Even though I have been recycling since I was a little girl, I am sometimes still amazed by the amount of time and energy that goes into processing my own household waste. When I was little, recycling was a family activity – we would sort glass and aluminum, crush cans and bundle newspapers on Saturday mornings, than load everything into our Datsun 510 and deliver it to the University of Maryland’s recycling center. Taking care of the recycling was just a part of life – something I didn’t think much about, but instead simply did.

Today, recycling seems much more complicated than back in the early 80’s. I live in a small apartment that has a living room/dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. There are trash recepticals in each room, and when I actually take the time to empty them and sort through my trash, I’m always shocked by how long it takes me to finish the task. Now, I will admit that I could process my waste more frequently, (thereby cutting down on the sheer volume of garbage I ever need to process at once), but that’s just not how I do things. Instead of taking out the trash once a week, I wait until the stack of paper behind my desk is overflowing, and the plastic bottles are overflowing their bins in my living room.

When I do finally process my trash, it takes time to sort through my desk garbage and separate the sensitive documents that need to be shred from the used envelopes, offers for gym memberships and well-read magazines. Once everything is sorted, I typically have a large paper shopping bag (today’s bag probably weighs 10 pounds) full of newspapers, magazines, advertisements and other recyclables. My shredder gets a small stack of sensitive documents, and there’s usually a plastic shopping bag worth of pure garbage left over.

Once that’s done, I pull out the paper recycling from the bathroom and bedroom trash containers, find any shampoo bottles that have made their way into the garbage can, and than set to work on sorting the other recyclables. My city recycles paper, cardboard, several types of plastic, glass and aluminum. I take this kind of recycling out every few weeks (as compared to the paper which I sort through every few months), and will normally dispose of 30-40 plastic bottles, 5 or 6 glass containers, and a milk crate full of cardboard.

The kitchen garbage tends to be straightforward, mostly because I don’t throw recyclables into that bin, and I don’t compost my food waste. I thought about composting, but I live in the city, have no yard, cook little, and don’t know what I would do with the waste in a full kitchen compost crock. The kitchen garbage goes out every two weeks or so, and is most difficult to deal with when I’ve cleaned out the fridge and had to toss out rotten food.

It would be easier to simply stick all of my solid waste into large black plastic bags and dump it in the garbage, but sorting through my garbage is helpful. By being forced to look through the remnants of my consumption, I am forced to acknowledge how much I use, and to think about the impact my purchases have on my community, my country and my planet. In her book, Garbage Land, Elizabeth Royte writes about sorting through her trash for a year, and recording all she threw away as part of an experiment she took on to track her consumption. While I don’t go nearly as far as Royte, I do try to look at what I throw away and ask myself if I could be doing a better job at reducing my own consumption.

Like almost everyone out there, I certainly could do better – and I’m trying. There are fewer plastic water bottles in my recycling bin than there have been in the past, I am making an effort to eat all of the groceries I purchase before they rot, and I’m taking steps to cut down on the number of bills that arrive in my mailbox. Changing your lifestyle to reduce what you purchase, reuse what you can, and recycle everything possible is a process that takes time and energy, and isn’t always fun. There are certainly things I might have enjoyed doing more today, but the paper behind my desk overwhelmed all else, so today became the day I had to take out the trash. It’s still just a part of life, but now I understand much more clearly how my actions (or inactions) impact the world around me.

One last note – if you’re interested in what happens to your garbage after you leave it on the curb, check out Garbage Land. It’s an interesting read and Royte does a great job picking apart the complex after life of our garbage.

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For years I have been resisting paperless credit card, bill and bank statements, but the time has come for me to drop my stubborn hold on receiving paper in the mail and start getting all of my bills sent via email. The reasons I’ve held off on asking for email-only notification are selfish and stupid: I am more apt to ignore my email than I am to ignore my snail mail, I like having paper records of my bills, I am loathe to change a system that’s been working for me for the past 15+ years…

All bad reasons considering how many trees I’ve most likely been responsible for chopping down since I was issued my first credit card – the Discover Card – as a freshman at the University of Delaware.

I was, in part, motivated to sign up for paperless billing this month when I received my AT&T Universal Card statement in the mail. For the past 2 years I’ve not made a single purchase with this card – I simply pay the bill every month in a desperate attempt to reduce my personal debt-load. I shut the card down a few years back when they tried to raise my interest rate – 22% was a little rich for my blood!

