April 19th Green Tip of the Week

Question: Where can I recycle plastic bags?

Answer: Let’s re-frame this question.

The real question is, how can we stop using plastic bags — at the grocery store, the drugstore, the card shoppe, the dentist?  So many clerks, trying to be nice, stuff our stuff into plastic bags, and recycling the bags is a real problem.

How to avoid plastic bags?  Two answers:

(1) Buy a few of those re-usable polypropylene bags with handles that are sold in so many places:  Stop & Shop, Staples, Shaw’s, Trader Joe’s.  They cost about a dollar each. They’ll last us for the rest of our lives, dude. They fold up nicely and don’t take much room.

(2) For little purchases, like a book or a bottle of aspirin, tell the clerk you don’t want a bag.  Carry the stuff in you hand, pocket, or backpack. The Fairfield University Bookstore doesn’t use plastic bags any more.

Why?  Is this really such a big deal?

It’s a very big deal.  Plastics are killing our oceans, our wildlife, and us.  The amount of plastic in our oceans is staggering. Now toxic plastic “dust” in even being found in human blood and breast milk.  Here’s a great four-minute video, Ocean of Plastic.

The average: “Forty-six thousand pieces of plastic per square mile of ocean.”

So be very scared.  Be scared enough, this Earth Week, to give up plastic bags for good.  Yes, our individual choices do make a difference.

Happy-scary Earth Week!

[By the way, there are very few workable methods for recycling plastic bags. Not many of them actually get recycled into (say) lawn furniture, and many are shipped abroad--not a solution.]

Post #32: How is Fairfield Like Harvard?

No, this isn’t like the Alice in Wonderland question, “How is a raven like a writing desk?”  This is a genuine question.

It’s a green question.  Here’s the answer:  Fairfield resembles Harvard in the environmental initiatives it is taking.

We can compare the two universities by using two articles.  The first is the April article by Dian Schaffhauser, “Green Power,” in Campus Technology.  It showcases Harvard’s green initiatives and gives the webpage of the Harvard Office of Sustainability.

The second is the April article by our own Professor David Downie and Alexandra Gross ’09, “Care of the Person, and of the Natural World, at Fairfield University,” in Connections, a magazine of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities.  They summarize environmental activity at Fairfield.

Here are some examples of similar environmental efforts mentioned in the two articles:

(1) Harvard has an Environmental Course Guide that covers several curriculum areas.  Fairfield has a new and expanded “Program on the Environment” curriculum.

2) Harvard offers a discount at local bike shops, lessons in bicycle safety, a new bike shelter, and Harvard discounts on Zipcars.
Fairfield will establish a bicycle transportation program for students, a “flotilla of bikes” to compensate for eliminating cars for sophomores on campus.

(3) The Harvard School of Public Health recycles paper, plastics, glass, metal, cardboard, batteries, medical wastes, and computers.
Fairfield recycles exactly the same types of items:  this past year, many tons of “paper, plastics, glass, metal, cardboard, batteries, chemicals, electronic-wastes and other materials.”  Our Green Campus Initiative students did a campus recycling audit last fall.

(4) Harvard is studying wind power now, having incorporated solar and fuel cell and biomass energy into its energy-supply repertoire.
Fairfield’s efficient COGEN facility, which produces on-campus electricity and heats university buildings, reduces energy costs and greenhouse-gas pollution.

(5) Harvard measures the energy usage of each building.  They use CFLs and LEDs.
Fairfield has put energy-efficient lamps in 7,700 of its lighting fixtures and LED lights for 800 exit signs.

(6) Harvard’s Michael Crowley, a program manager for Environmental Health and Engineering, worked to turn used cooking oil from the Dining Services into biofuel for campus trucks.
Fairfield is hoping to run campus vehicles on used “veggie oil” from Sodexho, and to replace other campus vehicles with biodiesel and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

(7) Harvard has replaced 2,600 standard showerheads with water-saving showerheads. Fairfield has put in 45 efficient showerheads and 1,100 low-flow toilets and urinals to conserve water.

(8) Harvard has a program for composting kitchen waste.
Fairfield is working to develop a program for composting kitchen waste.

(9) Harvard hires students in each dorm or house to run their own conservation programs and influence peers to change their behaviors.
Fairfield’s Earth House provides a program of sustainable living where students can practice eco-consciousness.

(10) Harvard recently re-named its environmental initiative the Harvard Office for Sustainability.
Fairfield has a new Campus Sustainability Committee of students, senior faculty, and administrators.

(11) Harvard has a greenhouse gas reduction goal of 30% from 2006 levels to 2016 levels.
At Fairfield, Father Von Arx has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Initiative, which requires us to develop an institutional action plan for becoming climate neutral.

