The Story of Stuff

While I think this is an amazingly well-done video, I do have some hesitations, which I would like to share with you before giving it my explicit endorsement. This video points out numerous aspects of our economy that are necessary to rethink and remodel. The problem is that a handful of the points made in this video are rather extreme and can easily alienate those who are not otherwise convinced of the video's main theme (i.e. most everyone). Examples of this include her absolute position on many parts of the "economy," such as the fact that "all" manufacturing involves "toxics in, toxics out," or that the government does not protect us at all and serves at the whim of only large corporations ("all" of which are bad). Now, this is not to say her generalizations are not incorrect. In fact, to those who would say these views are too radical, I would counter that indeed they are–relative to mainstream thought–because mainstream thought has largely been misguided over the years. For example, most of our products contain far too many carcinogens, which go far too unregulated by the FDA, EPA, USDA, etc. Take, for instance, the fact that only 11% of the over 10,500 ingredients used in personal care products in the U.S. have ever been tested for safety, and none has been tested for synergistic effects (a figure indirectly referred in the film, no less). And, especially during the Bush years, government bent way too far backward for large corporate behemoths. Despite all of this, her all-or-nothing stance is still largely unfair and incorrect–there are many exceptions to the rule, which she barely alludes to in the last minute of the film.

With that being said, I encourage you to watch this and use it to reconsider how you live your life and what your role is in this too "linear" economy. But please use some common sense and take what is said with a grain of salt: Rather than take all her assertions at face value, let them plant question marks in the back of your mind. I think this video will be far more valuable when viewing it through the lens of mild skepticism.

Oddball recycling

After realizing that teachers and students were fully willing to recycle paper and plastic when given the opportunity, I figured it was time to give everyone the opportunity to recycle other stuff, as well. So, knowing of several mail-away places that would take them and give us money in return, I began an ink-cartridge/cell phone recycling box in the main office at Aragon. I also threw in batteries, because I knew of many places where I could properly dispose of them.

The program was so successful that I was emptying my humble shoebox two-three times a week. It seems that teachers had been storing up their cartridges and batteries just waiting for something to do with them. I was reading a newsletter from RecycleWorks (the county advocacy group) that gave addresses of places that take overhead transparencies and CDs/floppy disks. So, I put up a box for those, too. The only problem is that we don't get paid for the latter items, so we have to pay out of pocket for shipping (one of the reasons the EIC needs money). In all, everything has been a huge success this school year, and even parents will occasionally bring stuff in.

Here is whom I use for our various disposal needs:

Ink cartridges/cell phones: BCS Recycling--contact Larry (They seem to pay more than the plethora of companies I've looked into, plus, they will recycle cartridges that they don't pay you for instead of just refusing them. They don't take toner, though).

Overhead transparencies: send with no paper and your name/organization to:

3M Recycle Program c/o Gemark
99 Stevens Lane
Exeter, PA 18643

CDs and floppy disks: send to (check to make sure they will take from out of the Bay Area):

Alameda County Computer Resource Center
1501 Eastshore Hwy., Berkeley, CA 94710
510.528.4052

How we can fix our transit system (without spending billions of dollars)

The following article has been submitted to multiple newspapers as an opinion piece. If it is selected for publication, I will post the links here. In case you are wondering, all the figures are quoted from the 2008 publication "Public Transportation: Facts at a Glance" sheet published by the American Public Transportation Association.

How we can fix our transit system (without spending billions of dollars)

Public transit is one of the most important outlets of government spending. Before you stop reading this article in disagreement, consider that transit enhances the personal opportunities of those who cannot drive and for the 360,000 people nationwide who are employed by the industry. Transit saved travelers 541 million hours in travel time in 2005 by taking cars off the road. It saves users money, too, on gasoline, car maintenance, and their time otherwise wasted sitting in gridlock, as one full, 40-foot bus takes 58 cars off the road. Plus, 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline are saved annually as a result of using mass transportation, whose use in the United States also reduces carbon emission by 37 million metric tons per year.

