Elisa's Green Scene

Disposed to Properly Dispose

I've got a covered tray of old paint in the cabinet under my bathroom sink. It has been there for about 2 years. I'm not joking.

I have a bag of the used and spent batteries that go into my noise-canceling headsets. That bag also happens to be the bag I carry the headset in, so it's rattling around in there with a bunch of old batteries. Again, not joking.

And I wish I were joking when I tell you about the friend my sister and I had years back who saved cooking grease FOREVER and used it in conjunction with a deep fat fryer. That was about the nastiest thing ever to imagine her immersing food in whatever was living in that fryer.

So, what should be done with these things...the oil, the batteries, the paint?

SimplyHuman tells us .

In particular, the paint-disposal method is one I never had heard before. I believe they got it from a site simply named paint.org.

(Wonder how much paint.org paid for that URL and when?)

So, what items are around your house, car etc. that you know you should dispose of, but don't know quite how?

One week and counting

So my wedding is one week from today, and I have now seen the true extend of the wedding industrial complex. Despite my best intentions I am indeed spending lots of money and capitulating to numerous conventions that I didn't particularly plan to.

We've tried to make our wedding reflect our values, and in some ways we am succeeding, and in some ways we are not.

The ways our wedding reflects our hip & zen values:

-Vegan buffet (thanks to Restaurant O), including the cake (thanks to Black China Bakery)...down to the fact that I just remembered this morning to remind the caterer that we need soy creamer for the coffee.
-Simple tri-fold invitations sent, no envelopes, inserts etc. All further info provided on a web site. Invitations were printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
-Our centerpieces are going to be organic, local, season fruits and vegetables...all of which can be taken home by guests at the end of the evening. There are a couple of bouquets and boutennieres (which will also include produce...like kale) but no additional cut flower arrangements.
-Although I initially rejected the idea of a favor, given our centerpieces I finally decided to give a Whole Foods canvas grocery bag as the favor...to enable people to actually take the fruits and vegetables home.
-We provided hotel room blocks that were within walking distance of the wedding venue, and the rehearsal dinner venue. Theoretically guests could arrive in Downtown San Jose for the weekend and never have to drive or take a cab anywhere.
-We provided an online registry site that included a donation to the ASPCA with every gift purchased there.
-We have a small wedding party, and there was no dictating of what could be worn. No big bachelor or bachelorette parties either. No limos or horse-drawn carriages involved (God forbid.) In other words, although we're celebrating with quite a few people, we're trying to keep the pomp and circumstances to a minimum. No tuxes. I'm not wearing some big fouffy wedding dress that cost thousands of dollars. I ordered a simple dress on line for $150 (OK, the alterations cost as much as the dress, but still...)
-You've probably already heard about our rings. Canadian conflict-free diamonds, platinum from a sustainable resources, profit share donated to an African charity.

The ways our wedding could have been improved to reflect our hip & zen values:
-The number one thing we could have changed is to not register for products. Not so much because I'm anti-receiving gifts (and I think gift registries are less tacky than cash registries...which seem newly in vogue) but because of the excess packaging that it involves when stores pack and ship such gifts. I have been fairly appalled at just how much packaging has come into our house. True, most of it is recyclable these days, and I've dutiful broken down cardboard and hauled that and everything inside the boxes all to our recycle bins. But Jeez Louise. My heart sinks every time I open up a huge box and find a smaller box inside surrounded by plastic and paper of all kinds.

Yes, I ended up doing a few things I didn't think I was going to do: I ended up hiring a DJ instead of having an "iPod wedding" (although i did make him mix CDs for both the pre-ceremony, the ceremony, and the cocktail hour.) I ended up getting a guestbook. I ended up with those favors. And of course I ended up conceding and sending those recycled, low-impact invites instead of going completely online for our invitations.

And it got harder to just fall into line with traditional wedding expectations as time went on. You start thinking: well crap, I ended up hiring a florist to do my still-life centerpieces, instead of Whole Foods, so why not have an arrangement for the name card table or for the cakes?

The weirdest moment was when I ended up buying a little taffeta clutch purse to match the shrug I'm wearing with my wedding dress. I looked down at that purchase and feel certain I was in a wedding industrial complex-induced daze when I decided I needed that. Particularly given I already have an evening bag in almost the exact same color that I never get to wear because I don't go do fancy things very often.

Eco-weddings are all the rage right now. I did some stuff really well, and fell down on others.

What have you done or are you thinking of doing...any tips for future brides and grooms?

