Fill 'er Up!

There's a new "R" to add to the eco credo: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, REFILL.

Cartridge #57, tri color ink, for my HP 2210 all-in-one printer was running low. My attenpts to print the incriminating photographs from last night's birthday soiree were turning out with heavy green overtones (and no, it wasn't the color our skin had turned due to the excess of sushi or sake).

Marc was running to Walgreens to pick up something else, when my mind's eye recalled a sign at the store advertising "ink cartridge refills, available in minutes." I decided to give it a go. 10 minutes later, 2 encounters with grumpy Walgreen's employees and witness to 1 even grumpier Walgreen's shopper, I had my newly refilled tri-color cartridge ready to print. For just $15!

Pictures are printed beautifully and ready to send to fellow birthday partiers.

One downfall of Walgreen's' refilling process: They insist on putting the cartridge in one of these over sized paperboard boxes for customer tracking. Lose this box and Walgreen's has a pretty spiffy refill process.

Nail In the Coffin

It's my 30th birthday today. Or as my brother's wacky math goes, I'm 29 for the second time.

Seeing as my schedule at "work" is pretty light these days, I decided to celebrate by taking the day off heading to the nail spa for a mani/pedi.

I know, I know - nail polish is toxic nasty stuff. And I even selected my colors from the OPI brand which is one of the worst on the EWG's list. Top it off with the darkly named "callus eliminator" goo the girl slathered on my feet, and I gave myself the gift of phalates and formaldehyde. That's gotta be good for me as I enter my reproductive years.

No one's perfect. And my nails look goooooooooood.

Bobbing for Frankenstein Apples

Fall is nipping at our noses - with crisp morning air, shorter days and that kind of warm, glowing light that seems to shine at just the right angle, giving even the deadest of potted plants a wonderfully beautiful brightness.

It also means that my all-time favorite apples (yes, I have a favorite apple - don't you?), the "explosively crisp" Honeycrisp, is available at my local natural foods markets. Seems as though these beauties are only around for a few weeks in the fall, and seeing as they are THE MOST DELICIOUS APPLE I will ever bite into, I don't mind paying $3.99 a pound for them. An outrageous price once you learn these are not organic. In fact, they shine with the glisten that can only be layers of wax and pesticide.

As Marc was heading off to work this morning, he refused my reluctant addition of a Honeycrisp to his brown bag lunch, as he already had some inferior Gala apples at work. Was I relieved! I mentioned that these apples were "invented" in Minnesota to which Marc keenly noted, "So, this is a genetically modified organism?". I wasn't so sure.

It's definitely a hybrid - produced from Macoun, Honeygold and Keepsake apples. But any food that isn't a heirloom is technically a hybrid ... does that make it a GMO? I needed to do some research.

According to Wikipedia (the resource for all information. or at least quickest access), a HYBRIDis:

Crosses between populations, breeds or cultivators within a single species. This is often used in plant and animal breeding. In plant and animal breeding, hybrids are commonly produced and selected because they have desirable characteristics not found or inconsistently present in the parent individuals or populations. This rearranging of the genetic material between populations or races is often called hybridization.

Mass agriculture popularized the use of conventional hybridization to increase yield many folds. Often the handful of breeds of plants and animals hybridized originated in developed countries and were further hybridized with local verities, in the rest of the developing world, to create high yield strains resistant to local climate and diseases.

It all sounds well and good, but hybridization had led to great loss in genetic diversity and biodiversity as a whole. Hence the movement toward heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables.

GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM (on the other hand?) is:

An organism whose genetic material has been altered using the genetic engineering techniques generally known as recombinant DNA technology. With recombinant DNA technology, DNA molecules from different sources are combined in vitro into one molecule to create a new gene. This modified DNA is then transferred into an organism causing the expression of modified or novel traits.

Genetic Engineering today has become another serious and alarming cause of genetic pollution because artificially created and genetically engineered plants and animals in laboratories, which could never have evolved in nature even with conventional hybridization, can live and breed on their own and what is even more alarming, interbreed with naturally evolved wild varieties.

GM food is of concern for the future when diverse genetic material will cease to exist to be able to further improve or hybridize weakening food crops and livestock against more resistant diseases and climatic changes.

