California Coastal Cleanup Day is this Saturday, September 20, 2008.

This Saturday, September 20, 2008, is the 24th annual California Coastal Cleanup Day. Cleanup events are taking place throughout the state and it’s not too late to volunteer. For a map of event sites, go to http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd2.html and contact an event coordinator for directions. There are more than four cleanup locations in the San Francisco Bay Area alone (which is good that we have so many volunteers; bad that we have so much trash to clean up!).

Last year, according to organizers, more than 60,000 volunteers collected more than 900,000 pounds of trash and recyclables. For an eye-opening look at the trash that collects in our nation’s waterways, see the San Franciso Chronicle’s excellent photo essay: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/09/18/MN7K12V9PJ.DTL&o=

photo credit: How can I recycle this

BBC reporter Christine Jeavans swore off plastics for the month of August, chronicling her trials in a riveting blog. Her self-imposed rules allowed her to keep the plastics she already owns, but she gave up buying any new items made of plastic, in plastic containers, or wrapped in plastic.

It wasn’t easy. Or even realistic. Jeavans slipped up occasionally, and kept a tally of items. While she didn’t lead an entirely plastic-free month, she estimates that her family reduced their plastic consumption by 80 percent, compared to an average month in which she tallied their plastic usage.

Critics of her experiment point out that plastic is a highly convenient, economical material, which Jeavans acknowledges. Sometimes, plastic could even be considered environmentally friendly, because it extends the shelf life for many foods, thus reducing food waste, and its lighter weight (compared to paper) means it takes less fuel to transport.

Jeavans maintains the point of her exercise was not to demonize plastic, but to get people thinking about the consequences of mindless waste. It’s a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. As it stands now, most of the responsibility for waste reduction falls upon individual consumers,  even though the majority of packaging waste comes industry, and consumers are often limited in their conservation choices. What are you supposed to do if your recycling center doesn’t accept plastic lids? Keep them in your basement until the neighbors call the fire department on you?

It’s important for consumers to reduce, re-use, recycle as much as possible, but on a macro level, manufacturers and producers should also think about the life cycle of each and every product they make. Otherwise there’s gonna be more junk than our basements or landfill can handle.

Jeavans wrote a BBC piece about the beginning of her journey and posted a short video:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7508321.stm

The BBC published her conclusions here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7591751.stm

The Barkingside 21 blog has a great post regarding “A Month without Plastic” and points us to two articles that suggest rising plastics costs may encourage landfill ming for materials:
http://barkingside21.blogspot.com/2008/08/month-without-plastic.html

photo credit: sutefani in orlando

My three-year-old is in the peak of her “Why?” phase. So when she asks why we have to turn off the water after washing our hands or brushing our teeth, I tell her that we don’t waste water. That, of course, prompts another “Why?” which gives me the chance to explain the interconnectedness of our consumption, the environment, and our own personal budget. (The answer, in case you were wondering, is because wasting isn’t good for the planet and because Mom can’t afford it.)

The same line of reasoning goes for food. That’s why I’m a major proponent of making a monthly menu and a grocery shopping list that I veer from only for fun treats that we consume right away. Since I began the menu/list plan, food rarely spoils in our home. I estimate I save about $25 a week (that’s $1,300 a year)–more if you consider what I’d spend eating out if I hadn’t bought wisely.

In an excellent article posted September 9, 2008, MainStreet.com takes this line of thinking one step further. Wasting food wastes more than food and money. It also wastes water:

“In the U.S., we throw away 30% of our food every year, according to the [Stockholm International Water Institute]. That wastes enough water to meet the needs of every household in North America for a year. It also wastes more than $48 billion a year, the report found.”

For the full MainStreet.com article and more money-saving tips, go here:
http://mainstreet.com/article/lifestyle/food-drink/save-money-food-help-save-world

photo credit: subewl

School is in session, and our family has gone from packing beach bags to packing lunches. Because one of my Compete to Conserve goals is to be more mindful of packaging waste, this seasonal switch has me obsessing over how much waste is created from just one child’s lunch. Add two adults, because we often pack our work lunches, and then multiply it by all the other packed lunches in the country and you’ve got a huge hunk of junk!

