Weekend Without Oil

I came across this website today...Weekend Without Oil. This Saturday and Sunday, the partners (Treehugger, Climate Counts, etc.) of the movement are asking everyone to live, well, a weekend without oil.

I have to admit, when I first read the headline, I was a little intimidated to read the list of things they wanted me to give up.

My first thought was my air conditioner. I live on the 6th floor of a 6-floor walk-up. I do not have to tell you that after hiking up the stairs, entering a warm, sticky apartment was not on my top 10 list.

My second thought was travel. I want to go to the beach this weekend...would I still be able to take the train?

Finally, the thought that frightened me the most, food! So much of our food comes in packaging made from petroluem.

I decided to put on a brave face and click the link.

It was a one-page, non-intimidating website that, along with telling us that the US is one of the largest oil consumers, was trying to get 166,000 people to lesson their oil load this weekend. Each pledge accounted for about 6 gallons of oil.

I was still nervous. But as I read their list of 11 actions, I felt a wave of relief come over me.

They weren't asking me to live in a sauna. They didn't mind that I took the train to the beach. And they weren't asking me to starve...just to eat less meat and delicious, local, organic foods which, let's face it, shouldn't I be doing anyway?

Here is what they ask...

1) Walk or ride your bike: Avoid using cars and if you must, always try to carpool. Transportation accounts for 40 percent of our petroleum consumption and is easily one of the biggest areas we need to improve upon.

2) Enjoy the outdoors: Avoid buying new sporting equipment, since oil makes up nearly 25% of rubber. Footballs or basketballs, for example, can last for many years and used equipment is often just as good and will reduce demand for oil needed to make new rubber.

3) Use reusable bags: Avoid disposable plastic. Plastic bags are a huge waste for very little benefit. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption, approximately 2 million barrels a day, is used to make plastic products alone.

4) Be conscious about what you eat this weekend: You can reduce oil demand by changing your diet to eat less meat, more local foods that require less transportation and organic food, which doesn't use petro-based fertilizers.

5) Don't buy new make-up this weekend: The majority of cosmetics are petroleum-based, including lip gloss, face powder, nail polish, and more. So avoid buying new make-up products this weekend and research the brands when you purchase in the future.

6) Drink tap water: Avoid beverages bottled in disposable plastic, they make up nearly 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year, so get a reusable bottle and fill it up.

7) Make your electronic gadgets last: Avoid buying new electronics. Electronics take a lot of oil to produce and the gadgets you already have can last much longer than the rate at which new ones are released.

8) Go to the movies or stream them on Hulu: Avoid buying new DVDs/Blu-Rays, as oil is a key ingredient in their production, packaging and shipping.

9) Skip buying new clothes that weekend: Swap clothes with friends or check out the local vintage store. The less new clothes you buy the less oil is used in the manufacturing process and transportation.

10) Head to your local library or read online: Avoid using a printer and buying printed material including daily newspapers. Printing doesn't just waste paper, nearly 100,000 gallons of ink each day is used on daily newspapers alone.

11) Spread the word! Get 3 friends to sign the pledge and help raise awareness on ways they can help reduce their dependence on oil-related products.

I hope you'll join me this weekend in using at least 6 less gallons of oil! Not too hard, right?

The Lonely Orange Folder

Once again I found myself digging through the trash at work to remove some sort of paper product that belongs in our recycling bins.

The culprit this time...a filing folder.

The beautiful, bright orange folder was sitting on top of the day's trash, ready to be used again but needlessly folded in half. It was if someone had said, "You are not worthy of re-use, orange folder!"

I gingerly pulled it out and found that thankfully it did not have the remnants of someone's lunch spilled on it. I smoothed it out and placed it into the proper recycling bin.

When I sat back down at my desk with a big "harumph," my office mate quickly said, "Oh no," and her face got red. I knew she didn't do it and I told her not to worry. I didn't care if there was red in her face as long as there wasn't any orange in our trash.

Clean Coast Petition Acknowledged!

I recently signed a petition to my senators to pass the Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act of 2009. This bill directs the EPA to modernize the technology we rely on to tell us if beach water is safe for swimming. It also takes steps towards tracking and solving our sources of beach pollution.