In summary - it seems as though natural hybridization is an OK thing, as it's cross-breeding two existing species and not genetically altering anything (which seems more permanent?). But genetically modifying food to our whims can lead to disastrous consequences.

So what of my beloved Honeycrisp apple? Seems to be that this is a child of scientific hybridization - not genetic modification ... so I'm safe for now.

The Cup Concern

My dad had the opportunity to be the opening performer for a somewhat famous songwriter named Jack Black on Friday night. The event was taking place in what seemed to be a refurbished farm outbuilding in the small town of Loomis, Nebraska. So, naturally, I had to be there.

After sipping on two barely chilled beers, I decided to switch to water - which was served up in a large Styrofoam cup. I didn't know people were still using these (outside of the occasional small town malt shop)! I have to admit the cup kept my water wicked cold and the ice was still in tact hours later on the drive home. But I couldn't help but feel guilty for the using the cup (surprise surprise). Why didn't I think to bring a water bottle with me instead?

To assuage my guilt I quickly started thinking of the alternative ways I could continue using the cup. Despite its everlasting nature in landfills, it wouldn't stay in top drinking form forever. Instead, the cup is now in use as a dog food measure-er.

Am I obsessed with these little details? Does one Styrofoam cup really make a difference? It does to me.

See - it's not just the cup. It's the idea of the cup. It's the raising of consciousness - the fact that I'm thinking of alternative ways to transfer fluids to my body or reuse different, everyday items.

I'm not obsessive. Right?

A Tale of Two Stickers

I'm babysitting my neices tomorrow, so I ran out to Whole Foods to pick up some kid-friendly, yet organic, snacks. Along the way I was driving behind a pickup truck with a variety of religious inspired bumper stickers. One that stood out read, "Abortion is not a Right. It's a Wrong."

I was annoyed by this truck's expression of the first amendment (even if he was using his right to remove rights of another) and silently ridiculed the driver for needing to put this religion on display.

On the way back home I was behind another truck, this time with a pro-green slogan on its bumper. The tag line (which I can't remember now) made me smile and think, yeah - that's what I want to read.

But it occurred to me that both bumper stickers are annoying... to someone. Why do we insist on using our cars to scream who we are and what we believe in?

Do either drivers really think they are converting fellow road ragers into believing like they do just because they post a sticker?

Doing a Load of Laundry

The greenwashing of American manufacturers has begun. Seems like everyone is green these days. Green builders. Green credit cards. Green handy man (seriously: www.ecohandyman.com). Even the Emmys called themselves "The Green Emmys" for no apparent reason. But what does it all mean?

I spent an hour exploring the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair today looking for an answer. I listened to the publisher of Mothering Magazine talk about the "Top 20 Things to Live More Sustainably" which was a list originally published in GreenGuideToGo.com with killer tips such as "recycle" and "compost". According to the schedule she was supposed to present about raising healthier kids in a sustainable way. By the pacing of the hippie moms with their toddlers in hemp-woven slings, I guess they were expecting something different, as well. I wandered around the expo, meeting vendors from the Fort Collins area and checking out who my fellow sustainable-living folks are.

There were a LOT of Birkenstock sandals, a TON of kids in badly sewn aprons and a big line at the New Belgium beer tent. I didn't see anyone like me, even though every Prius in town must have been in the parking lot.

I was impressed especially by the enormous trailer giving out samples of Annie's Organic Cheddar Bunnies and the rows of alternative building and energy suppliers. There were eco magazines, clothing shops and all sorts of consumer goods. The highlight of the day, though, was the Hydrogen Hummer.

I know that people are going to buy crap. I buy a lot of crap myself. And if you're going to buy something, you might as well make a sustainable choice. I think it's great we have a variety of options available to us when we're ready to make a purchase decision that is good for the environment.

What I'm wondering about is this recent rash of greenwashing taking over the retail world. What does it mean to be "green"?? To me, a green product/service is one that minimizes the impact on the environment. That means it is: reused, recycled, harvested in a sustainable way, doesn't add more crap to the landfill, doesn't pollute or reduces the pollution we put into the environment.

More simply put - living green is just living more simply with common sense. I guess it is easy being green.