Power OF the People

Get off your butt and do something today


Or better yet, sit right there and do something today. If you're bored, and obviously you are, because you're sitting here reading this, then I've got a couple of projects for you. I promise they won't take long and they're all for very good causes!


Take Back The Filter Campaign

You all know Beth at Fake Plastic Fish is one of my favorite bloggers. She kicks plasstic and I wish I had half the energy, focus and dedication she has when it comes to following up gripes about corporate apathy with bonafide action.

Anyhow, Beth has started a grassroots campaign urge Clorox to take responsibility for the millions of plastic Brita water filter cartridges that are disposed of each year.

The original Brita company in Germany has had a program to collect and recycle used filter cartridges ever since 1992. They process them in their own facility, separating the materials and recycling or reusing them. The North American branch of the company was sold to Clorox in 2000. Clorox has not provided any way to recycle these used cartridges.

Clorox and Nalgene have teamed up with the FilterForGood campaign to encourage people to give up bottled water and opt instead for the combo of reusable bottle and Brita filter, to cut down the amount of plastic bottle waste. This is a great effort. But Clorox has not addressed the plastic waste from the water filters themselves, as the Brita company has done in Europe.

Beth is trying to convince Clorox to follow the principal of Extended Producer Responsibility and provide a way for its filter cartridges to either be refilled or returned and recycled.

So here's how you can help. Please go to http://www.takebackthefilter.org/ now (yes, "now", what the f? You're just sitting there... click on the freakin' link already. But then come back when you're done, because I've got more homework for you.) and sign the petition. Then, start sending your used Brita cartridges to Beth so she can deliver them en masse to Clorox.


The Gap Between Reality and Fantasy

This issue started last week when Orgie posted about the unsolicited plastic bag Old Navy sent her. Around the same time, my sister told me about how Old Navy doesn't reuse or recycle their plastic hangers -- they just toss them in the dumpster. Well, I told Orgie about this and she jumped on it like a drunken quarterback on the prom queen.

Long story short: Orgie is urging everyone to call The Gap (parent company of Old Navy and Banana Republic) and ask them what, exactly, is their policy on hangers. So far, Orgie, Arduous and I have all called and we've gotten three different answers. So just for fun, give them a call at 1-800-GAP-STYLE, option 4, option 4, and then option 2. Let's see if we can't get them to institute a company-wide policy on hanger reuse or, at the very least, a policy on giving a consistent answer to annoying eco-dork inquiries.

More Like a Don't

The Crunchtastic One has decided to bare it all for charity. No, she's not stripping down to let us see if she truly is green all over. She has challenged her blog readers to help her raise money for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. If she can raise $10,000 by May 10th, she'll shave her head.

As of this writing, she's just shy of the $2,000 mark. So, if you haven't already contributed (oh hell, even if you have) please just drop a couple bucks in the plate. I'm telling you, every little bit does make a difference. Even if you just skip the morning latte today and donate the $3.00 you save, that would be AWESOME! Thanks!

350 PPM

OK, I've mentioned this new charity before, but wanted to let you know that they're starting to make the presses. After hearing about 350.org in my Riot for Austerity Group, I checked it out. It is a brand new organization that is trying to raise awareness of the general public about global warming. (350.org is from the same people who brought Step It Up to worldwide attention last year.) It has the backing of Bill McKibben, a long time environmentalist and author of several great books including The End of Nature and Deep Economy. (I just finished Deep Economy and I HIGHLY recommend it).

Anyhow, 350.org is just trying to get their name out there right now and I'm trying to help. Here's some info from their website:

350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.

We’re planning an international campaign to unite the world around the number 350, and we need your help. We need to make sure that the solutions the world proposes to climate change are to scale with the level of crisis that this number represents. Everyone on earth, from the smallest village to the cushiest corner office, needs to know what 350 means. The movement to spread that number needs to be beautiful, creative, and unstoppable.

What we need most right now are on-the-ground examples for how to take the number 350 and drive it home: in art, in music, in political demonstrations, in any other way you can imagine. We hope this project will grow tremendously in the months to come, and it helps all the more if people can see the great things others are doing already. We will connect actions all around the world and make them add up to more than the sum of their parts-but we don’t have all the ideas and all the inspiration. We need you to act on yours.

So if you've got any ideas to help these folks get the word out, by all means, stop by their website and lend them a hand!

Well, I guess that's enough homework for one night. But, if I catch you loitering around here again, you can bet your bippy I'll find you something else to do. Hoodlum.

The Giving Challenge

Have you noticed there are some seriously challenging challenges happening this month? I'm talking about hard-core, anti-shopping, clean-the-crap-out kind of stuff? I'm refering, of course, to Crunchy's Buy Nothing Challenge and Chile's Cut the Crap (De-Clutter) Challenge. Between these two of them, I feel like our home is fasting for 30 days while getting weekly enemas. If this doesn't clean us out, I don't know what will.

Well, to distract me from all my non-spending, I've decided to create a little challenge of my own. One that fits in nicely with those other two.... it's "The Giving Challenge".

Since I know you're not buying anything this month and are, in fact, getting rid of stuff - it would seem that you have an overabundance of either cash or crap. And so, I challenge you to take those unspent dollars or unloved possessions and donate them to a charity. Preferably one that is tied to an environmental cause.

I'm not asking for your life savings here. Just a portion of what you might otherwise have spent this month on new consumer goods. And if you're hoeing out, consider giving your stuff to charity instead of craigslisting or garage sale-ing it all. If you can't spare any cash right now (hey, we've all been there, right?) and you're not de-cluttering, why not donate some of your time to a local charity?

