Go Green

Compact fluorescent light bulbs are changing the way people look at light. They use 2/3rds less energy than regular light bulbs, last 10 times longer and produce 70% less heat. But, as always, there’s a catch.

[Left: Figures from January 2007.]

CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury, which helps the bulbs to be more efficient than standard incandescent bulbs. Mercury is a neurotoxin which is especially dangerous for fetuses and children. While no mercury is released while the bulb is in tact or being used, the disposal or breakage of such a bulb poses a potential health hazard.

400 million of these bulbs are used each year. That means 400 million are thrown away when they burn out. That small amount of mercury in each bulb adds up when that many are being broken in garbage cans and landfills.

When disposing of CFLs, don’t put them in your trash.

Instead, take the bulbs to a hazardous waste facility. The Oklahoma City facility is located at SW 15^th and Portland and is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The center is free to Oklahoma City residents, but you will need your City water bill as proof of residence. Residents of The Village, Yukon, Tinker Air Force Base, Shawnee and Edmond can recycle their waste at the facility, but will be charged for the service through their municipality.

If a CFL bulb breaks in your home, follow these EPA guidelines to clean it up:

Before Clean-up: Vent the Room

1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.

2. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

1. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.

2. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.

3. Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.

4. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug:

1. Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such

as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.

2. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments

and powder.

3. If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.

4. Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

1. Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.

2. Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.

3. Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken lamps be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Vent the Room During and After Vacuuming

1. For at least the next few times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.

2. Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

By all means, don’t stop using CFLs because of the mercury. The bulbs are perfectly safe to use in your home. Just be sure you dispose of them properly. Either take them to the hazardous waste facility. If you must throw them in the trash, seal the bulb in two plastic bags before throwing them in the garbage.

- Lisa

What better way to celebrate than with some terrifying facts about what we are doing to our environment, courtesy of C.S. Goldsmith, author of UNINHABITABLE: A Case for Caution. 

Just kidding. But seriously, folks.

Instead of focusing on the negative and scaring everyone to death, I’m going to give you a list of things you can do to help reduce global warming: 

1. Recycle!
2. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs!
3. Use less heat and air conditioning!
4. Turn off lights, appliances and the water faucet!
5. Plant trees!
6. Drive less and get some exercise!
7. Use less hot water!
8. Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to see in what areas you can improve your energy efficiency!
9. Buy products that are energy-efficient and recyclable!
10. Spread the word!

I use exclamation points for a reason. Global warming is a huge threat, and it’s not going away any time soon. Goldsmith claims the problem is worse and more immediate than has been publicized. The problem is not only ours; it is our children’s as well. 

“We have 5 to 10 years maximum to find a way to tame global warming. Otherwise, we risk methane-induced temperature spikes that could push us into temperature zones that would make adaptation unlikely and much of the plane uninhabitable,” Goldsmith said. 

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty awful. 

So, to the powers that be, I am officially declaring every day to be Earth Day. The way things are going, we’re going to need more than one day a year to reverse our destructive path and make sure that our children will have an Earth on which to live.

Anybody with me?

- Lisa

When I was about 14 years old some American college students came to England and stayed with my family there. They had just finished a trip around Germany and this is how I came to know about the German shower.

I can’t really find any solid evidence to prove all Germans shower in the way the girls described - but the people they stayed with certainly did.

Basically, the girls said that when they showered in Germany they were “advised” (read, “told”) by the hosts to turn on the water, get damp (not even wet) and then turn the water off. Then - while standing in an arid, cold bathtub - do all the soaping, hair washing, shaving etc.

Once fully soaped up, turn on the water for less than one minute and get clean.

I tried this recently.

Let me tell you - it’s no fun. Especially when you live in my house which has minimum insulation.

I’m not going to do this again anytime soon.

However, it did highlight to me just how much water is wasted when I shower. From now on, I’m going to make an effort not to be wasteful and unnecessarily hang around in there (my husband might also appreciate getting to use some hot water one of these days). It’s not worth the environmental guilt to spend 15 minutes in the shower watching the water make a whirlpool down the drain.

The same thing applies for brushing teeth. Just get the brush wet and then turn the tap off - it makes a huge difference to me when I consider I brush my teeth at least three times a day and for no less than two minutes a time.

