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How green is your valley? |  No comments posted.
By Rhonda Lokeman
Greetings from the planet Earth, where if you can't reduce your shoe size, you can reduce the size of your carbon footprint.
It is easier being green than you may think. Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.
In
our household, I reduced our garbage to one bag weekly. We've increased
the number of recycle bins that hold newspapers, towel rolls, pizza-box
cardboard, ice cream buckets and assorted biodegradable items.
I've
prohibited the running of water during the brushing of teeth. Lighting
means compact fluorescents. Bottled water has been banned, except for
state emergency. Laundry is washed cold with eco-friendly products by
Method or the Kansas City, Mo.-based Zum (http://www.indigowild.com). Produce is organic and locally grown. Other food comes no farther than 100 miles.
Sheryl
Crow's new CD not only is great music but also is packaged in paper
instead of hard plastic. Buy it and send a message to the music
industry!
On Earth Day at
Target, I bought a tote made of recycled Kool-Aid and Capri Sun juice
packs. New Jersey-based TerraCycle Inc. partnered with Honest Kids to
sell these bags (mine was $10) that turn waste into revenue. Billions
of these juice packs are discarded each year.
If you can't
reduce, TerraCycle wants you to reuse, recycle and replenish your bank
account. Right on the tote tag it says: “If your organization would
like to collect drink pouches and get paid for it,” go to http://www.terracycle.net/brigades. Sounds like a great idea for soccer clubs, church groups and teens looking for community service projects.
Recently, I was asked to speak at the spring meeting of Ladies Who Drink Their Lunch. I spoke about sustainable living.
I
showed these socialites a clear, green bottle of spirits distilled in
Weston, Mo. It looked as if it could have been sold by wagon as Dr.
Hooch's Miracle Elixir. Instead, 360 Vodka's “revolutionary bottle”
consists of 87 percent recycled glass (“70 percent post-consumer
glass”). Labels are “made of 100 percent post-consumer waste paper” and
“processed chlorine free.”
When I told these slurring socialites
they had washed down their cucumber sandwiches with hooch made with
“American grain,” their livers swelled with pride.
I'd
like to think that Weston's Earth Friendly Distilling Co. consists of a
commune of Crocs-wearing old hippies who eat vegan, worship at the
Church of John Lennon and subverted capitalism for the greater good. Or
some mom-and-pop outfit north of Kansas City that put to good use that
old still that Granddad hid in the barn from the rev-e-noo-ers. I'd cry
knowing it was a bunch of suits with MBAs and living in lofts near the
Sprint Center.
Besides dissuading expectant mothers from
drinking alcohol, 360 Vodka provides a professorial lecture on
greening. As I told the Ladies Who Drink Their Lunch, I'm not sure
whether this qualifies the Missouri company for a Harvard Business
Review case study or a grant from the Sierra Club. A little old lady
with a wooden leg at the lunch said she'd look into it. Bless her heart.
One
gal wept when I told her that her gimlet had been made from a product
that had a seal of approval as “Ancient Forest Eco-Friendly.” She said
it reminded her of a trip with her now-late husband to a rain forest in
Brazil or Costa Rica.
Earth Friendly claims using its product
saves the equivalent of 113 fully grown trees; 48,371 gallons of water;
81 million BTUs; 5,409 pounds of solid waste; and 10,550 pounds of
greenhouse gas.
Upon hearing that, one startled maven entered a
motion that they agree to drink not only responsibly but also
sustainably. Instead of sipping vodka from Russia, Finland or France,
they would support small Missouri farmers.
The membership
seconded her motion. It was carried, along with a bejeweled patron of
the performing arts whose last words were: “Here's mud in your eye,
Wall Street. Meeting adjourned.”
The old Grey Goose ain't what she used to be.
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Rhonda Chriss Lokeman (loke man@kcstar.com) is a columnist for the Kansas City Star.
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