Green-minded Californians are weeping into their reusable bags this week. Sadly, AB 1998, a bill that would have banned single-use plastic bags, went down with a 21-14 vote in the California State Senate Tuesday night.

The news comes as a big blow to environmentalists who had rejoiced when AB 1998 passed in the State Assembly — prompting Governor Schwarzenegger to come out in support of the anti-pollution bill. Had AB 1998 passed, California could have become a leader in stopping this unnecessary environmental blight. Now, environmentalists have to rebegin other efforts to get the plastic bags out of Californian’s lives.

So what can Californians — as well as BYO bag supporters everywhere — do to ban the blight that is the plastic bag? Here are some suggestions:

>> Support local plastic bag bans and fees. A few U.S. cities have plastic bag bans and fees in place, but most do not — and many Californian municipalities had put their anti-plastic efforts on hold to see what would happen with AB 1998. Now that the bill’s been defeated, efforts to pass local anti-plastic bag measures are springing back up.

The City of Santa Monica’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, for example, has already sent out an email letting its residents know that the Santa Monica’s City Council will take up an ordinance to ban plastic bags (PDF) at its Oct. 12 meeting. This ordinance was actually last debated in Jan. 2009 — but put off due to the threat of lawsuit from the plastic industry — then delayed further while the fate of AB 1998 hung in the balance. Now, SaMoans need to regroup again locally to get this anti-disposable bag ordinance passed.

LAist reports on similar efforts to drastically reduce plastic bag use by the county and city of Los Angeles and Manhattan Beach. Join the anti-plastic efforts where you live!

>> Vote out the plastic baggers. In his post about AB 1998′s defeat, environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay’s president Mark Gold names and shames the California state senators who voted against the bill — and urges environmentalists to vote those senators out:

These are the 21 senators that condemned sea turtles, fish and marine mammals to continued hazardous conditions: Aanestad, Ashburn, Calderon, Codgill, Correa, Denham, Ducheny, Dutton, Emerson, Florez, Harman, Hollingsworth, Huff, Negrete McLeod, Price, Romero, Runner, Walters, Wolk, Wright and Wyland.

Please remember these names. They are not friends of the marine environment and should be held accountable for their actions. Please write them or call them and tell them you’re upset by their anti-environmental vote. Feel free to mail them your plastic bags as well.

>> Stay involved with anti plastic campaigns. In a press release, Surfrider Foundation pledged to “continue to educate and inform the public about the hazards single-use plastics pose to the environment and the economy” with its Rise Against Plastics campaign. Heal the Bay too will continue the fight against disposable plastic. Join or redouble your participation in those efforts.

Earlier:
>> The Majestic Plastic Bag: Nature mockumentary makes trash funny
>> Bring your own bag: How to BYOB in easy eco-style

Photo by teddave

0 Comments

Still haven’t read Bill McKibben’s Eaarth – or my review of the scary but important book? Maybe a funny synopsis a la David Letterman will be easier for you to get through. Bill was on Letterman last night, not only talking about the pressing climate change issues covered in his book, but also urging everyone to get involved with the 10/10/10 Global Work Party next month.

Watch the 11-minute clip to find out why he wants President Obama to put solar panels back on the white house, how individual personal actions relate to collective political actions — and what you can do to push politicians to make real progress on climate issues in October. By the end of the interview, you’ll probably thinking what Letterman says to Bill: “Thank you for just scaring the crap out of me.”

Earlier:
>> Book Review: Deep Economy by Bill McKibben
>> Bill McKibben meets The Colbert Report: Can 350.org get laughs?

1 Comments

Love Chipotle’s organic chicken burritos? Guess how many calories the totable meal has. If you guessed a reasonable 300, you’re right — assuming you’re referring just to the organic tortilla! Eat the chicken and the rest of the tasty innards of the burrito too, and you’ll have consumed 970 calories! After all, Chipotle’s burrito weighs in at 21 ounces — compared to the USDA’s standard 5-ounce burrito.