It's no secret that the public transit system in the Bay Area could be better, though. Living on the mid-Peninsula, I know almost no one who regularly takes transit. Which raises the question: Why? There are some large problems, such as the fact that BART does not yet reach San Jose. Another oversight is the lack of a third track on BART, which (like in New York) would allow express trains to bypass the minor, commute-lengthening stations and broken trains to be moved out of the way.

But, there are so many little improvements to be made; it would be foolish of our transit authorities not to look at them first. So, putting the big stuff aside, let’s sweat the small stuff:

1) All our public transit should have Wi-Fi. If we want to boost ridership of commuting professionals during rush hour, this is one of the best ways of doing so.

2) BART trains should be insulated for sound. I hate taking BART, because I feel that I’m sustaining permanent hearing damage in just riding the train.

3) BART should be cleaner. I know they are making strides in this area, but it is truly a turn-off to many automobile users I know to riding the system when clouds of dust emanate from the seat backs when you hit them.

4) There should be car- and bike-sharing services (e.g. ZipCar) available at every rail station. So, the train got you to Millbrae. . . now what? Imagine how many more people would take BART or Caltrain if they knew a car or bike were waiting for them when they got to their end stop.

5) All of our public transit entities should be on Google Transit, an effective online tool that allows users to easily plan a route between agencies on public transit. By freeing novice riders from those scary timetables, it can bring many new riders to the system. Being from Foster City, I have to pick on SamTrans for not yet having put itself on this service.

6) Coffee should be allowed on all trains and buses! I know BART is trying to install coffee franchises at all their stations and to design a coffee cup that does not spill. This is wonderful! Just imagine the revenue for the coffee shops and the huge allure of riding the system for those who just cannot do without their morning cup. Perhaps our buses should take note of this when said cup is completed.

These suggestions are simple and inexpensive (if not actually profitable). If we can implement these improvements, we would appreciably boost ridership. Yes, there are a lot of big improvements that need to be made if we are truly serious about getting cars off the road, but money is tight and bureaucracy is a lengthy process.

For those of you who will never take mass transit, consider that for each car taken off the road, your commute gets shorter, your air gets easier to breath, your gasoline prices go down, and less carbon is emitted into the atmosphere. Shouldn’t we all then advocate for mass transit? There’s no better time to do so than now.

China's creative environmentalism

On my recent trip to the Beijing area, I noticed some things that suggest the most populous country in the world is certainly catching up. Many of its streetlights and stoplights were powered by their own PV cells. Recycling at city-managed locations (e.g. bus stops, zoo, etc.) was abundant. Here are just a few of the over 1,300 photos/videos I took on my ten day trip:

This is one of many LED stoplights in Tianjin. Although they're more cool than eco-friendly, the reducing red/green light prevents motorists from needlessly accelerating or braking (and wasting fuel) by telling them exactly when the light will change. Mostly, I think they're just plain awesome.

My (unaired) Perspective on bottled water

On 25 April 2008, I wrote the following Perspective on bottled water to be submitted to my local NPR station, which runs one Perspective written and spoken by a local listener every morning. Sadly, it has yet to have been selected, but that doesn't mean I can't post it here! Enjoy:

I fell for it: the cool images on the labels, the pristine-sounding locales from where it comes. I used to actually believe bottled water was better than tap water. The marketing teams of bottled water companies are doing a commendable job, so much so that Americans are drinking 4 million bottles of water an hour. The world diverts 1.5 million barrels of oil each year to fuel this addiction. Even so, of the 2.7 million tons of plastic used to make bottles, only 13% is recycled. This means that the remaining 87% will either sit in a landfill for thousands of years or enter natural habitats, where it can kill wildlife. If that’s not enough, bottled water is a lot more expensive than tap water. At my school, a bottle of water costs $1.00 from the vending machine. This is thousands of times more expensive than the water from my tap at home.

The ads have us convinced that tap water is dirty, not to be trusted, and not nearly as crisp and refreshing as that of the bottled variety. But the fact is: It just isn’t. There are hundreds of regulators with the EPA whose job it is to maintain the very high standards to which our municipal water is held. On the other hand, bottled water is regulated by the FDA, which holds it to much more lax standards and employs very few people to enforce them. Many bottled water sources are actually just municipal taps.

