Q & A with Garbology Author Ed Humes

Sierra magazine recently sat down with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward Humes to talk about his new book, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash (Avery, 2012).

SIERRA: Is there a way that we can change today's convenience mindset of disposable everything and come back to a society with less waste?

Edward Humes: J. Gordon Lippencott, the father of corporate branding, gave us the philosophical statement of what the economy would look like after WWII. It was based on getting people to violate their most basic instinct of survival — to be thrifty — and [embrace the idea] that it was a good thing to get rid of perfectly good usable products and replace them with something new. That was the core of this new economy of abundance. It’s an illusion that things will never run out. We are an experiment on waste as the driver of prosperity. 

Well, we do all seem to want to have the most up-to-date technologies. How can we change that?

With the up-to-date technology of days gone by, you could go to the store and buy a television set and bring it home and you could be assured that if something in it failed or some component was developed that was superior, it could be upgraded. There was a built-in longevity to a lot of our products that has gone away. We’ve accepted this idea that durable goods are no longer durable.

What is the most shocking thing that you discovered?

The whole idea that waste has become such a big part of our economy — that it is our top export. Scrap paper and scrap metal are our highest volume exports. We send more of that to China than anything else. They make stuff out of it and sell it back to us. That casts us in the role of China’s trash compacter.

Test Your Bike IQ: If They Build It...

You know it. You love it. The bicycle is a clean machine in a carbon-fueled world. To celebrate Bike to Work Week and National Bike Month, we put together a quiz to test your transportation IQ.

Q: Biking and walking are popular modes of transportation — about 12 percent of all trips made in the U.S. are by bike or on foot. What percentage of federal transportation spending funds bike and pedestrian infrastructure?

A) 12 percent

B) 1.6 percent

C) 75 percent

Earthships Could Transform Philadelphia

More than 40,000 vacant lots, many piled high with illegally dumped tires, blight the city of Philadelphia. High unemployment and crime rates discourage many residents, but not Rashida Ali-Campbell, director of the non-profit, LoveLovingLove, Inc.

In Philadelphia's empty lots and abandoned, decaying buildings (approximately 75,000), Ali-
Campbell sees hope and unlimited possibilities. Her mission is to open a school for low-income residents to learn sustainable building techniques. She plans to bring the first urban Earthship to Philadelphia.  

Earthships are the brain-child of architect and inventor Michael Reynolds. His 40-year-old company creates 100 percent self-sustained buildings with a process he calls "Earthship Biotecture" and he has created thousands of them all over the planet. His life-changing projects have brought hope to communities in Europe, Africa, the Netherlands, and Haiti. (For videos click here)

These homes heat and cool themselves, produce wind and solar electricity, grow their own fruits and vegetables, (many even have a catfish pond and a chicken coop providing fresh eggs) they collect and sterilize water and maintain their own sewage system. This small greenhouse (pictured, above), is only a taste of Earthship Biotecture. A two-bedroom home can support a family of four without them ever having to go to the grocery store and their utility bill would be less than $100 per year.

Patagonia Announces New Salmon Jerky

For over thirty years, outdoor gear company Patagonia has operated under the mantra of using business to "inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis." Normally, this means making products with alternatively-sourced cotton, but every once and a while, it means stepping into new territory.

Enter Patagonia Provisions, the company's first foray into the packaged food industry, their first product being environmentally-safe salmon jerky. Working with the SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, located in British Columbia, and Harold Kossler, the supposed "smokehouse guru of Terrace, B.C.," Patagonia hopes to produce a salmon product that derives from sustainable sources. The timing couldn't be better, considering the growing national media attention to eco-friendly fishing issues.

Strangely enough, this isn't the first time Patagonia has attempted to enter the packaged food market: in 2011, they prematurely announced the launch of Patagonia Provisions and the salmon jerky, before pulling the product for its lack of nutritional value. (A rep told BusinessWeek that the jerky included sauce with MSG.)

The folks over at Patagonia still may not have this whole new operation down perfectly yet 7mdash; go to their online store and note that Salmon Jerky is precariously grouped in with "Books & More." But, hey, at least it's a start.

Image courtesy of Patagonia, Inc.

 

Justin Cohn is a blogger for the Sierra Club. He is also a student at the University of California, Berkeley, an aspiring fiction writer, musician, and — occasionally — the guy who gets the mail. Twitter: @justinrcohn

Book Review: Rebuild the Dream

The problem with the American dream is that too often we're caught sleeping. At the very least, in the bliss of freedom, we let our attention wander as the things in life that matter most fail, are neglected, or are simply taken away.

In his new book, Rebuild the Dream, former special advisor to the Obama White House Van Jones drafts a thoughtful plan for the reconstruction of the simple American ideals and principles that secure the dream of a better life for everyone willing to work hard and play fair. With a vision centered on the benefits of a fully integrated green economy and practices of sustainable living, Jones's book offers a detailed analysis of the circumstances that led to rise of the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement. The author also provides a game plan for political activists looking to transform hope into lasting change and get the U.S. economy working again for everyone.

Invited by the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Jones recently visited Madison to address a crowd of true believers. Drawing upon themes in his book, the co-founder and president an the organization of the same name made a solid connection with an audience eager to return to better times. 