That weighty news comes courtesy of Nutrition Action, a newsletter from the Center For Science in the Public Interest. In an article called “Still Supersized,” the Center points out that while the “super size” option has technically disappeared from fast food menus, many meal options are still extremely heavy in calories, fat, sugar, and sodium.

“Since when is a cookie the size of a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder patty? Since Americans started growing bigger buns,” write the authors, who point out that even our “healthy” muffins and frozen yogurt treats are supersized, oversweetened, and pretty fatty. Along with snarky commentary like “When did we go from one slice to one pizza per person?”, the article provides handy photos of overweight fast food items — along with a visualization of the fraction of the food that would be considered a “normal,” USDA size.

So what’s an eater on the go to do? Many green LA girl readers already avoid McDonald’s happy meals, but must they shun Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen, and the organic Chipotle too? Not necessarily — Just know what you’re getting and plan accordingly. In fact, one handy tip may be to go for the food items with diminutive names. Starbucks’ “Treat-Sized” chocolate chip cookie has just 130 calories, making it a reasonable indulgence, versus the Starbucks’ Chocolate Chunk Cookie with its 360 calories.

Otherwise, make your lunch your dinner too by saving half for later. Half a Chipotle chicken burrito would still let you enjoy a 10.5-ounce organic lunch with a livable 485 calories! Write the authors: “Repeat after us: half is the new whole” — which gave me a brilliant marketing idea for Chipotle. Why not simply rename the chicken burrito the “perfect-for-two chicken burrito” or “the two-meal burrito” to show people they’re getting two meals for the price of one AND that just a half burrito should be enjoyed per meal, thereby making peace with the health watchdogs?

Unfortunately I don’t think my healthy and frugal idea would fly with the Chipotle people, partly because the revamped names would imply that the fast food chain’s current customer base has a serious overeating problem….

Earlier:
>> Organic junk food — less corn syrup, just as many calories
>> Marion Nestle indicts junk food while audience nibbles on giant cookies
>> Mendocino Farms: Quick local lunches for Slow Foodies on the go

Photo by Michelle

1 Comments

Already own a fuel-efficient car — that you vigilantly hypermile to save gas and money? Then I hope you know where you’re going — because driving lost in a greener car is still a big waste of fuel. In fact, you can lose about $3000 over your lifetime by refusing to ask for directions!

That’s according to insurers Sheilas’ Wheels, which conducted a study to find that the average male driver drives 276 miles lost every year. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to stop and ask for directions — saving themselves time, gas, and money — and preventing unnecessary air pollution!

When I first read about this study, I had this feeling some men would find perfectly “logical” reasons why they should not ask for directions despite clear financial and environmental reasons for doing so. I wasn’t disappointed. GOOD’s web editor Andrew Price came through for me by claiming that even when he doesn’t know where he’s going, he’s not actually lost. How’s that? “It’s reductive to think there are just two states: ‘lost’ and ‘not lost,’” is the rationale Andrew comes up with:

When I have opted to feel out directions rather than ask or try to get somewhere on memory and intuition, it’s usually because I had a good idea of where I was going without knowing exactly whether the next turn is supposed to be before or after the underpass.

If you run across Andrew on his 276-mile, lost-but-not-lost “memory and intuition” detour this year, please point him in the right direction.

The easiest way to not get lost while driving is by not getting in the car! Use Google Maps’ bicycle and public transit to get where you need to go, car-free.

Photo by planetc1

1 Comments

Twice-weekly green giveaways.

Today’s giveaway is a Jewel Purple Chip Style Tagua Bracelet from Hope for Women, a fair trade company that also makes pretty portrait cards out of wildflowers.

The bracelet’s made with tagua nuts that were sustainably harvested from Columbian rainforests, then handcrafted into pretty purple jewel-like pieces and strung together by women artisans working under fair trade conditions.

To buy this or other gorgeous tagua nut bracelets, visit Hope for Women’s online store. Or to try your chance at winning this purple one, comment by Tue., Sep. 7 to get into the drawing, which’ll happen Wed., Sep. 8 (more info on freebies here). U.S. addresses only.

