Thursday, September 18, 2008
Do people of color care about the environment?
I do. Check out this blog. I knew I wasn't the only one.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Weekend Ups and Downs
This weekend was great for two reasons. Not only did I get to spend a great deal of it with my family; I also got to educate some of them about being green. I even convinced one of my aunts to recycle.
My brother, who turned 33 last week decided to host a shin-dig at his home in Columbus. Let me just first say that my family loves to celebrate. Even if we only have a little money to do it, we just tell everyone to BYOB and we get it poppin'. So while 'politick-in' by the trash can telling everyone about my daughter's Klean Kanteen, I decided to start a trash bag for recycling. I am so different now, that when I see glass I just think of it being here when nothing else is. It will be an artifact...artifact times 1 trillion. So while talking and encouraging the folks, my recycling bag even caught on for a while. People were throwing their cans and bottles into the recycling bag. After a while it seemed like I didn't have to stand around and tell them for them to do it. However, after more than a while, the little trash got full and people started throwing their food trash into my recycling bag. At the end of the night when I was helping....excuse me... I mean watching everyone clean, I noticed that my recycling efforts had been virtually unsuccessful and that I'd have to spend the rest of the night continuing to make my brother feel guilty about hurting the environment.
"You have to teach your kids that when you throw things away, they never really GO AWAY!" I fumed. "Take them to a landfill," I said, "and explain how it works. GLASS NEVER BREAKS DOWN!!!" I hope I got through to him. I know that I got through to my aunt who said she only recycles newspaper. Now I'm thinking of getting shiny new recycling bins to every relative whose address I have, even if they become dog baths, I still feel like I gave it some effort.
Sunday was 20 times better than Saturday. I got to see my grandmother, I got recruited for designing the family reunion t-shirt, and I had a meal, in my mother and father's home that came entirely from their garden. I was blown away because my father is the same man who denies anything is happening to polar bears and denies global warming entirely. "You're greener than you think!" I tell him. The food tasted excellent and felt extremely good going down because I knew exactly where it came from. We had red potatoes, red cabbage and chicken (which did not come from the garden, but we'll get there...lol). I was extremely proud. I think I'm wearing the folks down, guys!!!!!!!!
While I'm sure that people do this all the time, I'm honestly not sure how many of my people do this all the time, which is why I am so excited about it.
My brother, who turned 33 last week decided to host a shin-dig at his home in Columbus. Let me just first say that my family loves to celebrate. Even if we only have a little money to do it, we just tell everyone to BYOB and we get it poppin'. So while 'politick-in' by the trash can telling everyone about my daughter's Klean Kanteen, I decided to start a trash bag for recycling. I am so different now, that when I see glass I just think of it being here when nothing else is. It will be an artifact...artifact times 1 trillion. So while talking and encouraging the folks, my recycling bag even caught on for a while. People were throwing their cans and bottles into the recycling bag. After a while it seemed like I didn't have to stand around and tell them for them to do it. However, after more than a while, the little trash got full and people started throwing their food trash into my recycling bag. At the end of the night when I was helping....excuse me... I mean watching everyone clean, I noticed that my recycling efforts had been virtually unsuccessful and that I'd have to spend the rest of the night continuing to make my brother feel guilty about hurting the environment.
"You have to teach your kids that when you throw things away, they never really GO AWAY!" I fumed. "Take them to a landfill," I said, "and explain how it works. GLASS NEVER BREAKS DOWN!!!" I hope I got through to him. I know that I got through to my aunt who said she only recycles newspaper. Now I'm thinking of getting shiny new recycling bins to every relative whose address I have, even if they become dog baths, I still feel like I gave it some effort.
Sunday was 20 times better than Saturday. I got to see my grandmother, I got recruited for designing the family reunion t-shirt, and I had a meal, in my mother and father's home that came entirely from their garden. I was blown away because my father is the same man who denies anything is happening to polar bears and denies global warming entirely. "You're greener than you think!" I tell him. The food tasted excellent and felt extremely good going down because I knew exactly where it came from. We had red potatoes, red cabbage and chicken (which did not come from the garden, but we'll get there...lol). I was extremely proud. I think I'm wearing the folks down, guys!!!!!!!!