(12) Harvard has its own set of Green Building Guidelines, which include LEED standards among others.  Fairfield will observe LEED standards in all future construction efforts.  See the latest version of LEED v3 here.

The point?

Harvard and Fairfield are using similar initiatives to establish a green campus.  Comparing Harvard and Fairfield on environmental efforts is indeed like comparing apples and apples.

Sure, Harvard is bigger and richer.  But Fairfield is on the same environmental path.

We can take pride in our accomplishments, and we can visit the Harvard Office of Sustainability website for more tips.

We’re moving in a good direction.

Happy Earth Week 2009, Fairfield Greeners!

Read the rest of this entry »

Post #31: On-Site Environmental Science

[Scroll down a page for the March 29th Green Tip of the Week]

March 31, 2009

This Guest Blog is by Katrine Gorham, a PhD candidate in atmospheric chemistry who does field work in the Arctic:

Because of the intense sunlight, white reflective surfaces, and intense cold, a heavy parka and dark glacier goggles are essential.

I am writing to you today as a guest blogger! As a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine, I study atmospheric chemistry… more specifically I study trace gases in the Arctic. As part of my work I travel to Greenland where I study atmospheric chemistry that is occurring above the snowpack. Hopefully what I have written here will pique your interest in some of the exciting research that is currently going on in earth sciences.

The atmospheric chemistry in polar regions is very unique and there are many aspects that are not very well understood. One of the features that make the Arctic and Antarctic atmospheres so interesting are the long periods of darkness during the winter months, followed by the polar sunrise, and periods of constant sunlight during the summer months. The most recent international polar year ran from March 2007 to March 2009 and was a time of intensive polar science activity. I was involved in one of the many polar projects going on during this time period and participated in a two phase campaign that was conducted in six-week periods during the summer of 2007 and 2008. For this project, researchers from several different universities participated in a field campaign at Summit, Greenland, with the goal of investigating the presence of halogen chemistry in the remote inland Arctic.

Summit, Greenland, is a small research facility that is capable of supporting up to 50 staff and scientists during the peak

While conducting research at Summit, researchers stay in ‘tent city’.

summer research season. Located near to the top of the Greenland ice sheet, Summit is at an altitude of approximately 11,000 feet and at 72.57°N is within the Arctic circle. During the time I spent there, the temperature ranged from -40ºF to just below freezing. The only means of transport to Summit is on board Air National Guard aircraft (LC-130) that fly to the camp every few weeks. Accommodations are also rugged and upon arrival each researcher is assigned a heavy duty double walled tent called an ‘Arctic Oven’ – which can be a little chilly at times!

As a graduate student, much of my thesis work has been at Summit, where I have collected more than 500 air samples. The air samples that I collect at Summit are returned to our laboratory in California, where I analyze them for a wide range of hydrocarbons, halocarbons, and alkyl nitrates using several different gas chromatography techniques. Measurements of certain hydrocarbon species can be used to indirectly probe for evidence of halogen radical chemistry. These measurements serve as a piece to the puzzle of better understanding the photochemistry that occurs above and within the snow pack in the Arctic. A better understanding of Arctic halogen chemistry helps to refine our knowledge of the cycling of important atmospheric oxidants, and can help to improve current atmospheric models.

If you would like to read more, check out the blog that myself and other scientists maintained while we were at Summit.

March 29th Green Tip of the Week

Question:  Exactly where on campus can I recycle my plastic water bottles?  Those bottle-bins are hard to find.

Answer:  This problem can be solved with one small purchase.

The one-step solution:  Buy a re-usable stainless-steel water bottle, online, for the price of a few plastic water bottles. There’s a growing perception that bottled water is a scam, anyway, and that tap water is just as healthy.  Here’s some research by the National Resources Defense Council.

If your local tap water tastes bad or otherwise scares you, get that inexpensive Brita-filtered water pitcher at Stop & Shop.  Water from tap to pitcher, from pitcher into your favorite stainless steel bottle.

Stainless steel bottles can go everywhere with you (some have hooks for backpacks) and are indefinitely re-usable.  They’re easily cleaned with mild soap and water, or just rinse them with a little baking soda.  Sigg bottles start at $18.  New Wave Enviro Stainless Steel water bottles start at $12.

Kleen Kanteen has an 18 oz bottle for $17 and offers many sizes and colors.

If the University wanted stainless steel bottles with a Fairfield logo, they could arrange that with Ecocanteen wholesaler and sell them at the Barone Campus Center.