This means that there is no detailed statement to check each month – I simply look at what’s due, check the interest payment and pay the bill electronically. The statement gets filed away in my heavy-duty metal filing cabinet full of folders that are full of similar statements. When I got the bill this month however, something on the envelope caught my eye.

By signing up for paperless billing, AT&T (owned by Citi) will plant a tree on my behalf! OK, so just this moment I went ahead and enrolled in paperless billing – and for whatever reason, it was emotionally difficult, yet very easy to do so. I’m still not sure why it is so hard for me to make the transition from receiving a piece of paper in the mail that I look at once and file away forever, but it is. And, if it’s difficult for ME to do this, I can’t imagine how hard it will be to get EVERYONE to do the same thing.

So I want to use this post to really encourage people to drop their old ways and start taking baby steps toward a more environmentally-friendly existence. If you can change all of your bills into paperless statements, not only will you save paper and all that it takes to make, transport and recycle that paper, you may also have the change to get a tree planted on your behalf or save money on your next credit card balance (some companies give you a $5 or $10 credit for going paperless).

Since every little bit helps in our efforts at conservation, recycling and general environmental activism, I hope you’ll take this chance to make a difference in the world and stop the influx of paper into your life.

When it comes to using my consumer dollars to make purchases, I actually don’t buy all that much stuff. For years I’ve been too poor to buy much more than I really need, so most of what I own is limited to the essentials – books (yes, books are essentials), plants, clothes & shoes, and household goods like dishes, and towels. I inherited most of my furniture from family and friends, and I go without things (like wine glasses) that most people just wouldn’t live without.

Part of why I live so minimally is poverty – I was in school and unemployed for years, and just couldn’t afford to buy anything. And since I started making real money, I’ve had to apply most of it to paying off bills accrued while in school and unemployed. Another part of why I don’t buy much stuff however, is the environmental impact of personal consumption. By living low on the consumer chain, I feel that I’m taking part in the 1st “R” of conservation – Reduce. When I don’t upgrade my hand-me-down couches or replace my overwhelmed bookcases with sturdier models, I don’t contribute to the manufacture of these goods and I keep my own carbon footprint low.

It’s not as if limiting my purchases is difficult – I am fiscally frugal, I don’t like clutter, and my apartment is small and lacking in storage space. At the same time, there are items I would really like to own and just can’t bring myself to buy – because they’re expensive, impractical or just not enough of a priority to justify the purchase. Topping the list of stuff I wish I owned are all kinds of green furniture that would work well in my home and replace the well-worn items I already own.

For my living room…

I really like the looks of the Babylon Sofa by RC Green. Founded by designer Robert Craymer, RC Green designs, manufactures and retails eco-furniture, bedding, clothing, shoes and accessories. With an eye toward minimalist design and a sense of responsibility towards the environment, Craymer is working toward an all green, all natural, sustainable and organic way of living. Furniture crafted by RC Green is made with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) wood, recycled steel (for springs and screws), non-toxic and formaldehyde free glues, and a range of eco-fabrics including cotton, linen, bamboo, and hemp. Additionally, all RC Green products are made in the US and built out of local resources.

I also like the clean lines of the Hect Chair by Greener Lifestyles, a Seattle-based design and manufacturing company that specializes in creating sustainable furniture . Constructed out of FSC wood, the Hect Chair is finished with organic hemp, cotton and wool fabrics, and held together with eco-friendly adhesives.

To show off my new couch and chair, I could always light my living room up with a few of these Bleu Nature Tropique Lamps. Offered by environmental retailer Eco-Terric, these lamps are hand crafted in Northern France,? and made from all natural products.

For my ever-growing expanding book collection, I like this Tetrad Shelving unit from Brave Space Designs. Consisting of 4 interlocking squares, this modular shelving unit is constructed from either ash or wood and built using paints, stains, adhesives, and sealants with low or zero VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Brave Space Designs also finishes all of their products with either hand-applied organic-herbal oil or water-based spray finishes.

To finish off my room, I would add this hand-knotted Jardin rug offered by Cotswold Furniture Makers. Headquartered in Stowe, Vermont, Cotswold is committed to producing environmentally sustainable furniture, and ensures that their products are never constructed by children or with abusive labor practices. Hand-tied in Tibet, the Jardin rug is crafted from 100% wool.