While I'm sure that people do this all the time, I'm honestly not sure how many of my people do this all the time, which is why I am so excited about it.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
My adventures in almost not recycling.
When I moved to Cincinnati, I had no idea how to green my living because I live in a large apartment complex. Now in East Harlem, recycling was readily available in front of the Pathmark on the corner. I remember when I got there I used to see all these people just recycling for the good of the earth! I was so intrigued. Then I looked a little closer and I saw that these people were getting paid to do this and all over the city I would see the same people digging in the garbage for recyclables. It was apparently a profitable career for some! Anyhow - back to Cincinnati -while I knew that recycling bins were available to people in houses, I did not know that I would have to share one with my aunt that lives across town, or find a recycling center in my neighborhood. Because my will to be good to the earth affects the way I sleep at night, it wasn't long before I found the City of Cincinnati's Recycling program and directions to a recycling center near me. So the S.O. and I loaded up a pamper box with all of our cardboard soap and graham cracker boxes, our aluminum and our plastics #1, 2 and 3 but when it came to taking out the recycling, no one wanted to do it. Our dumpster is right behind the complex, so that's easy. But shuttling the trash, sorry, recyclables in the Kia and to a recycling center was a chore we both ignored. So it piled, and it piled and we had a few unwanted visitors enjoying the remnants inside the box. It was then that I begged the S.O. to take it to the recycling center near us and dump it. Reluctantly, he loaded it up and hauled it all to the market but when he got there, he said no one around knew what he was talking about. So for about three days, we rolled around with recycleables in the trunk and backseat. I thank God that none of my friends came to visit or needed a ride anywhere because I didn't want to have to explain the smell and the inconvenience it had been to recycle. It meant a lot to me, however, so I did not give in to dumping it all in the dumpster behind the building. In the end I found the little Rumpke Recycling Center next to the downtown library and Voila! We are one step greener.
Now if I could just get the S.O. to bike to work.... and take the recyclables with him! LOL
Now if I could just get the S.O. to bike to work.... and take the recyclables with him! LOL
Thursday, July 10, 2008
I'm a terrible influence...but I'm back and greener than ever
Sooooo......I'm back!
I have to be honest and say that the reason I wasn't blogging was because I was not being as green as I thought I should be to be running a "green blog," but now I am living greener than ever and convincing others to be green, too.
For instance, my momma is now inquiring about putting solar panels on her roof; my S.O. - who now refuses to use plastic grocery store bags and growls with anger if a clerk forgets to use our bags; my anti-green-but-doesn't-know-how-green-he-really-is Deddy, who is growing a beautiful garden full of veggies; my brother who has stopped paper towel consumption and anybody else in the grocery store who sees me with my assortment of canvas bags and my baby with her Klean Kanteen. TOGETHER WE'RE GREENIN' IT UP YALL.
Since college, I was always a firm believer in changing my little corner of the world. Some call it grassroots, or think global act local, or just word-of-mouth; but whatever it is, I am on the track to doing that and I couldn't be prouder. I am currently in Cincinnati and would like to make the black and green connection with this little corner of the world. With my blog this time around I plan to localize topics. I would also like to highlight black issues AND green issues and the two together.
For today, I want to leave you with the most simple green practice, which I just learned how to do appropriately as an apartment complex resident: Recycling.
Most cities have websites that tell where recycling sites are and how to get a bin for your home. Cincinnati's is http://rcc.org/pubsrv/pages/-10147-/ It's important for us all to remember that trash is never really 'thrown away' it is tossed into a landfill and homes and parks are built on top of it. It contaminates our water and drains our resources. Most cities and businesses even have electronics recycling, CFL recycling, computer recycling. Just about anything you've used can be recycled. Pay attention.
I have to be honest and say that the reason I wasn't blogging was because I was not being as green as I thought I should be to be running a "green blog," but now I am living greener than ever and convincing others to be green, too.
