Electronic Wasteland

Oh, the stats. 400 million units of electronic waste go into landfills each year. So not only is the volume of waste huge, the chemicals (like lead and mercury) also get leaked into the surrounding soil and groundwater. This is a huge problem that the average person just doesn't know how to tackle.

Personally, I've taken to just hording all of this stuff because I don't know what to do with it. I've got 3 extra laptops, 4 cell phones and a VCR all stashed around the house. I mean, I know I could take it out to Republic in North Las Vegas to make sure it ends up in the with the other hazardous waste, but so far it's just been easier to stick it in various drawers and closets.

But, in Las Vegas we are actually lucky enough to have a easy solution to all of our outdated computer items that you can feel good about. The Blind Center of Las Vegas can help you recycle your computer related electronics! As a way to raise money, the group has a program that collects electronics and takes them apart for the valuable components. Then they responsibly recycle the remaining parts. Here's what they have to say about it on their website:

"Many electronic products contain parts that could be profitably refurbished and reused with little effort. When we throw away old electronic equipment, we're throwing away these resources and generating additional pollution associated with the need to access virgin materials and manufacture new products."

Great, sign me up!

The Blind Center of Las Vegas will take: personal computers, laptops, monitors, fax machines and copiers. They guarantee that they will erase all of the old data on your computer, so you never have to worry about your personal information.

Of course the best thing you can do is not replace electronics until you absolutely have to, and then when you do, to try to pass them on to someone else (try craigslist or freecycle) but when something is really at the end of its life, I think this is a good option.

Another Greener Vegas!

Apparently I'm not nearly as creative in blog naming as I had originally thought, alas, there is another Greener Vegas. I've actually known about the other Greener Vegas since just after I started this blog, but they just recently contacted me to point out our similar names (and in a very nice and excited way), so I thought I would tell you about them too.

This Greener Vegas is a non profit organization in town and according to the website their mission is "To promote a green lifestyle in and around the city of Las Vegas by empowering local schools, businesses, and community involvement through education and facilitating environmentally friendly alternatives and recycling initiatives."

There are some rather handy links on their homepage, a calendar with green events around town (something I would like to do, but can't figure out how to do on the blogger software) as well as what appears to be an auto updated list of news green news links (I think it must be auto updated because as I write this there is a link to a lightening and thunderstorm story, which, although cool and energy related, I can't imagine is would be a first choice post). The link to greener kids also looks like it's got some fun stuff on it.

So check out Greener Vegas if you feel like it, or if you're just trying to kill time on a Friday afternoon at work.

Going Bananas

Lately my local fruit and vegetable eating has been going pretty well. Between Glicrease and all of the California produce in the grocery stores, I haven't had too much trouble getting everything that I want from near by (California is close, right?). There are a few things that I'm ok doing without, like mangoes. I can only find those from Mexico or farther. I did buy some blueberries from Oregon, but at least I'm still on the same coast.

But bananas. If I never ate another banana I would be fine. Sure, I like them fine in banana bread and if there was one already sliced on my cereal I would eat it, but they aren't a priority for me at all and they come from far away (the closest I have seen is Ecuador). However, Hubby likes them. But Hubby likes a lot of things and with most things he would never notice or care if it never came into the house again. Now granted, he doesn't usually ask for bananas, but they are still different.

When I buy bananas they disappear. I don't have to do or say anything, but they go. That doesn't happen with basically anything else, especially not fruit or vegetables.

For the last couple of months I haven't been buying bananas since I was trying to hard to eat local produce. But last week I was at Trader Joe's and was having a hard time finding produce that I wanted to buy for one reason or another and so I broke down and bought some organic bananas. And that was when I realized how much Hubby must like them since they were gone within a couple of days.

So what's a girl to do? Feed Hubby far away but healthy food he likes, or just stick with the local stuff? Eco 'burban wrote about a similar situation with her husband and apples a few weeks ago and decided that if he wanted out of season apples, he should buy out of season apples if it keeps him away from junk food.

I don't know if that's quite how I feel. Hubby will eat whatever fruits and vegetables I put in front of him, I just have to put them in front of him. Bananas are easy because they seem to put themselves in front of him. But do I need to buy something from Ecuador just so that I don't have to wash and cut up other fruit? Well, maybe once and a while I do, but I don't think I'm going to make a habit out of it. I'll keep the bananas for those weeks that I'm out of town or the last few weeks of tax season. Is that a reasonable stance or am I a mean wife or a bad greenie?