"We don't have to wait," Jones told them. "Once again we can be a nation of neighbors who were raised to look out for one another."

Pedal-Powered Compost Service Transforms Community

Andy Brooks has figured out a way to make composting accessible to the city dweller. The plan is simple: Distribute food-collection buckets to subscribers' homes; pick up the buckets on a weekly or monthly basis; bring the food scraps to a central location for composting; then in 10 to 15 weeks, return a share of nutrient-rich soil to his subscribers. His company, Bootstrap Compost — "Boston's Only Bike Powered, Residential Compost Pickup Service" — was founded in early 2011. A then-unemployed Brooks was inspired by Vermont's Earthgirl Composting, a similar service he encountered while visiting family in Vermont.

After returning home to Boston's socially and ethnically diverse Jamaica Plain (JP) neighborhood, Brooks printed fliers advertising a composting pick-up service and posted them around JP and nearby neighborhoods. Within the first week, Bootstrap had customers. The near-instant success of his business is in large part due to its ease-of-use, which creates an opportunity for urbanites to compost. "A lot of my people live in the city. In brownstones and large apartment buildings, they have no space to compost, but they're interested in the idea of composting, and I give them a way to do that."

Green Your Future: Wildlife Conservation Work

What's in your future? Whether you decide to spend the summer traveling, learning green job skills, or cultivating sustainable habits, the choices you make today could change the course of your life. This week, we've got tips to help you pave a path to a greener future.

Tip # 4: Take Refuge in Conservation

If you'd love to spend your summer protecting wildlife, restoring habitat, or building trails, just look for the nearest wildlife refuge. This year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will hire 2,300 youth for summer jobs in 556 national wildlife refuges. You can find even more opportunities through the Student Conservation Association.

--photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service 

Green Your Future: The Best Internship on Earth

What's in your future? Whether you decide to spend the summer traveling, learning green job skills, or cultivating sustainable habits, the choices you make today could change the course of your life. This week, we've got tips to help you pave a path to a greener future.

Tip # 1: Apply for the Best Internship on Earth

Looking for a summer gig that won't leave you trapped you behind a desk? Apply for the Best Internship on Earth and you could spend the summer hiking, rafting, and exploring the great outdoors with the Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors programs. Instead of delivering coffee and making copies, you'll video blog about your adventures. In addition to a stipend and all-expenses paid travel, the winning intern will receive $2,000 worth of merchandise provided by The North Face. 

The ideal candidate is passionate about the environment and being outside; open to new experiences; a skilled storyteller; experienced with video software and production; and highly engaged with their online community.  To apply, students and recent graduates between the ages of 18 and 25 must submit a video clip (60-90 seconds) showcasing their love for the outdoors and why they want to intern with the Sierra Club. 

Watch the video below to learn more:

Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment

In the last one hundred years — a mere blip on the geologic time scale — the world has seen amazing scientific and technological advances. From the electric cars on our highways, to the genetically-altered foods on our plates, every aspect of our life is touched by technology. What's more, scientists and inventors promise to find solutions to the many environmental problems that we now face. . . . Or will they?

In their new book, Techno-Fix, Michael and Joyce Huesemann warn that our confidence in technology and belief that it will save us is "suicidal" and that many of our inventions are causing more harm than good. A bit like David taking a shot at Goliath, the two are taking on the current system.

Huesemann says he doesn't hate technology, he just wants it to be used for something good. "We need to shift science and technology in a new direction because our best scientists are busy building better weapons and increasing corporate profits, while only a very small fraction are devoted to solving environmental problems or making us environmentally sustainable. Our federal government spends $70 to 80 billion each year for national defense research, compared to about $2 billion for environmental research."

He says that instead of addressing the root causes of our problems, we use "techno-fixes," which only address the symptoms, like the plan by oil companies to start pumping CO₂ into the ground.  What's more, techno-fixes always have unintended consequences, which means we need to come up with a new techno-fix to solve the problems created from our last techno-fix.

Tron Bike to Be Auctioned at Fancy Movie Star Party

Before the Oscars on Sunday, there will be the pre-Oscars red carpet walk; and before the pre-Oscars red carpet walk, there will be innumerable pre-Oscars fancy movie star parties that you aren't invited to. One such party is Global Green's Annual Pre-Oscar Party, happening tonight at LA's fanciest movie star nightclub, the Avalon. If you were invited (which you weren't), you would see "such celebrities as Penelope Cruz, Adrian Grenier, and Orlando Bloom."

But if you're like us and want to know what's so green about the Global Green Pre-Oscar Party, you might be amazed to know that there will be an auction for a 100% electric-powered motorcycle that looks exactly like the Light Cycle from the TRON movies. (Then you'll be disappointed that you weren't invited to the auction, either.) It's called the Xenon, and it's manufactured by evolve, a company that specializes in electric motorcycles. It has an absurd starting price tag of $55,000, but then again, at least you won't be paying over $4 a gallon to fill its tank. 

Below is a video of some environmentally conscious guy with tens of thousands of dollars to blow riding this thing.

--Justin Cohn