Green Daily

One of our readers recently posted a reply to Plastic Recycling by the Numbers. She'd heard that plastics labeled 3, 6 and 7 were not only toxic but bad for the environment if you recycled them. We've posted a couple of times on plastics and their numbers. Let's go over what we know.

If you throw your #3s and 4s and 5s into your recycling bin, and your city doesn't recycle them, you jeopardize the whole lot of plastics. If a group of plastics has too many types that can't be recycled as #1 and #2 can then there is a chance that plastic will be landfilled or shipped overseas. It's a matter of sorting. You'll also sabotage your own recycling efforts if you don't remove labels, caps and food matter. Your plastic water bottle may be a #1 but the cap is not. Throw it away.

That said, while some of these other plastics can release toxins like phthalates and Bisphenol A, that doesn't mean

Why can't you just take a normal vitamin or supplement, you ask? Well, Real Food Organics claims that those typical pills tend to contain dangerous synthetic materials, and they came up with nutritional supplements derived from organic fruits and veggies.

In addition, the company has pledged to be green: the vitamins are packaged in a glass bottle within a biodegradable box, which is made from mineral powder. And its paper marketing materials are made from food by-products.

And groups like the Organic Consumers' Association are touting organic vitamins, and even launched a campaign, NutriCon, to get the word out that Big Pharma is giving people unhealthy supplements.

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

While it may be fun to hunt Easter Eggs once a year, doing it several times a day can be daunting. As with any animal, you can train your chicken to perform a certain behavior just the way you'd like. In this case though, it's not fetching your slippers or going in a litter box, it's laying their eggs in their nests.

Let's first get one thing straight. Hens don't need roosters to create and lay eggs. Many people don't realize this, but there's a simple distinction. If you want fertilized eggs and to continue the generations of backyard chickens, the roosters will be needed, but to just simply lay unfertilized eggs, a rooster is not needed. In fact, according to most suburban or city codes, roosters are actually illegal to own because of the constant noise they make. No, they don't just crow at dawn.

I want to acknowledge something controversial about myself. I let my cats outside.

They are fairly unique creatures. They stick around my house, going a block away at most. They come when called, stay out for only an hour at a time. But they are cats. While one never kills a thing, and rarely tries, the other has given up synthetic feathers attached to polls in favor of the real thing: birds.

He also happens to like chipmunks, mice and the occasional baby bunny. I am constantly saving shocked creatures from the jaws of my cat.

The killing has ceased since I added bells to their collars, two in fact. And generally they aren't allowed outside during the early morning or dusk when birds are most active. But I know I'm contributing to a problem. I know that while I may slow for all crows and red winged blackbirds nearing my vehicle, my cats do not.

Ecopsychologists work with people on many issues related to the environment, including "eco-anxiety," which is worrying about the state of the environment to the point that it is causing distress. Treatments can include shopping and media fasts, as well as increasing the time spent outside, whether meditating, exercising, gardening or simply relaxing.

According to a NY Times article, some traditional therapists are highly skeptical of this approach, cautioning that worrying about the environment to the point of emotional distress may be part of a larger anxiety disorder. Scott O. Lilienfeld at Emory cautions that "there is a fine line between therapy and advocacy."

So how's your eco-anxiety level? Here is a quick quiz from the Green Guide, "What's Your Eco-Anxiety Level?" It's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but worth a quick spin.

To learn more about ecopsychology, see the International Community for Ecopsychology Web site (ecopsychology.org). And of course, if you are really suffering distress from worrying about the environment, see your doctor.

At the opening of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan has purchased a cow. He hoped to follow Steer number 534 from his start in a massive feedlot to his end, on a dinner table. Unfortunately, Pollan wasn't able to follow his steer as far as he hoped. But his idea may have had some influence on Scott Ballum, a Brooklyn resident who has decided to follow the chain of his consumption.

His Mission: "A year-long effort to meet the laborers and craftsmen who build what I buy – and put a human face on consumption. For every transaction, there must be a personal connection with someone along the production chain."

That hasn't meant he's given up his Kentucky-brewed Maker's Mark, but he did shake hands with one of the guys who turns the barrels.

Planting Day from Jennifer von Elling on Vimeo

The seedlings were growing out of their miniature greenhouse homes and compostable pots, so we got together last weekend and moved them to their permanent home.

First, we set a path of pea gravel and lined it with marigolds, supposedly a staple of organic gardening for their ability to repell pests. Then, we got to work with a pencil and sketched out a map of what was to be our garden. Lots of eraser dust. And the end result didn't even match what we came up with as we dug in the dirt. But even in just a few days, the seedlings appeared to be getting along just fine in their place in the dirt.

We learned from another more experienced gardener in the neighborhood that our squash and cucumbers shouldn't be as close together as we planned due to the possibility of cross-pollination. Then, we decided we wanted to start some more lettuce seeds in the garden and made the room to accommodate them. Finding room for the many strong tomato seedlings we ended up with was challenging, but we made it work and decided to give a few away. We have two types of beans, two types of tomatoes, three types of onions, bell peppers, garlic, okra, radishes, beets, carrots, cucumbers, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, bibb lettuce, spinach, chard and arugula.

It turns out, our timing couldn't have been more perfect. Although it was sunny and a little too warm on Planting Day, the next few days brought several inches of gentle rain. I really think the seedlings are loving their new home. In the next few days, a few more residents will be joining them: blackberry, blueberry and raspberry bushes and some strawberry seeds.

The next Neighborhood Garden Project post will appear in two weeks.

