Urban Ecoist

Maybe a year or two ago, I ran across a show on maybe Science Channel or National Geographic about this company in New Jersey that made organic fertilizer and packaged it in “reclaimed” milk jugs. I thought to myself, “Now that’s using your noggin’!”

Well, methinks that the show was on National Geographic, because starting tonight National Geographic Channel premieres Garbage Moguls, a show about that same company. And on Earth Day, now that is foresight!

I happened to receive some info on Garbage Moguls, thanks to the good people at NatGeo. Truthfully, I would prefer an ongoing series, to witness and share the dizzying highs and terrifying lows of the company called TerraCycle , run by a Princeton drop-out (why is that everyone that thinks outside the box and goes to a top private school drops out?) and his merry band of eco- and cash-minded cohorts, but then again, how exciting can garbage or a Princeton drop-out really be?

Despite my misgivings about the show due NatGeo’s tendency toward repetition after commercial breaks (like we cannot remember two minutes ago, give your viewers some credit NG!) and to the press release for Garbage Moguls, which says things like it’s a “real-life Generation ‘Y’ dramedy in the vein of ‘The Office.’”, I’m hoping Garbage Moguls will be interesting and informative enough to inspire viewers to also think outside the box in terms of what you are throwing away around the house. As I mentioned before, I’ve seen TerraCycle featured on a television program before tonight (9pm EST/6pm PST with additional airings Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and next Wednesday — check out NatGeo for times) and as I still remember it, it must have been pretty good.

Also, and I’m just putting this out there, but I’m a little confused as to why Terracycle has to preserve the overt branding involved in the original materials. Maybe by removing the brand name labels from the plastics used by TerraCycle would dimish the quality and integrity of the materials, but I have to say that having a kite made from Oreo packaging with the word OREO splashed all over is not all that appealing to a girl like me that doesn’t like advertising all over her stuff. Maybe it’s because these particular kites are destined for Wal-Mart (yet another no-no in my eyes).

In addition to info about Garbage Moguls, I noticed that the website has some DIY projects using trash. Click on the “MORE” option on the site and you can learn how to make things yourself with something that you’d be throwing away. These beads made from cookie wrappers look good in a digital image, but I have to wonder how they look up close. Only one way to find out…

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Americans don’t seem all that keen on their fruits and veggies, or at least not as keen as they should be, unless we are talking potatoes. And especially when they eat out, Americans are more concerned about proteins and starches, relegating the veggies to mere side dishes, if included in the meal at all.

And then, add the seasonality of fresh fruits and veggies, and we can see that sometimes eating fresh produce is hard to do, especially if you are on a budget or if you don’t want to purchase imported produce that requires fuel and produced more carbon emissions to ship to your local grocery chain. Also, keep in mind that so-called fresh produce was most likely picked unripe (which means that it did not spend enough time “on the vine” to develop all its healthy nutrients) and has been traveling for a week or more before it even gets to your store.

What’s an urban ecoist to do?

Two options are canned or frozen vegetables and fruits. But which is better?

The canning process involves heating, which will kill any microorganisms that may be living on or in vegetables and fruit. It is very rare that a canned product will carry food-borne illness (which has become a problem with fresh produce lately). However, some nutrients withstand the canning process better than others. Vitamin C and folate are two such nutrients that can be lost during canning.

Frozen produce may be a better choice for most fruits and veggies. Produce undergoes freezing soon after it is picked, so there are less nutrients lost due to age, which may make frozen produce better than some imported “fresh” produce.

Of course, we wouldn’t be very responsible ecoists if we didn’t take some other things into consideration, such as packaging. Cans are highly recyclable and can be reprocessed almost infinitely, but more and more cans are lined with a plastic that contains Bisphenol-A (BPA), which more and more research is showing to leach into foods (especially acidic ones, like tomatoes). Scientists are finding evidence that BPA may cause developmental damage in humans. The EPA is working with some manufacturers to voluntarily reduce BPA use in cans, but I can forecast a day soon when you will be looking for a “no BPA” label on canned goods.

Frozen produce are usually packaged in plastic bags, and the plastic, usually HDPE (#2), used is not as easily recyclable and rarely included in curbside recycling programs. Unfortunately, even the cardboard packaging used with frozen produce is lined with plastic, which also makes it harder to recycle.

Another consideration is where those canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are coming from, and usually that’s a factory farm. Depending on where you live, that can of peas may have traveled thousands of miles to get to your grocery store shelves.