17 Comments

What would you do if the electric grid went dead tomorrow? If grocery stores shut down because trucks no longer had gas to make food deliveries?

Self-sufficiency and food security are popular topics in the environmental community today — making for the popularity of books ranging from the somewhat ominous The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook to the more sanguine Farm City. And now, a film called One Hundred Mornings takes a look at the kind of life we might have in a post-petroleum scenario, when society breaks down and people have to quickly learn to fend for themselves.

This film isn’t a doom-and-gloom documentary like Crude Impact, nor an overly-dramatized action thriller like The Day After Tomorrow. Instead, One Hundred Mornings focuses on two couples hiding out at a lakeside cabin in Ireland, 10 weeks after all the lights have gone out. In addition to the stress of dwindling supplies and social unrest enter both a self-sufficient hippie neighbor and suspicions of infidelity!

Watch the preview for a taste of the drama, then see the film during its week-long run at the Downtown Independent Theatre, 251 S. Main St., from Thu., Sep. 16 to Wed., Sep. 22.

0 Comments

While green Californians wait with bated breath to find out if their state senate will vote to ban disposable plastic bags, one Californian’s urging all to say no not just to the bags but to all single-use items. “Say No To Singles,” urges Beth Terry, an anti-disposable plastic crusader who blogs at Fake Plastic Fish.

Because while toting your own reusable bag and mug are a good first step, modern living still begs you to use disposable “convenience” items that mostly end up filling up our trash. Some of the culprits Beth names and shames are plastic bags for umbrellas (“Can you say mold?”), individually wrapped prunes (“The smaller the size, the higher the packaging to product ratio”), and single function gadgets like Butter Boy (“a plastic gadget meant solely for buttering corn!”).

Whether Beth’s post leaves you shamefully sipping wine in individually packaged glasses (to finish them off and never buy them again) or smugly patting yourself on the back for your plastic crap-free home, I hope you’re motivated to bring in less crap into your life. For daily inspiration towards this less trashy lifestyle, become a fan of Beth’s Plastic Crap Wall of Shame Facebook page, which names and shames the most idiotic plasticky packaging and products! On the top of the page today: A one-serving “sensible gourmet snack” with a plastic cup of cheese goo and a trio individually plastic-wrapped pretzel sticks — all encased in a plastic clam shell! (photo right)

I’m proud to say I’ve never bought that “sensible” snack, but I still do frequently buy one product that comes in single-serve packaging: Lara Bars. But last week, I finally bought a blender — which I hope to use to make my own, packaging-free Lara Bars at home. Wish me luck –

Earlier: Bare essentials green gift guide: Reduce and reuse 2.0

Photo by Amanda Goehlert via Plastic Crap Wall of Shame

0 Comments

If lack of options forced you into McDonald’s during a road trip, you may have had the experience of discovering a remarkably intact and pristine looking french fry while cleaning out your car months later. This impressive food mummification technique seems to be one that McDonald’s has mastered not just for fries, but for burgers too!

New York artist Sally Davies illustrates McDonald’s magic all too well in her McDonald’s Happy Meal Project. Her idea: To buy a Happy Meal and photograph it every day until it disintegrates. Sally’s now more than 140 days into her project — and both the burger and fries are nowhere near disintegration. (via GOOD / Refinery 29)

Sally isn’t the first experimenter to discover the long shelf life of Happy Meals. Earlier this year, blogger Nonna Joann at BabyBites showed that a year-old Happy Meal looks little worse for the wear (via MNN)!

I’m not surprised that both Sally’s and Nonna’s fries did so well. Aside from post-road trip fry finding observations, I’ve seen McDonald’s fries defy the ravages of time in other experiments. Watch the bonus features of Supersize Me, for example, and you’ll see Morgan Spurlock enthusiastically documenting the pristine preservation of McDonald’s fries for many a day. In that feature though, Morgan also documents the relatively quick disintegration of a number of McDonald’s burgers bought the same time as the fries. Those grow mold and stink up the experiment room — so much so that an intern’s given the task of throwing out the burgers — at which time the fries are also thrown out by accident.

