Photos of American Mass Consumption

 #  posted by Russ, August 3, 2009

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Cell phones, Atlanta 2005 44 x 90
Cell phones, Atlanta 2005 44 x 90, Chris Jordan



Thanks to Matador for pointing me to this series of photos, "Intolerable Beauty, Portraits of American Mass Consumption" by Chris Jordan. It definitely makes you think about how much we as a society use, and more importantly, waste. In addition to this photo of cell phones, there are photos of enormous piles of cigarette butts, old hard drives, old cars, sawdust, bottles, and more. Go over and check them out.

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Quick Green Office Tip -- Desk and Cubicle Trash

 #  posted by Russ, February 12, 2009

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At home and when I'm out I always try to avoid wasting plastic bags, and actually I try to not even use them when possible. But when I do get them, I always re-use or return them to the store for recycling. I can not ever bring myself to throw an empty plastic bag into another plastic bag, which is usually lining the trash!

In my office, each desk has a trash can, and each trash can is lined with a plastic bag. Well, recently I realized that if I put anything into the trash at my desk, even just a tiny little piece of trash, that it gets replaced at night by the cleaning crew. It just seems so wasteful to replace that bag every night, especially when I work so hard to avoid ever throwing out plastic bags.

So here is my tip for all you office workers who are trying to be green. Rather than put your trash into your own bin at your desk, use a community trash in a kitchen or break room. That way your personal trash will never get dumped and you will save one bag per day!

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Eco Friendly and Biodegradable Trash Bags

 #  posted by Russ, October 26, 2008

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Eco friendly trash bags? A contradiction?

I had written an article on another site that continues to have quite a bit of interest, so I am putting an updated version of the article about eco friendly and biodegradable trash bags here.

Typically for my trash I actually use extra bags that find their way into my home, however I have had great luck using these eco friendly biodegradable compostable three gallon trash bags. They are called BioBags and I use them for collecting kitchen scraps and then composting, so I can vouch for the fact that these bags actually do biodegrade very quickly.

According to the product description they are "manufactured from GMO-free corn" and "are 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable. The 3 Gallon Kitchen bags work well in a small trash container or composter, but are also great for food storage. Since Biobags breathe without leaking, they allow heat and moisture to escape, keeping fruits and vegetables fresher days longer than regular plastic. The 3 gallon bags measure 17" x 18" and are .62 mil thick."

They also go on to give the downside of using regular plastics:
Regular polyethylene-based plastic bags can take over 100 years to break down and are not compostable. Sadly, less than 2% of all plastic bags ever get recycled. Plastic bags are everywhere, littering our beaches, lakes and Ocean. Studies estimate that over 100,000 marine animals and 2 million birds die every year from ingesting or being caught up in plastic debris.


You can also use these BioBags to pick up your dog poop!

To purchase eco friendly trash bags, check out the selection of biodegradable bags here.

Related links:
Official BioBag home page

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