So how can you reduce packaging waste without driving yourself crazy? I don’t have an easy answer for that one. Convenience is what drives people to flock to disposable juice boxes and prepacked lunchables, not a villainous desire to destroy the planet. And many is the time that I long for their grab-and-go ease. That said, with a little planning and practice, packing a waste-free, or less wasteful, lunch can get easier.

Here are 5 things I do to make packing a waste-free lunch easier:

1. Make a monthly menu (1/2 hour at the onset saves me lots of time later).
2. Place plastic baggies and wrap in a hard to reach place to avoid temptation.
3. Assemble of stable of reusable, but replaceable (even the most mindful kids and adults occasionally lose things), containers, utensils, and cloth napkins (old washcloths or cut-up tees will do, too).
4. Pack fruit that doesn’t require packaging, such as apples, bananas, and oranges.
5. Go Ford-assembly-line style: Pack the same lunch for everyone in the family.

It’s definitely tempting to think that my kid’s lunch doesn’t make a difference, but then I remember that the New York State Department of Conservation says one child bringing a disposable lunch creates 67 pounds of trash a year.

If you are interested in packing waste-free lunches for your family, here are some more helpful resources:

San Mateo County’s Tips for a Waste Free Lunch at Home and at School
http://www.recycleworks.org/schools/lunch.html

“Back to School Lunch with Less Waste,” on Cheap Like Me
http://cheaplikeme.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/back-to-school-lunch-with-less-waste/

“Green Savings Tips for School Lunch,” on OrganicMania
http://organicmania.com/2008/04/02/green-savings-tip-for-school-lunch/

Extolled for its taste, as well as its health benefits, tea is more popular than ever. And, whether you prefer your tea black, green, red, white, hot or iced, loose or bagged, this primeval beverage of conspicuous consumption is also “greener” than ever.

photo credit: BotheredByBees

Taste Not Waste

The fundamental maxim of many tea purists that whole loose leaf tea trumps tea made with tea bags is hotly debated. Purists claim loose tea releases the full flavor and benefits by allowing the tea leaves to brew “unfettered” in the pot, whereas the traditional paper tea bag, filled with “tea dust,” or the dregs of the leaves, results in an inferior cuppa.

Recently, the flavor debate has taken on an added dimension with growing environmental concerns about the waste associated not only with tea bag use but also with tea packaging in general.

According to Culinate blogger Mark Douglas, “More than one million tons of excess waste could be eliminated each year by not having the following three items associated with an average tea bag: the paper wrapping around the individual bag, the string attached to the bag, and the little paper tab attached to the string.” Douglas learned that astounding fact in a 2006 “Tea Education” episode of The History Channel’s Modern Marvels series. As a prime example of waste prevention, the episode featured the tea company Celestial Seasonings, which manufactures its tea bags without strings, tags or individual wrapping, and consequently saves over 3.6 million pounds of waste each year.

If the potential for waste alone causes you to rethink your tea bag use, but nevertheless lament the loss of convenience the tea bag provides, take heart. Reusable stainless steel tea infusers like the Teastick and teapots with built-in infusers or plungers may be an option. Furthermore, Mighty Leaf Tea, Numi Organic Tea and Seattle-based Choice Organic Tea all offer something called a “T-sac filter,” made with chlorine free, unbleached filter paper from manila hemp, which, according to Choice Organic, is “an environmentally-safe and convenient alternative for perfectly brewing loose leaf teas or herbs.”

For diehard tea bag users, other green options exist. Besides using unbleached paper tea bags, reusing and recycling are key. In a novel approach, artists of the South African company Original T-bag Designs take used tea bags (with the leaves removed), dry and iron them and then paint the bags, transforming them into greeting cards, notepads, journals, ornaments, candles, coasters, trinket boxes, and tea light holders.

Old tea bags (sans the staples) make good compost too, providing nutrients and acidity to your fertilizer mix. The U.K. company Teabagbin markets a nifty way to collect your used tea bags for compost. Its self-proclaimed “stylish little container made from high grade steel or plastic sits happily next to the kettle and swallows up used teabags keeping your kitchen mess free,” and answers the proverbial question of “What do you do with yours? [tea bags that is]”

Traditional paper tea bags aside, the newest and hottest trend on the market is pyramid-shaped tea bags made from silk, muslin or nylon. The science behind these “gossamer mesh” objets d’art is that they allow the whole leaf tea leaves—not the “tea dust” usually stuffed into a compact paper tea bag—room to brew. Companies such as Tea Forte and even Lipton have developed their own versions of the triangular-shaped bags, thus bringing quality (though more expensive) tea to the masses.