If you are in the market for eco-friendly, sustainable furniture, check out some of the companies listed above. These designers and manufacturers have all committed to producing products that use local resources, non-toxic chemicals and organic fabrics. Change happens one person at a time, so next time you’re in the market for new furniture, consider buying green.

If you’re looking for a way to give back to your community, consider contributing by offering your time and energy to the environment. Acting locally is a great way to participate in the environmental movement that is sweeping this country, and positively impacts your neighbors and neighborhood. I’ve compiled a list of earth-friendly projects that you can do in your community with groups of various sizes. These projects can be done by school groups, Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts, clubs/organizations, or friends and neighbors who want to work together for change in their communities.

• Pick up after the drunks. When people drink outside, they tend to leave their beer bottles, cans, cigarette butts and other garbage behind. Figure out where the kids in your city like to go to party, and pick up the trash they leave behind. Since people tend to party in secluded spots (in the woods, underneath bridges, by remote beaches), you may have to do a little legwork to track down the trash. Once you do though, you’ll most likely find plenty of garbage and recyclables. After you pick up all of the junk, let your city government know how much garbage you removed from the spot, and see if they might consider installing a garbage can so it doesn’t happen again.

• Clean up your beach and waterways. If you live near the coast, you probably know how much garbage gets washed up on the beach – ditto for rivers, creeks and streams. After the winter ice has retreated and before the spring foliage has grown back up, it’s easy to find all kinds of garbage washed up on beaches and alongside other waterways. Grab your boots and garbage bags and head toward the shoreline to pick up all of the garbage tangled alongside the shore. By cleaning up your waterways, you help prevent the garbage from damaging fragile ecosystems and also from getting washed back out to sea.

• Turn an empty lot into a garden. All cities have strange empty spaces tucked between buildings that could use a little beautification. If your neighborhood has an empty lot that’s filling up with broken glass, garbage and weeds, think about cleaning it up. You may need the permission of the lot owner, so make sure you contact them or talk to your city government before getting started. Once you’ve found a lot, you can do simple things that will make a tremendous difference in your community. Simple things that make all of the difference include: removing all of the garbage, planting flowers, building a small path from flat stones, creating art to go in the garden, putting up a bird feeder or wind chimes, and installing a small, portable bench so people can sit and enjoy the space.

• Work in someone else’s garden. Non-profit organizations, such as museums or historical centers often have gardens, and often need help maintaining them. Since most non-profits work on tight budgets, garden maintenance can sometimes get squeezed when times are tough. Because of this, some non-profits have volunteer gardening events where community members are asked to come in and help clean out beds, trim back bushes, and prepare the grounds for spring and summer visitors. Greening a community organization’s grounds is a great way to make your city a greener place for residents and visitors alike.

• Convince your city or town government to change their ways. While getting city hall to replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs may not be as easy as picking up garbage on the beach, things like this still need to be done! If you live in a small town or city, it’s generally easy to get your voice heard by attending meetings, making phone calls and writing letters to your city council members. Pick an issue – recycling efforts, alternative fuel for city vehicles, light bulbs – and do the research on how making your suggested changes will positively impact the city. Make sure you include financial projections if your suggestion will cost the city more than it already spends, and outline how the benefits of your suggestion will outweigh the costs. Be persistent and consistent – show up, shake hands and get your ideas out to the members of your community. The beauty of living in a democracy is that you do have a voice and you can make a difference if you use it.

Do you have other ideas for green projects that can be done in communities? I’d love to hear what other people are doing to make their neighborhoods greener places to live, and I invite your comments and suggestions!

This past week I decided that I have Green Guilt. There are aspects of my life that could be a little more environmentally responsible (not the least of which is the fact that I drive 500+ miles a week – mostly because my job is a 70 mile-a-day commute). In thinking about all of the large and small things I do that aren’t very environmentally friendly, I thought it might help me break my bad habits if I write up a list and post it for the world to read. This way, my sins will be on display for all, and that might make me more likely to act responsibly, if only to point to the fact that I’m changing my way.

So here it is, my list of green sins:

1. I drive upwards of 500 miles a week. And while I try to limit my driving to commuting, necessary errands and visits to friends/ for my personal life, I sometimes make unnecessary trips. There’s a bus from downtown Portsmouth out to Newington (about 5 miles). I like to go to the bookstore out that way on occasion, but I have to admit that I never take the bus. Likewise, I visit my doctor in Boston every couple of months, but rarely ride the MBTA Commuter Rail to do so.