Is slow the way to go

Found this somewhat old post on Veggie Chic proposing 5 ways to slowly transition to veg*nism.

I'll list the headings of the 5 ways, but those are just a teaser...click thru to the post to get the full flavor of the suggestions:

1. Only on Mondays.
2. The elimination game.
3. Stop buying meat.
4. Focus on what you’re adding, not what you’re taking away.
5. Be bad.

Now, when i went vegetarian in 1989, and when I went vegan last year I went all-in all-at-once. And I'm not actually sure which was a harder transition...meat-eater to vegetarian or vegetarian to vegan. And I've definitely found that carrying on if you have a slip-up is a key success factor, which means pushing back against my natural perfectionist streak.

But the bottom line is that I feel like the best way to succeed is to make the mental adjustment...I'm just not a person who eats meat. I'm just not a person who eats dairy. Like that.

So, I'm not sure if the tips above would have worked for me. I'm not sure thinking that I'm a person who sometimes doesn't eat meat would have gotten me there.

What do you think? Cold turkey or slow transition? What has worked and not worked for you?

Wow. Al Gore (and the UN) wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore and the UN's panel on climate change share this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

I guess I don't follow the Nobel much, because I had no idea this was a strong possibility.

It certainly redefines what contributes to "Peace", don't you think? And rightly so. I find it interesting that every futuristic fiction that depicts global strife and conflict usually has some natural (and fundamental) resource at the hear of the conflict...water, land etc. All those SciFi writers can't be wrong :)

Fascinating news.

CNN/Anderson Cooper/Planet in Peril: Looks compelling

I'm immune to most pitches from PR folks to blog about something, but every now and then they get you with one that's simply too relevant and interesting to ignore.

According to the publicist:

"Planet in Peril uses first-hand investigative reporting to provide a better understanding of the environment’s present state. Bringing viewers the stories behind the statistics, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet host and wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin will focus on four main issues that threaten the planet and its inhabitants: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation. Planet in Peril, filmed across four continents and 13 countries, airs over two nights on CNN/U.S. on Tuesday, Oct. 23, and Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. (ET/PT) and globally on CNN International."

To get a sense of it, you're better off watching this:
Video Clip for Planet in Peril (Yes, you have to watch a 15 second ad first, suck it up!)

When is green not green?

How far do you extend your definition of green?

For example, this article reference by PSFK talks about bamboo.

Turns out it's a great environmental resource from some perspectives, but not from others:

"Growing bamboo is a wonderfully beneficial plant for the planet and most is naturally organic bamboo. The manufacturing processes where bamboo the plant is transformed into bamboo the fabric are where the sustainability and eco-friendly luster of bamboo is tarnished because of the heavy chemicals, some of which are toxic, that are often required. Very, very little bamboo clothing would qualify as sustainable or organic clothes."

Green? Not Green?

And let's take it further.

What if everything about the bamboo manufacturing process could qualify as sustainable or organic...but all this manufacturing took place in countries with really abysmal labor practices.

Green? Not Green?

What if they were manufactured with awesome labor practices. But in a country so far away and remote that the carbon footprint required to get it to you was humongous?

Green? Not Green?

And then what if it was only sold here at some huge retail conglomerate whose business practices you abhor?

Green? Not Green?

How far do you extend your definition of Green?

2 useful things, for your weekend consideration

Useful thing #1 is an actual thing: Keri Smith’s Non-Planner Datebook on Recycled Paper

Keri Smith is a blogger who spoke at BlogHer '06 on a panel about the non-textual opportunities blogging presents. Her mojo is all about inspiring and encouraging creativity, even in those of us who don't think of ourselves as particularly talented in that regard.

This Planner is far from the traditional and rigid datebook you might be used to...there's a little bit of structure, and a whole lot of room to create and customize.

I'm one of those folks who is much more used to the very traditional take on calendars, task lists and the like. But when I look at her planner I feel like it might do me some good to use something like this to push me outside my organizational comfort zone. So I thought I'd share it, in case any of you out there are like me.

Hat tip: Great Green Goods

Useful thing #2 is a list of 21 Things you didn't know you could recycle from Co-Op America.

OK, i did know you could recycle a lot of the stuff on the list, but I didn't always know how they were to be recycled, so this is definitely a very handy list.

I also like item #21:

21. Stuff you just can’t recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly.

Love that.

Hat tip: OneChange

And since we're talking recycling, here's a little sneak peek at another interesting blog topic: The Trash Talk Project. What would you look like if you had to carry around every bit of trash you created over two weeks?