If you still are using bottled water:

•    Whatever you do, don’t re-use those plastic water bottles or leave them in a heated car.  They leach toxins.
•    The BCC and the Library have high-visibility bottle bins. You can ask your RA where the bottle recycle bins are your dorm.

March 22nd Green Tip of the Week

Question:  Sure, I care about the environment, but why does it take so much time (and money!) to get involved in all that political action stuff?

Answer:  You can get involved, free, for a few minutes per month.

I sympathize.  I don’t like to get pulled into “time sucks,” either.

But last year I requested the Citizens Campaign for the Environment newsletter by email.  To subscribe, I just went to the CCE website  and typed my email address into one of those quick computer forms.  Did I mention it was free? 

Now, every month or so, CCE emails me an Action Alert — a request to sign an online petition, or call some government official whose phone number they provide.

Two days ago, they asked me to thank my Congressional representative for helping pass HR1262, the Water Quality Investment Act.  They also requested that I ask my two Senators to pass HR1262 in the Senate.

This bill does good things.  It requires public notification when sewage overflows occur, reauthorizes the Great Lakes Legacy Act, and increases funding for sustainable clean water infrastructure. 

Their CCE email carried a dandy little picture of a sewage overflow in the Connecticut River.  Ooooo, gross.

So I performed my citizen’s “Action.”  It took all of five minutes:

It took one minute to call each CT Senator and leave my one-sentence message of support for HR1262 with a secretary.  Then it took three more minutes to email my Representative, Jim Hines.

More background information?  Click on this website for info about clean water, and this one to learn more about HR1262.

Feel like calling the Senators in Connecticut or New York, at their free 800 number?  When the secretary answers, you’d just say:  “Please ask Senator X to support HR1262, the Water Quality Investment Act, when it comes before the Senate.”

Here are their numbers:

New York Senators:
Senator Schumer
212-486-7693
Senator Gillibrand
518-431-0120

Connecticut Senators:
Senator Dodd
860-258-6940/800-334-5341
Senator Lieberman
860-549-8463/800-225-5605

Post #30: Searching for Green/Clean Water

March 18, 2009

[For March 15th Green Tip of the Week, scroll down a page or two.]

Did you see that Michelle Obama had the White House fountains dyed green, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day?  It looked to me like liquid lime sherbet or lime jello.

Green water made me think of clean, unpolluted water.

That brought to mind recent newspaper stories about medications leaking into water supplies across the country.  People are discovering higher levels of antibiotics and hormones, sometimes even parts-per-million of antidepressants or tranquilizers.

What was the deal?   Would my tap water start tasting like Nyquil or Robitussin?

I also had some leftover pills I didn’t know what to do with.  Some expired Valtrex (for cold sores).  Some CoQ10 pills at 400mg, which I’ve second-guessed as too strong for me.

How should I dispose of these pills?  If I just threw them out, they could seep from the town landfill into the water table and add to the water supply troubles.

I searched the Internet.  Everyone seemed to agree on one point:  I shouldn’t wash my leftover pills down the sink or flush them down the toilet.  They might go to medicating the world’s water.

OK.  What to do, then?

I selected “Outdated or Unwanted Medications” on www.earth911.org.   Up came the Fairfield Hazardous Waste Department, at One Rod Highway.

So I called them.  Nothing doing.  They didn’t dispose of pills or know who did.

Next, my Ideal Bite newsletter told me I could take unused pills back to my pharmacy.

Good.  I called CVS.  The pharmacist said, “Wrap duct tape around the pill bottle and put it in the trash.”

Hm.  Back to square one, the trash.  So I called my internist’s office and spoke with the nurse.

“How can I dispose safely of unused medications?  To keep them out of the water supply?”

The nurse said, “Old pills?  We just throw them out.”  But if I wanted, she continued, I could bring my old pills to the office and they would put them in with their medical waste, like their SHARPS, or their Biohazard Box.  Thanks, but this didn’t seem like a productive answer for the entire community, I thought.

“Who would know about environmentally safe disposal of medicine?” I asked.   The nurse thought I should contact the local health department.

So I called Town Hall, at the Fairfield Green.  They didn’t know anything about disposing of medications.  They thought maybe I should call the state health department.

Meanwhile, I found several companies on the Internet who made it their business to pack up boxes of expired medications at pharmacies and dispose of them in accord with approved environmental standards.  One such company was called Stericycle.

I phoned Stericycle.  Could individuals take advantage of their service?  No.  Did they have any suggestions for individuals who wanted to be environmentally responsible?  They suggested I try my local pharmacy.  Again the pharmacy.

In the middle of this quest, my daughter called.  She lives in Indiana.  “Oh, sure, Mom,” she said.  “In our town, the pharmacies arrange a pick-up day for old medications, twice a year.  It’s easy.”