You're not stupid. You're aware that trees are good for the planet, as they purify the air. So, theoretically, it should come as no surprise that, if you live near trees, you're less likely to have breathing problems. Yet, somehow this seemingly direct and immediate correlation (announced in a new study released on Thursday), isn't as obvious as it might at first appear.

To be exact, Columbia University researchers found that, for every 343 trees per square kilometer, there was a 25% drop in asthma cases among four and five-year-old children. Simply put, those who lived on tree-lined streets were less likely to develop breathing problems. Not a shocker.

But not so fast. Scientists aren't positive that the improved respiratory health is due entirely to the trees' cleansing of local air. There's a host of other variables that could be affecting the finds. For instance, some believe that if you don't play outside enough as a child, your body doesn't get practice fighting infections, and you'll be more likely develop asthma -- so, assuming tree-lined streets encourage kids to play outside, their presence would indirectly affect a child's likelihood of developing a breathing condition.

Regardless, the point is: trees are good. And with that in mind, let's try to keep as many around as possible.

Most animal waste produced at factory farms is spread on the ground untreated. In addition to threatening drinking water sources, nutrients within animal waste often seep into groundwater or waterways, where they contribute to reduced oxygen levels in aquatic ecosystems.

No, this isn't an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. This isn't a report from 100 years ago. This is directly from a recent report by the ironically-named Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, where we learn that many factory animal farms simply have no guidelines for the disposal of animal waste, and they aim to change that very soon.

As long as the world's meat consumption continues to increase, and factory animal farms continue to consolidate into smaller farms with larger populations of animals, these waste problems will never go away until properly regulated. The commission aims to end many unsustainable farming practices that are affecting rural residents, impacting food security, public health, animal welfare and environmental resources worldwide.

The Pirates may be leading MLB's charge to go reduce its environmental impact, but it looks like the the steelers are holding them back. Not the NFL Steelers mind you, I'm talking about the city's trademark steel industry.

For the first time on record, a non-California city has taken the top honors in 1 of the 3 categories rated by the American Lung Association. People of Pittsburgh, your air barely edged out LA's to take the prize for worst short-term particle pollution in the country.

Here at GD, we love us some Dr. Bronner's, and for good reason: the products boast all-natural, organic, fairly-traded ingredients, they're gentle on the skin, and they can be used for pretty much anything.

Now, the slightly wacky organic soap line is filing a lawsuit against other personal care product companies, saying that they're not as organic as they claim. (One of Dr. B's mottos is "Wash with a clean conscience.")

And Dr. B's is kinda right: not many products can rightfully claim that they're organic (recently, an Origins line was the first to be registered organic by the USDA). In the official news release, Dr. B's calls out companies like Estee Lauder, Kiss My Face, and Nature's Gate, listing the hard-to-pronounce chemicals that appear on the labels of their products.

Specifically, Dr. B's claims that many of these so-called organic products still contain synthetics.

The mud-slinging has already begun: about a week prior to the release of the Dr. Bronner's lawsuit, Ecocert, one of the companies accused of being unorganic, filed a claim basically asking the judge to throw out the first suit.

So, whaddya think?

Only a few weeks after the congestion charge put forward by Mayor Bloomberg got denied by state legislators, NYC is back on the attack with a plan to ease traffic congestion on Manhattan's crowded streets.

What's the crux of the new plan? A bike-friendly makeover to help encourage New Yorkers to make their daily commute two wheels. Details after the jump.

The meltdown at Chernobyl destroyed much of the world's confidence in nuclear energy and sent up a clouds of poisonous dust that have been blamed for thousands of deaths. After 22 years of crumbling and leaking radioactive materials, the site of the world's wost nuclear accident is about to get a new steel cover. Originally, it was sealed off with a hastily-built steel and concrete "sarcophagus" that has been quickly eroding on account of the intense radiation. If the structure were to collapse, it would send up a huge radioactive dust cloud -- a whole new disaster.

Probably not -- at least no more than cell phones, WiFi, bottled water, the microwave in your kitchen or the fact that you were born without a twin. However, the idea that these lovable, planet-friendly vehicles might be bad for your health is certainly worth a second look.

According to the New York Times, these seemingly innocuous (and often downright cute) eco-saving autos produce an electromagnetic field -- which might be bad for you, sort of, in a "it's probably not the best thing ever but honestly we have no clue" kinda way. However, both Honda and Toyota swear up and down that these fields are well beneath European guidelines, and therefore pose no threat to your health.

So, while a few hypochondriac hybrid owners may be crying wolf over the potential health risks (one woman interviewed by NYT insists that her Honda Civic Hybrid is the reason she fell asleep at the wheel!) -- chances are your health is more in danger from the thick cloud of smog surrounding your city, rather than the low-emission vehicles driving within it.

[via AutoblogGreen]

The woman, Lani Felix-Lozano, claims that Nalge Nunc International Corp, makers of the ubiquitous Nalgene water bottles, knew about the fact that the Bisphenol A present in its product could leech into the liquid and harm people's health. Lozano purchased the bottles and had been using them for herself and her two daughters, aged 11 and 13.

The company says it plans to phase out the bottles that contain the chemical over the next few months. But the real issue - and the reason Felix-Lozano is suing - is the claim that the company was aware of the studies linking Bisphenol A to early puberty, hormone disruptions, and cancer - but did nothing about it, continuing to claim that the bottles were perfectly healthy.

The suit, however, does not specify whether Felix-Lozano or her daughters experienced any ill health effects from the product. Hmm..