2. I don’t recycle at work. My workplace does not have a recycling program in place, and I’ve not made any inroads into establishing one. My best friend has been working on a hardcore recycling program for her workplace (and she works in the biotech industry, which makes it particularly difficult to do this kind of thing because of all of the biohazard requirements they have to follow), and I can’t even find out if we can get paper recycling bins for underneath our desks. And while I do try and bring my recyclable bottles home with me and toss them in the recycling bin here, I don’t always succeed in my efforts.

3. I throw away food. This one kills me. What tends to happen is that I go to the grocery store with high ideals and purchase enough produce to last me two weeks. Upon arriving home, I cut up the veggies and store everything in my fridge for easy consumption later. Over the course of the week however, I just won’t eat the food that’s in my fridge. Sometimes I eat out, sometimes I eat with friends, and sometimes I simply don’t eat. At the end of the two weeks, I’ll go to clean out my fridge and make room for new food, and end up throwing what had been perfectly good green peppers and broccoli into the garbage.

4. On the weekends I go out and leave the radio on in my apartment. Don’t ask me why – because I seriously don’t know why I do this, I just do.

5. I occasionally forget my mug when I get coffee at the local coffee joint. When I do forget my mug, I don’t always recycle the plastic cups that hold my iced Java – though I will say that I do make a good effort to recycle these, except of course when I’m at work. The fact that I buy my coffee pre-made from the local coffee joint isn’t so great either, though I almost always grab my morning elixir from locally owned and operated shops – Breaking New Grounds and Popovers on the Square, both in downtown Portsmouth.

6. Sometimes I get my coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

7. When it’s hot outside (really hot), I love to drive around with my windows open and the air conditioning on!

8. I still purchase synthetic clothing that’s made in countries like China, Malaysia, and Thailand. It’s not that I want to purchase these kinds of clothing, it just so happens that I can’t really afford organic cotton and hemp clothes that are hand-made in the USA. In my favor, I never throw out any clothes, I recycle and reuse them or donate my old outfits to charity.

9. Although I do buy a great deal of organic and locally produced foods, sometimes I can’t afford to do so. Some of the organic food that I do buy comes in individual servings (Amy’s Kitchen is my biggest sin on this front), and some of the organic food is mass-produced in California, than shipped to New Hampshire for my consumption (again with Amy’s Organics).

10. My favorite drink is Polar Seltzer Water – which comes in 1 liter plastic bottles and which I can drink 2 of each day when given the chance. I also buy Vitamin Water, Tazo Tea and Poland Spring Sparkling Water every once in a while. I do however, recycle all of the bottles.

With the publication of this list, I am going to try and make some real changes in my life and start acting more responsibly. Green guilt isn’t a good thing to carry around, though it can be used as a motivating factor. Let me know about your green guilt – what kinds of environmentally-distressing things are you still doing? What holds you back when you think about all of the good things you’re doing to make this planet a greener place?

I promise that I’ll report back soon and let you all know what kinds of changes I’ve made and what I can cross off this list of green guilt!

You probably already know that bottled water is not green. The production and distribution of bottled water uses energy, produces pollution, and has minimal (if any) benefit over the potable water currently available to all Americans. Plenty of other bloggers and major publications have addressed this issue. You can find excellent articles about it here, here, and here. You are probably tired of reading about it. I know I am.

So why did I buy an Aquafina last week?

Even though we know bottled water is foolish and bad for mother earth, many of us still buy it occasionally. And when we are at work or at the doctor’s office, we head for the water cooler to fill our glass, not the bathroom tap. My own business has four water coolers, strategically located around the office, and because of them I probably drink half a gallon of bottled water a day.

When encountering hypocrisy, especially within ourselves, it is important to ask “Why?” in an honest, non-judgmental way. We already know the facts. Why do we ignore them?

I performed an informal survey among my green colleagues and friends and came up with the following two answers:

1. Bottled water (and the water cooler tanks) are convenient,
2. And they taste better, or seems healthier and safer, than the available tap water.

There were many variations on those answers, but those were the two major categories.

We all know about the convenience problem. I go on many spur-of-the-moment hikes up Camels Hump or Mount Mansfield. When I don’t have time to dig around and find, wash, and fill my Nalgene, I grab the $1.79 liter bottle from the Quick Stop. And safety or taste? When I do bring the Nalgene from home, after I finish it I am not going to fill it up in the restroom at a public gas station! It just doesn’t seem safe and clean, and any hint of a bad taste is going to make me dump it.

