"environment" news and stories

Writing in Slate, Jacob Leibenluft answers the question of whether kitchen sink garbage disposals are bad for the environment. For years, cities in Europe and America banned disposals, afraid they'd overtax the water-treatment system. But appliance manufacturers and restaurants have argued that disposals are environmentally friendly because they reduce the amount of trash in landfills.

Leibenluft says water-treatment systems can deal with most residential food waste, but that dumping food into the system can affect local streams and rivers. But decomposing trash in landfills emit greenhouse gases like methane. So what should we do?

First, always compost when you can. If you can't, go ahead your garbage disposal as long as you're not in the middle of a water shortage. But if your local water-treatment plant doesn't use methane-capture technology to produce energy but your local landfill does, you may want to go ahead and toss your food in the trash.

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There has lately been a lot of negative pressure on bottled water producers. A lot of attention is being focused on the environmental impact of the bottles and transportation, as well as the possibility of wasting a natural resource. Environmental groups and government officials alike have been working to get consumers to drink tap water from reusable containers.

The three biggest bottled water producers in England have gotten together to form the Natural Hydration Council to fight back. One goal the Council has set for itself is "to undertake new research and communicate the facts to ensure fully informed consumer choices."

According to the article, the European bottled water market has actually grown over the last few years and is expected to stay healthy, so the Natural Hydration Council seems to be more of a preemptive strike and more of a response to what's happening in the US. What do you think of the new bottled water council?

In the era of "green" mink coats and "green" toenail polish, it's no surprise that there's a ton of advice out there on how to grill green this summer. Here are some of the top hints from across the wide, wide Web.

AOL Food has a whole slew of green tips. Try using a chimney starter rather than lighter fluid to get your briquettes going - it puts off way less CO2.

The Green Daily suggests buying a hybrid grill, so you can use the more efficient electric or gas element for the main source of heat and burn just a bit of wood for that charred aroma.

Char your burgers with environmentally-friendly charcoal: Nature's Grilling all-natural charcoal has no added chemicals or fillers, just pure carbonized wood. Their briquettes, they say, burn hotter and longer with less ash and no acrid aftertaste. Plus, they're made from wood harvested from region's that meet strict "resource management practices" and the company claims to plant 1,000,000 trees a year to lower their carbon footprint. Cowboy Charcoal also promises all-natural charcoal with no petroleum taste.

The Sierra Club lists their favorite environmentally-friendly grills. Consider a solar grill, like the Sport Solar Oven. At just ten pounds, you can carry it on picnics, on your boat and to the beach. On a sunny day, it can reach temperatures up to 260 degrees in the United States, up to 300 degrees in equatorial regions.

Lastly, use a non-toxic cleaner, like SoyClean BBQ Grill Cleaner, a soy-based product which is biodegradable, easy on your hands, and doesn't emit caustic fumes. Orange Plus cleanser is phosphate free and biodegradable, but promises to get the touch greasy bits off the grill.

You can even buy completely biodegradable disposable plates made of sugar cane and cornstarch, from Simply Biodegradable. Throw it all away in their compostable eco garbage bags, and Al Gore will come paste a gold star on your forehead.

Another round-up of food posts from our favorite environmental sister site, Green Daily:

• Tired of eating right? Check out organic dietary supplements
• Help save the environment at work during lunchtime
• Going on a picnic? Here are the most eco-friendly options for portable utensils
• Our own Suburban Farmer gives us the lowdown on egg hunting and broodiness
• Startling facts about organic food
• A Brooklyn man blogs about his experiences tracking the chain of his consumption
• No more salmon fishing on the West Coast, please
  
• No surprise here: report claims industrial animal farming is hazardous to our health and our earth
• Taco Bell is...moving toward sustainability? No, it can't be...
• Starbucks needs to teach its employees the meaning behind reusing and recycling

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Interesting article in the New York Times this morning, about a subject we've all been hearing about a lot: the environmental effects of global food shipping. Not only are we eating food imported from far away places when it's unavailable or not in season here, but we're actually shipping lemons from Argentina to the citrus-rich south of Spain, sending Norwegian cod to China to be made into fillets and shipped back to Norway again. And we're starting to pay the cost in terms of global warming from the carbon emissions from all that shipping.

So maybe it's time to pay the financial cost as well, some economists say, in the form of taxes and carbon offsets for shippers and shoppers alike. While neither airplanes or ocean freighters are currently taxed for fuel used for international travel and transport of good, many people think it's time to end these tax breaks.

Well, that doesn't sound like a bad plan to me, but the question of imported foods and carbon emissions still present a conundrum for those of us who really love to eat (I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in any 100-mile diet that doesn't involve chocolate or coffee) and care about the environment. How do you green foodies out there deal with this issue?

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