It Starts Today

As my time contributing to this blog comes to an end, I would like to leave my readers with a few final comments. We, as Americans, are a very blessed people. We live in the wealthiest nation in with access to the most amount of knowledge in the history of man, yet we are a large contributor to most of the environmental problems facing our planet. The situation we are in is not great, but there is good news; we have a choice to make. We can choose to continue being apathetic and lazy, or we can begin RIGHT NOW making choices that will benefit the Earth. Take a lesson from Ed Begley Jr. and begin living simply by doing what you can with what you have. In everything you do, REDUCE your waste, REUSE that which can be reused, and RECYCLE everything possible. We have the opportunity to be recognized as the generation that saved planet Earth. Let's start this process today!

A Job Well Done

For all those that helped out with the Great American Cleanup yesterday, give yourself a pat on the back. Based on the quantity of trash bags I've seen waiting to be picked up around town, I'd say it was a very successful event. Hopefully it made a large number of people aware of the amount of litter present in our community while at the same time motivating them to want to keep our city clean. Maybe in the future we can do this more than once a year?

Role Models

A few months ago Georgia Southern was able to host a lecture about living simply by actor and activist Ed Begley, Jr. For those of you who haven't seen his show on The Green Channel, Mr. Begley is an incredible example of living simply. Yes he is a multi-millionaire, but he lives in a small house in the suburbs of Los Angeles. He drives an 8 year-old electric Toyota Rav4 when weather or distance doesn't allow him to ride his bike. His house has all the modern appliances, but everything is powered using solar panels. Obviously much of this technology is new, and much of it is expensive, but he explained to us that this lifestyle has been a process that started in 1970. He began by recycling, driving an electric car (a glorified golf cart), and having a compost on the balcony of his apartment. His car didn't cost much, and recycling and composting take very little time. In his words, "I did what I could with what I had." As he became more successful he was able to weather strip and buy a rain barrel. Eventually, he was able to purchase solar panels to heat his water. Now his entire house his solar powered and his power bill is non-existent.

So here's what I'm asking of you: DO WHAT YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE!
If you don't recycle, please start! If you aren't using reusable grocery bags, please buy some (they're cheap)! If you are doing these things, start composting or weather strip! In every facet of your life try to reduce your waste, recycle what can be recycled, and reuse that which can be reused!

Image courtesy of: http://www.greenpatriot.us/featuredgreen.html

Hear ye, hear ye...

I know that everyone is stressed as finals are approaching and projects are due, but I want to highlight an opportunity to get involved with the Bulloch County community to be a part of the solution to a greener earth. This Saturday, April 25, all across the U.S. is the Great American Cleanup. Over 17,000 communities participate in this effort to clean up and beautify their cities as well as raise awareness about conservation and green living. Information about the Bulloch County event can be found here, but I'll highlight some of that information for those of you too lazy to click on the hyperlink:

• The event starts at 9:00 a.m. on April 25, 2009
• You must register a team (2 or more people) by emailing kbb@keepbullochbeautiful.org or calling 912.764.6147 - they will tell you where to meet on Saturday morning as well
  
• GAC is FREE to participate in and includes T-SHIRT, BREAKFAST, and LUNCH
• Opportunity to help serve your community while meeting new people and making new friends

EVERYBODY COME OUT AND HELP KEEP BULLOCH BEAUTIFUL!


Image courtesy of: http://www.austellga.gov

Meet Secretary Chu

Dr. Steven Chu is a name most will not recognize yet he holds one of the more important positions in President Obama's cabinet as Energy Secretary. He is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and at the time of his appointment was the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and a professor at the University of California-Berkeley. LBNL, one of the most prestigious labs in the country, has been a longtime proponent of climate change and its mission under Chu has been to become the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research. President Obama has made combating climate change a top issue on his agenda and I feel that the appointment of Chu is a step in the right direction. Not only does Dr. Chu have the administrative background to handle a program with a large budget and many research interests, but he also is a world-renowned scientist with a remarkable research history. The Washington Post has held several interviews with Secretary Chu which discuss various topics ranging from climate change to the cap and trade policy proposed in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The videos can be found here.