I sign a lot of petitions and I never really know if my voice is heard...until now.

I received this reply from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. I thought it was pretty cool!

August 9, 2010

Dear Meredith,

Thank you for contacting me about the Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act of 2009 (S. 878). I support this important piece of legislation which will amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to update provisions relating to water monitoring on beaches. Specifically, this bill will correct the two main problems regarding beach monitoring: that current testing methods do not cover the full spectrum of waterborne pathogens and other forms of contamination. Currently the results are too slow, taking anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to process from the time the sample was drawn.

This legislation will protect American families who frequent our beaches by directing the Environmental Protection Agency to complete its validation of a rapid water testing method, which would give beach goers same day information about water quality conditions, by 2012. This bill will also require health officials at beaches to make quicker decisions about beach advisories and closures. Another great feature of this legislation is that it will provide funding for coastal communities to study, identify and correct sources of beach water pollution.

The Clean Coastal Environment and Public Health Act of 2009 will ensure that beachgoers get timely and actionable information about the conditions of the water they swim in and provide local communities with the resources they need to identify and eliminate sources of pollution.

Thank you for contacting me regarding this important issue. Please stay in contact with my office regarding any future legislation or issue that may concern you. For more information on this and other important issues being discussed in the United States Senate, please visit my website http://gillibrand.senate.gov and sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely yours,
Kirsten Gillibrand, United States Senator

There's No Such Thing As A Free Sample

My family has one rule when we go to Costco . . . go on an empty stomach.

Everyone knows that Costco is famous for their low-cost, jumbo-sized items, but in my family, it’s the sample stations that are the real bargain . . . free lunch!

We make our way up and down every aisle, tasting all of the yummy delights. Sometimes we split up and when we run into each other, we compare notes: “Did you try the shredded beef near the frozen section?” or “Oh my God…the cake over there is to die for.”

I've only ever gone to Costco when I’m visiting my family in Florida because there weren’t any in New York City . . . until now.

Recently, one opened in Harlem and a good friend has a membership. She invited me to go along with her and I happily accepted. I didn't tell her about the Forbes Family Rule, but I figured she'd pick up on it soon enough.

As we made our way along the first aisle, we hit our first sample station. Asian noodles! My mouth watered.

Ravenous shoppers flocked around the server, who scooped slippery noodles into little plastic cups. I stuck my hand out just in time to grab the last one. What had been hidden behind the sea of grabby hands were little plastic spoons, one in each cup.

I wanted to boycott this sample, but I'd already touched it.

I downed the noodles in one bite and then had to jam my used plastic cup and spoon into the overflowing trash can. What had I done?

The next station was cherries. I love cherries and was dying to have one. An older woman was passing them out, this time in paper, not plastic cups. I hesitated, but before I knew it, she had stuck one in my hand. I looked inside and saw one cherry. One, lonely cherry in one, single cup. Once I removed it, I had a clean paper cup in my hand and once again, found myself jamming it into the overflowing trash.

I thought about the tree that made the paper cup and the tree that bore the luscious cherry. I wondered if they had somehow been reunited. I hoped not.

As we passed other stations and I spotted each stack of paper and plastic cups, I lost my appetite. I was no longer interested in eating any of these samples, let alone making a meal of them. The Forbes Family Rule was being overruled by Meredith's Injunction Against Wasteful Packaging.

I left the store with agave, a pineapple and a sense of frustration.

I thought about the tray of Asian noodles that held nine samples that disappeared in nine seconds and the 15 people waiting to grab the next batch of samples.

I started to do some math in my head.

Let’s say that in a five-minute period, a server hands out five sets of samples (nine in each set). That’s 45 cups in five minutes. Let’s say the server does this for 20 minutes. That’s about 180 cups.

At any given time there are at least three sample stations operating in that 20-minute period. Now you’ve got 540 plastic cups being thrown away into our landfills.

Consider that this is happening all day long. Now we’re taking my basic math to another level.

An average piece of plastic takes 20 years to decompose but a plastic cup can take up to 250 years! All for some free noodles?

So how free are the free samples? What is Costco really costing us? Do we have to choose between convenience and sustainability? Can't we save money AND the planet?

