This post was written by Environmental Club member and ambassador Katherine Gillcrist. The holiday season! A wonderful time of giving and receiving among friends, family, and even communities. For a time where industries thrive on the consumerism, and with so much to do, see and celebrate… the environmental impact is typically thrown into the back seat. In the United States alone, an average household’s waste increases 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. It is crucial that we may take any step we can to help make more eco-friendly, the holiday tradition of giving cards, gifts, making food, cutting down trees, and traveling. While at first the negatives do stand out and put a damper on the season, there is no reason to feel down! Picking up new habits or ways to celebrate the holiday season is incredibly simple and easy. For example,
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Written by MEA Environmental Club founder and president, Megan Phelps School supplies used to be one of my favorite parts of going back to school. I loved the blank notebooks begging to be filled with thoughts and doodles, the colorful sticky notes, and the perfectly sharpened pencil tips. All the do-dads and knick-knacks seemed to promise productivity and organization. When I began to examine my buying patterns, I began to realize that this demand for school supplies was not healthy for the Earth. For example--erasers, glue, markers, mechanical pencils, pens, and binders all contain petroleum. Petroleum is not only harmful to extract (think harmful oil spills from fracking), it also takes thousands of years to break down. Worst of all, plastic (one of the most common forms of petroleum) contains many toxins that have been found to be endocrine disruptors and carcinogens. Not something we want to expose growing kiddos to! The unfortunate truth is that conventional school supplies are just not good for the planet or for our bodies. I compiled the following list to help you and your family move towards more sustainable and healthier choices throughout the school year. You can read it in blog format, or check out our Pinterest board. **Use What You Have!** Before buying anything new, I suggest you search your house for existing items. Make reusing more exciting by sharpening tired pencils, reassembling previously used colored pencils and markers, and “reinventing” old binders by redecorating them with recycled paper. Reusing what you have will help the environment (by reducing the amount of resources needed to make new supplies), and also help your wallet! Last year, I didn’t purchase any new school supplies by just using what we already had around the house. Pencils {Option One} Zebra Stainless Steel Mechanical Pencil $14.95 Eco-friendly how? These can last indefinitely, meaning they require very few resources--so long as your student doesn’t lose them! One reviewer said, "I've had my Zebra pencil for 9½ years now. Yes, almost a decade. It still functions the same as when I bought it...." {Option Two} Forest Choice wooden pencils 12 for $2.95 (less than $0.25 each) Eco-friendly how? FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, a certification given to companies that manage forests sustainably, meaning the pencil is made from responsibly harvested wood. Be sure to compost the shavings! {Option One} TreeSmart StartNow pencils 24 for $8.78 Eco-Write Pencils $0.40 each Recycled Old Money Pencils $0.45 each Eco-friendly how? Instead of cutting down trees, these pencils repurpose materials that would otherwise end up in the landfill. Erasers {Option One} Recycled Rubber Erasers $0.99 Made by Humans Eco Eraser Sticks $5.99 Eco-friendly how? Conventional erasers are made out of petroleum product. Recycled natural rubber erasers uses natural rubber that might otherwise be thrown away. Plus, they're better for our bodies! Pens {Option One} Zebra Retractable Ballpoint Pen 9 for $14.99 Zebra Pen Refill 2 for $5.16 Eco-friendly how? Instead of throwing away entire pens as soon as they run out of ink, these pens enable consumers to simply purchase new ink--making for less waste. {Option Two} ZEBRA ECO Pen 1 for $1.99 ZEBRA ECO Pen Refills 3 for $2.99 Eco-friendly how? These pens divert materials from the landfill and eliminate demand for new resources, and include the benefits of being refillable (listed above). Folders {Option One} Naked Folders $1.99 Eco-friendly how? I'm sure you know the benefits of recycling by now! Binders {Option One} The Naked Binder Woodie $15 Eco-friendly how? This product is durable, making it perfect if you'd rather not have to replace items year after year. Also, it is made from FSC-certified wood and is 100% recyclable! {Option Two} The Naked Binder $7-9 Eco-friendly how? Made from recycled materials (instead of the typical vinyl and/or plastic), this binder makes use of otherwise landfill-destined materials. Also, it is fully recyclable. Paperclips {Option One} Use what you find Simply look for paperclips scattered on the ground wherever you are--I've collected over 60 within the past few months by doing this! {Option Two} Recycled Steel Paperclips 100 for $1.39 Eco-friendly how? Instead of mining for new metals (which is destructive of the land and harmful to mine workers), these paperclips use recycled materials, and come in a recyclable box! Staples {Option One} Replace them with paper clips! Eco friendly how? Instead of using staples once and then discarding, paperclips provide a reusable alternative. See above for ideas! Written by environmental club member Edward Shingler Do you know what's in the products you clean with? Do you know how they can affect you, your family, and your environment? The answers to the questions are important if you want to protect the planet Earth and the creatures living on it! Many people choose certain cleaning products because they are marketed to "get your whites whiter and your brights brighter." However, the secret to these products' cleaning power can come from dangerous chemicals which harm you and your environment. Phthalates, perchloroethylene, triclosan, 2-butocyethanol are probably all words you've never heard of before. This is likely because the companies responsible for chemical cleaners aren't always required to list all the ingredients in their products! Furthermore, government regulation is pretty loose. Among the disclosed ingredients, there are commonly untested (potentially dangerous) chemicals, and even ones already proven to be quite harmful. Using chemical cleaners can induce a wide range of negative effects: asthma, allergic reactions, reproductive problems, birth defects, and cancer to name some. Not to mention poisoning from accidental ingestion! "Using chemical cleaners can induce a wide range of negative effects: asthma, allergic reactions, reproductive problems, birth defects, and cancer to name some. Not to mention poisoning from accidental ingestion!"It's a common misunderstanding that natural cleaners are ineffective. However, many natural cleaning products are almost, if not just as effective! When deliberating over what brand to use, don't be afraid to do