So the fact that the “meat” in the Happy Meal hamburger doesn’t seem to do what real meat tends to do outside the freezer is surprising to me — and scary too. Perhaps if the backlash against Happy Meals gets too harsh, McDonald’s can market whatever they put in those burgers as the new Botox!

Earlier:
>> Fed Up: A Photoblog of scary school lunches
>> The Cheeseburger Footprint T-shirt: Wear your carbon crime!

Photo: Sally Davies / Refinery 29

1 Comments

Still letting inefficient incandescent bulbs run up your electricity bill? Just can’t embrace CFL bulbs — due to the spiral shape, light color, or mercury content? Then try this bright alternative to both conundrums — an LED bulb!

If you’re the type of person who never got a CD player, instead going straight from a walkman to an iPod, you might also be a good candidate for trading in your incandescent bulbs for LED bulbs. Though LEDs are not new — these efficient bulbs already light up many holiday trees, stop lights, and commercial buildings — they aren’t yet commonly used in homes.

So I was eager to try the new Pharox 300 LED bulb that Lemnis Lighting sent me for review. Unlike my old CFL bulb which takes a while to “warm up” and give off a good light (not all CFLs require warm up time; I just happened to have a not-so-great oldie in this lamp), the Pharox 300 instantly lit up to a nice warm white light. The illumination isn’t bright enough to read by — at least not with my eyes — but is a good, flattering light for eating dinner, playing board games, or just hanging out under without looking ghastly or bluish.

As you can see from the photo, the Pharox 300 is shaped like an incandescent bulb — though it’s quite a bit heftier. Its price tag — at $29.99 a bulb — is also rather hefty, putting the bulb out of reach for some.

However, LED bulbs also last an extremely long time. According to Lemnis, the Pharox 300 will last up to 36,500 hours — which translates to 25 years at 4 hours of use a day — compared to the CFL’s 3 to 10 years or the incandescent bulb’s 1 year. Plus, Lemnis says its LED bulbs use less than half the energy of a CFL bulb. That means over the lifetime of the bulb, the LED bulbs can really save you some money.

I’ll let you know in 2035 how my Lemnis bulb is faring. If you’d like to try the 25-year energy savings experiment yourself, you can get the Pharox 300 at Lemnis Lighting’s online store.

Earlier:
>> The Bulb ban cometh: Do CFL bulbs still make you cringe?
>> IKEA: Bye-bye inefficient incandescent bulbs
>> How to recycle your CFL bulbs

4 Comments

Museum gift stores are often semi-green eco-boutiques, I’ve discovered, carrying unique fair trade and eco-friendly items that push the envelope on design and function. And the bike-friendly Santa Monica Museum of Art‘s shop GRACIE is among the greenest of them, carrying some of the most useful — and most strange — eco-doodads I’ve seen!

I’ve already mentioned the art-meets-reuse-meets-fetish jewelry from My Sister’s Art — but GRACIE’s wares go far beyond wearable art. On the utilitarian side, this boutique’s a great place to pick up daily use items like Confetti Dishware made of recycled materials and Stretch reusable bags made of recycled billboards — designed by Studio Artecnica and recently showcased at the Pasadena Museum of California Art’s California Design Biennial. A Landmine-shaped CleanUp soap‘s both useful in more ways than one; the item not only cleans you up, but also helps clean up landmine-riddled areas by sending some of the proceeds from the soap to organizations working on that cause.

For creative types, there’s eco-dough — a greener alternative to Play-Doh — and cardboard construction sets that let you build prototypes of your dreams — with a smaller carbon footprint. And for the daring with aesthetic tastes completely different from mine are salvaged metal sculpture-lamps!

The oddest item I found? The Solar Queen! I’m not sure if she’s made of green materials — but she will wave at you with a wrist powered by the sun!

The museum’s currently closed for installation, but visit GRACIE when SMMoA reopens on September 10.

GRACIE at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Bergamot Station G1. 2525 Michigan Ave., Santa Monica. 310.586.6488.

0 Comments