Despite the hype, the nylon versions of these bags have come under fire from environmentalists who claim that they are not biodegradable. There are biodegradable corn fabric pyramid bags but questions of quality and environmental friendliness remain (some of the bags are apparently made from genetically modified corn).

Naysayers will rightly point out that all tea—bagged or loose—comes in containers that create unnecessary waste. However, companies such as Republic of Tea sell their tea in recyclable tin canisters. Los Angeles-based eco-chic designer Dana Morgan of Green Carpet Event suggests another way to reuse old tea tins: as vases. And, in October 2006, the specialty tea and coffee shop Oxalis in Bath, England, urged customers to bring their own bag or container from home in order to reduce waste. As an added incentive, customers who brought their own containers received a discount of 15 pence (about 25 U.S. cents) per 100g of tea.

Sustainability, Fair Trade and Organic

Cups of tea are also greener as a result of sustainability initiatives across the globe. For those who like a little sugar in their tea, 2007 saw the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) launch a project to use waste from the East African sugar industry to generate electricity across the tea-producing region.

In an effort to replenish the resources it uses in packaging, tea company Good Earth donates a portion of its profits to tree-planting projects sponsored by American Forests, a nonprofit conservation organization. Tea giant Lipton has pledged that its Yellow Label tea bags on the European market will be certified by the Rainforest Alliance by 2010 and on the global market by 2015. And in May 2008, British tea company PG-Tips announced its partnership with Rainforest Alliance, unveiling a plan to supply 1,200 McDonald’s outlets with tea certified by the environmental nonprofit.

Moreover, the popularity of Fair Trade Certified and organic tea products has skyrocketed in recent years. Launched in 1997, the Fair Trade movement promotes free trade and “the use of sustainable farming methods that are safer for humans and the environment.” There are now a wide variety of brands that the environmentally friendly consumer can choose from, thereby making saving the environment and enjoying your afternoon cuppa mutually inclusive.

For more on tea and the environment, see

Boughton, Ian. “Cuppas with a Conscience.” Caterer & Hotelkeeper 198. 4527 (15-21 May 2008): 50-1.

Budgar, Laurie. “Has new tricks.”Natural Foods Merchandiser 27.12 (Dec.2006):22-3.

“Making a difference.” Bath Chronicle (26 Oct. 2006): 14.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Its-All-in-the-Tea-Bag—How-to-Be-Environmentally-Responsible-with-Your-Tea-Bags&id=202998

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1568610/Nylon-teabags-set-to-let-the-flavour-flood-out.html

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/the-tea-bag-basks-in-its-moment-to-simmer/

Lush employees go naked in San Francisco.

Who among us hasn’t done work in the buff? Pants sometimes take a backseat to meeting a deadline now that Blackberries, laptops, and home computers let many of us occasionally work from home. But going to work naked when you face hundreds of people a day? That’s what store employees of the cosmetic company Lush did last week to promote its “naked” package-free body and bath products.

Wearing nothing but aprons that read “Ask me why I’m naked,” employees at 27 stores across the U.S. handed out flyers that encouraged customers and passersby to consider the environmental impact of packaging. Yes, it was a publicity stunt, but it was a fun, good-natured way to inform people on an otherwise dismal subject.

The U.K.-based retailer says that packaging contributes 2 percent to global greenhouse emissions and plastic consumes 8 percent of the world’s oil resources. The State of California says that packaging makes up one third of the 66 million tons of waste Californians throw away each year.

Industry is the biggest offender of packaging waste, but consumers contribute to the pile, too. With that in mind, Lush sells many of its products, including shampoo, without packaging and in bars that are sliced to size. (Liquid shampoo, because it’s mostly water by volume, weighs more and takes more energy to transport. It also requires plastic packaging.) At a customer’s request, a salesperson will wrap bars in paper to take home. That, of course, defeats the idea of no packaging, so repeat customers often come in with a reusable baggie or soap dish.