Geez, it’s not easy being green…but if you are serious about it, you may want to can or freeze your own veggies and fruits. When you are at your local farmers market or farm stand this summer, buy larger quantities of fresh produce and process them yourself for winter consumption. Start out freezing fruits like berries, which are easy, and as you become more comfortable and savvy, try your hand at tomatoes.

I remember the cellar at my great-grandfather’s house in Dearborn, Michigan and the shelves stocked with mason jars full of stuff like tomatoes and pickles. He grew everything in his own urban backyard. It’s too bad that as a society, we have become more and more reliant on grocery stores to bring us our produce, when really we could be providing our own — saving money and nutrients at the same time.

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My boyfriend and I have developed a division of labor in our house. He drinks the beer and I recycle the bottles. Alright, that is a simplified version of our organizational structure, but it is true that I am the consummate recycler in our “family.”

And recycle I do. I cut out the spouts in the tetrapaks, I am careful not to mix my plastics, and anything that cannot go out curbside goes into a small “pantry” space in our small, but big enough for two people post-WWII house. Anything that I can reuse is cleaned and awaits dried herbs or seeds for my garden.

I learned to be a good recycler from my grandparents, by whom I was raised. Back then, you had to clean out tins and remove the labels, soak glass jars so the glue would release those labels, and you even had to bundle your newspapers up with string. It was a lot of work, but it seemed important. As recycling has become easier, more and more items are recyclable and my pantry fills up quite quickly, necessitating more trips to a local recycler that handles whatever my curbside service doesn’t.

To be perfectly honest, however, I am starting to question my commitment to recycling. Perhaps other urban ecoists are starting to feel the same way. I am starting to become more and more pessimistic about the state of the world and where it is headed, but despite my doubt over whether or not my recyclables are really going to make a difference, I still find that I just cannot toss plastic in the trash.

And then, I start seeing reports that the recycled materials market is bottoming out.

In West Virginia, an official of Kanawha County, which includes Charleston, the state capital, has called on residents to stockpile their own plastic and metals, which the county mostly stopped taking on Friday. In eastern Pennsylvania, the small town of Frackville recently suspended its recycling program when it became cheaper to dump than to recycle. In Montana, a recycler near Yellowstone National Park no longer takes anything but cardboard.

There are no signs yet of a nationwide abandonment of recycling programs. But industry executives say that after years of growth, the whole system is facing an abrupt slowdown.

Sigh.

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I finally watched WALL-E last night. I write finally because I usually see Pixar films in the theatre, usually within the first two weeks of their release. I never got around to seeing WALL-E as I hate going to the cinema now that I have to sit through television commercials, and my boyfriend is a big poophead when it comes to seeing so-called kids films.

Now, there was some disgruntlement among some caused by WALL-E’s rampant environmentalism. Some said children shouldn’t be exposed to the Church of Al Gore, and some claimed that Disney was being hypocritical in regards to its merchandising habits when it comes to films like WALL-E. I happen to agree with the second issue, but the first is ridiculous.

Kids should be initiated into the world of environmentalism. You know, I have resented that label since I was young and idealistic, thinking that we could save the planet. I resent it even more now, as no one should not be an environmentalist. Being human and environmentally-mindful should be one and the same, and the fact that some don’t get that yet is why the Earth is in so much trouble. However, to be fair the beginning of the Industrial Age was a while ago, and I doubt that first person to burn coal or a gallon of gas could even imagine what devastation that act would cause. But there is so much more to the environmental crisis than just carbon dioxide — we do produce a lot of crap, both in the form of trash, but also in the form of dangerous chemicals and toxins that are destroying the planet and its inhabitants much faster than global warming.

The more children of today are exposed to the truth the better. Let’s get beyond the Bush Regime’s maybes and omissions and upcoming Republican party spokeswoman Sarah Palin’s not caring to know the causes of climate change.

I loved WALL-E, by the way. My boyfriend liked it, too, although he kept complaining about WALL-E having human emotions. He just doesn’t understand kids’ movies.

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I ran across this over the weekend, and though it so brilliant that I had to share it.

Prisons across the United States are going green, and by that I mean that inmates are growing organic produce, composting the food waste from the prison kitchens, and even recycling shoes into that rubber turf that is being installed around playgrounds.

Above: Ironwood State Prison in California operates its own solar power plant.

