>> Are biodegradable cups better than plastic cups? Slate’s The Green Lantern comes to a conclusion I wholly agree with: “The bottom line is that disposable cups are never going to be any good for the environment, and until there’s a better infrastructure for properly collecting and composting them, it’s not clear whether using the biodegradable versions will help very much at all.”
IMHO biodegradable cups and utensils only make sense if they’re 1) compostable in a home compost AND you actually have a home compost to use for the purpose or 2) used at a facility that has a direct arrangement with a composting facility, or 3) used for a big event that’s specifically arranged to truck the used stuff to a composting facility.
>> Are you letting the yellow mellow? You can make your eco-flushing ways public by auto-tweeting your toilet use. Earlier: Tweet-a-watt and Get city money to upgrade to a water-wise toilet.
>> Have an urge to fold your flipflops? If so, explain to me why before you pick up a pair of Floc Design’s foldable flipflops, made with recycled rubber. The Treehugger post big ups the flipflops’ portability, but seriously — I recently toted flipflops to Israel and not once did I think, damn, I wish I could fold these….
Photo by Shira Golding
I can’t see folding flip flops useful in a general sense, however I can see 2 advantages. 1)If you want to take them along in a more narrow bag, like a purse, normal flip flops might not fit. 2)If you like to keep the bottoms of your flip flops from touching other things in your bag. This might be nice if you say, stepped in gum.
But yea, generally, not the most useful thing in the world…
Comment by M — May 12, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
Totally agree with you on the compostable disposables. I did grab one at a big music event in San Francisco where there were compost bins set up and I knew the stuff would be trucked off to the SF compost facility. I had my water bottle, but it was full of water and I wanted wine. Normally, though, I avoid them as much as any other disposable containers/utensils.
Folding flip flips just seems silly.
Beth Terry, aka Fake Plastic Fish’s last blog post..Challenge: Show Us Your (Plastic) Trash!
Comment by Beth Terry, aka Fake Plastic Fish — May 13, 2009 @ 12:02 am
I was very unimpressed last week when my family was given disposable cups at a sit down restaurant. I just don’t get it. Maybe their dish washing setup is more efficient when they don’t deal with glasses.
Comment by Martin — May 13, 2009 @ 5:08 am
My college switched over to using compostable disposables in our “grab-n-go” type dining hall. They used to use containers that were #2 plastic, so they could be recycled (if the college student was smart enough to do so afterwards). Now, they’re “biodegradable” and “Made from renewable resources!” These new “eco-friendly” containers can’t be recycled. Our school has no compost bins or plans to start composting.
I think my friends are sick of listening to me complain about how they aren’t biodegradable if they sit in the dump in a non-biodegradable plastic bag.
Comment by Elise — May 13, 2009 @ 9:25 am
Ha! Interesting ideas, M — Those circumstances do make sense — I guess I haven’t tried carrying flipflops in a purse — What’re beach bags for! :)
Martin — It’s unfortunate but it seems that many restaurants seem to prefer using disposable cups — cafes are especially like this when you ask for a glass of water. Disposables need to be more expensive, so that the practice is no longer economically desirable –
Elise — Would it be possible to hook up with an enviro org at your school and push the dining hall to actually compost the compostables? Since dining halls handle a fairly large amount of waste, this may be an opportunity to actually reduce plastic waste — and a good way to ease your frustration –
Comment by Siel — May 15, 2009 @ 3:04 pm
I went to WorldFest this past weekend and I was pretty excited about their water situation. If you had something to fill, you could get free filtered water. If you didn’t bring your own, tons of vendors were selling Klean Kanteens and other similar bottles or you could buy a compostable cup for $1. They had large bins for the compostable food ware and food waste.
I really am surprised at how easy it was to get into the habit of carrying my Klean Kanteen since I never carried bottled water with me beforehand. Now I don’t even have to think about whether I want a disposable cup or not because I’m already prepared.
M’s last blog post..Friends of the Los Angeles River Clean up 2009
Comment by M — May 18, 2009 @ 10:15 pm
I too’ve been encouraged by the proliferation of free filtered water services at green events. I’d like this idea to spread to non-green events –
Comment by Siel — May 19, 2009 @ 2:14 pm