More resources:

“Bare Facts on Packaging,” August 28, 2008, SFGate.com
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/chrongreen/detail?blogid=50&entry_id=29565

Use Less Stuff Report, for consumer tips and the latest research on waste reduction
http://www.use-less-stuff.com

Earlier this year Alex Rodriguez signed a $275 Million, ten-year contract with the New York Yankees, cutting short his $252 Million ten-year contract with the Texas Rangers signed in 2001.  On the other side of the country, the Los Angeles Dodgers recently acquired Manny Ramirez in the final year of his $160 Million contract signed with the Boston Red Sox in 2001.

Major League Baseball may not be synonymous with environmental sustainability, but the 2008 season has treated fans to a shade of green separate and apart from the playing field.

Last April, the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles played the first carbon-neutral baseball game in MLB history.  To celebrate Earth Day, the teams partnered with Cedar Grove Composting to offset the game’s energy consumption by funding certain energy-conservation projects.  An estimated 230 tons of carbon dioxide produced by flight travel, electricity and natural gas during the game, disposal or recycling of waste, hotel-related emissions, and team staff and fan transportation was offset by an investment in new methane and wind projects.

To start the 2008 season, the Philadelphia Phillies announced the team would offset the carbon footprint created by the utility power usage at the team’s stadium by purchasing 20 million kilowatt-hours of Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates.  This contribution is the functional equivalent of planting 100,000 trees.

Also this season, MLB partnered with the National Resources Defense Council to provide teams with eco-friendly advice in all areas of operations.  “Using corn starch cups, increasing recycling and installing solar panels and possibly wind turbines at ballparks are among the measures teams will consider as part of a major league-wide effort to reduce baseball’s carbon footprint.”  (USAtoday.com, March 12, 2008.)  Named the “Team Greening Program”, each team received software to provide assistance in energy and water conservation, the purchase of eco-friendly products, how to improve sales from concession areas, recyling and transporatation.

Now, the Los Angeles Angels and Compete to Conserve are working together to promote global sustainability, starting with the fans.  In an effort to promote conservation on an individual and accessible level, Compete to Conserve hopes to increase recycling at Anaheim Stadium while inspiring fans to make positive and practical changes in the way they consume natural resources.

As the season enters its final month, it appears that the Angels are familiar with the principles of long-term energy conservation.  Holding firm to a first place lead of 17 games and only 23 left for the season, the Angels are well positioned to sustain their division lead heading into the playoffs.

For more information please visit:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/359994_greenball22.html

http://greentechnolog.com/2008/05/philadelphia_phillies_go_green.html

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2008-03-10-MLB-goes-green_N.htm

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52577

Slow Food Nation '08 in San Francisco.

Slow Food Nation ’08 came to a close in San Francisco yesterday, leaving, organizers hope, very little waste.

Festivals, fairs, amusement parks, and sporting events are notorious for the amount of garbage left in their wake. Along with porta-potties and drunken dudes, trash is an unfortunate reality associated with otherwise joyous county fairs and street fairs. That’s what made Slow Food Nation’s commitment to zero waste such a welcome relief. (”Zero waste” strives to eliminate waste, regarding trash as a resource that can be reused or re-purposed.)

Bins, Staff Made Zero Waste Easy

The weekend-long festival was like Disneyland for foodies with a conscience. Featuring a farmers’ market, a bevy of speakers, a large “Victory Garden” of fruits and vegetables growing outside City Hall, and lots of “slow food” from local restaurants, Slow Food Nation also sported plenty of easy-to-find bins for separating waste into three categories: recyclables, compostables, and landfill. Vendors were careful to offer only items that could be composted or recycled.

The festival also hired a helpful, energetic, friendly staff to help festival-goers place the right items in the right bins. Contamination continues to be the bugaboo of recyclers, so adding a human element no doubt aided organizers’ efforts.

Who Else Is Moving Toward Zero Waste?

Of course, while Slow Food Nation as an organization goes to great pains to not be elitist, the festival was clearly populated by people who already have an interest in sustainability and zero waste practices. More interesting, and maybe even more valuable, would be seeing these efforts in practice at events like the Sonoma County Fair or a 49ers’ game, where larger and more diverse population segments come together.

The Sonoma County Fair did host a “sustainability pavilion” this year, but the fair’s sustainable efforts seemed to end there. When I attended, garbage bins were overflowing with heaps of non-biodegradable utensils and food scraps and food-soiled papers that could have easily been reclaimed and composted.