....oh, and does this sound like some totally sexist marriage where I have to make all of Hubby's food including cutting up his fruit? Not at all. Hubby is perfectly happy to make his own food and feed himself. I'm just not happy with what he chooses (microwave burritos and corn dogs) so as a comprise I'm in charge of food and he eats whatever I give him (and he does, I have never met someone who will unquestionably and without complaint eat so many things). He eats much more healthily since he's been married to me and I like to cook so don't feel bad about me having to cut fruit over here.

Below is an article from Saturday's paper by Thomas Friedman, 9/11 and 4/11, from the New York Times. I generally like what Friedman has to say, and this article is no different. He often says unpopular things but he says them in such reasonable manner, I don't understand how anyone could not agree with him. Now, if only more people were reading what he writes...

So, in case you missed this, here it is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/opinion/20friedman.html?hp

And if you don't want to read the whole thing, here's a little highlight:

After 9/11, Mr. Bush had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on breaking our addiction to oil. Instead, he told us to go shopping. After gasoline prices hit $4.11 last week, he had the chance to summon the country to a great nation-building project focused on clean energy. Instead, he told us to go drilling.

Neither shopping nor drilling is the solution to our problems.

What doesn’t the Bush crowd get? It’s this: We don’t have a “gasoline price problem.” We have an addiction problem. We are addicted to dirty fossil fuels, and this addiction is driving a whole set of toxic trends that are harming our nation and world in many different ways. It is intensifying global warming, creating runaway global demand for oil and gas, weakening our currency by shifting huge amounts of dollars abroad to pay for oil imports, widening “energy poverty” across Africa, destroying plants and animals at record rates and fostering ever-stronger petro-dictatorships in Iran, Russia and Venezuela.

Ah, all so true.

I have also been a little slow on the gold star awards lately, mostly due to the rather long length of the last few posts, but I have not forgotten Caroline. Caroline gets two gold stars! The first for getting a second car seat for her car so that she can carpool her daughter's friends around town, which she is now doing. The second is for switching to powder laundry detergent (I think she told me laundry and not dishwasher??? This is why I shouldn't get too far behind) so that it is packaged in paper instead of plastic. This is also great because the heavy and bulky water used to make the detergent a liquid isn't unnecessarily shipped around the country using up even more fossil fuels. Excellent changes!

Meet My New Dry Cleaner

Me! Most green blogers out there write about how they give up their clothes dryers to reduce their energy usage, and someday I will get there, I promise. But for now, I don't have anyplace to put up a clothes line without drilling holes into our house and the backyard wall (so that's a no), we have a very energy efficient dryer that can dry a huge load of anything in 30 minutes, and I just don't love the crunchy feel that line dried socks have.

So, for now, I've just fixed my dry cleaning habit since I did feel like that was a doable change. I didn't used to take clothes to the dry cleaners very often, but when I did, it was usually upwards of 20 items and I could easily pay $50. Also, about a year ago I started hearing about green dry cleaning from places like the Green Guide because the usual chemical used to dry clean, perc, is very bad for the environment and is carcinogenic.

As usual LV lags way behind in any eco innovations, and I couldn't actually find a "wet cleaner" here, which is the most environmentally responsible way to replace traditional dry cleaning. I did find Everkleen Cleaners (which uses GreenEarth technology) but they still use siloxane solvents, which, despite what the Green Earth Cleaning website claims, is still not a great option according to the Green Guide (I tend to believe the Green Guide). I did give this place a try, but they stapled the labels into the clothes (leaving little holes) and still wrapped everything in plastic even when I asked them if they could leave it off. I was not a convert. (There is also supposedly a cleaner on Eastern in Henderson called the Green Cleaners, but I don't know what their process is and since I am Eastern avoider, I haven't tried it.)

So what's a girl to do? Well, I actually looked at my clothing labels and most of them say dry clean OR hand wash, but, well, I don't hand wash. However, my fancy front load washing machine does via a special cycle (also uses very little water) and I found a bottle of Woolite that I have been carrying around with me since college (funny since I don't hand wash). I also found a couple of old screens in the garage and set them on top of the guest bathroom tub (after a good washing) so that I would have a place to lie the sweaters flat so they wouldn't stretch out. Then I just hung or laid everything out to dry when it came out of the washer.