some digging. Many brands try and capitalize on "going green" without truly living up to the name. This marketing tactic is called greenwashing. For example, the brand Seventh Generation states that it is environmentally friendly, while some of its products still contain unhealthy chemicals. Environmental Working Group has a great database that can show you just how clean your products really are. If you really want to simplify your cleaning routine, try looking in your pantry! Baking soda, lemon juice, and vinegar can all be used as cleaners. Here are some of our favorite recipes. Image from here. Written by Patrick Mulvany, MEA student In the US, our agricultural practices are often not very sustainable, and will cause problems in the long run. However, there are easy solutions for the majority of these problems. The Problem: Erosion Erosion occurs when land is cleared of native plants for farming. As any farmer can tell you, the topsoil is the soil which contains the nutrients needed to grow crops. Lose the topsoil, and you lose fertile farmland. When the native plants are cleared away, the topsoil is exposed to the elements. It is often then blown away by wind or washed away by rain. It takes approximately 500 years to replace one inch of topsoil, so fertile land is, for all human intents and purposes, a non-renewable resource. The Solutions: Compost and Windbreaks First, lining fields with trees to create a windbreak helps control erosion. Second, using compost in the fields helps prevent erosion as the compost absorbs a lot of the water which would otherwise drain off the fields and take soil along with it. The Problem: Dying Pollinators Pollinators face many problems. One of the biggest is pesticides. Pesticides are designed to kill organisms that feed on the crop plants we grow for food. Unfortunately, pesticides often don’t just kill their intended target, they often kill many pollinators and other organisms as well. Many pesticides don’t naturally break down in the environment and therefore can continue to kill non-target insects for a very long time. In addition, the vast tracts of land used for agriculture and other uses of land by humans has severely degraded many pollinators’ natural habitats. This limits space for pollinators to live, and therefore severely reduces population numbers. The Solution: Organic Agriculture
Buying organic foods can help this problem. Organic crops must be grown without use of pesticides. This helps prevent the collapse of pollinators, as no pesticides means fewer dead pollinators. It also means pesticides aren’t on your food. Other forms of less harmful pest control are usually used in organic farming, such as biological controls. This generally means farmers attempt to provide a habitat for and boost the population of natural predators of the pest species. In addition, pheromones and other chemical attractants can be used to trap pests, disrupt their reproduction cycles, and more. Reducing your waste to zero may seem impossible in this consumer world. And going completely zero waste is pretty daunting--but even just reducing your waste a little bit will add up in the long run. Flip through the slideshow below for some tips. Find out how to reduce junk mail here. (Thank you to Rethink Recycling and The Zero Waste Home for the tips!) Written by Jesse Barrera, MEA student. Before we get into the facts, it's important that we define waste. Anything that we humans produce or consume but do not then reuse, is called waste. Natural environments produce no waste because every molecule is cycled continually through the system, reused over and over again for millennia. In contrast, humans produce endless materials that, because of their manufacturing processes, cannot be easily broken down into their component substances or reused as is. Instead, we have chosen to simply store these products in the environment, so we do not have to deal with them in our cities, towns, and suburbs. Clearly we cannot continue to dispose of waste this way indefinitely, because the environmental space available for waste storage is highly limited while our material production, though not unlimited, will continue to grow far into the future. For this reason, eventually, humans must transition from this linear model of production and storage, to a circular model of production and repeated reuse, just like that exhibited by environmental systems. It may seem like this transition to a zero-waste society is something that will need to happen in a few decades, in some far-off futuristic moment when our waste production finally leads bursts our landfills at the seams, and this would be true - if this were the 1960s. Instead, its 2016, and the future has arrived. Today, global annual municipal solid waste production alone exceeds 1 billion tons per year, the equivalent of 2 trillion lbs of waste. The amount of waste in landfills in developed nations has long exceeded their capacity, while in developing nations, waste is often improperly disposed of and poses health risks to those living nearby. Corporations ship hazardous waste, such as the heavy metals found in electronic devices such as cell phones, to poor nations whose citizens are exposed to the hazardous substances, while the oceans are saturated with plastics that can strangle, trap, or even be ingested by, fish and wildlife. Landfills themselves are not risk free, as chemicals from decomposing plastics can leach into and contaminate nearby groundwater, while decomposition can also release potent greenhouse gases into the air. Finally, nuclear power plants, while a cleaner energy source than oil or coal, produce dangerous amounts of radioactive nuclear waste, which poses a major threat both to international security and to environmental quality. Thus, human production of waste has already reached a critical mass that is damaging human health and the environment worldwide. Animal agriculture is the practice of breeding animals for the production of animal products and for recreational purposes. While this may not seem like a big problem, animal agriculture has some big consequences for our planet. Animal agriculture produces 18% of the greenhouse gases that are emitted everyday into our atmosphere. These greenhouse gases not only contaminate our air we breathe, but are also one of the main causes of global warming. Livestock are responsible for almost 64% of anthropogenic ammonia emissions, which contribute most significantly in the production of acid rain and acidification of ecosystems. As our population increases, so does our demand for food. This demand causes deforestation and biodiversity loss from land that is cleared in order to make more grain and feed for our livestock. If we begin to decrease the animal agriculture industry, we would be able to begin replenishing our ecosystems as well as our natural resources. How can you help? There are many ways you can mitigate the harmful effects of animal agriculture. Here are three simple ways to help lower your footprint:
Written by environmental club founder and presdient Megan Phelps
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