Recycling drama: light bulbs

My summer hobby this year, unfortunately, is to clean out possibly the country's worst garage. But before I chastise my family for junking up an area to the point of ridiculousness, I found a light bulb.

There's nothing particularly special about it, but it was broken. I found it in a plastic lamp that would be adorable on a teenage girl's nightstand. So when I was preparing the item for the Goodwill donation stash, I realized the light bulb had broken into two pieces. The inside of the base was rusty, and, of course, I wondered if I released toxins like tungsten and argon while pulling the base out of the lamp's grip.

I tossed the bulb into the garbage can. I didn't think to recycle it properly until messy garbage was piled over it, and I didn't feel like putting my hand inside. I have items stocked up throughout the house that need to be properly recycled.  

There should be more advertising about recycling centers and popular items we throw away every day that actually need to be recycled. I'm fortunate to live in California where we recycle big time, but we recycle the obvious things like paper and cans. There are so many other things that need to be recycled like light bulbs and batteries, and nothing's being done about it. Maybe I'll do something... 

REVISED

Read my article: State set to phase out incandescents starting Jan. 1

Eco-effects: coffee vs. tea

Since I always hear about workers in some third world country earning a penny a day to pick our coffee beans and tea leaves under the blazing sun, I wanted to know which one affects the environment more.

Tea comes from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant and is usually infused with herbs and spices for the selection of flavors we love to choose from. With tea being planted mostly in rugged, fertile areas, many animals lose their habitats with the intrusion. As tea plants are inserted into the ground, loose soil is becoming runoff and heading towards a waterway. 


After tea is grown, it must be dried. For it to be dried, wood is used, meaning trees in the area had to be cut down for this purpose.

Coffee comes from a bean and grows into a plant. When the plant is finished growing, the beans travel to a processing plant for the separation between pulp and bean. The pulp is removed, but there's waste now mixed with pulp, sugar, and water. The waste is used as a fertilizer now, but, in the past, it was dumped as waste in waterways, which is probably still occurring somewhere in the world. 

Like tea, coffee needs a place to be cultivated, therefore natural forests and habitats are removed to make way for the production since direct sunlight is a major source for the growth process. 

So it seems both tea and coffee as well as other crops affect the environment positively and negatively in the same way. I still prefer tea over coffee. To learn more about the agricultural effects of growing cash crops, visit the World Wildlife Fund.

Eco-blingin'

With my obsession with jewelry and newfound eco-consciousness, I wanted to see what made certain pieces of jewelry more environmentally friendly than others.

CONFLICT-FREE DIAMONDS This week, the news has been swirling about supermodel Naomi Campbell allegedly lying about receiving a blood diamond because, truth is, we all love diamonds regardless where they came from.

But knowing its origin may be an ethical issue. Because of conflicts raging in mostly African nations dealing with an illegal diamond trade system, more people prefer diamonds that come from a government- and industry-approved, fair situation. Before purchasing diamond jewelry, ask where it came from.

FAIR TRADE GEMS These are like blood diamonds with the illicit trade of gemstones, so still ask where they came from and make sure their birthplaces don't have issues with conflict over some sapphires and rubies.

RECYCLED METALS & JEWELS Recycling is usually always eco-friendly, so buying recycled metals and jewels to create your own pieces is green approved. In today's economy, people are taking their old gold and silver to those Gold For Cash places, so there is more recycled metals out there although they are hard to find as separate pieces.

Usually anything that can't be agriculturally grown from the ground is mined like gold, silver, etc., which has detrimental effects on the environment like erosion, water pollution, etc.

VINTAGE JEWELRY Vintage is always in. Old pieces can be found at garage sales, rummage sales, thrift shops, vintage shops, and other places. Reusing antique jewelry lets you have the luxurious metals and jewels without buying new pieces at generally higher prices.

Some eco-friendly jewelry websites like greenkarat.com and brilliantearth.com sell recycled metals and jewels, fair trade gems, and conflict-free diamonds and provide background information on the jewelry you want to buy.

Eco-consciousness: back-to-school shopping

I love fashion. I love shopping. I'm a big believer in retail therapy. A new pair of shoes makes me feel great. While I'm addicted to the consumerism of skintight jeans and flowery T-shirts, I never think about how these beautiful items end up in my hands.

My favorite shoe brand is Nine West. Their shoes symbolize sophistication, professionalism, and most importantly, authentic leather. Since my female shopping intuition kicked in, I was taught to embrace leather shoes and reject the artificial material resembling leather.

I like to think I'm using the most of my resources. But should we pay attention to our clothes and shoes for the sake of the environment?

I think about my merino wool sweaters, fur-trimmed coats, and silk blouses, but I forget they come from animals forced into captivity to feed our materialistic needs. And after the animals suffer their ordeal and succumb to our consumerism, then their supplies probably go to some God-forsaken sweatshop companies conceal from public knowledge. And at those companies, water and air pollution can come from the machinery and other supplies to bring the fashion to our stores.

ORGANIC: It's a great word, but what does it really mean for clothes? Pure organic cotton means grown without pesticides for the benefits of eco-friendly clothing. When pesticides are used, they can contaminate groundwater and threaten the air quality, so minimal use is good for the environment.

Hopefully, the labels promising to be green will not be so vague and actually explain to us why this article of clothing is so green. But "pure organic cotton" is the famous phrase in the eco-fashion world. Some oil-based synthetic materials like nylon and polyester need fossil fuels to be created, so check the labels to see what the material is made of. Most likely, it will be a cotton-polyester mix, but knowing how these materials affect the environment is still important.

RECYCLE: Clean out your closets and, simultaneously, bring more clothes in. Vintage will always be in style, so the thrift shop is your friend. I love shopping and donating to thrift shops because I'm recycling and supporting others' recycling efforts. Although the recession-stricken public may not want to warm up to the idea of used clothes, it's not a dirty thing. Buy gently used stuff and wash it at home, and nobody will notice. In fact, you'll get more compliments since there were not thousands of the same thing hanging in the department store.

A lot goes into our clothes. At a young age, I paid attention to the labels to see where my clothes came from. I would wonder why seamstresses in fill-in-the-blank country would want to sew this particular shirt together. Yeah, for the money, but it seems random. So as we embark on replenishing our closets with what the fashion world has manipulated us to buy, we should think about where our attire comes from and how it affects the environment.

Recycling drama: inhalers

The other day, I found several ancient inhalers while cleaning my garage. I decided to throw them away. Just tossed them in the garbage can without a look back. But, eventually, my environmental consciousness got to me.

I know those old inhalers contain tricholoroethylene and other chlorofluorocarbons (yes, once upon a time these harmful chemicals helped people breathe), which can deplete the ozone layer and is pretty much bad for the environment. I thought that just meant to spray the inhaler into your mouth and not towards the sky. Apparently, this was a problem, and a few years ago, all the inhalers evolved into hydrofluoroalkane or HFA inhalers (supposedly the greener alternative).

Of course, I have one of these green inhalers, but I wonder how do I recycle my toxic inhalers from the past. I explored the online world of Googling relevant terms, and surprisingly, I didn't get much feedback. I didn't learn much. I want to recycle more, but there are things like inhalers that we don't know how to dispose of. Throw it away? Return to the company? Hold on to it?

Finally, I found FDA that gave the simple message: contact your local trash and recycling facilities. That's it. Next time I find an old inhaler, I'll recycle it properly. But with such minimal knowledge of this issue (if I Google something, the right answer should miraculously come up), I hope they go to the right place.