The next time I go to Costco, I will make sure that I’ve had a hearty meal ahead of time because the lunch I get there may be free, but it's one I can no longer afford.

An Inconvenient Spoon

Let's face it. There are things in life you have to do that are not convenient. Going to the DMV, cleaning gum off your shoe and taking a reusable spoon with you as you head out to lunch.

The other day, a co-worker came up to me and asked me if I had a plastic spoon. Isn't that like asking the seagulls if they like oil?

Once I had picked up my jaw from the floor, I said, "Are you seriously asking me this?"

She stared at me with a half smile, gave a nervous chuckle and said, "Yeah."

I counted to ten. I replied, "I have a metal spoon you can use."

Another blank stare, another crooked smile. "No."

"Why not?" I asked, trying not to run screaming down the hall.

"Well," she said, "it's for my yogurt."

Flashback to a previous blog about a woman who announced that she could only eat ice cream with a plastic spoon, because a metal one got too cold, so she couldn't taste the flavor.

"Are you telling me that yogurt only tastes good with a plastic spoon? Is that what you're telling me?"

She laughed and slapped her knee.

"No, no. I'm taking my yogurt outside and I don't want to carry a metal spoon around."

I wanted to slap her knee for her.

How big did she think the spoon was? Her cell phone was bigger than the spoon.

"Don't ask me to find a place to put it," she said.

I was about to give her a not-so-nice suggestion where she could put it. Instead, in my usual cheerful-but-trying-to-make-her-feel-bad way, I told her that I was unable to help her.

She went off and no doubt found a more willing petroleum-based utensil supplier. Ever since the BP disaster, it's been hard to even look at a plastic spoon without seeing the oil that was used to make it. Not to mention that plastic forks, spoons and knives are not recyclable, so they end up in our landfills, beaches, and oceans. Americans toss out enough plastic utensils each year to circle the equator 300 times.

If my co-worker fully understood hat her choices were between supporting the industry that's hurting the seagulls or carrying the metal spoon, I wonder which one she'd pick?

Or anyone, for that matter.

Please tell me you'd carry the spoon.

I'll Have A Turkey and Paper, Hold The Plastic

We tend to order out a lot at my work. A favorite is a luncheonette that makes yummy sandwiches and salads.

One day while placing our lunch order online, a bright red paragraph came up on screen letting us know that to help the environment, the take-out deli would no longer provide plastic utensils, condiments or napkins.

I was so excited! Finally! We have an entire drawer full of leftover plastic utensils and a basket as big as a pond overflowing with condiment packets.

We placed our order and waited for our new eco-friendly lunch to arrive.

The delivery man arrived with a big plastic bag. Inside the plastic bag was a paper bag. Inside the paper bag were our sandwiches...wrapped in three layers of paper surrounded by an elastic band. Tucked neatly inside the elastic band was another slip of paper which listed the ingredients of our sandwiches.

To top it all off was a stack of napkins. At least there were no utensils.

As I pulled out the last sandwich out of the bag, there was a final slip of paper. A shiny, bright note announcing that to help the environment, they would no longer be providing utensils, napkins and condiments.

Hmmm. Is it really a green initiative if it includes extra paper to repeat the initiative that you just announced on-line?

And does your sandwich really need the tissue-like piece? What is that for? It always gets wet and sticks to the sandwich, anyway.

And the piece that they wrap around the sandwich and cut through. Do they really need that to hold the sandwich together?

It's enough to make you want to prepare your own lunch. Which I should be doing anyway.

Green and Natural

A few weeks ago, I was looking to find a new facial cleanser. My favorite, Stella McCartney, has been removed from all of the shelves in the US because somehow the organic standards of the EU are worse than the American standards. But that's another blog.

In my journey to find my new cleanser, I travelled to "earth-friendly" stores like Origins and Aveda as well as Sephora to compare products and find one made with the safest ingredients.

After misleading experiences in both Origins and Aveda (both of their products carried at least 2 of the danger list ingredients...see link below), I was off to Sephora.

Upon arrival, a young man came over to me and asked if I wanted help. I explained to him that I was looking for a cleanser that was made with botanical ingredients, minimal chemicals and most importantly, no parabens.