Image courtesy of: http://w11.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/nb.story/story_id/16226/nb_date/2009-04-09

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day everyone...let's begin living with the philosophy that every day is Earth Day!

Image courtesy of: http://www.rnrplastics.com

Happy Earth Day Eve!

On the eve of Earth Day, I find it fitting to discuss the new bill put forth by the House Energy Committee. The Waxman-Markey Bill, also known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, was recently put forward for discussion in hopes to have legislation ready for debate by Memorial Day. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its analysis of the bill today, giving it high marks. According to the EPA, the bill will "drive the clean energy transformations of the U.S. economy." The bill proposes a cap-and-trade policy much like that currently being utilized by the European Union. Though many Republicans call this a "hidden energy tax," the EPA feels it will have a "relatively modest impact on U.S. consumers." This policy could also increase the percentage of our energy that comes from low and zero-emission energy sources to 46% by 2050. Currently these sources represent 14% of energy production. I find it refreshing, especially in the midst of such financial turmoil, that Congress and our President are still looking at the broad picture and trying to reverse U.S. policy towards climate change. I honestly feel that citizens follow the lead of their government, and this bill could help Americans to see the benefits of going green!!

also used in this post:
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/epa-releases-analysis-of-climate-bill/
by Jad Mouawad

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

One of my good buddies, we'll call him Bo, is a manager at the local Buffalo's Restaurant/Bar. I've known Bo for a while and we both actually used to bartend together at a different restaurant so we often talk about the restaurant business. I was curious as to how well Buffalo's was doing and so Bo was kind enough to provide me with some facts and figures about how much beer they would sell in a given two-week period. This happened to be during the time when Yeungling arrived in Georgia, so I imagine bottle sales were a little higher, but still the numbers are astounding. Buffalo's sold over 3600 bottles of beer in just two weeks! That's not to mention the number of plastic cups from liquor as well. He assured me that Buffalo's was in the process of starting to recycle, but about 2.5 months has passed and I haven't heard anything else from him about that. No other bar in this town recycles either, however, so the amount of glass and plastic waste generated by bars in this town alone is incredible.

The good news is the solution to this problem is simple: our county needs to offer curbside recycling pick-up. Businesses would be happy to recycle if they didn't have to worry about getting materials to a recycling center. Unfortunately, our county isn't too concerned with this issue and in this economy, no program that many would deem useless is going to be discussed. Savannah just began this so hopefully we will follow suit shortly after this economy picks back up.



Image courtesy of: http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/green-glass-bottles

Recycling, more harm than good? I think not!

As a chemistry major with a particular interest in the environment, it should come as no surprise that I have a desire to study environmental chemistry. My endeavors in this subject have led me to discover the argument as to whether recycling saves energy and money. Some out there feel that recycling glass and plastic isn't cost efficient; another argument suggests that combustible wastes be burned as fuel instead of recycled. Two books, one creatively entitled Environmental Chemistry by Colin Baird and Michael Cann, and another titled Pollution: Causes, Effects, and Control by Roy Harrison et al. address the various chemical processes involved in recycling and help to further explain the validity of these arguments. I won't get into all the specifics because I want people to keep reading, but these books show that both parties, those who are pro-recycling and those who feel it isn't cost efficient, have valid arguments.
From an economic stand point, recycling does make sense because it creates jobs for those involved in the various recycling processes while also greatly reducing the amount of space needed for landfills. The amount of carbon dioxide released during the production of glass and plastics is also decreased. The debate about combustion of certain materials is a little more complicated, but the amount of carbon dioxide that is released compared to the amount of energy created is not very impressing. Though some may say differently, chemistry speaks truth and it has ruled in favor of recycling

ARGGHH

I'm sitting in physics quite pissed off. My professor hasn't shown up but a professor in the class next door swears she is going to be here so we've been doing the most pointless lab physics has to offer. Index of refraction is a relatively simple concept. Needless to say, I'm ticked at my professor and adults in general so let's talk about some of the waste they generate. All facts are from The Green Book:

• On average 400 billion copies are made each year; that's 10,000 sheets of paper a year for every office worker
• Food wastes (i.e. creamer, sugar, salt and pepper packs, stir sticks and Styrofoam cups) account for 10% of office wastes
• Commercial buildings use 18% of all energy in the country and 10% of all water
• Commuting consumes 67.5 billion gallons of gasoline annually

The numbers are pretty alarming, but the real question is, "what can be done to change these statistics?" Here are some helpful suggestions:

• Double-side copies
• Carpool/Use public transportation
• Bring your own coffee mug!!
• Use natural light when possible
• Avoid environmental and financial costs of flying and videoconference

The easiest one of these suggestions is to begin using your own coffee mug. Many times coffee shops give a discount for bringing your own mug. Oh, and for all you professors out there...show up to class on time please!


Image courtesy of: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/15/

For Here or To Go?

Americans live incredibly fast paced lives. Every service industry is geared towards speed and efficiency; one can have their car serviced, washed and detailed in under an hour, pictures can be developed in record time and even the DMV guarantees certain services be completed in short amounts of time. As a consequence of our living-on-the-go, Americans eat away from home A LOT, and I find this to be another alarming problem for our environment. According to Bruce Horovitz of USA Today, the average restaurant produces 100,000 pounds of garbage per location per year with most of it from bulky packaging and excess food. Having worked at a restaurant for over a year, I've seen this waste first hand. We all have been to restaurants like Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday's and ordered just a basic item like a chicken sandwich or a pasta dish. The portion sizes at places like this are incredible. Sandwiches are bigger than my face while a whole tub pasta comes with a "side salad" which is really big enough for a family of four. I know very few people who can ever finish a meal this large, and the excess food is either thrown away by the restaurant or taken home in a bulky Styrofoam container, left in the fridge for a week and then thrown away. What a waste! Fast food restaurants are just as bad, though. Thankfully the portions have gone down somewhat, but all food comes in disposable packaging and the workers seem to think each person needs fifteen napkins and eight ketchup packets just to eat a burger and fries. What a waste!! Americans need to rediscover the benefits of a home cooked family dinner. Environmentally, less packaging is used in home cooked meals and less food waste is produced. Financially, it is much cheaper to eat at home, while the nutritional benefits of a home cooked meal are reason enough to eat out less and cook home more. Seems like a winning situation for everyone...


Image courtesy of: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/bobbys-burger-palace/

A step in the right direction?

James Kanter, a writer for the New York Times, published an interesting article today in the Green Inc. section of nytimes.com. The piece addresses hotel-giant Marriot's decision to stop automatically delivering a newspaper to each guest every morning. Instead, one must request that a newspaper be delivered upon check-in. According to Marriot, each paper represents a half-pound of carbon-dioxide emissions and this plan should cut down newspaper distribution by around fifty thousand papers. I'll be honest, that's a lot of carbon dioxide emissions and I am glad to see large companies addressing environmental issues. However, I find two problems with this plan, one being that I am quite fonding of reading a newspaper in the morning with a cup of copy. I love to go to a local coffee shop to get a cup of joe and read a few newspapers. I wish I had the money to afford having the Times delivered to my house, but being a poor college student means I live on a budget. I guess my concern is will this be a significant step toward the complete demise of the newspaper industry? It is already an industry in peril, and more events like this could spell disaster. Second, does Marriot really care about the environment or is this just a measure to cut costs in this tough economy? Either way I'm glad to see that the hotel company is attempting to adopt more sustainable business practices, but I will be sad when one day its no longer possible to leave a coffee shop with black fingers from covering a newspaper from front to back.

What are kids learning at school?