Also, when washing dishes, fill up a bowl with hot water and use just that. Don’t leave the tap constantly running for the entire soapy time.

The smallest things can make a difference and it’s up to every one of us to take small steps to making this earth the best it can be.

- Linds

The late, great Steve Irwin’s daughter launched her “green” clothing line yesterday. Bindi Wear International has a snazzy, fun Web site which is colorful and interactive and the clothes are actually quite cute.

I should disclose that I can’t tell a lie and that Bindi Irwin creeps me out something terrible. She’s a little too in-your-face ‘look at me!’  for my liking and is way too grown-up for a tiny person.

I will, however, say that her clothing line has a great message behind it.  It donates money to animal conservation and educates children about the environment. And, truly, the clothes are pretty cool for kids - if I had children, I’d buy them.

I don’t know how much Bindi actually got a say in her clothing line and the designs (probably more than I’d imagine), but having a child promoting animal conservation is great. Children are going to respond to another child in a different way than they would an adult telling them what to wear and do.

I think she’s going to be in the public eye for a very long time so I’d better get used to her peppy ways. She gets to grow up on a zoo which must be amazing, but she doesn’t have her dad anymore, and, for that, I will always hold a soft spot in my heart for this strange, little creature called Bindi.

And, frankly, Steve Irwin could do no wrong in my opinion, so any child of his must be OK, mate.

- Linds

A new environmental superhero is hitting bookstores this month with a valuable message for kids.

Michael Recycle is a “super-green” hero who encourages a grimy town overtaken by trash to clean up their act. The green-caped crusader declares, “You must stop this now! You’ve got to act soon. The towers of trash reach up to the moon!”

The town members are inspired my Michael to create a “Be Greener” Campaign, which includes:

- Recycling
- Growing their own vegetables
- Collecting rain for reuse

Ellie Bethel is the creative mind behind Michael Recycle. She uses rhyming, whimsical prose to deliver her powerful and timely message to children. This book almost makes me wish I had kids of my own to read it to. Almost.

For now, I might just pick up a copy of my own and read it to myself.

- Lisa

Oklahoma teens were environmentally minded when they came up with the theme for an annual fund-raiser at the end of March.

Volunteers and staff of Youth Services for Oklahoma County, Inc. are organizing the Reach for the Stars benefit to help raise money for programs to help local teens. The volunteer offshoot group, the Youth Services Teen Service Board (made up of 35 Oklahoma teenagers), decided that the environment is a major concern in their lives, so they are making the event green.

Programs and decorations will be made of recycled products, the dinner menu will include organic food and guests will take come compact fluorescent light bulbs to offset the use of electricity and fuel. Live auction items include a 2008 Toyota Prius, landscaping and tree packages and a one-week stay in a three-bedroom condo in Park City, Utah, an EPA-designated Green Power Community.

Thanks to their efforts, these teens should be able to reach the stars and keep the ozone layer intact. Major props are in order to these teens for thinking green and making a difference in their community. Bravo!

- Lisa

The Edmond Recycling Center is open from 10am-2pm every Saturday.  It is located just west of Broadway on 1^st Street. I enjoy volunteering there monthly and meeting all of the motivated recyclers of all ages that come by. I feel like it is a small step toward doing what I can to help the environment. With the added acceptability of pressboard I find that my family has reduced its weekly trash amount tremendously.

The center accepts:

Paper

Cardboard (corrugated AND pressboard – such as cereal boxes, etc.)

Glass

Plastics (#1 & 2)

Aluminum and Tin

We are always looking for new volunteers!

Contact:

Zainab Khanakah at zhkvaml@sbcglobal.net to volunteer for a 2-hour shift once a month.

- Guest post from Tracy McCormick

The title of this blog post is not some trite remark about the dangers of too much bottled water; rather it’s a valid commentary on a disturbing situation. Before I go further, this magazine article should be mandatory reading for anyone who wonders what happens with all the plastic we use day in and day out. It’s a long article, but one well worth the read. Here’s the intro paragraph:

“A vast swath of the Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain. Scientists say these toxins are causing obesity, infertility…and worse.”

