Normally you get tens of thousands of people in one building over a weekend, you figure on a lot of garbage. At the Greenfest here in San Francisco (coming to Seattle in April), you get a glimpse into the future of trash.
It’s called compost. Inside the concourse are big bins for throwaways marked liquids, recyclables and compostables. Last year’s Greenfest managed a 96 percent success rate in keeping garbage out of landfills. This year they’re aiming higher.
Here’s how: All food is natural, much of it is organic and/or vegan, and there’s no meat (or animal milk). So all uneaten food is compostable. So are plates, cups, bowls and so on, most of them paper or a similar fiber-based product. As for utensils, they’re potato or corn. You’re done eating, you don’t have to separate out the plastics from animal byproducts and the dishware. It all goes into the compost bin.
Much of this has to do with screening of vendors by Greenfest organizers. The festival was founded, and remains spearheaded, by Global Exchange, which has done more for Fair Trade than just about any organization extant. Greenfests are billed as “parties with a purpose” to promote environmental, social justice and community causes around the world.
So what’s to keep this year’s Greenfest from reaching 100 percent sustainability — no landfill junk at all? “Well, there’s these things,” said one of the trash-monitors, holding out an energy bar wrapper. They may look and feel like paper, but they have foil liners, sometimes with plastic sealers as well. Their ingredients may boast organic this and natural that, but their containers are anathema. Maybe by the time the festival makes it up to the Convention Center April 12-13, even those wrappers will be history.
Random sightems: More people are bringing their families to Greenfest, so this year an entire section was set aside for “Green Kids”… I didn’t see any on display but ran across a card for Portland’s Natural Burial Company showing off the “Ecopod,” a coffin made of recycled paper. Fine for you and me, but would this make sense for Republicans — I mean, with all the toxins in their system?… You’ve seen electric bikes, you’ve seen foldable bikes. Now there are electric foldable bikes, tipping the scales at 37 pounds. That sounds lighter than it is, but for their intended use you’re probably not going to be racking up e-f-ables. The speed and range are variable depending on cargo and your BMI… I didn’t go hear him, but the line for Deepak Chopra stretched across and down the street more than a city block…
My wife Cecile, who was on the program here and is involved in the Seattle event planning, came up with a new rallying cry for localism. Talking about how we Phinney Ridgers had helped defeat the Zoo garage and turn relentless garage booster David Della out of office, Cecile said our new motto (inspired by Jesus in “The Big Lebowski”) is “You Don’t Phuck with Phinney!” Despite the fact there’s no Phinney in ‘Phrisco, it got a big laugh.
“More people are bringing their families to Greenfest.”
People having kids, and having too many kids, is what’s ruining this earth, and no matter what we do in terms of buying Priuses, choosing paper over plastic bags, or reducing our “carbon footprint,” etc., will make one bit of difference as long as the population continues to increase. Here are some population numbers on earth throughout time.
Year 1 – 200,000.
Year 1000 – 310,000.
Year 1800 – 978,000.
Year 1900 – 1, 650,000.
Year 1950 – 2, 518,000.
Year 1975 – 4, 068,000.
Year 2005 – 6, 453,000.
And it’s estimated that in about 43 years we’ll have an additional 2.5 billion people on earth or roughly 10 billion people.
That’s why I think it’s silly when I see people pat themselves on the back for going green, thinking they’re making a difference. Until we start reversing earth’s population numbers, yours or mine tiny little green efforts don’t stand a chance compared to tens of billions of humans overrunning the planet. We ALL could be green, but if there is one day going to be 50 billion people on earth, it just won’t matter.
BS,
You have to add three more zeros to your numbers.
Understand something about all that packaging you dismiss with sneering contempt: People around the world who would otherwise go hungry now can be feed because of aseptic and other forms of packaging that preserve food, minimize or outright eliminate the need for refrigeration, and keep contents safe from contamination.
Bitching about an energy bar wrapper while touting your moral supriority because your spoon is a spud is simply another form of narcissism. What your narrow POV spurns as heinous and vile is, in other parts of the world, seen as life saving and necessary to improve the quality of life, or, sometimes, simply to save lives altogether.
Composting is great…I have five large bins, and just about the only thing I don’t throw in them are tree limbs large enough to burn in the fireplace insert. I compost not because some do-gooder guilt-tripped me into it, but because adding organic material into the soil of my vegetable and flower gardens improves their productivity…that and tons of chemicals like Triazanon and Miracle Grow.
Every fall’s deposit of maple, magnolia, ornamental plum, dogwood, and fruit tree leaves is raked or blown into a pile, shredded by the mower, then deposited on top of the raised veggie beds serving as a weed depressing mulch. Works like a charm!
I’m careful to place most glass and metal into the appropriate recycle container (most – I’m not a raving fanatic), and I run the dishwasher and washing machine only when full and then only at off hours.
Frequently, instead of using that nasty black plastic as another form of garden mulch, I’ll put down old newspaper then cedar bark and chips atop it. Eventually, the newspaper decomposes, of course, but then I always have plenty with which to replace it. Earth to earth…
And I vote pretty hard Republican.
So don’t think you lefty loons have some monopoly on conceren for your surroundings or the environment. I believe in good stewardship, but I also believe that the earth was given us not to be our master, but our servant. We have a responsibility to take care of it, but we’re also free to use its resources to maximize the quality, convenience, richness, and character of our lives.
And this includes savoring with great relish the occasional 14 oz. slab of cool and pink in the center rare prime rib of beef with a large dollop of fresh grated horseradish.
The Piper
#3 Piper Scott says:
My life experience is that the republicans are much better than democrats. I will admit, I live in los angeles where the democrats outnumber republicans.
Most shocking is when you compare the private houses of bush and gore.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp
@4…MS…
At least the libs are environmentally sensitive in the way they compost their brains well before death; walking worm bins is an apt description of most of them.
The Piper
coloro