He was very excited about one of the eight brands that are displayed in the "Naturals" section of Sephora.

"All the stars use this one!" he exclaimed holding up a colorful tube.

Well, if the stars use it! I excitedly picked up one of the jars and began to read its contents.

"Oh, you don't have to do that! They are completely free of all the bad stuff."

I trusted him and took home a sample. But something was bothering me. I put the sample aside and went back to the store to do some more research.

I snuck into the store and looked down each aisle carefully so as not to run into him. Finally, I found the product and read the label. It had parabens! I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't used the sample.

I decided to check out the other 7 brands against their big wall decorated with pretty green leaves, obviously showing the correlation between nature and these products.

One actually had a list of all the things that supposedly weren't in it on the box, including parabens, yet when I read the label on the jar, it had parabens!

I frantically picked up the other pretty, leafy, flowery patterned jars. Fragrance, parabens, more fragrance! What was going on here?

I pulled a very nice saleswoman to the side and asked her to tell me what Sephora's definition of natural was.

She smiled and said "You are the first person that has asked me that question!"

Really? Was she kidding me?

"Sephora's "natural" products are the ones that contain the least amount of bad things."

Ok. I could accept that. It was unfortunate that only 2 of the 8 products were truly natural. But at least they were trying. And they were honest and up front about it. With me anyway.

But what about all those poor people who want a better product and don't ask what their policy is? Maybe I should stand there with a sign telling them. Hmmm.

Read those labels! Become acquainted with what the nasties are. Know what you're putting on your body, your children's bodies and what's going back into the earth via your drain. Remember that your skin is your largest organ!

Here's a partial list of the most common ingredients to avoid. I pulled this list from a site called Northwestern Health Sciences University but these lists are everywhere...just google them. I liked this one because it had explanations of why these products are bad. And there is a cool app from Gorgeously Green that also has these lists at your disposal.

Good luck and I wish you a very clean and natural shower!

Coal Tar
Function: This chemical helps stop itching, controls eczema, and makes hard, scaly, rough skin soft. It is also used as a colorant in hair dyes.
Product types: shampoos and hair dyes.
Health concerns: International agency government research on cancer says there is enough evidence to suggest that coal tars are carcinogenic in humans. Coal tar has been banned by the European Union since 2004.

Formaldehyde
Function: This chemical acts as a disinfectant, germicide, fungicide, and preservative.
Product Types: deodorants, nail polish, soap, shampoo, and shaving products.
Health Concerns: This is considered a possible human carcinogen, may trigger asthma, irritates eyes and the upper respiratory tract, can damage DNA, and is banned by the European Union.

Parabens (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl)
Function: These are a large group of chemicals used as preservatives in cosmetics to prevent bacteria, yeast, and mold formations in products such as toothpaste.
Product Types: moisturizers, shampoos, conditioners, hair styling gels, nail creams, foundations, facial masks, skin creams, deodorants, and baby lotions.
Health Concerns: This chemical may impair fertility; alter hormone levels; increase risks for certain types of cancers; alter reproductive development, cause skin irritation, rashes, and allergic reactions; and some studies have found parabens in breast tumors.

Phthalates
Function: These are industrial chemicals used as solvents and plasticizers in cosmetics.
Product Types: nail polish, deodorant, fragrance, hair spray, hair gel/mousse, and lotions.
Health Concerns: Phthalates can damage the liver, kidneys, and lungs and acts as a reproductive toxin in males.

Talc
Function: Talc is designed to absorb moisture.
Product Types: blush, powder eye shadow, perfumed powder, baby powder, deodorant, and soap.
Health Concerns: Talc is a proven carcinogen and is linked to ovarian cancer. The chemical has particles similar to asbestos and data suggests that it can cause lung tumors.

Sodium Laureth/Sodium Laurel Sulfate
Function: Acts as a penetration enhancer.
Product Types: shampoo/conditioner, bar soap, body wash, face cleanser, liquid hand soap, acne treatment, hair dye, mascara, shaving products, moisturizer, toothpaste, sunscreen, makeup remover, perfume, cologne.
Health Concerns: This chemical alters the structure of the skin and allows chemicals to penetrate deep into the skin, increasing the amount of chemicals reaching the blood stream.