Still, bit by bit, various festival organizers across the country and trying to make love for a good party compatible with zero waste. Alameda County, across the Bay, employed zero waste practices in its last county fair. Walworth County, Wisconsin, published a case study on their efforts to encourage less waste. And this year’s Silver Lake street fair in Los Angeles worked to get vendors to switch to biodegradable carryout containers and to get people to “think before you toss.”

More resources:

Slow Food Nation ‘08:
http://slowfoodnation.org/

Case Study: Walworth County Fair, Wisconsin:
http://www.besmart.org/publicplacerecycling/Case-studies/Walworth-County-Fair/wc-fair.html

“‘Wasted’ at the County Fair,” on Mom Goes Green:
http://www.momgoesgreen.com/%E2%80%9Cwasted%E2%80%9D-at-the-county-fair/

“The Greening of a Los Angeles Street Festival,” August 24, 2008, The Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-sunsetjunction24-2008aug24,0,1134965.story

“Slow Food Brings Many Issues to the Table,” August 29, 2008, San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/29/MNKQ12K54L.DTL

Image courtesy VBS.tv's excellent 12-part video series.

Out in the beautiful deep blue waters of the Pacific Ocean swirls a giant mass of plastic trash. It’s huge, it’s gross, and it’s growing.

Some Say It’s Twice the Size of Texas

This giant plastic trash continent goes by many names: the Pacific Gyre, the Great Garbage Patch, and Garbage Island. And before the real estate speculator in you gets excited about the possibility of a new oceanfront property, you should know it’s not a single cohesive mass of trash, but rather billions and billions of plastic pieces, big and small, that float out to sea and collect in a large, shifting swirl, thanks to ocean currents.

For an eye-opening visual of this floating trash vortex, see VBS.tv’s excellent (but, parents be warned, foul-mouthed) 12-part video series. Each episode is about seven-minutes long: http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=1154

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Unfortunately, the vast majority of plastics manufactured are not biodegradable. That means this patch of old bottles, toothbrushes, straws, nets, shoelace tips, wrappers, packaging, and more is here to stay. The pieces of plastic do, over time, erode into smaller pieces, which are then ingested by birds and fish, which then are ingested by us. Pause here to think not only how disgusting that is, but how harmful to our health it is to ingest known toxins and carcinogens.

What Can You Do to Stop the Great Garbage Patch?

There’s been some talk about cleaning the mess up, though due to the enormity of the task and small pieces, it may not be feasible. Think how hard it is to fish out a single speck of eggshell from a bowl of cracked eggs and multiply that by trillions.

The best way to help is to stop it from growing. And the best way to stop the Great Garbage Patch from growing is to reduce our consumption of plastics, non-biodegradable plastics, in particular.

I, for one, tuck a small shopping bag in my purse when I go out, just in case I make an impulse buy. For planned shopping trips, I bring my own bags. I carry a stainless steel water bottle with me instead of buying bottled water. I don’t use straws. I refill our hand soap dispensers. I avoid products with lots of wrappers. And, of course, I recycle what plastics can be recycled. It’s not the entire solution, but it’s a start. It’s also, honestly, a lot less convenient. But thinking of the huge floating plastic trash heap keeps me in line.

There are millions of ways to make a difference. I’ve heard of people bring their own food containers for takeout and bringing containers back to their neighborhood health food store for refills. If you have more ideas, please post a comment and share them here.

More resources:

Join the Stop the Great Garbage Patch cause on Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/57731?recruiter_id=10314532

“Giant Plastic Soup Floats Out to Sea,” on frogblog:
http://blog.greens.org.nz/2008/02/11/giant-plastic-soup-floats-out-to-sea/

“Is There a Solution to the Continent of Plastic that Pollutes the Pacific?” on Fat Knowledge:
http://fatknowledge.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-there-solution-to-continent-of.html

“Continent-Size Toxic Plastic Stew of Plastic Trash Fouling the Pacific Ocean,” San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/18/SS6JS8RH0.DTL

The Olympic flame for the 2008 Beijing “Green Games” has been extinguished, but amid the reports of silver iodide missiles being shot into the sky to prevent and promote rain on demand, was something a bit more mundane: the debate over the use of disposable wooden chopsticks.

photo credit: Dan4th

As the world’s largest producer of disposable chopsticks—about 63 billion a year—China is at the forefront of the environmental brouhaha over the cheap, one-use utensils or yicixing kuaizi, as they are known to the Chinese.