For instance, my momma is now inquiring about putting solar panels on her roof; my S.O. - who now refuses to use plastic grocery store bags and growls with anger if a clerk forgets to use our bags; my anti-green-but-doesn't-know-how-green-he-really-is Deddy, who is growing a beautiful garden full of veggies; my brother who has stopped paper towel consumption and anybody else in the grocery store who sees me with my assortment of canvas bags and my baby with her Klean Kanteen. TOGETHER WE'RE GREENIN' IT UP YALL.
Since college, I was always a firm believer in changing my little corner of the world. Some call it grassroots, or think global act local, or just word-of-mouth; but whatever it is, I am on the track to doing that and I couldn't be prouder. I am currently in Cincinnati and would like to make the black and green connection with this little corner of the world. With my blog this time around I plan to localize topics. I would also like to highlight black issues AND green issues and the two together.
For today, I want to leave you with the most simple green practice, which I just learned how to do appropriately as an apartment complex resident: Recycling.
Most cities have websites that tell where recycling sites are and how to get a bin for your home. Cincinnati's is http://rcc.org/pubsrv/pages/-10147-/ It's important for us all to remember that trash is never really 'thrown away' it is tossed into a landfill and homes and parks are built on top of it. It contaminates our water and drains our resources. Most cities and businesses even have electronics recycling, CFL recycling, computer recycling. Just about anything you've used can be recycled. Pay attention.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Everbody wants to be green this week...
Earth Day is this week, so now everybody wants to pretend that they care about the earth. Well, yall knew that I cared since way back, so I'm not one of those fakers. The fact that I'm getting back to blogging this week is not coincidental, there's just a lot to talk about... I could no longer stand by and keep all these black and green thoughts to myself.
I've been watching the Today show and although 60% of the information given in the four hours is useless, they have been talking about the harm in using certain plastics. Now, I knew that plastic was terrible because it takes forever to break down in a landfill. I also knew that bloggers all over the world are getting rid of all the plastic in their homes and consulting others on how to stay away from it. [Here's just one] I also knew that plastic is not natural and made of chemicals that could potentially be damaging. I didn't know that it's almost impossible to avoid at home, in the kitchen, in the car, EVERYWHERE. I also didn't know that although NBC is in bed with other companies that sell plastic products, I didn't know that they would maintain that Bisphenol A, one of the harmful chemicals in plastics 3,5,6 (don't quote me, read the story ppl) is indeed harmful according to more than a few stories and more than a few experts. I didn't know that different types contain different chemicals that can do different things, especially to children. This is where my concern lies.
One of the studies claims that this BPA could be the reason why girls reach puberty earlier and this chemical also heightens some cancers. And I thought it was the hormones in the chicken! That's enough for me to stop using it; the plastic that is. How about you? I just have to find some glass sippee cups. I also have to do some research. This is TV we're talking about, and just like blogs, I don't believe anything I haven't seen twice.
I've been watching the Today show and although 60% of the information given in the four hours is useless, they have been talking about the harm in using certain plastics. Now, I knew that plastic was terrible because it takes forever to break down in a landfill. I also knew that bloggers all over the world are getting rid of all the plastic in their homes and consulting others on how to stay away from it. [Here's just one] I also knew that plastic is not natural and made of chemicals that could potentially be damaging. I didn't know that it's almost impossible to avoid at home, in the kitchen, in the car, EVERYWHERE. I also didn't know that although NBC is in bed with other companies that sell plastic products, I didn't know that they would maintain that Bisphenol A, one of the harmful chemicals in plastics 3,5,6 (don't quote me, read the story ppl) is indeed harmful according to more than a few stories and more than a few experts. I didn't know that different types contain different chemicals that can do different things, especially to children. This is where my concern lies.
One of the studies claims that this BPA could be the reason why girls reach puberty earlier and this chemical also heightens some cancers. And I thought it was the hormones in the chicken! That's enough for me to stop using it; the plastic that is. How about you? I just have to find some glass sippee cups. I also have to do some research. This is TV we're talking about, and just like blogs, I don't believe anything I haven't seen twice.
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