This weekend I read a good post on the Deep Green Conversation blog. The article addressed some of the arguments against recycling, namely:

(1) that the problem they were intended to solve (overflowing, dangerous landfills) never really existed
(2) that the the benefits of recycling are scant and the costs too high
(3) that recycling actually harms the environment

I enjoyed the post. I had never thought much about those three critiques. I have pretty much unquestioningly assumed recycling was a good thing. I thought they did a good job addressing each item.



The Deep Green Conversation is a site that plans to be "an interactive site full of content and resources that help you integrate your faith into a deep green lifestyle". The site is new, but the blog is pretty good. I look forward to seeing what else they add to it.

Do you recycle?

Labels: blogosphere, green, recycling

My friend Davo tagged this site recently on del.icio.us. There are a ton of awesome tees on there. This one is my personal favorite:



Which ones do you like?

Labels: cycling, green, indiscriminate

You may not know it because it is very under publicized, but May is Bike Month. I'm not even sure what that means, but one of the events during Bike Month is National Bike-to-Work Week. That week happens to be this week, May 12-16. Also, Friday, May 16, is officially Bike-to-Work Day.

The initiative is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists. Their mission is...

To promote bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation and work through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America.

I hear Zack is riding 90 miles round trip. Does anyone else plan to bike to work this week?

Labels: activism, cycling, green

Did you hear the one about Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton sitting on the couch together?

Has anyone seen the commercial with Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson on the couch together telling everyone to take care of the planet. This combination is just funny to me. This is the stuff that you hear in jokes.

Labels: green, video

I feel like I would be doing my efforts to live green some sort of dis-service if I didn't mention it. So here it is... Happy Earth Day.

I'm not even sure what that means, but I wanted to put it out there.

Did anyone do, or hear of anyone doing, something cool for Earth Day?

Labels: green

We have to stop global warming. We must. If we don't we will have dire consequences to pay. See this article for more details.

Labels: activism, beer, green

Has anyone heard about this?

I plan to flip the main breaker and shut the house down. It is amazing how quiet it is when all the appliances, TVs, comuters, etc. are off.

Labels: green

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Everyone should watch this video. It's eye opening, informative, and clever.

Thanks for pointing this out Daniel.

Labels: green

This morning I got a call from Bernie inviting me to grab some lunch with him at Chipotle (pronounced Chih-POAT-lay). A new Chipotle just opened its doors yesterday in Cary only a few miles from SAS. I'd never been to a Chipotle before, though I have head of them on a few of the blogs I frequent1.

The food at Chipotle was great. I had the chicken bowl with the mild salsa. Next time I'll probably spice it up a bit. Since they just opened up, they have promotions going on. I got to spin a wheel-o-burrito and I won dinner for two, i.e. two burritos, chips & guac, and two drinks. Daniel came with us, and he won the same thing. Bernie won a t-shirt.

Tonight, I looked up some stuff on Chipotle. They are a pretty awesome company. They push good food with a green vibe that I can dig. Their philosophy is "Food with Integrity". "The hallmarks of Food With Integrity include things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal." Check out their web site for more info.

If you haven't been, you should go. I've only eaten there once, but based on the good food and the eco-friendly culture, I'm a fan.

1. back Dan Lance, a.k.a. Reverend Rockstar, a pastor in Redding, CA, eats at Chipotle every Monday. Joshua Longbrake, a.k.a. The Longbrake, a grad student in Seattle, WA, made a New Years resolution to "Eat at Chipotle once a week." Both of these blogs are worth reading. They are both men on mission.

Labels: food, green

So, like I said we are attempting to reduce the amount of mail we create. This goes for sending and receiving. Though we do still pay a few bills through the mail and my wife still insists on sending out Thank You cards1.

We feel that reducing our mail throughput helps in a few ways. It's reduces the amount of paper waste, but it also reduces the amount of resources used to transport the mail, and operate the mail system. I wonder how many mail trucks run everyday in the US? Do any of you have a mailman that delivers on foot?

Here are a few things we are doing. These are not earth shattering ideas, but they are a start. Maybe you can add your own ideas.

1. Receive and Pay Bills Online
Like I said, nothing earth shattering here. A lot of people have moved to using online bill pay for the convenience, but it also helps to reduce the amount of mail we produce. We have moved to paying almost all of our bills online, and we have elected to have as many as possible sent to us electronically. That way we reduce some mail two fold.

Update for the hard nosed old schoolers, it's safe to pay for things over the internets. Though there are "hackers" out there, the chances that they care about your bank account are very slim. They have better things to do. Also, there are online bill pay services that make keeping up with and paying your bills easier than ever. A good place to start might be with your bank's web site.

2. Stop Getting Those Monthly Statements
Charities are some of the worst offenders when it comes to extraneous mail. We give monthly to a few organizations, all of which we do by EFT (electronic funds transfer). So, we pay them straight from the bank account, but what do they do? They send us a statement telling us that we sent them money. Really? We have asked the organizations to either send us the statement electronically, or not at all. Sure, we'll take one statement per year for tax purposes, but if possible, we'll take that electronically as well.

The charities we give to randomly are worse. I have enough address labels to cover my entire body with them. Does any one else have this over abundance of address labels problem? I even have one organization that sends me two things every time they have a mailing. I told them to stop wasting my my donations on extra mailings, or I will never give them another dime.

3. Recycle the Junk
It seems like no matter what, I am always going to get some mail that I do not want. I found on the City of Raleigh web site that you can recycle junk mail. So, I have started putting anything that does not have personal information on it in the recycling bin. This includes the envelopes, the inserts, the ads, and all the other junk that comes along with the statements that I didn't want in the first place.


So, those are a few steps we have taken. Feel free to expound on those, or to add your own ideas. Individually, we might not make that much of a difference, but collectively, we have the opportunity to save trees and fossil fuels just by being more responsible about our mail.

1. back I don't get it, but I don't fight it. You've got to choose your battles and that's not one I am going to win. It's just one of her things. She likes to do it. So, I just let it go. I love you honey.

Labels: green

Have you ever thought about how amazing the US Postal Service is? I can put an envelope in a little metal box in front of my house, and within a couple days that envelope can be anywhere in the world. It leaves my house and gets thrown in with hundreds, if not thousands, of other envelopes and somehow they all get sorted out, and make it to the proper destination.

Think about how many times you have sent something out in the mail. Now, think about often that letter, bill, card, etc. has NOT made it to the right person or company. Do you have a story of sending something and it not making it there? It amazes me how consistent they are.

I like to receive mail. I like going to the mailbox and finding those well traveled envelopes in there. I even like getting bills, and paying them. (That could be a blog post in and of its self.) However, recently, I have become torn. Well... not torn, so much. I have just started to shift. As much as I am amazed by the US Postal Service and as much as I like to receive mail, I like waste even less. We are trying our best to reduce the amount of waste our family creates, and that little metal box out front creates more than its share.

In my next post, I'll give you the steps we have taken to reduce our mail.

Labels: green