An Oregon prison is raising honeybees, an Indiana prison built a wind turbine to reduce its energy costs, a California prison has solar panels, and a North Carolina correctional facility has built a cistern system to capture rain water.

Can we really learn a better way from those who have strayed? Seems we can. The programs at the prisons are not only a great way to reduce costs, help the environment, and divert refuse from landfills, but also the pro-green programs are teaching the inmates valuable skills and giving them responsibilities to encourage self-confidence and a feeling of community.

From the Associated Press:

LITTLEROCK, Wash. – Of all the things convicted murderer Robert Knowles has been called during his 13 years behind bars, recycler hasn’t been one of them.

But there he was one morning, pitchfork in hand, composting food scraps from the main chow line and coffee grounds from prison headquarters — doing his part to “green” the prison.

“It’s nice to be out in the elements,” said Knowles, 42, stirring dark, rich compost that will amend the soil at the small farm where he and fellow inmates of the Cedar Creek Corrections Center grew 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables this year.

Inmates of the minimum-security facility, 25 miles from Olympia, the state capital, raise bees, grow organic tomatoes and lettuce, compost 100 percent of food waste and even recycle shoe scraps that are made into playground turf.

“It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students,” said Eldon Vail, secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections, which oversees 15 prisons and 18,000 offenders. “It’s good security.”

As around-the-clock operations, prisons are voracious resource hogs, and administrators are under increasing pressure to reduce waste and conserve energy and water.

In 2007, states spent more than $49 billion to feed, house, clothe, treat and supervise 2.3 million offenders, the Pew Center on the States reported this year.

As the prison population has grown this decade, up 76 percent from 1.3 million in 2000, the number of prisons and jails has risen with it. The latest U.S. Bureau of Justice data show 1,821 facilities in 2005, up from 1,668 in 2000.

To keep costs down, the Indiana Department of Corrections installed water boilers that run on waste wood chips, and built a wind turbine at one prison that generates about 10 kilowatts an hour and saves $2,280 a year.

At Ironwood State Prison in Blythe, Calif., 6,200 solar panels send energy back to the grid, enough to power 4,100 homes a year. The prison was trying to meet an executive order requiring state agencies to reduce energy use by 20 percent by 2015, said a spokeswoman, Lt. Sue Smith.

North Carolina’s Department of Corrections switched to chemical-free cleaners and vegetable-based inks. This summer, because of a water shortage, inmates converted 50-gallon pickle barrels into small cisterns that capture rainwater.

Under a state mandate to reduce energy use, the Oregon Department of Corrections replaced old appliances with energy-efficient ones, installed solar water heaters and used a geothermal well to heat water. It also modified washing machines so they could reuse rinse-water to wash about a million pounds of clothes a month.

At Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Ore., inmates recycle scraps from old prison blues to make diaper bags for women’s shelters and dog beds for animal shelters.

“We try to model prosocial behavior,” said Vern Rowan, business manager for the Oregon Department of Corrections. Being sustainable “is something that everybody should be doing, regardless of where they’re at.”

Cedar Creek, in the heart of a forest, feels more like an outdoor retreat than institutional lockup.

Most of the 400 inmates are in a work program, and put in between six and eight hours a day.

The responsibility of caring for the prison’s three hives of Italian honey bees falls mostly to Daniel Travatte, 36, a soft-spoken former drug addict who is serving 10 years for attempted armed robbery.

Under the supervision of prison counselor Vicki Briggs, Travatte has learned to harvest honey — which inmates occasionally eat with breakfast biscuits — and use beeswax to make lotions. He’s become an expert on their habits.

“I’m trying to change myself,” said Travatte. “A lot of people go through prison with no intention of changing. I love working with the bees. It keeps me busy. I have a lot of responsibility to take care of.”

While there isn’t scientific evidence that such activities are helping inmates, Nalini Nadkarni, an environmental studies professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., notes anecdotal evidence that it’s working.

“They were stimulating their minds and having conversations that were different than ‘How much more time we have left’?” said Nadkarni.

One inmate went beyond conversations, enrolling in a doctoral program when he got out and co-authoring a research paper with Nadkarni on a moss-growing project she started to help reduce the impact of wild moss harvesting on forests.

While Cedar Creek went green out of economic necessity — it had to conserve because it didn’t have the wastewater capacity to expand four years ago — it is now embracing other benefits, said Dan Pacholke, a state prison administrator who helped implement many of the practices.