Pharmacies.

I called other pharmacies from the yellow pages.  Rite-Aid, Walgreens.  Nothing.  Then on the Internet I found a telephone number for the Director’s Office of the Connecticut branch of CVS.  A nice voice named Susan told me, “Old prescription pick-ups?  Oh, I think CVS is working on that.”

“May I speak with the CVS person in charge of working on that?”

“No, that’s a part of the corporate office that does not take outside calls.”  Perhaps, she said, I would like to leave my phone number, and someone could call me back.

OK.  I left my number.

Then I called the Connecticut State Health Department, or more precisely, the Department of Environmental Protection.

I tried my question once more.  The lady on the phone consulted her co-worker, then returned to the phone with a suggestion for me.

She said I should not flush the medication down the toilet (aha!).  Instead, I should open the pill bottle, pour vinegar over all the pills, then re-seal the pill bottle.  The vinegar would dissolve the medication and make it safe.

How would it be safe?  I asked.  It just would, the State answered.

Hm.  Really?  That would work?  I don’t think so?

I’m still waiting for a call-back from the state corporate offices of CVS.

Hello?  Anybody out there have a suggestion?

March 15th Green Tip of the Week

Question:  By assigning and writing all these papers for classes, aren’t we just killing more trees?
Answer:  Yes, we are.  Here are two ways to reduce the damage:  http://blog.fairfield.edu/redtogreen

(Sorry, outlawing papers is not yet an option!  But all those who want to stop writing or grading papers, raise your hands.)

First Tip:  Most computers have software that can print a paper on both sides of the page.   If not, the Library has several double-sided printers.  This cuts paper use in half–killing only half as many trees.

Second Tip:  Maybe profs could let students submit papers online.  Students could ask!  Maybe then the profs could use their “Track Changes” software to return the students’ papers also online, with online comments, to bypass paper entirely.  This way, no trees would be killed in the production of a paper for a course.

Of all trees cut down, 35% are made into paper.  (So Wikipedia says.)  We aren’t re-growing trees as fast as we’re using them.  In 2001, the USA used 700 pounds of paper per person.  Holy Toledo.

Recycling paper is good – Bins for paper are in the Library, Print Shop, Bannow, and BCC, as well as those huge bins behind Donnarumma. If we must use paper, we can recycle it there.

BUT REDUCING PAPER USE IS BETTER.

Post #29: Green Lips or Toxic Lips? Our Choice

March 12, 2009

[Note:  For the March 8th Green Tip of the Week, scroll down a page.]

These days we can buy Green or Not-Green lipstick.

The Green Lipsticks are reddish in color, actually, and environment-friendly.  But there are a lot of Not-Green lipsticks out there, toxic both to your health and to the planet’s.

Researchers have been finding dangerous chemicals in many name-brand lipsticks for a couple of years now.

Toxic Ingredients in Not-Green Lipsticks:

In September 2007, The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics tested 33 brand-name lipsticks and found that almost two-thirds of them contained detectable levels of lead.  That lead.  Lead the neurotoxin.  Lipstick is ingested, even by children playing dress-up.  A lipstick-wearing person consumes about 4 pounds of lipstick in a lifetime.  See “A Poison Kiss:  The Problem of Lead in Lipstick”  for the whole report.

The FDA should release the results of its tests for lead in lipsticks.

The latest from The Daily Green is that D4 and D5 siloxanes have also been found in lipstick, according to blogger Diane MacEachern.  These chemicals cause uterine tumors and reproductive damage in animals.   (They are also found in lotions, shampoos, baby bottle nipples, cookware, and cleaning products!)

The EPA needs to study and regulate these chemicals. 

Other ingredients in many lipsticks are mineral oil or palm oil, which pollute the environment during production; parabens, which are endocrine disrupters; petrolatum (think Vaseline), linked to breast cancer; or BHA, which is banned by the European Union. Click here to see.  These ingredients aren’t nationally regulated in the USA.  We haven’t yet caught up with the European Union.

Safe Alternatives – Some Green Lipsticks:

These can be a bit tricky to find:

(1) Click on this website to see a woman’s search-in-progress for safe lipsticks, leading so far to Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer and Nancy’s Fig color Quick Stick.

(2) Skin Deep, a safety guide to cosmetics by the Environmental Working Group, has accumulated a database on the ingredients in cosmetics, including more than 1,500 lip products.  They reveal all the unsafe chemicals.

(3) Ideal Bite has found some solutions. They recommend several brands of lipstick free of “typical baddie chems”:  Primitive Lipstick, Peacekeeper Lip Paint, Organic Wear Lip Veil, and (again!) Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer.  They like Shea Butter, too.  Click on this link for more information and mail-order tips.