The education system in America is probably the best in the world. Every child has an opportunity to go to school for free and even eat for free. Of those who graduate high school, a large percentage have the opportunity to go to college whether that be through scholarships, loans or some other method of payment. I realize that all is not perfect with our school systems, however, but I want to draw attention to a concept that American schools have up until now failed everyone who has attended them. Everyone should be well aware by now that this blog is designed to discuss the reasons why Americans need to think about reducing waste, and reusing and recycling products and resources. What a better place to do this than public schools? Children as young as five could begin to hear about how they can help sustain the Earth just by sorting glass, aluminum and plastic from the rest of household garbage. Colleges are good about this but elementary, middle, and high schools should have paper recycling bins next to trash cans. Unused food from cafeterias also creates large amounts of waste. This is incredibly sad as much of that unused food could go to shelters, soup kitchens and meals-on-wheels programs to help feed those in need. Other food wastes could be used to create a school compost. How cool would it be if children grew up learning about sustainable living practices in the classroom while learning about waste-management and composting from their own cafeteria???? I only wish I could have been so lucky.



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We're Number One!!!!!

The United States of America leads the world in all kinds of statistics, both good and bad. We're definitely the best country in the world at basketball; if only that were true with soccer. Another particularly alarming statistic is the amount of waste produced by the average American each day. Sources differ somewhat on an exact figure, but on average an American produces between four and a half and six pounds of garbage a day (Kostigen 1). Honestly that makes me feel like a piece of crap. I am responsible for over a thousand pounds of garbage a year yet I am not held accountable for one ounce of it. All I have to do is split a 17 dollar trash pick up bill each month with two other people. With an American population of over three-hundred million, our country produces around eighteen million pounds of garbage a day (Snow). The area of land required to dump the trash Americans produce in a year is approximately the size of Pennsylvania. All this garbage and no real financial burden for any American. I hate to be doom and gloom, but the statistics are alarming and I could continue listing them if I felt like they would motivate people to start thinking about the waste they create. For those of you wanting to read more about some of America's problems with waste, I recommend The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen. Taking the time to separate products made of glass, aluminum, plastic and paper from the rest of our waste could REDUCE the amount of garbage dumped in a landfill by seventy-five percent (Kostigen 2). SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT!!??!! How easy is that? Not only would this reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills, but it would reduce the amount of raw materials needed to produce more glass, aluminum, plastic and paper! Recycling and reusing goods reduces wastes. The 3 R's work together beautifully to help develop a society concerned with preserving our environment!


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Wendy's or Zaxby's?

We all face hundreds of decisions every day. There's the little decisions like what to wear or where to go eat dinner; then there's the big one's like where to attend college, whom to marry or which job to accept. While many of these decisions are small and the consequences of them are small, some have lasting effects. For most people, it seems that recycling fits into the small category. We mindlessly throw away that coke bottle into a trash can even though there's a recycling bin next to the garbage. We ball up hundreds of sheets of used paper every year and pretend to be an NBA star while shooting the paper like a basketball instead of just placing it in a paper recycling bin. I'll be the first to admit that I often think, "what's one sheet of paper going to hurt the environment?" Shame on me because this thinking is exactly what's wrong with Americans today. Every single one of us is part of the problem, therefore every action we take needs to help solve the problem instead of continuing to add to it. In today's times there is no excuse for not recycling, it is SO EASY!!! There's places to recycle everywhere; Wal-Mart and Home Depot, the nation's two largest retailers, both have incredible recycling programs for almost every recyclable material used by consumers. What could be better than walking in to a store with recyclables and coming out with a week's worth of groceries or a new ceiling fan? Not to mention recycling allows resources and energy to be used elsewhere while helping to keep hazardous products out of landfills. Come on people, the choice is simple: RECYCLE!

3 R's

The purpose of this blog is to explore three simple concepts: reduce, reuse, recycle. It's fairly evident that Americans consume too many resources and generate far too much waste. Given the current state of the world economy, it seems like a perfect time for Americans to begin learning how to live simply with the hopes of reducing our country's negative impact on the planet. Over the next month I plan to address a few of the wasteful aspects of everyday American culture while proposing simple solutions to help the average person reduce, reuse and recycle.

In the beginning....

Let the blogging commence