Cedar Creek uses 250,000 fewer gallons of water a year, saves $6,000 to $8,400 annually on garbage bills and avoided a $1.4 million sewage treatment plant upgrade.

A large “Con-Post” marks the prison’s composting station, made of recycled concrete blocks and reclaimed wood, where Knowles spends about six hours a day, making sure the compost gets enough heat, moisture and air to break down food scraps.

“They trust me to do all this with no supervision,” said Knowles, who is serving time for the hit-and-run death of an off-duty police officer.

“I like growing the vegetables,” Knowles said. “My mom had a garden. I can see having my own garden.”

Sorry, I rarely like including an entire article in a post, but I really had a hard time deciding what paragraphs to include. I find this inspirational and I hope that the positive reaction to the established programs will encourage other correctional facilities to follow suit and develop their own gardens, composting programs, and develop ways to convert old systems to renewable and sustainable ones.

And what can we on the “outside” learn from these prisoners? Composting is easy, and organic gardening is also pretty easy. Not only are you providing your family with fresh, healthy produce, but if you include your whole family in the garden, you are giving kids responsibilities which will in turn give them self-confidence. Not only that, but getting kids out in the garden is a great way to teach them about how consumption and our part in the larger cycles of the Earth and its ecosystems.

I think schools should also take a note from the prisons of America. Have students spend an hour in a school garden or turning compost. Have a school wind turbine, and teach kids how it works. Have students organize a scrap drive, like back in World World II, and encourage them to lead the green revolution.

Viva la Revolution!!

And it took prisoners to lead the way? Maybe not, but going green is a great component to an inmate’s rehabilitation.

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Are you recycling? Good. But part and parcel of living a little more lightly is a little step I call “pre-recycling.”

Essentially, what I am talking about is how the products you buy are packaged. Some things are more recyclable than others. Some packaging is simply excessive. Some packaging may look like it would be recyclable, but try finding a convenient way to do it. And then of course, some packaging is, well, dangerous.

What you should do first is to check out what your curbside recycling picks up. Where I live, for example, we have a pretty good curbside system, but then I live in Portland, Oregon, which is really into the whole green living thing. When I lived in Chicago, the city was just starting to pick up recyclables in “test” neighborhoods. When I visited relatives in Kissimmee, Florida, there was no such thing as curbside recycling pick up. However, the city did have drop-off bins around the area.

Recycling has become fairly ubiquitous, so with a little effort and research, you can find a place that will recycle whatever you have that can be recycled. However, as it is always easier to put your recycling out weekly at your home or business, I suggest getting to know exactly what your curbside service picks up and what it doesn’t.

That said, glass is a great material to recycle. It is immensely recyclable, and can be recycled countless times. Unlike paper which can only be recycled so many times before ending up as scratchy tissue paper. Another great thing about glass jars is that you can easily re-use them. When shopping, I look for products in glass jars. I store leftovers in them, I put cut flowers in them, I store seeds, I use them for paints, nuts, bolts, nails — you get the picture. Instead of wrapping things up in cellophane, try putting your scraps and leftovers in glass jars. It’s also better than buying plastic containers for storage, as you have already bought the glass jar when you bought pasta sauce.

Metal is also quite recyclable, but some tins are lined with plastic and some of that plastic has bisphenol-A and other not so nice chemicals involved in the lining process. Still, metal is a good choice for packaging that you can easily recycle.

Plastics get a little tricky. You have to really look at the packaging to determine if your recycler takes that particular plastic or shape of plastic container. For example, when I first moved to Portland, yogurt containers and similar plastic “tub” style were not picked up curbside, but then about five or six months ago, that changed. But still, the clear plastic containers that are more of a hinge-style, usually marked #1 or #6, that cookies from a chain stores’ bakeries come in, or fresh produce in some stores, are not picked up. So, I try not to buy anything in those containers, which is difficult. I do store them in bins in my basement to recycle at a local facility that does take plastics of all kinds, separated, of course.

Always avoid single-serving packaging, and equally excessive packaging. And if you really want to be hard-core, write the company and let them know why you are not buying their product based on packaging. You would be surprised how many companies just need a little nudge in the right direction. And with the current “climate” in the US (and elsewhere) to be “greener”, many companies are already changing or have changed packaging options to either be more recyclable or more easily recyclable or simply just less packaged.

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