The Bay Area’s tap water is among the best in the world; it comes straight from Sierra snowmelt. It’s the type of water bottled water companies try to emulate in their advertising. Considering the number of people around the world who sicken and die as a result of not even having access to clean water, it is offensive to think we are too good for our own tap water. So, instead of using a bottle a day, use a reusable bottle. They are very much in vogue for students nowadays, with the ubiquitous colored hard plastic bottles, each with bumper stickers and permanent pen markings, or the Swiss-imported aluminum containers with artistic designs setting each off from the other. Our tap water is cleaner, better-regulated, better for the environment, and much less expensive than bottled water; it just doesn’t make sense to keep up this addiction. Plus, in the end tap water is just as refreshing.

Have your own reusable water bottle sale

If there's one thing that irks me most about America's consuming habits, it's our obsession with bottled water. There is absolutely no reason to drink the stuff: It's thousands of times more expensive than tap water; it's not as well-regulated for safety as tap water; it is dreadful for the environment (even when bottles are recycled); and, most of it is just tap water, anyway! So, on the week of Earth Day this year, some friends and I spent our lunchtimes selling BPA-free Nalgene bottles in two sizes (16-oz. and 32-oz.). We only ordered 100, thinking they would sell slowly. Au contraire, we sold out almost immediately and took orders for about 200 more by the end of the week (read the local newspaper article here). (UPDATE: We have since sold over 400 bottles as of November 2008)! Such success was not without a lot of planning though--I tried to sell reusable sandwich wraps several months earlier only to fail miserably; I had learned my lesson. Here's what to do:

1) Contact your regional distributor of Nalgene bottles. I used Adventure 16 in San Diego. They generally have minimum orders (they sell to stores), but if you say you're a school, they might let you off the hook. The nice thing about them being a distributor is super cheap bottles. Ours cost $2.40 and $2.91 respectively, allowing a markup for fundraising and making it easy to break even.

2) Clear it with the administration, student services person, or whoever handles fundraisers and stuff like this. We had a table and chairs reserved for us in Center Court.

3) Publicity is key! I had announcements running in the PTA e-newsletter, an automated call home to every family, an email sent out to all faculty, PA announcements (click here to download) everyday for a week leading up to the sale, posters, and flyers (click here to download). I also made a YouTube advert using Apple Keynote and put it on YouTube (found here). The ad was shown to every science class at the school, so every student saw it. The BEST thing to do: create a Facebook event asking everyone to invite their friends. I had hundreds of people "attend" just in that alone.

4) Have order sheets (click here to download) ready in case you sell out. People wanted these really badly even after we had no more left.

5) Cut and hang this in front of your table (click here to download).

5) Make sure you have a place to store them on campus. They do take up a lot of space.


Good Luck!!

Farm subsidies = ugh!!!! for more than just the environment

I realize farm subsidies have little to do with greening one's school, but, since I feel so strongly about them, and because some of you asked to read my paper explaining their negative effects, I figured I post a link to download it. I usually write crappy papers, but I must say (probably because I am so into it), this paper is a pretty good, straightforward explanation of all that's wrong with the current way this country does agriculture. If you don't want to read it, you at least owe it to yourself to read Foodfight by Daniel Imhoff or some of the articles written by Michael Pollan in the New York Times Magazine (linked to on the right hand side of the screen).

Just as a little teaser: Farm subsidies are such a huge government expenditure that result in our poor health (obesity, diabetes, heart disease), illegal immigration, E. Coli scares in meat, pesticide and fertilizer use, monocultures, and suicides in India. Who would have thought this would come from something sounding so quaint as the Farm Bill?

Quick note: This paper was written before the most recent farm bill was passed (they pass a new one every five years). Even so, the information is still all relevant.

Click here to download Subsidizing Disaster.

A good, inexpensive start: classroom informational signs

One really easy thing you can do is hang informational signs about how one can reduce his or her impact. I had 11 x 17 inch color posters printed, laminated, and hung in every room in the school over this last winter holiday. When people are bored in class and gazing around, at least they'll still be learning something!!

Click here to download a high-resolution PDF.

These Come From Trees!