You read that right. There is a giant, floating mass of discarded plastic — bottles, grocery sacks and tires, to name some of it — in the Pacific Ocean.

If you don’t have time to read the whole article, let me sum it up for you best as possible: Humans create a huge amount of plastic waste every day; the waste is hardly ever recycled; a huge amount of it has found its way into the ocean; plastics are made with toxic chemicals; as plastics s-l-o-w-l-y break down, they release toxic particles into the water and air; this is having a hugely negative impact on ocean life; microscopic plastic particles also are finding their way into human bodies; doubly worse, a lot of plastics, when heated, leach chemicals into whatever they happen to be touching — including food; exposure to such toxins causes a number of serious problems that may slowly be making people in this world sick.

I know it sounds melodramatic, but this magazine article has influenced my perception of the world around me. Since reading this, my wife and I have stopped buying bottled water for our house and have moved to wooden toys for our son. We bought glass containers to store and reheat our leftovers.

If fertility problems, obesity, increased incidences of diabetes and various types of cancer don’t concern you, than don’t worry about plastics. If they do — and all these serious maladies have been connected to exposure to chemicals found in everyday plastic items — then you owe it to yourself to be educated about the dangers of the products you use.

As consumers and people who have to live on this Earth for the rest of our lives, we have to ask ourselves some questions here: Doesn’t it seem like you hear about medical costs rising every year in America? Does it seem like America is getting sicker and sicker every year? Why is that? Is there a chance, even a slight one, that all the toxic chemicals we are forced to live with are slowly undermining everyone’s health?

If there is a chance, and much research says there is, all you can do is take action to cut these things out of your life. Start by reading the article I mention above, and see where you want to go from there.

- Nick

View this Associated Press article on the rate of glacier shrinkage.

Diapering your baby might seem like a pretty straightforward process. And you may never have considered that there would be any environmental repercussions to doing it. After all, every baby needs diapers. You slap ‘em on, let baby do his or her business and then toss ‘em in the trash. But that’s not the end of the story.

According to research done by a group called the Real Diaper Association, disposable diapers can take anywhere from 250 to 500 years to completely decompose.

Think about those figures for a minute: That would mean that every single disposable diaper ever manufactured and used still exists today. They’re sitting in landfills — more than 27 billion disposable diapers added to the pile each year, according to RDA estimates.

The environmental footprint of disposable diapers spreads further than that, too. It takes more than 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine to produce disposable diapers for one baby each year. And what’s worse, several studies have shown there may be health implications involved for those wearing the diapers. According to the RDA, disposable diapers contain the following:

- Dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is a carcinogenic chemical, listed by the EPA as the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. It is banned in most countries, but not the U.S.

- Tributyltin (TBT), a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.

- Sodium polyacrylate, a type of super-absorbent polymer which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. A similar substance had been used in super-absorbency tampons until the early 1980s, when it was revealed that the material increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome.

Pretty scary stuff, and that’s on top of the thought of massive piles of human waste towering in our landfills. So what to do? The thing that anyone can do is start off with, or switch to, cloth diapers. But why cloth diapers, some might ask. After all, aren’t they flimsy, leaky and inconvenient and not really that good at keeping all that mess in? Isn’t that why everyone embraced disposable diapers when they were introduced? Perhaps the answer was yes at one time, but the cloth diapers of today are not like your mother or grandmother’s cloth diapers.

My wife and I use cloth diapers on our 2 1/2-year-old son. We switched over when he was about 9 months old, and although I was hesitant at first — for all the usual reasons — I haven’t regretted the change. Just thinking about the thousands of diapers my family has kept out of landfills is enough for me. Cloth diapers are a lot more convenient these days. They can come with snaps or Velcro tabs – no more safety pin sticks — that hold them snugly in place. They have elastic built in to hold in leaks. Plus, they’re a lot more stylish now than the plain whites you might think of. And in the long run, they can be a lot cheaper than disposable diapers. Surprisingly enough, there’s a re-sale market for cloth diapers, too, so you can make back a large percentage of what you paid for the diapers in the first place (roughly $15 to $20 per diaper).

There are plenty of varieties of cloth diapers to choose from, and plenty of resources available online; just do a Web search for “cloth diapers.”

- Nick