Earth Week Tip of the Day: Reduce -> Reuse -> Recycle
Throughout the week, geology/oceanography/environmental science instructor Gwyn Jones has been mailing an "Earth Week Tip of the Day". With her permission, I have posted the emails and their links below.All students, staff, faculty and even administrators are welcome to participate!
Earth Week Tip #5 - What to Eat? - In Defense of Food
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. --Michael Pollan
* Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims…a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.
* The American diet has gone: 1) From whole foods to refined, 2) From complexity to simplicity, 3) From leaves to seeds, 4) From food culture to food science.
* The problem with nutrient-by-nutrient nutrition science is that it takes the nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and the diet out of the context of lifestyle. --NYU nutritionist Marion Nestle
* 4 of the 10 leading killers in America are linked to diet. Further, we know that simply by moving to America, people from nations with low rates of these “diseases of affluence” will quickly acquire them.
* You don’t need to fathom a carrot’s complexity to reap its benefits. :)
Unhappy Meals, NY Times Magazine (January 2007) <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?_r=1&oref=login&ref=books&pagewanted=all#>
FoodPolitics.Com <http://www.foodpolitics.com>
Gwyn's Summary of some health eating rules from In Defense of Food (pdf file)
Earth Week Tip #4 - Plastics 101
Confused about which plastics are safer? You’re not alone! Here are ABCs (123s) to help guide your choices. The numbers and abbreviations are recycling codes, which can be found on the bottoms of most food and beverage containers. Common uses for each type of plastic are listed on the website below (and in the attached file). --Source: Washington Toxics Coalition
#1 - OK
#2 - OK
#3 - PVC, vinyl, V, polyvinyl chloride - May contain phthalates, plasticizers linked with birth defects and asthma. May contain lead, which harms children’s learning and behavior.
#4 - OK
#5 - OK
#6 - PS, polystyrene - Styrene is a possible carcinogen (cancer-causing agent), toxic to the nervous system
#7 Other - Polycarbonate, PC - Bisphenol A (BPA) is an estrogen-mimicking chemical linked with cancer, changes in behavior, and altered immune function. NOTE: Bio-based plastics, which may also be coded as “#7 Other”, are OK to use.
Washington Toxics Coalition:
Plastics 101 <http://www.watoxics.org/safer-products/plastics-101>
Choosing Safer Products: Lunchboxes and Food Storage <http://www.watoxics.org/safer-products/choosing-safer-products-lunchboxes-and-food-storage>
Choosing Safer Products: Baby Bottles, Sippy Cups, and Pacifiers <http://www.watoxics.org/safer-products/choosing-safer-products-baby-bottles-sippy-cups-and-pacifiers>
Earth Week Tip #3 - Water, use it Wisely
* Toilet flushing accounts 38% of the water use in an average American home. That water is held to drinking water standards. (Bathing: 31%, Laundry & dishes: 20%, Drinking & cooking: 6%, Etc: 5%).
* Some foods require a lot more water to produce. For example, potatoes are 300 times more water-efficient than an equivalent weight of beef. 1 Quarter Pounder = 3000 gallons water!
--> Save water by shortening showers, running dish and clothes washers only when full, checking for toilet leaks, etc. Every little bit helps! (More great tips are at the links below.)
--> Cut back on meat consumption, even by one meal a week.
100 Water Saving Tips <http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100ways/nw.shtml>
H2Ouse - Water Saving Home <http://www.h2ouse.org>
Our Water is Worthg Saving <http://www.bewatersmart.net/conservationtips.html>
Earth Week Tip #2 - Junk the Junk Mail
* U.S. junk mail accounts for over 20% of all mail in the world. Every year, Americans receive 98 billion pieces of junk mail (392 pieces per person), which requires 6.1 million tons of paper. About 44% of junk mail goes to a landfill unopened, yet we still spend 8 MONTHS per lifetime opening junk mail! --Source: http://www.forestethics.org
* And, junk mail is ineffective. - A response rate of <0.25% (1/4 of 1%!) is considered acceptable for the 500 million U.S. credit card solicitations mailed monthly. --Source: http://www.forestethics.org
* Americans receive an estimated 19 billion catalogues in the mail each year, at a cost of 53 million trees and 5.2 million tons of carbon emissions. --Source: N.Y. Times
--> Reduce your ecological footprint — and the annoyance of having to lug the stuff to the recycling bin — by “opting out”:
Forest Ethics - Do Not Mail <http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?id=2029>
Direct Marketing Association - How to remove your name from mailing lists, emails lists, telemarketing lists, etc. <http://www.dmachoice.org/consumerassistance.php>
Catalog Choice <http://www.catalogchoice.org>
Earth Week Tip #1 - Plastic or Paper? How About Neither?
* More than 380 million plastic bags (petroleum products) are thrown away in the United States every year, and those plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills.
* And while paper bags may eventually biodegrade), an estimated 14 million trees a year are cut down to make 10 billion paper bags.
--> Bring your own shopping bags, as much as you can. Durable, eco-friendly, aesthetically pleasing options are a-plenty.
--> Support lightweight bags made from plastic alternatives (for example, cellulose).
(Added bonus from Gita Bangera - Tim Michem's "Canvas Bag" song)
BCC Earth Week is organized by the BCC Student Science Association. For more information contact Rob Viens in the BCC Science Division at rviens@bcc.ctc.edu or (425) 564-3158.