I am proud to say that on every paper towel dispenser at Aragon, there are stickers that read "These Come From Trees." Peter Kazanjy, the creator of these stickers was kind enough to donate about 100 to us when I contacted him about getting some. They're great, because they eliminate paper towel usage by about 15% (according to Mr. Kazanjy's studies), they're not very obtrusive, and they stimulate thought among those who see them as to the source of everything else in our world.

If you are a school, I believe he will still donate them to you. If you are a company, I highly recommend buying them for your napkin/paper towel dispensers and, perhaps copy machines/paper supply closets. They are very inexpensive and will almost certainly pay for themselves quite soon.

How to start your school's recycling program

The recycling program was the very first thing I started at Aragon at the beginning of last school year. At Aragon, there is no budget for recycling and no personnel devoted to maintaining any sort of program (!!!!!). So, the principal Mr. Kirk Black, who has been nothing but supportive of all my attempts to green the school, was able to get yellow, stackable recycling bins for each classroom from the company that hauls our recyclables (it's in their best interest for us to recycle; recycle=profit). With those in the classrooms, the all-student Recycling Club, which I started to run the program met and cut wholes in the tops of 20 large, rolling, 96-gallon toters (try contacting your recycling hauler to get these, or if you don't have a recycling hauler, your trash company). I then had about a hundred signs (click here to download) reading "NO TRASH" on bright green paper in sheet protectors, which we affixed to all four sides plus the tops of each bin with duct tape (DO NOT use any other type of tape; it will fall off . . . trust me). Because we only had about 35 active members in the club, with two paired to each bin, we could not handle all the classroom bins plus the classroom bins. So, we asked all the teachers to kindly have a student or aide empty their classroom bins in the dumpster, while our people took care of the common area, outdoors bins. To combat the general ignorance in recycling things (it is much more widespread than I ever believed), we printed factoid signs on that same hi-vis green paper, put them in sheet protectors, and hung them throughout school. It seemed to work, because the quality of recycling improved as the year wore on.

In order to encourage students to join the Club, I promised a spectacular year-end party of tasty, organic food. Next year, for more incentive, we plan on going to the beach to do some clean-up, then play the rest of the day. In case you haven't sensed it yet, the catch is money. Although we had some, our spending (sheet protectors, duct tape, gloves, party, etc.) was unsustainable. So, after talking to our trash management company, janitors, and disposal company and after measuring the dimensions of our two recycling dumpsters, I calculated the savings to the District for us having recycled so much. We plan to go to the School Board next fall to request just a portion of the $4,800 we saved them this year to help fund our operations. (If you would like to calculate this for your school, I'd be happy to help).

Click on the following to download some of what I have made. Feel free to edit and use at your own school or work place (please just let me know!):

• Various factoid adverts:
• "Plastic doesn't decompose"
• "Aluminum can be recycled infinitely"
• "One tree=three feet of paper"
• Educational chart I had blown up to a poster to educate the uneducated
• Map I used to organize members according to their bins (I started with a blank map on an overhead transparency when we had our first meeting, and members chose their bins)

One place to start in looking for help is your local county agency dedicated to recycling. If your county/city has none :( then use mine. RecycleWorks is a great organization with an amazing website. a link to which can be found on the right side of your screen.

If you have no recycling in your town, contact your garbage hauler and see if they have a program. If they don't, then insist they start one. Recycling is one of the most simple and straightforward ways to fix the mess this planet is in. Not recycling at all is not just wrong but also immoral.

Why not a club? What's with this committee nonsense?

The major reason I started the Aragon EIC in June 2007 was to lobby the District to install a solar system on our school. I figured those at the District were less like to me, a mere student, than a committee (said with dramatic voice) that had its own letterhead (again, dramatic). Having the committee enabled me to have meetings at which the members of said committee (parents, teachers, administration, students, community members, etc.--I don't exclude anyone) would support what I did. This is similar to the benefits of having a coalition. You're much stronger with people behind you (and letterhead!). Would I have been able to get a meeting by myself with the District CFO? Maybe. But I have a much easier time getting her and the District's construction consultant to hear our pitch about solar panels with the Committee's invitation, not just my own.

Click here to visit the actual Aragon EIC website. You can look through all the agendas, meeting minutes, and mission statement.