prowess to get Mr. Schmoe to switch over to CFLs. Although I find the marketing methods behind converting average shoppers to “greenies” most fascinating, I’ll admit it’s important to know the market who’s already seen the light. This is where LOHAS comes in, “Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability”, which I haven’t explored in too much detail because I figured I was considered a LOHAS consumer and reading about it sort of seemed like reading the results of a personality test– I hate the idea of something I didn’t write trying to tell me who I am.

According to these characteristics, I’m not technically a LOHAS consumer. I’m thinking the “eco moms” that someone mentioned early today are LOHAS– you know, slightly older (than me, not old in general) ladies who have more disposable income and make the purchasing decisions for their household. The moms that are too hip for Costco, over the idea of large SUVs, and swap Chinook Book coupons with their friends. I’m guessing they shop at New Seasons, own a Subaru Outback, and take their chocolate lab to the coast with their kids on the weekend. Just a hunch. Although I have no clue what they’re like in Asia.

I’m probably on the path to entering this demographic. I’ve become obsessed with yoga, vitamins, organic food, Burt’s Bees shampoo, and I would trade my car in for the new Subaru Forrester in a second if I had the dinero. In the meantime, I need to learn more about using LOHAS as a marketing technique– is it a good thing that is powerful and persuasive enough to transform the marketplace or is it going to somewhere, somehow be abused and turned into the next greenwashing scam?

I continue to hope for the best.

challenging green marketing

Let me start off by saying I dislike Starbucks. I’ve never been a coffee drinker, so I judge places mainly by their atmosphere and their hot chocolates (ok, and how they treat their employees and fair trade, which I’ll give Starbucks some points for). Starbucks’ hot chocolate, in my opinion, is drinkable, but not delicious. And their atmosphere…well…there are a bajillion of them and they all appear the exact same to me. That being said, it was admittedly hypocritical for me to bring my reusable travel mug and wait in line for my “free drink” (I SWEAR it said drink in one of the ads I saw!) only to be turned down to the hot chocolate I ordered. But I’m over it.

Or at least I was until I went to read the NYT online and was greeted by a huge ad proclaiming I can save the world by using a reusable cup one day of the year. Ugh. Ok, so that’s a bit cynical of me, and it really is good that Starbucks is offering an opportunity for people to have an incentive to try using a reusable cup and realizing it’s not that geeky or weird. But the ad claims “together we can save trees.” And here I thought I was saving trees by not buying hot beverages in a throw-away cup to begin with, but what is Starbucks doing? Passing out jillions of cups that can’t even be recycled to consumers unless they opt to do the leg work and bring their own (which I am in support of, but a lot of responsibility should lie on the company)? In their defense, they plan to offer cups that can be recycled by 2015, but for being a leader in the industry and as large as they are, they haven’t exactly set the bar high. Come on, even Quiznos has compostable cups.

I’m sure I’m way too cynical, and it’s probably unfair of me to rail on them considering I’m still a little miffed about the free drink only being coffee. Big companies carry a lot of weight that can determine the direction environmentalism goes, so I think it’s up to consumers to really step up and challenge these businesses we use daily, or make sure what they are doing is not greenwashing, or frilly “green marketing” campaigns.

All these companies are doing some, but in my opinion they should have been doing some a long time ago, and now they should be doing a lot more. It’s time to stop being hypocritical and lazy– I’m going to start by sending Quiznos a message. It’s not doing as much as I could (I am still learning, and still young– where to begin? What training do I need?) but I keep on mentioning this thought my friend continues to point out to me– it ticks him off that some environmentalists point out problems but don’t do anything about it. For every time I complain about something, I should do something positive.

I still hope to someday be as cool as Annie Leonard.