Greener Ghosts, Goblins, and Ghouls October 29, 2008

Go green this Halloween. No, I don’t mean you should dress up as the Green Lantern or the Jolly Green Giant – though, by all means, do sport the green tights if you like…

But seriously, we should all go green this Halloween. How, you might be asking the computer screen?  Luckily, there is a fantastic resource at your fingertips: Green Halloween. Green Halloween is a “non-profit, grassroots community movement to create healthier and more Earth-friendly holidays, starting with Halloween.  It is hosted by Treeswing, a 501(c)3 committed to building generations of healthy, active communities.”

I read up on Green Halloween recently in Pacific Northwest Magazine and was inspired by founder Corey Colwell-Lipson’s mission to change the current paradigm of Halloween that generates so much waste and so many cavities.  The health affects of poor diet are astounding: In the past twenty years, the number of obese children and adolescents in the U.S. has more than doubled. And boys now have a 30% chance of developing Type II diabetes. Girls a 40% chance.

I am, by no means, saying that we should take the fun out of Halloween.  I love Halloween!  But we can go about the costumes, treats and parties in a smarter, more sustainable, and healthier fashion.  You can find costume tips, both where to buy and how to make, on the Green Halloween website.  Homemade costumes are not only more eco-friendly, but they are usually way more creative than their plastic and pleather store-bought options. Green Halloween also has an awesome list of alternative treats and treasures to pass out to all of the Batmans, Sponge Bobs, and fairy princesses that knock on your door.  There is a fun re-usable Halloween-themed bag on that list as well – plenty big enough for all of the non-High Fructose Corn Syrup treats to be gathered.

Check out the Green Halloween blog for regular updates, tips and event announcements. Happy Green Halloween!

Vote for your favorite furry animals October 24, 2008

We are quite the animal lovers here at Parsons, so when there is an opportunity to throw them a bone, we take full advantage.

Petfinder.com and The Animal Rescue Site have teamed up to host The Animal Rescue Site Shelter Challenge.  You can cast one vote every day for your favorite rescue organization.  The shelters with the most votes will receive a $25,000 grant, the runner-up a $10,000 grant, and state and weekly winners a $1,000 grant.  Voting ends at midnight PST on December 14th.

So even after you cast your vote for the next big guy in charge, remember to keep rocking the vote for the animals!

I want it NOW! October 17, 2008

Most of us can identify a little with the obnoxious Veruca Salt from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” (The Gene Wilder version rules!) We see something cool and we want to have it – an iPhone or the new Flip digital video recorder, or a Kindle, or a faster, better version of the computer we currently own. But we also know that for the most part, everything we buy today is likely bound for tomorrow’s landfill.

 

When I was a kid, in my family, cars and appliances were bought to last – and my parents meticulously maintained them to prolong their lifespans as much as possible. We didn’t waste food, we recycled everything we could, we didn’t get new clothes until we outgrew our old ones or they simply wore out, and we shared tools with neighbors. That’s why when something I have falls apart quickly, or even worse, requires an upgrade not because it’s broken but outmoded, it bugs me.

 

When my dad passed away 15 years ago, I gave a refrigerator (a GE product by the way) that he had owned since his bachelor days to a good friend of mine. It is now in his garage as a beer fridge. I know, it probably wastes energy sitting there humming away, but there’s something lovely about a 50+-year-old fridge.

 

Planned obsolescence is a term first developed in the 1920s and ‘30s when mass production of goods was becoming more fully established. It refers of course to the practice of designing a product to become obsolete or non-functional after a certain period of time, the rationale being to reduce the time period between repeat purchases. On the one hand, this can be seen as exploitative; on the other, it is a way to exist competitively in a fast-changing market – if a product lasts too long before requiring replacement the company may be slower in introducing innovative improvements, or a competitor may do so and lure customers away. Today we are used to thinking we need a new computer every two years or less – and a new mobile phone even more frequently than that.

 

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune was about a company that recycles old mobile phones. Here’s the big statistic from the article:

 

“According to industry estimates, nearly 200 million cellphones will be sold in the U.S. this year. A large number of these buyers are already wireless subscribers with handsets, so more than 100 million phones will be retired. If improperly dumped in a landfill, they can release toxic materials from their batteries, small fluorescent lights and other parts.”

 

The article goes on to recite lots of compelling data to show that this is an important issue that must be addressed, and it provides some great information on companies that will take care of recycling your mobile phone in a responsible manner.

 

That said, next time you buy something you’ve bought lots of times before, ask yourself, Is there a better way? Can I buy something that will last longer? Is there a way to responsibly dispose of this when it does finally crap out? If not, can I do without it? Remember what happened to Veruca Salt (in the Gene Wilder version of “Willy Wonka” she gets dumped down the garbage chute).  I guess that’s a kind of recycling, eh?