Green Cotton

Wondering what to give someone for the holidays? Tired of all the stuff piling up with no more space to put it? Down in the dumps over the economy without much extra cash to spend on gifts?

Well, Brighter Planet has just the solution for you: Give the gift of carbon neutrality for ONE DAY to someone you care about by offsetting all the carbon he or she would typically emit. Brighter Planet has calculated that the average American emits 136 pounds of carbon dioxide each day. Where does this come from?

• About 36 pounds come from driving, flying, and other travel.
• Another 22 pounds come from heating, cooling, and powering our homes.
• The final 78 pounds come from producing, transporting, and disposing of all the stuff we buy, and from shared services like schools and street lights.
• 136 pounds would fill 5,000 balloons — imagine releasing that every day!

For every participant, Brighter Planet will donate 136 pounds of offsets — the equivalent of one day’s worth of CO2 emissions (based on the estimated average American footprint of 24.78 tons).

Help Brighter Planet reach their goal by giving away 5,000 One Day gifts and offset 680,000 pounds of CO2. We’re close, but could use your continued support to get there. Click here to send a gift: http://oneday.brighterplanet.com/users/3844/passes/public/94J-U6Y.

To learn more about Brighter Planet and their carbon offsets, visit here.

Thanks to the rise of eco-conscious businesses and celebrity plugs, the notion of “Going Green” has become part of everyday American life. Recycling, bringing your own bag, staying away from water bottles… small (but important) changes seem to be taking hold as more people take steps toward a greener, more sustainable earth. However as the New York Times reported last Sunday, this green movement (including recycling) appears to be facing a tough uphill battle in our current economic crisis. In fact, the author writes, “the economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals.”

Unfortunately, the reality is that the valuable practice of recycling has become less (or not at all) cost effective for many towns and businesses. As noted by the heap of recyclables accumulating at landfills, one might quickly become disparaged and start throwing plastics and cardboard back into the trash. But rather than doing so, and simultaneously throwing our small but growing social and environmental responsibility to the wind, isn’t this a time more than ever that we need most to stand our ground?”

On Sunday, The New York Times called attention to what could be a recycling crisis, proclaiming, “Trash has crashed.” This is reminiscent of a 1996 article in New York Times Magazine, where John Tierney declared, “recycling is garbage,” and that it “may be the most wasteful activity in America.”
Naturally, environmental groups were quick to defend the benefits of recycling versus the economic cost.

The Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund issued reports detailing how municipal recycling programs actually cost less than curbside garbage pick-up and disposal.
But tell this to recyclers today, who are looking at a dismal picture. The scrap market has slumped, and junk is piling up. Perfectly recyclable materials like paper, cardboard, plastic and metals are heading straight for the landfills. According the Times, “The scrap market in general is closely tied to the economic conditions because demand for some recyclables tracks closely with markets for new products.”

The U.S. economy is not solely to blame for the scraps’ decrease in value. China is the number one export market for U.S. recyclables, but as the global economy has slowed, so has China’s demand. Now our scraps are worth much less in parts of the country where shipping to China is too difficult and expensive. Unfortunately, this also sheds light on the motive behind the green movement— could recycling be more about profit than actual activism? If recycling becomes too much of a hassle, expect many businesses to cease “save the planet” preaching.

Thankfully, the big picture isn’t all that bleak. Most cities are keeping their recycling programs in place, whether by law or for economics. As the Environmental Defense and others have pointed out, recycling still wins out over the cost of landfills. While cities may balk at reaping less – and even paying – to unload their recyclables, they will still save money in the end. Boston, the Times reports, is one of the hardest-hit markets, receiving only $5 a ton for recycling paper. But that’s much more favorable than paying $80 a ton to send that paper to a landfill.

Small towns are also feeling the economic blow, and many refuse to accept less lucrative recyclable plastics and metals (my town, for instance, accepts only #1 and #2 plastic). What can you do if your town faces a similar pinch? Nothing. The less we do, and, therefore, the less we use, the more likely we are to see recycling and our economy bounce back. For now, keep recycling all you can—but it’s even more important to remember the “reduce” and “reuse” parts of the mantra.

Photosource top: www.cdvds.co.uk

Article Sources:
New York Times article:

About.com on the environment.

Article By Erin Dale

Photosource: designspongeonline.com

By Erin Dale

My mother recently replaced her shower curtain. I caught her carting the old one toward the trash. “Wait!” I cried. “Can’t you at least recycle that thing?” Shrugging, she said, “I doubt it, but it’s disgusting and needs to go.” I cringed. It’s going, all right… to its new home, the landfill. “I hope you at least replace it with a fabric one,” I said. “Oh, I already replaced it. I just bought the same thing again.” Livid, I groaned “Mom, I wish you’d talked to me first!”

Is a shower curtain really worth obsessing over? Consider this: most shower curtains are made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), one of the nastiest of all consumer plastics. Producing it is energy-intensive, and the manufacturing releases carcinogenic dioxins and other harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. According to Christie Matheson in “Green Chic,” “About seven billion pounds of PVC are discarded annually in the United States and most recycling facilities won’t accept it, because recycling it is highly labor-intensive and potentially hazardous.” My town’s facility won’t take PVC; I checked.

So now my family has a brand new, perfectly smelly PVC shower curtain that will also get nasty and need to be tossed, and get even worse when it winds up in a landfill, leaching its harmful chemicals back into the ground… just like the last shower curtain, and all the others that have been innocently replaced over the years (see typical landfull below).

Florida landfill featuring plastics….photosource: static.flickr.com

The simple solution would have been to find an eco-friendly shower curtain, as there are plenty of options out there. However, this seemed too daunting for my mom. For some quick shopping tips, I found organic hemp shower curtains at rawganique.com.

According to this site, hemp is a durable and naturally antifungal and antibacterial materials for curtains. I’ve owned a few hemp products over the years (not a shower curtain, yet), and my only complaint is that the material tends to get ratty. I wonder how long it would take before I’d need to replace a hemp shower curtain? The good news is that, when I do need a new one, hemp is biodegradable.

Something less labor-intensive, perhaps, would be a curtain made from organic cotton. Cotton may not be as strong as hemp, but I’m sure it would wash a little easier (and it’s also biodegradable). Pristineplanet.com has a decent selection of organic cotton and hemp shower curtains, starting at $26 (nice) and going up to $139 (yikes!).

Matheson recommends gaiam.com for linen shower curtains. This would have to be my favorite choice; linen is always classy and gorgeous, and the site promises the curtain will last through many washings (for $59, one would hope so!). Linen is also more mildew-resistant than cotton.

For something tough that may never need replacing, try curtains made from pack cloth, a urethane-coated nylon fabric. Nylon, like PVC, has an energy-intensive manufacturing, but it will outlast a PVC curtain. Satara-inc.com boasts, “It may be the last shower curtain you ever own!” Theirs retails for $50, so purchasing one will definitely save money over the years; however, these are less attractive than the more pricey curtains made from organic fabrics.

You’ll notice, in general, that these sustainable curtains are far costlier than PVC choices, but PVC is costlier when it comes to your – and the planet’s – health. And don’t forget the perk of owning a fabric shower curtain— no more plastic-y smell! If you, too, already have a PVC shower curtain, don’t run out and replace it with an organic one. Use what you have (as long as you can stand the fumes!). Then decide on a product that’s worth it.

What do you think? Have you tried an organic or eco-friendly shower curtain?

What was the result? Does your town recylce PVCs? Let us know greencottonblog@gmail.com