Landfill Rescue

In my area, garbage is collected every two weeks, and each house is restricted to three bags per pickup. If you need more than three bags, there are tags you can purchase an put on any extra bags. Twice a year we have what are called No-Tag days, where every house can put out as much garbage as they'd like, bags or large items. On these days my friend and I go around performing a Landfill Rescue. Basically we cruise the streets, and if we see something that we know can be re-purposed, we take it home with us. It's amazing to me the kinds of things that are thrown out on a regular basis. Every time, we see more plastic patio chairs than you can imagine. There's also always a lot of children's toys, and often some lawnmowers (may or may not be working...so far about 80% of them work with a bit of effort). We're definitely not the only ones out on those nights either, you can see pickup trucks piled high with items, often scrap metal. We might be the only ones who specialize in big plastic items, like children's toys. :)



So where does all this stuff end up? Our backyard keeps some of the 'rescued' items. Our patio set is entirely rescued; chairs, table and umbrella - we've actually upgraded pieces a couple of times. We also have a pressure washer, camping chairs, lawnmower, children's jeep (the battery powered kind that two kids can sit in - powered by a battery taken from a lawn trimmer). I'm sure there are a few others, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head. Since there's no way we'd be able to keep everything we pick up (at one point I had four lawnmowers in the garage), extra items find their way out to friends and family, or on craigslist and freecycle. I have a friend that works with an organization that collects furniture for the formerly homeless...I keep thinking that there should be an easier way to connect those who could really use the items with the items themselves but the logistics just don't work.

I actually enjoy the rescued items we have more than the ones we go out and buy. It's odd, but there's something satisfying about going out and hunting down the items yourself. :) I haven't gone so far as to check out a freegan lifestyle....I'm not sure if it's that I don't want to, I don't have the courage, or I'm just not sure which dumpsters to dive!

If your area has a similar dumping night (not all areas do), check it out sometime, you might be surprised at what you find.

The Unhealthy Truth - Part I

I've been reading a book called The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien (foreword by Dr. Kenneth A Bock). There's a lot of information in the book, so I'm going to do a multi-part book review discussing the book and it's information. For this first part, I'll discuss the Foreword up to partway through Chapter 3.

The author, Robyn O'Brien is a mother of four and a Houston native. She started researching childhood allergies when her youngest daughter had a severe allergic reaction to eggs. As she continued researching, she found more and more information that she thought should be shared with everyone, particularly parents of people with allergies. She admits to not being a scientist, but she's certainly shown a passion for research and is the founder of the AllergyKids website.

The book starts out with a very strong message that the world is changing, and environmental changes are causing numerous ailments in today's children - including autism ADHD, asthma, and severe food allergies. They make a compelling argument that improved diagnostics is not the only reason for a dramatic increase in rates of autism, ADHD, asthma and allergies since adults are not showing the same statistical increase, only the children. Throughout the book they mention that since children are more vulnerable to toxic environments, they are acting as our canaries in a coal mine, and that we should be paying attention to what their ailments are telling us.

These first few chapters are focused on telling the author's story, and how she started researching food allergies. A fair amount of time is spent on the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) as one of the largest not-for-profit organizations. The author's dismay at finding the amount of funding received, but not publicly disclosed, by FAAN from Big Food and Big Pharma companies comes across clearly. Eventually the author decided to start the AllergyKids website to try and share her findings with other parents (and run it as a for-profit business with the proceeds dedicated to funding research into food allergies). Eventually the author starts to discuss food, and what really is the unhealthy truth. This section closes with The Hidden Side of Soy which discusses the fact that soy is a double-edged sword with all of it's isoflavones. Here are a few of her points:
1. Soy is rich in phytic acid, which blocks absorption of essential minerals including calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, copper, iron, and zinc.
2. Eating soy boosts estrogen, for women this could cause estrogen to be too high during pregnancy, resulting in a variety of health risks for both her and the baby.
3. Infants being fed on soy formula had up to ten times higher blood levels of isoflavones than adult women who were taking soy as medicine
4. Monsanto is responsible for producing over 80% of the world’s soy in the form of a widely used genetically engineered soybean

In the next section of the book, she'll be looking at genetically modified foods, and hopefully getting into how she thinks diets should be modified (she guarantees it'll be easy and inexpensive). So far it's an interesting read, and written so that the points are easy to understand. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book. Look for Part II of the review next week!

Throwing a Green Party

There's no web round-up today since I didn't find any articles on the web this week that I needed to share. Maybe because I've been busy getting ready to host a baby shower this weekend! Parties mean people and food, but they don't have to mean an environmental disaster. Here's the steps I've taken to make the party a little greener.

Baby showers mean games, and games mean prizes! Instead of wrapping the prizes in wrapping paper, I used some gift bags that were already at my house. Two of them are for wedding gifts and two are for Valentine's, but I didn't think that mattered. :)


It's been hot around here for the last week, so I needed to make sure I had lots of drinks available for people. On the table you can see a punch fountain (it lights up and the punch cascades from the top down). This fountain belongs to my friend and I borrowed it for the party...definitely not everyone on the block needs to own their own punch fountain!


Also on the table there's a variety of plates and glasses. Parties mean food, and food needs plates! There's three basic options for plates/glasses at a party. First you can go with disposable plates. They're easy to clean up, all you need is a garbage bag, but they're definitely the worst in terms of eco-friendliness. Next you can go with biodegradable plates. They're still single use, but you can get some that are made out of corn for example. Higher up on the eco-friendly chain, but expensive - and like I said, still single use. Last option is to have re-usable plates and glasses, which is the option I went with. We're using our normal plates and glasses, and I'll throw them in the dishwasher when the party's over. Remember, the dishwasher is green! This is a little more work for the hostess, but the most eco-friendly. I didn't have enough matching plates and glasses for everyone, but I thought that the important thing was that everyone had a plate, not that everyone had the same plate!