These self-effacing stories reflect what I hear from my friends and colleagues. Most people are willing to admit that the convenience problem is their own fault, and that they should do better to change their lifestyle. But when it comes to taste, health, and safety, people are less interested in claiming personal responsibility.

Sometimes, we just don’t trust the tap water. Or we don’t like the taste. Or we feel it has too much chlorine. Or we’ve heard rumors about lead or mercury. Maybe we live in a part of town where the streets are dirty, and that mysteriously makes us mistrust the water. And the water cooler we keep in the corner? It is relatively cheap and easy to maintain. The guy with the truck brings a new tank every week. When Vermont Pure or Vermont Heritage brings in their glistening, transparent tank, it feels like a healthier, smarter choice.

I encourage everyone to stop judging people who feel that way. We’ve all said it from time to time: “I’m not filling my canteen up at the smelly rest stop!” Instead of judging, I encourage everyone to ask “Why?” again carefully, and then ask, “Don’t you think you should do something about that?”

Here’s the real reason I’m writing this article: If you don’t trust your tap water, you have a problem. You either have a psychological problem, or you have a problem that (according to the articles I linked to above) over a billion people on this planet have. If you are an American, then you live in the richest country in the world, a country where safe tap water is considered a right, and a massive industry and governmental body is in place to guarantee you that right. In short: if you don’t trust your tap water, you should find out if your distrust is justified. And if it is, you should do something about it. And fast. Similarly, if a community thinks their tap water tastes bad, they should do something about it. And that something is not buying more Gatorade or Poland Springs. Chances are, however, that your water is just fine.

Turn the problem on its head. The next time you are thinking of buying the $1.79 bottle of Aqua-whatever, ask yourself why you aren’t asking for the restroom key instead. And come up with a real answer; the question is not rhetorical. All over this planet, people would be happy for a faucet that delivers any kind of safe water, and the family living next door to the gas station might not be able to afford that $1.79 every day. Is the right to “good” water determined by socioeconomic status, then? And are you okay with that? And are you willing to continue damaging mother earth, wasting a valuable natural resource, and polluting the environment because you can afford the plastic bottle? What does that say about our culture? About our water supply? What can you do to change that?

By the way, after sharing the three articles that I linked to at the top of this post, two of my colleagues agreed to join me in switching to the tap. (They were particularly interested in the proof that bottled water is rarely healthier and safer than the tap.) Spread the word, and if you have a problem with your community’s water, seek out the truth!

As the general population really starts to embrace the green movement in their lives and communities, we have to consider that green buildings and green construction are probably going to explode in the next few years. Green building and construction is on the rise – small towns all over America are passing ordinances and legislation that mandates green initiatives in all new construction projects and encourages green building otherwise.

To assist those who may be interested in proposing local legislation aimed at promoting green construction, I’ve comprised a list of organizations that help industry professionals take their communities and commercial districts into the green era. These resources have literature that can be used to educate citizens, governments and businesses, and also information that can actually be used to guide the green building process.

The US Green Building Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to making green buildings accessible to everyone in this country within a generation.

To promote the design, construction and maintenance of green buildings, the organization has developed a rating system and voluntary certification program that allows architects, real estate professionals, facility managers, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects, construction managers, lenders and government officials to implement green design, building and operations standards in new and existing construction. According to the organization,

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System? encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices…and provides benchmarks for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

For communities that have initiated legislation requiring all new construction projects to be green certified, the rating system and certification program developed by the US Green Building Council is a great place to learn about all of the technologies, products and services that exist to help communities go green.

Another site to check out if you’re involved in construction is BuildingGreen, is an independent company committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings. BuildingGreen has a library full of information designed to help industry professionals learn about their green and “integrated design” building options.

Using the BuildGreen site, you can find out about the impact of every stage of a building process, and discover the tools available to help minimize your project’s harm to the environment. The site has literature about what it even means to be green, and offers some interesting case studies on how companies have applied green building practices in their construction projects.

Additional Resources

The US Green Building Council has a huge list of Green Building Links to help industry professionals develop and implement green building standards in all of their projects.

The US Department of Energy High Performance Buildings Database is comprised of 99 case studies with a focus on the green building practices applied during construction.