(4) The Daily Green suggests the most alternatives.  They offer a slideshow of 11 lead-free lipsticks from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.  Just click to see these colors:

Avon “Ultra Color Rich Cherry Jubilee”
The Body Shop, “Lip Color Garnet”
Clinique, “Long Last Lipstick Merlot”
Dior, “Replenishing Lip Color Red Premiere”
Estee Lauder, “Maraschino”
MAC, “Matte Lipstick Viva Glam 1”
Revlon, “Superlustrous Love That Red”
Revlon, “Superlustrous Bed of Roses”
Revlon, “Colorstay Lipcolor Red Velvet”
Tarte, “Inside Out Vitamin Lipstick”
Wet n Wild, “Mega Colors Cherry Blossom”

(Another time we’ll discuss toxins in hair products, baby lotions, other cosmetics, and bubble baths.  Keeping our lips safe is enough work for one day.  Whew.)

March 8th Green Tip of the Week

Question:  Where do I throw out my sandwich wrappers or pizza boxes?  Does it really matter?  All these different bins on campus are so confusing!

Answer:   This question has a simple solution, easy to remember.

Fit – Fib is the answer.

Food is Trash.  Fit.  Any bin marked “Trash” is for food-smeared stuff.
Food is Blank.  Fib.  Any bin with no words or pictures?  Food-smeared.

Both bins are easy to find.

Bins that say “Trash” are inside the Campus Center, Library, Bannow, and most major buildings.  These “Trash” bins are often sandwiched between two other bins, like between “Newspaper” and “Glass/Aluminum.”  So just throw your old sandwich in “Trash.”

Bins that are blank—no label at all—are those big ugly things that stand outside entrances to most buildings.  Some have flaps.  Others spread out at the top like wormholes.  Throw your  pizza paper-plate in there.

What matters is keeping  food-smeared stuff out of OTHER bins—
➢    like those with a recycle logo,
➢    like those that say Plastic ,
➢    like those that say Paper, or Newspaper, or Glass, or Aluminum, or Cardboard.

Any food smears stuffed into these other bins will ruin them for recycling.  Even oily traces of mayo on sandwich paper.  Even streaks of yogurt.

Why does recycling matter so much?  Well, here’s one reason—the floating Great Pacific Garbage Patch, twice the size of Texas. Scary, huh?

Fit – Fib.

Post #28: Batteries and Hope for Electric Cars

February 26, 2009

[Note:  For February 22 Green Tip of the Week, scroll down a page.]

President Obama said this in his address to Congress two days ago:

“New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea. . . . we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy.”

This started me wondering.  If Korea makes batteries for plug-in hybrids, why don’t we?  Wouldn’t that boost our economy and green our cars?  Then I read the Reporters’ Notes to Obama’s statement:

“No plug-in hybrids are currently manufactured in the United States.  The first one, the Chevy Volt, is supposed to hit showrooms next year.  And yes, the lithium ion battery pack to power it is made in Korea.”

All right.  So why don’t we make lithium-ion batteries, then?

I poked around on the Internet and found a variety of semi-answers:

1.  Lack of investment.  A company called Ener1, which wants to make lithium-ion batteries a national priority, needs 480 million from Washington, according to Business Week recently.  A123 systems would like 1.8 billion to build a next-generation battery plant in Detroit, according to today’s New York Times.

2.  Other options.  For instance, IBM is working with a Denbark-based collaborative, EDISON, to find other sources of energy for electric cars, according to CNNMoney.

3.  Lithium-ion batteries are too expensive.  So says for instance John Peterson, writing for ALT Energy Stocks.  He thinks the Department of Energy’s 2008 Annual Progress Report shows that lithium-ion batteries cannot be made affordable.

4.  Not enough supplies . . . aarrrrgh!   We’d have to obtain lithium from South America (Bolivia has a lot) and China to supply all our cars, and even so, the world might run out of lithium by 2015.  So says ClimateIntel.

Meanwhile, Ford in 2010  is introducing Transit Connect and ZAP soon  will bring out Alias, both electric vans with a 100-mile range.  They’re “sourced from” Europe and China, but it’s a start.

Chrysler plans a Dodge Circuit EV with a 200-mile range.  Their picture displays a  sporty orange car.   It’s speedy, too.

If all our auto manufacturers can get solvent . . .

If we can speed up our research into battery technology . . .

If we can set up to purchase lithium . . .

If we can find other energy sources, too . . .

Then maybe we can.   Maybe Yes, We Can green our cars.