In 2006, the country responded to claims of deforestation and waste caused by rampant disposable chopstick use by imposing a 5% consumption tax as well as a 30% price increase on the chopsticks. The move sent shock waves throughout Japan, the largest importer and consumer—at about 98% of the market and 30 billion pairs a day—of waribashi, as they are known in that country. The Japanese countered fears of a shortage of their beloved waribashi by declaring they could turn to cheaper (but lower quality) suppliers like Vietnam or Indonesia (something that hasn’t happened). They also cut back on indiscriminate use of the chopsticks. In convenience stores across the nation, customers were only given a pair of disposable chopsticks if they asked for them; in some stores, a nominal charge (about 4 U.S. cents) was added.

Lian Guang, founder and president of the Wooden Chopsticks Trade Association in China’s Heilongjiang Province, said in a recent Wall Street Journal article that, contrary to popular belief, disposable chopsticks do not cause deforestation. In fact, disposable chopsticks were invented by the Japanese in the late nineteenth century as a way to use up wood scraps. Guang and other advocates also argue that the chopsticks, typically made from bamboo, white birch and poplar, are the products of fast-growing trees. Moreover, they point out that disposable chopsticks are cheap and convenient, making them easily available to all; hygienic, helping stem the tide of epidemics like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS); and economically beneficial, providing over 100,000 jobs in China alone.

These claims notwithstanding, the lead up to the Beijing Olympics saw Greenpeace China launch a “Say No to Disposable Chopsticks” campaign that resulted in over 300 Beijing restaurants jettisoning disposable chopsticks in favor of reusable plastic ones. It’s a campaign that has been joined by Chinese pop musicians and others throughout the country and has spearheaded a “Bring Your Own Chopsticks” (B.Y.O.C) movement urging diners to cut back on disposable chopstick use by bringing their own set of chopsticks from home.

The environmental movement against disposable chopsticks has gained momentum in other countries too. This summer in Taiwan, a country which goes through 5 to 6 billion pairs of the utensils a year, about 10,000 convenience stores and supermarket chains banned free disposable chopsticks. Even in Japan, where the tradition of waribashi is deep-rooted, the government recently approved an ambitious plan to cut refuse production by 60% and “to promote a recycling society,” which included an appeal to citizens to bring their own chopsticks while dining out. The Japanese government also plans to explore the possibility of collecting the disposable chopsticks and turning them into biofuel.

In the West, where the popularity of Asian food has skyrocketed in recent decades, there is an increasing awareness of the environmental concerns surrounding disposable chopsticks. At the vanguard of this movement is third-generation Japanese-American Donna Keiko Ozawa. Her “Waribashi Project: San Francisco,” which premiered in conjunction with United Nations World Environment Day in 2005, featured sculptures made out of 180,000 disposable chopsticks. According to Ozawa, “While also being a pan-Asian icon in modern consumerist society, waribashi, disposable chopsticks, pose a great problem to our environment through deforestation and destruction of forest habitats.”

And, while Ozawa and a growing number of others promote the B.Y.O.C. movement as part of the push to eliminate the use of disposable chopsticks, it is uncertain how many people here—and elsewhere—will ultimately choose to “take up their own sticks” in the battle to go green.

For disposable chopsticks in the news, see:

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120243065514952215.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

National Public Radio

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19203227

Recycling International

http://www.recyclinginternational.com/search/search_result.aspx?keywords=disposable%20chopsticks

Reuters

http://search.us.reuters.com/rsearch/rcomSearch.do?blob=disposable%20chopsticks&WTmodLoc=ussrch-top-quote

World Watch: Life-Cycle Studies

http://0-web.ebscohost.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/ehost/detail?vid=15&hid=15&sid=6ab9250d-cff4-4b7b-aab9-7c4ba9d1b7f3%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=eih&AN=19247888

Inter Press Service/Global Information Network

http://0-proquest.umi.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/pqdweb?index=5&did=1146211681&SrchMode=2&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1219788560&clientId=16131

Donna Keiko Ozawa’s “Waribashi Project: San Francisco”

http://www.well.com/user/indigo/donna/waribashi/mainpage.htm