So if you'd like to sign up for the "The Giving Challenge", simply leave your name and website address (if you have one) in the comments. I'll list all the participants in my sidebar. Then, go ahead and paste my pathetically lame doo-dad on your site with a link to the challenge. Whenever you make a donation - be it cash, goods or time - drop me a line at emcoe AT verizon DOT net to let me know and I'll add the amount to the tally and a link to the charity under the recipients list. Don't feel like you can't just donate $1 here or $2 there. I won't judge you. And you know me, I'm a firm believer that every little bit adds up!

Let's see how much money, goods and time we can total up by the end of April!

I tried to put in the source for the lame-doo dad, but being rather "challenged" myself, gave up after half an hour of unsuccessful attempts. You can just save the jpg to your site or just link the old fashioned way... with words :-)

Day 139 - If It's So Good, Why Is It Leftover?

Replating Food When in a Metro Area

Today's post is about a really cool movement underway in major metropolitan areas. It is called replating and it's a wonderfully simple way to reduce waste while helping to feed the hungry.

When in an urban setting, simply place your unwanted leftovers (in a doggie bag of some sort) on top of the nearest trash can so they don't go to waste. The homeless and indigent can more easily access the food this way and it reduces the amount of organic waste that ends up in our landfills. It is truly a win-win situation. Here is the DL and some FAQ's from Replate's website:

We started this project because we noticed that people in West Coast cities and beyond were leaving their leftovers on top of (or next to) garbage cans when they couldn't find someone to give them to. We thought this behavior was worth talking about, so we gave it a name. Now that it has a name, there's been a lot of good conversation. Here are the issues that keep coming up:

Won't the food go bad and make people sick? People are eating food out of the trash. They are digging into public trash cans, pulling out old, dirty food, and eating it. Surely food that's on top of the trash, and not mixed in with the muck, is less likely to make a person ill. Surely food that's in plain sight and easily accessible will be picked up sooner (and thus in a fresher state) than food that's hidden in the trash.

The idea of food left outdoors feels messy. Some have worried that food will rot or that rats will get to it before hungry people do. This is a legitimate concern in small towns or sparsely populated areas, but certainly not in a town like San Francisco where, at any given moment, there are many people without enough to eat.

Why not just eat your own leftovers? Of course. Many of us do. But sometimes you just don't, for any number of reasons. Rather than toss 'em out, or go traipsing through the city looking for a hungry person, maybe the next best thing is to replate them.

Incompatible trash cans. Apparently, New York City trash cans don't have hoods or ledges, so there's no horizontal surface on which to replate. This isn't as big a problem as some have suggested. If you want to give someone the food you're not going to eat, simply put it next to the trash can, or on a newspaper dispenser.

Evil people. There's a strange paranoia in the conversation about evil people poisoning the food. Sure, it could happen. But you could also get pushed in front of the subway train. Or someone could put razor blades in your Halloween candy. People could betray your trust in any number of ways, but if you ride the subway, or eat Halloween candy, you know that the fear far outweighs the actual risk.

The City should officially get involved. Some have suggested formalizing a leftovers drop-off point like a food bank, free dining room, or some city-sponsored receptacle. We think that's a great idea. Make it happen.

If replating your leftovers counts as activism, then the bar for activism is set way too low. Maybe that's true, but though the first steps of activism (however you define it) are small ones, they form the foundation for the giant leaps to come. And replate is just the beginning of a conversation that we hope will inspire greater action. And don't forget that this is an open-source movement. It's yours as much as anybody's, and you can build on it however you want. So if you don't think it's activism yet. And if you want to make replate bigger and badder and more hardcore, we've got a hunch you'll get all the support you'll need.

As you all know, I'm a big, fat chicken when it comes to going downtown here in Richmond, but it I do occasionally find myself in a metro area and I'm sure you do too. So the next time I eat out in a city and can't finish my food, I'll be getting a doggy-bag to replate. Hopefully, by posting about the idea, I will also inspire others, who may dine out more than I, to do the same.

Savings:

Hmmmm, three times a year? So, three plates of food. But how many of you will do it? And how many people will you tell? If nothing else, it's an interesting topic, bring it up at your next cocktail party and we'll get this idea going, k?


Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

Leave doggy bag on trash can so someone else can enjoy your leftover rigatoni. Besides, you know it won't taste the same once you get it home and nuke it.

Supplemental Post - Charity Starts At Home

Helping Those Less Fortunate This Holiday Season

I think my plans for ensuring an environmentally friendly holiday are pretty much set, but I just wanted to remind everyone out there to give a little something back. Not that you all wouldn't, but sometimes we get so caught up in our own holiday plans that we simply forget about helping those less fortunate.

Next week almost all of us will be sitting down to a great feast and counting our blessings. Think about how lucky you are to live in a part of the world where clean drinking water is readily available, food is bountiful and shelter is obtainable for nearly everyone.

Please, before the shopping and cooking of Thanksgiving get started; Before the relatives arrive and the arguments start; Before Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon us; Before you put up that fake plastic tree with the long silver icicles; Please, take a moment to locate a program in your area that provides meals, toys, coats, or simply your time to those in need. It will be the best gift you give yourself this holiday season.

And before I get caught up in all the hullaballoo, I want to be sure to give you my best for a safe, healthy and happy holiday season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukka, Kwanzaa, Yule, or a 'Festivus for the Rest Of Us', I wish you many blessings.


Please send candy canes.


- Erin