I found a rather interesting article today regarding urban poachers who are setting up organized systems to nab recyclables from curbsides in San Francisco. Due to the increasing value of substances like aluminum, newspaper, and cardboard, these folks are making a lot of money. In addition to being illegal, the late-night trucks are a nuisance for neighborhoods.  And sometimes the poachers  take new newspapers, prior to anyone getting to read them!

That got me thinking--I wonder if this has hit North Carolina yet?

Got compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)?  Until now CFLs had to be taken to specific recycling centers throughout the state--a far drive for many folks! But just days ago, The Home Depot launched a new initiative that allows residents nationwide to safely and properly recycle CFLs. The new, energy efficient light bulbs can be brought in to any Home Depot store and given to the employee at the return desk. You can find more information, and view their press release, here.

If you didn’t know already, the one downside to CFLs is that breaking the bulb releases mercury vapor. You can only bring unbroken bulbs to be recycled, so be sure to handle them with care when transporting. Carefully recycling CFLs prevents the release of mercury into the environment (and your body) and allows for the reuse of glass, metals and other materials that make up fluorescent lights. 

I'm a huge Pixar movie fan. Their last film, Cars, choked me up. So, I expected a lot out of their newest movie, WALL-E.

My husband and I went to see it last night, and within seconds of the movie starting, we looked at each other with shocked expressions.

Before getting to the theater, all we knew about the movie was based off of the marketing we'd seen: a cute and funny cartoon love-story with great graphics. So, we were taken aback when the movie opened with a scene of desolate urban wasteland - abandoned skyscrapers and mountains of trash piled just as high in cubes. The messages just balloon from there, hitting on the issues of consumerism, big box stores, in your face advertising, throw-away societies, and obesity. It was a bit surreal.

Truth be known, I'm pleased that the movie is not being marketed as an "environmental" or "anti-consumerism" movie - it likely wouldn't get the box office ratings it's getting if it had.

So, while you're enjoying your (3-day) 4th of July weekend, make sure you take a break from the heat and check out the movie for yourself and then tell us what you think.

Ever since I cut red meat out of my diet about six years ago, I'm always fielding the question "so...why don't you eat pork?" Usually, I site environmental reasons attributed to the disposal of hog waste in unsound hog lagoons and sprayfields, as well concerns about hog farms and environmental justice. However, there's much more to it than that. 

North Carolina is the second-largest pork producer state in the United States. According to a recent article from the The Daily Tarheel, the Smithfield Packing Plant in Tar Heel, NC slaughters 32,000 pigs a day. 32,000!!! A day!!! The pork is then shipped all over the world—creating a huge carbon footprint. And as for the thousands upon thousands of workers at the Smithfield Plant and their rights and treatment, well...that's another story.

But there's an emerging trend in the agricultural community: sustainable, local, organic hog farming. These farms offer smaller, more environmentally-sound practices, pasture-raised hogs, less of an impact to surrounding communities (in terms of odor and waste disposal), and, of course, the ability to buy pork locally—supporting communities and reducing ye olde carbon footprint.

The main concern, of course, is that buying local, sustainable pork means paying more up front. Some businesses and schools find it hard to support the organic farms due to these monetary constraints. The good news is that there are groups like NC Choices and FLO Foods to help support local farmers, develop community partnerships, and promote sustainable agriculture. 

The good news (for meat-eaters, at least)? This little piggy went organic and went to market.

[For your sake, we didn't post this in Comic Sans.]

There’s a great article in Monday’s New York Times on product design.  Author and designer Allison Arieff laments to the current tendency of some designers of tech gadgets and appliances to add function at the expense of both utility and environmental impact.  It’s a thoughtful, meandering discussion, and it’s prompted some terrific reader comments, as well.

Several of the comments urge producer responsibility – in particular, mandates that manufacturers take back their products at the end of those products’ useful lives.  It’s hard to beat producer responsibility (for waste disposal) as a tool to help manufacturers make socially efficiency choices in designing new products.  An ultimate effect of producer responsibility policies is to inspire manufacturers to shift towards William McDonough’s concept of cradle-to-cradle design, where the natural and inorganic components follow two parallel, seamless cycles of materials moving from product to product to product, without having to be thrown away and buried in a landfill forever.  As the European Union has found, it’s also a great way to reduce packaging waste.

