waste management

Last night, with my birthday bash in full throttle, Saki bombs, joints and free packs (PACKS!) of Camel lights being passed around, I overheard some friends talking about battery disposal. Toxic waste, what? Well yes, apparently if you just throw your dead double A's in the trash, the zinc sulfate and copper sulfate can leak into our air and water supply and that is a big no no! So how do environmental conscious gals like [some of]us dispose of the batteries from our remote controls, electronic catchphrase, and other sorts of delightful gadgets that power endless nights of entertainment?

Just before the battery-waste debate got heated, someone made a shocking observation.
Wait a second, look how much waste we are generating RIGHT NOW! Beer bottles, caps, cardboard six packs, cigarette packs and butts, random plastic casing from wine and sake bottles littered our coffee table. And even though she was drunk, she was right! We humans do make a lot of waste, especially on special occasions like birthdays where we indulge in all that this fine earth has to give us.
In the New York Times this week there was a lovely peice The Year Without Toilet Paper about a young family living on 5th avenue who is experimenting with green living in a pretty all or nothing kind of way. In their year long experiment "No Impact", the family will attempt to live in NYC and cause no net impact on the environment. They will eat locally (within 250 miles) grown foods, abstain from carbon producing modes of transportation, buy nothing new, and generate no waste by composting their garbage! No Impact man and his wife, who openly admits an affinity for designer footwear- she purchases a pair of Chloe thigh high boots before the no new purchases rule goes into affect- are certainly blazing new terrain for us urban folks. Support their experiment by visiting their blog here. Most of us are probably not willing to give up our caffeine fix(no imported coffee allowed) or the convenience of riding a cab or an elevator. But, by incorporating this type of aesthetic into our lives, we would certainly discover some benefits. Baby steps....