Voila, Rebecca's Cleaners is born! Everything came out great! I didn't ruin a thing even though there was silk and linen things in the mix (I'm still not sure if I'm going to have the nerve to wash wool or cashmere in the winter, but Ideal Bite says that this actually does work, so perhaps) I even got a big ugly stain out of one of Hubby's shirts (without trying) that the dry cleaners never could get out. And I can't believe how much money I've saved. Just in this picture it's probably $40. How have I not been doing this before?

However, I will still be taking Hubby's dress shirts to the cleaners. But those are laundered, not dry cleaned, so they don't use perc on them. Yes, they do use plastic to cover the shirts (currently I tie up the small hole and use it as a garbage bag), but they also usually put about 6 in one plastic sleeve. I can not imagine a time when I will ever be able to iron a shirt well enough that it could be worn with a suit and I certainly won't ever be able to beat the $1.50 that they charge me per shirt. I will happily switch to a cleaner that will wash them without the plastic wrap if I ever find one, but for now I am happy with my perc-free and money-free solution for the rest of our cleaning needs.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me!

I was driving around the other day running errands (trying to be good and get them all in one trip) and I noticed the craziest and most annoying thing. Cars idling in parking lots wasting gas and polluting the earth for no good reason!

First I went to the post office and noticed that there was some big SUV running in the parking lot with a teenager sitting in the passenger seat. Seriously, this girl couldn't go inside and enjoy the free post office air conditioning?

Then I went to the bank to deposit some checks and walked by a car that was EMPTY but running, presumably to keep the car cool while the owner was inside the bank??? The owner must have left the key in the ignition and used the remote to lock the car. I mean, really, you're in the bank for 5 minutes, you wouldn't want you car to heat up just a tad.

So, just when I was starting to wonder just how expensive gas was going to have to get before people started doing sane things like turning off their cars whenever they can (you know, saves money and the planet) I pulled into the Whole Foods parking lot. All looked ok, I didn't see or hear any cars idling in the lot. Whew, I'd found the sanity in Las Vegas. But, nope, it was too good to be true.

On my way out there was a huge SUV parked right next to me just humming away with I think a 7 or 8 year old girl in the back seat. Yep, I got to breath those yummy fumes while I packed my groceries into the trunk. I am totally flabbergast at this one. What possible reason could those parents have for leaving a young child in a running, gas guzzling car for what, at least a half hour? Obviously there wasn't a thought of safety (oh, I don't know, perhaps playing around with the gears and gas or turning the car off and getting seriously overheated) or the ridiculous waste of gas.

I realize that it's gotta be about 110 out there, but people, there are other options. Take the kids into the store with you, park in the shade, run errands early in the morning or late evening, get your windows tinted, put up sun shades. I am so not proud to be a Las Vegan right now...is it like this every summer and this is just the first time I've noticed?

California Dreamin'

I got back yesterday from my trip to California for a week. Oh, the food in California! This is a sign that was on the tree next door to my parents' house offering the plums off the tree for free. On the other side of my parents' house was a even bigger tree and the neighbors let us have all the plums we wanted. We must have picked at least 50 pounds without a noticeable dent in the fruit on the trees.

We also bought 25 pounds of beautiful tomatoes at the farmers market for $22 (one of the three farmers markets I went to last week).

After all that, I'm California Dreamin'. Things just don't grow like that around here, let alone neighbors being neighborly enough to pass things on. And, except for Gilcrease, I don't think I've ever seen a price like that on tomatoes (and so far my experience at Gilcrease has been that everyone loves the tomatoes so much it's hard to find more than a pound or two at a time).

So, what happened to all of that fresh produce? My Mom taught me how to can (thanks Mom!) it all and we made some yummy stuff: 18 jars of tomato sauce, 18 jars of canned plums, and 20 (some very tiny) jars of plum jam. Oh, and of course, the whole family enjoyed as much fresh as we could eat.

But I grew up with all this bounty so I shouldn't be so excited. Here's a list of the fruit and veggies that my mom grew: apples, oranges, lemons, limes, pears, plums, apricots, pomegranates, cherries, grapes, tomatoes, asparagus, peas, onions, and I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting. I guess it just took me living away from it all for a couple of years for me to appreciate it. I know my eating local attempts would be much more successful in California than they are here!

My mom gave most of the jars to me to take home since she regularly cans and didn't need very many. I'm so excited to have some of this yummy California fruit happily sitting in my pantry now!