There’s no single take away message from the article and comments, but if you’ve got 15 minutes to read and mull them over, it will be well worth the time.   Finally, opponents of Comic Sans will appreciate comment #51.  

September 12, 2007 at 4:18pm, the News & Observer reports that the Legislative worm project has taken a wrong turn.

Personally, I'd like to commend the NC Legislature for being innovative in their green projects. The worm project was a pet project of Senator Basnight's to compost food scraps, rather than shipping them off to a compost company.

We learned this afternoon that sadly, the first round of worms didn't make it. Thankfully they'll be bringing in some more worms this week. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that the back-up hermaphrodites make it!

By now, I imagine most folks have heard that Sims Hugo Neu is pulling their proposed megadump from the predominantly African-American town of Navassa.

Many are speculating that they cut and run thanks to pending legislation at the NC General Assembly. We don't know whether it's one of the two proposed pieces of legislation specifically dealing with Navassa's zoning and deannexation, or the long-awaited (since last year's moratorium passed) Solid Waste Management Act of 2007.

In addition to scaring away Sims Hugo Neu, these potential new rules have many of the other companies who have proposed megadumps for eastern NC runnin' for the hills. And, we think the rules should have them shaking in their boots.

Solid waste companies are balking at the idea of having to create larger buffer zones and put up money for potential contamination. I, for one, hope that these companies' reactions get NC towns and counties to think twice before accepting the risk of hosting a megadump and instead ask these companies, "what are you really selling us?" Because, it sure doesn't smell good to us. How about you?

Scotland County of Tomorrow (SCOT) will be holding a rally on Monday, April 2 at 6pm in Laurinburg. Why are we rallying? To let Scotland County commissioners know that we don't want a mega-dump in Scotland County! A dump like this would not only import waste from many other states, it would import 5,000 TONS of trash a day AND would be as tall as a 28-story building! For more information about the rally, click here.

North Carolina needs better,  more comprehensive recycling programs to create jobs and keep reusable materials out of our landfills. Check out Zero Waste America and eco-cycle for ways we can reduce waste, instead of finding new places to put it! If you can't attend the rally but would still like to be involved, consider writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, or contact the Scotland County commissioners directly.

Check out photographer Chris Jordan's new series of photos, called "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait." From his website:

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books.

My favorite is the aluminum cans depiction. What's yours? Do you agree with Chris that these images might be more hard-hitting than just plain old numbers?

The answer, suprisingly, is yes.  According to compostthis.co.uk, hair is actually good for your compost pile.  This site has answers to many of your "can I comost this?" questions, and, along with it's sister site, recyclethis.co.uk, will help you reduce your trash output. 

Reducing (with recycling and reusing) has been on my mind today, after reading about Boone's zero waste goals.  Do you know of other cities in NC with similar goals?

re3, the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance's new outreach project, has a lot of good stuff going on.  For the MySpacer's out there, check out their page.  And for the rest of you, here's one of their hilarious recycling commercials:

Check out a few more here.

As many of you know, the Joint Select Committee on Environmental Justice, established in the landfill moratorium bill in July, has been meeting for the past few months. The Committee met for the third time this past Tuesday in the small town of Laurinburg, NC (Scotland County).

Much to our surprise, the meeting was great! Nearly 100 people were in attendance and most of them were community members. More than seven counties were present, all currently fighting landfills in their communities.

Two of our folks, Sharon Campbell (NC Environmental Justice Network) and John Runkle (Conservation Council of NC) gave the community's list of policy recommendations to the Committee; which were well received. In addition, the Committee opened the meeting up for public comments.