The Cost of Green Revisited by Davis Langdon contains research results obtained by examining the true cost of new construction using the LEED Rating System verses non-LEED certified buildings and finds that there is no discernible difference in the overall construction costs.

eco-structure is a bimonthly magazine for construction industry professionals looking to learn about sustainability and green building design, construction and operations.

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the US – over 80 million households (3 out of 4) have participated in indoor or outdoor gardening in the last five years. And it’s no wonder – gardening is a family activity that beautifies your living space, connects you to the Earth and lets you grow the flowers, vegetables and plants that you love.

But while gardening may seem to be the ultimate of environmentally friendly activities, you can actually wreck havoc on your ecosystem if you don’t use sustainable practices when building, planting and maintaining your garden beds. By evaluating your gardening practices however, you can conserve water, reduce your use of chemicals and grow plants that work for your community.

The tips below are relatively easy to implement in your home garden and will save you water as the summer heats up and your plants demand more and more to grow their fruits and flowers.

• Install a drip irrigation system in your gardens. By burying drip irrigation hoses at the base of your plants, you allow water to flow directly to the roots and prevent runoff and evaporation that occurs with hand watering and sprinkler systems. Home gardeners can install micro-drip irrigation systems for not too much money – about $40-$100 for every 100 square feet of garden. These systems can also be automated so that your plants are watered evenly and on a set schedule. Check out Alexandra Brandon’s presentation, Installing Drip Irrigation in This Old House to learn step-by-step instructions on installing this kind of system in your gardens.

• Place rain barrels around your yard. Rain barrels allow you to collect excess rain water and use it to water your plants during dry times. Many communities offer rain barrels at discounted prices through their public works departments, you can build your own rain barrel, or you can purchase rain barrels online. Keep in mind that if you install a rain barrel that does not have an attached hose, you will need to haul your water to your garden using buckets. If this is the case, make sure you set up your barrels close to your gardens!

• Learn to love mulch! A good organic mulch, spread about 3 inches thick around your plants, will reduce your need to water and keep your plants hydrated. With mulch covering your soil, you retain water by preventing its evaporation and runoff. When soil is left exposed to the sun and wind, water runs off, blows away or dries up as the sun heats the soil. Mulch keeps your entire garden moist throughout the day, and is also great for cutting down on weeds, and adding nutrients to your beds.

• Grow drought-resistant plants. Plants that tolerate dry times – such as echinacea, irises and rosemary require less water when the summer hits its hottest peak and the rain stops falling. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a great article that explains the benefits of using drought resistant plants in your garden and offers extensive lists of drought tolerant shrubs, perennials, herbs and other plants. Drought tolerant plants are also great alternatives when building gardens in areas with limited rainfall. Make sure you consult your hardiness zone and regional growing requirements when selecting drought tolerant plants.

There are plenty of other ways of greening your garden that I plan on addressing in future posts. In the meantime, let me know what you do to green your gardens – I always like to hear how fellow gardeners manage their beds!

Do people who use disposable cups hate Mother Earth? And can we feel justified in stealing their lunch from the company fridge?

My company kitchen has dozens of mugs and glasses, and the higher-ups issued every employee a stainless-steel travel mug. We have both paper and styrofoam cups available, also. We are a busy office; we use a lot of paper cups.

Naturally I look down on the enemies of Mother Earth: those employees or visitors who use the disposable options because they are more convenient. I occasionally plot nefarious punishments for them.

The mugs and glasses around the office, however, are carefully washed with hot, soapy water after almost every use. And some part of me has always known that my ceramic Superman mug collection took a lot more energy to produce than a paper cup, and will one day contribute to a landfill somewhere. So should I really be hating on the styrofoam and frowning deeply at my paper cup-slurping colleagues?

Is there a chance that disposable cups are actually greener in certain circumstances?

I read several articles that explore this problem, and I learned that the energy consumed, water used, and pollution produced in manufacturing a “permanent” cup, followed by the typical ways it is packaged and shipped, housed in a warehouse, displayed in a well-lit store, wrapped in a plastic bag, purchased and driven home, and then washed and rinsed using more water and soap… well, it can all add up to a far greater burden than a paper cup, especially a reusable paper cup that comes in a light box of one thousand units shipped directly from the distributer.

In this article (and the followup), the author tries to do the math and argues that

if you use a ceramic mug 46 times, you start to pass the magic point where it becomes more environmentally friendly than a styrofoam cup.

