Paul Merrill
China gets a bad rap for how bad it is, environmentally. Their negative reputation is true in some cases – but not all.
A few weeks ago, I was in Hong Kong (admittedly the most western-leaning part of China… but still China). I saw this great sign on a container for plastic utensils. Starbucks was simply asking the potential user to consider going without – for the sake of the environment. I’ve never seen that in the States (in the case of plastic utensils).
Vuka. It’s a new-to-me “Intelligent Energy Drink”. My 14-year old son bought it because he thought the bottle was cool. And it is.
However, his comment on what was inside: “pretty disgusting”. He also described it as a “fake energy drink”.
My take: the container is hugely wasteful. The bottle is heavy-gauge aluminum and must have accounted for half of the cost of the product. If the lid were up to the same standard of permanence, it would be a nice thing to hang onto. But it will probably last for about two refills and then strip out. Sad.
Update: See some interesting comments and a rebuttal in the comments.
Elections are coming up in America. Our mailbox provides abundant evidence. A flyer from one political candidate or another comes just about every day. Sadly, most of the ink is spent on saying how bad their opponents are.
I wish there was an “opt out” button.
A local bakery / restaurant from a well known chain throws out four huge trash bags of perfectly good bread and pastries every night at closing time. Some nights, very kind people pick up the excess and bring it to homeless shelters or similar. Most nights, it goes into the nearby dumpster.
This chain has ten stores in the Denver area alone. That amount of waste is mind-boggling.
I do not fault them.
Who is at fault for this kind of waste? The American consumer. The manager of the store told my friend who makes those charity bread runs, “If we didn’t have every single item in stock, we’d get complaints from customers who missed being able to buy their favorite item at the end of the day. Then we’d lose them as customers. They would go to another shop.”
We are guilty as a country.
Solution? The years I lived in England, stores would regularly finish their stock near the end of the day. Customers would just buy a different item – or go to a different store. No one would get upset. I would propose that we simply lower our darn picky standards – at least in this case. How would this happen? I don’t have any idea. Do you?
We did a family grocery shopping trip the other day. I was thrilled to see the top of a Nature’s Path granola box.
In January, I blogged about how Kashi, a “natural” cereal manufacturer, had gotten things wrong by making their boxes much larger than the cereal inside required.
Nature’s Path read my post (not really – they probably figured it out on their own) and made their boxes in just right sizes to fit the cereal inside! Yay!!
(And yes, I voted with my wallet – I bought two boxes. Being on sale was a special bonus!)
Today I’m guest posting over at Elizabeth’s Letters from a Small State. So you’ll need to go to see what I wrote about striving for balance… and see how this photo relates.
So, our oven quit. It came with our house. Heather loves it. We thought about getting a new one – because, as you know, repair can often cost as much as much – or more – than buying a new whatever.
In this case, the repair costs $100 to 200 less than buying a “new” refurbished oven. We loved preventing our oven from ending up in a landfill. And Heather got to keep the oven she loves. But ouch! That part cost a massive amount!
The Chinet Corporation came out with a product that should never have been released to their adoring public – takeaway cups to use in the comfort of your own kitchen. The idea is, you brew your own coffee, mix it with your favorite milk and sugar substitutes – and then put it in this disposable cup with a lid. That way you don’t have to wash a cup. You can just throw it away when you get to your office!
I might suggest – buy an insulated mug with a handle – and wash it. Landfill contribution? Zero. Wallet depreciation? Zero.
And on their home page, they have the boldness to say, “Help Preserve Nature, Learn More”. Admittedly they try to be environmentally aware in some of what they do – but selling such a completely unneeded product is not responsible. Shameful, even.
Apologies to those of you who wanted a light and fluffy post for your Friday.
Update: See the comments. I changed the title in Shane’s honor. He has a good point. (I had titled this post, “Evil and bad” – a bit excessive.)