We heard from some great folks who had hard facts and spoke from the heart. The last speaker for the afternoon though, was the most hard-hitting. He was Mr. Bierbaum, an attorney concerned with the proposed Scotland County landfill. Giving a short history lesson, Mr. Bierbaum told the Committee how in the late 80's North Carolina was trying to decide where to store low-level nuclear waste. Armed with overhead projector slides, he showed the Committee how the site was eventually chosen - through what can only be described as economic profiling. In slimming down the pickings to decide where the nuclear waste would go, the committee of eight individuals voted out (of consideration) a community when it was described as "affluent" and voted in (for consideration) a community when it was described as "devastated."  This would seem to be an unethical way to choose a community for the siting of nuclear waste, no?

In the end, the decision came down to two sites: Wake County (Shearon Harris) and Scotland County. Stated clearly in a memo, the group decided to go with Wake County for political reasons - one of which was that it was less likely to rile up the environmentalists. Twelve years later however, the site considered in Scotland County is now being considered for a megadump. Why is this? Because the parent company of the company looking to dispose of the nuclear waste and of the company who is looking to site a megadump is the same (gasp)! Drumroll please...it's no other than Waste Management.

Can there be any question that low-income communities are being targeted for the placement of our society's garbage? No. Especially in the case of Scotland County.

How about a quick shout-out and thanks to Mr. Bierbaum for the holiday present!

The landfill saga continues.

Last Thursday the Joint Select Committee on Environmental Justice met for the second time. As a reminder, this Committee was formed as a result of your action in urging for a landfill moratorium (nice work!).

As usual, the process was frustrating. The Committee seemed more concerned with whether or not landfills were lined than with their stated purpose - to find if and why landfills are being sited in poor communities and/or communities of color.

One of the most entertaining moments of the Committee meeting (yes, they happen but are rare) was when a NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) staffer (who shall remain unnamed) touted the Departments environmental justice work. S/he cited DENR's Environmental Equity Initiative, public hearing process, and the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA, sort of like NEPA but on a state level). So, in essence DENR is doing a lot to address the issue of environmental justice, including when permitting megalandfills.

Chairman Shaw eventually invited questions from the audience, which led one of our own, John Runkle, Conservation Council of NC, to note "I believe landfills are exempt from SEPA." Gasps were heard throughout the room. S/he noted that s/he had forgotten and that John was correct. John then continued that indeed no community study is required for the siting of landfills, S/he agreed. This means that indeed the issue of environmental justice is not addressed in the permitting of landfills.

Their continues to be good news though - both Legislative Committees (the EJ Committee and the Environmental Review Commission) handling the landfill moratorium seem to be moving forward and on track to make a recommendation to the full General Assembly come the start of session. Keep your fingers crossed.

Stay tuned as we continue to keep ya'll updated. We look forward to your continued help on this issue in 2007!

Today is America Recycles Day!  You may not have heard of this holiday, but since 1997 there has been one day reserved to celebrate and encourage recycling.  In honor of the holiday, Treehugger has this to say:

[...] Here are some ideas for some things & ways you can help keep some junk out of our waste stream. Please, do yourself, your garbage collector and the planet a favor, and think twice before throwing stuff out today.

1) The Ecopod makes recycling fun and reduces the volume of your recyclables.
2) With programs from Dell, Apple (remember, iPod has its own program) and more, there's no excuse not to recycle your computer.
3) While we're on the topic of technology, why not recycle your electronic media.
4) You may not have any yet, but you will soon, so brush up on recycling your Christmas cards.
5) Review Recycle: The Essential Guide for some fun facts, figures and tips for further recycling.

Happy recycling!

You all know the story by now. Rural, poor, predominantly African-American communities are being targeted for the placement of megadumps. City officials are for these megadumps saying it will bring them economic development. A story from today's News & Observer talks specifically about the Hugo Neu landfill proposed for the small town of Navassa:

The $25 million investment would bring about 40 industrial jobs to the community, extend a water and sewer line through town, help pay for a fire station and provide the town a stream of revenue.

Even if megadumps bring economic development, they are still a polluting industry. However, Mayor Willis, of Navassa had this to say - quoted in the same article:

"It's something we want, versus something that was forced down on us," Mayor Willis said. "You can call that environmental racism. But we asked for it, and we still want it. Heavy industry doesn't scare us at all." The town has long been defined by industries that others shunned, though its economic health has been anemic in recent years.

