SF Bag Tax Exceptions
San Francisco The city has recently proposed a 17 cent tax on plastic grocery bags. This is a brilliant idea, which has been proven effective elsewhere - most famously in Ireland where plastic bag consumption has been reduced by 90%... [read on...]
Looking at the EPA as an Obstacle
Washington: "You know you find the daggers are drawn at every turn. It becomes very difficult when you feel that the people who are your colleagues do not believe in you or your mission" - Former EPA enforcement chief JP... [read on...]
Backwards Energy Thinking
Milwaukee: Has the brain really drained out of Wisconsin? Two incredibly myopic proposals are on the table in the Milwaukee area concerning electric generation and water use. Firtsly, Wisconsin Energy is on the verge of constructing a new Coal Fired... [read on...]
Posted at 07:14 AM | Please feel free to comment (1)
Handing over Public Treasures for Pittance
Utah: Although I don't even own a car, I still accept both sides of the drilling issue - as long as we stay dependent on pathetically inefficient and dirty fossil fuels, we'll need to drill some where to get it.... [read on...]
Styrofoam Cafeteria Trays
Washington: This is one of the worst examples of "Muda" I've ever seen. Actually, it may not fit that definition precisely, but it's incredibly wasteful: At the "Old Post Office" in Washington, which has been converted into a mall-style food... [read on...]
Posted at 09:58 PM | Please feel free to comment (4)
Unnatural Nature
Anthem, AZ: Far to the north of Phoenix, lies a rapidly expanding suburbia that is at best barely begining to understand the desert environment they are paving over. At Anthem, a painfully hokey mega-development, a superficial effort has been made... [read on...]
100% Recycled (not)
Side of a box: Contrary to popular belief, "100% Recycled" means 100% nothing. The legal definition of recycled paper includes scraps and leftovers from the paper manufacturing process, among other things, that have always been thrown back in the machine... [read on...]
Ketchup Packets
YOUR LOCAL DIVE: Curse these vile things. You need 16 packets to get a reasonable amount of ketchup, and your fingers always become annoyingly soiled, along with the table. Additionally, they represent one of the most wasteful uses of non-recyclable... [read on...]
Posted at 12:20 PM | Please feel free to comment (6)
Recycling in Britain
LONDON: Sorry to sound like a preacher here, but the state of recycling in this country has left my mouth agape in shock. Maybe I've been in California too long. Aluminum cans, that's 5 syllables, go in the trash, period.... [read on...]
Posted at 06:04 PM | Please feel free to comment (7)