The Environmental Impact Of Discarded Cigarettes.
Dear EarthTalk: Has anyone ever studied the environmental impact of discarded cigarettes? I’m constantly appalled at the number of drivers I see pitching their butts out their car windows. It’s true that littered cigarette butts are a public nuisance, and not just for aesthetic reasons. The filters on cigarettes—four fifths of all cigarettes have them—are made of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that is very slow to degrade in the environment. A typical cigarette b

Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 142.
It’s moving day! Hopefully everything will go smoothly this weekend as I move in and get settled, and I expect to have internet service again starting on Monday. Wish me luck! To keep you busy, here are a few great articles that caught my eye over the past week… I’d Like To Buy The World A Non-Carcinogenic, Responsibly Packaged, H

Homegrown Vegetables: Get In Touch With Your Food Source.
Not sure when or how, but we’ve become totally out of touch with our food source. How many of us have ever had the pleasure of enjoying some homegrown vegetables? I read the book Plenty and in it they said that our food travels from farm to plate about 1,500 – 2,000 miles. That’s insane and I wanted to

Greenwash Of The Week: Nestle Pure Life Water.
I don’t really have much to say other than…yea, right. Nestle’s ad campaign for their Pure Life water touts the fact that their bottles use 15% less plastic because of their “Eco-Shape”. Um… There is absolutely nothing green or eco about water packaged in plastic bottles. Nothing. And as I always do when posts like this go live, if you need more reasons to avoid bottled water you can check out my post

Saving Money On Gas Is Not A Good Reason To Pay Extra For Hybrids
Why? Because it is not all about money. It seems that every day I read somewhere or see on television the complaint of “Well, I won’t buy a hybrid because it would take me years and years to make back the extra expense over a regular gas engine“. Though saving money on gasoline should be a major consideration when deciding on buying any car, it is NOT the only thing you should be thinking of. But unfortunately too many people see it this way. What else should they be thinking of when making this decision? For starters, hybrid cars pollute a lot less than conventional gasoline engines. Since most people’s