And we all know that hordes of citizens are opposed to megadumps being placed in their communities. Again, from the News & Observer:

A grass-roots group, Brunswick Citizens for a Safe Environment, has rallied opposition, contending the project will leave the county with an unattractive 350-foot mountain of debris that would pose an environmental risk.

But one point the News & Observer failed to bring up...Can't we have economic development in rural, poor, predominantly African-American communities without bringing a polluting industry in? What do you think?

A cute idea, from Treehugger:

Junk mail isn't just annoying; it's also an environmental scourge. While the numbers vary from source to source, millions of trees are cut down each year to produce the ads and non-profit solicitations that likely end up in the recycle bin, or, more often, the trash can. That junk also consumes a lot of water: 25-28 million gallons. If you've ever tried to get yourself off of mailing lists, you know it's a Herculean chore -- you must send out letters to numerous mailing list companies requesting removal of your name and address. And then, if you even buy a product from a catalog or online, donate to a charity, or even change your address, the cycle starts over again.

On Monday, Joel Makower pointed us to a new company that not only wants to eliminate the junk in your mailbox permanently, but also to repair some of the ecological damage. For $3 a month, greendimes promises to regularly request that your name be removed from mailing lists, and to plant a tree in your name each month.

More info about greendimes on their website.  I think I'm going to sign up!

A recent article from the Jacksonville Daily News highlights a major problem facing North Carolina: hog waste. This issue is of particular importance now because in just one year, a state-mandated moratorium on waste lagoons in new hog farms is going to expire. According to Environmental Defense:

The traditional means of disposal for hog feces and urine has been open-air lagoon pits (basically big holding ponds for waste) and sprayfields. The lagoons sometimes rupture after heavy rains, and the fields on which waste is sprayed leak polluted runoff into streams and rivers.

Over the past 6 years, NC State University has been a key player in developing "environmentally superior" methods of handling hog waste (as opposed to the traditional lagoon and sprayfield methods), but as of yet, these new methods just aren't economically feasible. However, folks at Environmental Defense and the lead scientist on the project at NC State believe change is soon to come. Julie Woodson for the NC Pork Council disagrees:

"From an industry perspective, nothing has been proven to be economically feasible and environmentally superior to what we have now,” [Woodson] said.

Woodson also "disagrees with any proposal to mandate conversion to other technologies," believing any such conversions should be done on a voluntary basis only. She also stated that:

“Our producers have done very well to monitor and regulate their systems under very high standards that the state has put forward with their permit conditions,” she said.

But the truth is, even the most careful of producers can have spills and overflows from their lagoons. And these accidents have a huge price to pay--the price of public health, since lagoons and sprayfields contaminate our waterways.

For more information on what is being done to combat the issue of hog waste in our state and lower the costs of the new disposal methods, check out Environmental Defense's campaign on making hog farming in North Carolina "clean and profitable."

Long shifts, unpaid overtime, shortage of workers. Sounds like a typical day at Smithfield Farms. Not this time. This time it's a problem at Raleigh's Solid Waste Services.

According to the News & Observer:

More than 50 sanitation workers walked off the job Wednesday, describing skeleton crews on 14-hour shifts, broken promises of overtime pay and the constant threat of punishment for those who complained.

In July, Raleigh expanded its recycling program to start collecting an additional seven new items. Somehow to Raleigh, recycling more materials equated to less work, so the city cut six recycling jobs! From the News & Observer:

In July, Raleigh cut six jobs from its recycling crew -- roughly 10 percent of the work force -- hoping a new recycling system would save time.

The system was supposed to give workers a break, requiring less sorting at the street. But workers say the extra bulk devours any time savings.

As environmentalists, we are taught and encouraged to preach that recycling creates jobs: Not only is recycling good for the environment, but it's good for the economy.

While I'm not going to stop recycling, I think I may keep my recycling bin away from the street this week to decrease our workers' workload while they make a strong workers' rights case. What about you?