For a stainless-steel mug, it takes 369 uses! Not a single one of the stainless steel mugs at my company have been used a hundred times, let alone 369… and some of them will be lost or thrown out before they even reach equilibrium with a paper cup, let alone surpass it.

Was that blogger crazy? Are there other studies? Another, less optimistic article talks about a study where they performed a total-life measurement of a ceramic cup’s impact versus paper or styrofoam. They use a process called Life Cycle Assessment and conclude:

“With energy you’d have to use the ceramic cup 640 times before it would equal a polystyrene cup and 294 times to equal a paper/cardboard one. With air pollution it takes 1,800 uses to beat the polystyrene and 48 to thrash the paper/cardboard. Likewise you would have to drink 126 and 99 cups respectively for the ceramic to compete with polystyrene and paper/cardboard on the waste issue. And water? Sorry, just the use of a ceramic cup totals more than the entire life cycle water consumption of the other two.”

Don’t get me wrong… when reused effectively, a permanent cup (from a green-minded manufacturer) is still the better option. But the lesson from these articles, for me? Disposable cups are not the devil.

The other fun-yet-ambiguous fact I learned is that paper cups are not necessarily more moral than styrofoam cups. Styrofoam (polystyrene) cups have been outlawed in Seattle, largely based on the fact that they take “forever” to degrade. But paper cups require more energy and produce a lot of waste in production. And to be practical about it, when buried in a typical U.S. landfill, which is deliberately anaerobic, neither one of them is going to break down. The polystyrene cups will compress better and end up taking less room in that landfill.

I’m still staying away from styrofoam as much as I can, but the lesson for me? Styrofoam cups are not the devil, either.

The overall lesson for me: I will not criticize other people’s habits when it comes to cups and glasses. There are too many lifestyle variables that effect the outcome. The best solution, of course, is to own exactly as many permanent drinking receptacles as you and your household need, reuse them as long as you can, and try to wash them in a sensible way.

Of course, that’s the best solution for clothes, furniture, and everything else, too. We need to buy green goods, buy fewer of them, reuse them, and use and maintain them responsibly. That’s why I still wear t-shirts that I’ve had since high school. (Really, that’s why. Uh-huh. Laziness and nostalgia have nothing to do with it.)

And my cubicle mate who drinks from a paper cup? I forgive him. For now.

…so long as he reuses it until the bottom falls out.

Researchers from Purdue University, Colorado State University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have published a new map of the US that offers a visual picture of this country’s carbon emissions from roads, factories, power plants and neighborhoods. Developed by Project Vulcan, and sponsored by NASA/DOE under the North American Carbon Project, this high-resolution interactive map shows the release and movement of carbon dioxide in greater detail than has been previously captured.

The interactive map is presented in a 5 minute video on YouTube,? and may be viewed here: Revolutionary CO2 Maps Zoom in on Greenhouse Gas Sources.

According to the April 7 press release about Project Vulcan:

To create the Vulcan maps, the research team developed a method to extract the CO2 information by transforming data on local air pollution, such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions, which are tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy and other governmental agencies.

The Vulcan maps are revolutionary in that they track data on an hourly basis, and show carbon emissions in 100 times more detail than has ever been examined. In the past, carbon emissions were estimated according to population levels, and states reported their carbon levels infrequently. When calculating carbon emissions using this old model, the assumption was that highly-populated regions were the biggest carbon emitters, while rural and sparsely populated regions had lower carbon emissions.

According to data compiled from this new model of carbon emissions however, sparsely populated regions can be big greenhouse gas emitters if they are home to coal burning power plants or highways that cut through vast swaths of uninhabited areas. Researchers were surprised to find that the relatively uninhabited San Juan County in New Mexico is number 6 in nationwide carbon emissions. With 2 coal burning power plants in the county, San Juan’s carbon emissions are higher than those of heavily populated areas such as the Washington DC Metro region, New England and New York City. You can view the top 20 carbon emitting counties in the US here.

The Vulcan Project research is groundbreaking on many levels – the merging of various sources of carbon emissions data onto one map, the ability to track the movement of greenhouse gases over time, the inclusion of a variety of sources of carbon emissions, and the level of detail in mapping the data. With all of this information being modeled onto one map, we have a more complete picture of what carbon emissions in the US look like than ever before. Let’s hope that policy makers and public officials take this updated information into account when they consider where and how to make a dent in the carbon dioxide being emitted into our – and other nations’ – atmospheres.