The Nickel Deposit

The other day I was out on the W&OD trail for a six mile walk. I started at the 23.5 marker at Dominion Station in Sterling and headed east. The sky was clear and the air a bit warm and I took it a bit slow. Nothing much was on my mind except getting the miles in and keeping the weight off -- I'd had a few chocolate bars the previous days, breaking my two per week target. But if you don't eat chocolate, why live, right?

I dashed across Sterling Blvd ahead of cars going way to fast. When I slowed at the little rise on the other side I saw the empty plastic water bottle. A few yards down the trail I saw another one. And another one. Then a energy drink can and a Gatorade bottle.

The trail of them kept going. I started to count them and think back to when I was a kid, probably 10 or 11 years old. In New York back in the 1970s the city government had instituted a five cent deposit on bottles and cans. Turn the stuff in and you got a nickel each. Turn in twenty bottles and cans and a kid whose allowance was just 35 cents a week could walk away with a dollar. Turn in more, and earn more.

Guess what I did. I hunted bottles and cans with a friend of mine like crazy. And not just me; a whole bunch of people collected bottles and cans for the deposit and you know what? The streets of Staten Island (the part of NYC where I lived) didn't have too many cans or bottles in the gutters and bushes. Like the ol' prospector Yosemite Sam told Bugs Bunny: "There's gold in them thar hills." Gold for me was a pile of Coke and Pepsi cans and soda bottles.

There's no deposit on bottles and cans in Virginia, D.C. or in Maryland. For a quick review of why check out this column by Marc Fisher in The Washington Post.

A couple of summers ago, I was vacationing with my family in Ocean City, MD. I had a great time in the water, on the beach and the boardwalk. I don't know how many water bottles and beer cans I picked up on the beach that day and carried the endless distance of about 40 feet to the blue barrel trash cans, but I carried more than one. I wonder if a deposit law was in effect in Maryland that fewer bottles and cans would be on the beach, and in the ocean.

I also remember seeing a few guys who looked homeless while in Ocean City. Where they stayed is anyone's guess. How they survived is also anyone's guess. I'm pretty sure that if Maryland had a bottle deposit law that these guys would have combed the beach like a kid looking for the perfect shell. We'd have had a cleaner beach and a healthier ocean.

Five cents each. How much could it be? That brings me back to the W&OD. I counted 215 bottles and cans on my six mile round trip. That would be $10.75. If I were 12 years old in 1974 that would have been enough money for practically a summer's worth of chocolate milk shakes, a few movies -- something, a lot of somethings.

Or for a person without income, living on the street, panhandling for money for food, $10.75 would buy a pretty long list of groceries:

1 pound box of spaghetti -- $1.00

1 pound of bread (generic) $1.49

4 cans of tuna fish $4.00

1 gallon of milk 3.29

1 Hershey bar (Wal-Mart) 50 cents

Quite a nutritious shopping list (candy bar notwithstanding, but hey, it's chocolate) from a nickel deposit.

Not to mention the increased beauty of the W&OD, the Ocean City beach, and just about every other place we'd like to keep nice.

Thinking, doing, changing

It's been ages since my last post, and while I've been collecting information to share, I've been occupied with other things. But not today. Tomorrow night on Planet Green, the show Blood, Sweat and T-shirts premiers.

The show traces where our clothes come from, the every day stuff we wear a little bit or for a little while and then easily toss into the trash and go off and buy something new.

The stories of the lives that are affected by the decisions we make when it come to clothing are heartbreaking. Everyone should watch.

As an advocate for clean water, I'm all too aware of how much water goes into our clothes. Cotton is one of the thirstiest crops on the planet; it takes more than twenty five bath tubs of clean water to grow enough cotton for a single 9 0z T-shirt, according to Fread Pearce, author of When the Rivers Run Dry.

Well isn't that nice

Environment Leader reported a few days ago that Pepsico Inc. is going to reveal how it measures the carbon footprint of one of the products it markets in the U.K. Well whoop-dee-doo as they say. As one of the largest sources of plastic bottles in the world, Pepsico absolutely needs to make sure that it does all that it can to report its carbon footprint, reduce its carbon emissions and in general, do better for the environment.

Look, we all like to drink a Pepsi now and then, and who really can eat just one Lay's potato chip, but Pepsi is one of the driving forces behind the misuse of fresh water today, and the proliferation of plastic bottles on our beaches and just about everywhere else.

As the bottler of Aquafina water -- just tap water pushed through a filter and then sold for more than the price of a gallon of gas -- Pepsico contributes to pollution on grand scale. Read the book, Bottlemania, to see just what went on to create the wild demand we see today for bottled water.

The company does try to put forward a positive environment story. A visit to its website and a read through the company's corporate sustainability report shows in excruciating detail the lengths that the company goes to be green. I give them a point for that. But the bigger picture is one of corporate profits being pushed way out in front of planet sustainability.

Pepsi is doing something; a lot of other companies are not, but let's not hurt our hands patting the big guy on the back.

Carpet You Could Live With

The economic crisis is affecting everyone. Unemployment is higher than it has been in more than a decade and in some places as many as one out of every six working age adults is without work. To put it bluntly: the economy sucks right now.

The housing market from Rhode Island to Miami and up to Seattle is bad -- improving-- but still bad. In the midst of the worst housing downturn in seventy years, a lot of homeowners have learned that moving up to a better home just isn't an option right now. Their alternative is to make the home that they have a better place for them to live. So they're remodeling.

From ripping out old kitchens and baths to making the tough and costly decision to add on a room, homeowners are rolling up their sleeves and building their own dream home right where they are. But while many homeowners are remodeling, not enough of them are doing so to keep earnings at the country's largest do-it-yourself superstores climbing. Six weeks ago, The Home Depot reported a drop in earnings and so did Lowes.

More importantly, however than how well the big stores are doing, is what are homeowners doing when they're remodeling their places top-to-bottom.

I hope that they're recycling. As a kid I remember a buddy and I scoring big time stuff for our clubhouse from the curbside trash of neighbors. I especially remember the carpet remnant we dragged through the woods to our very own Fortress of Solitude. I remember because when we started a fire in an old cast iron pot -- we wouldn't think of just starting a fire without protection -- we forgot that the heat would pass through the pot and start burning our precious red shag carpet. We survived and tossed the burnt rug into the trash along with miles and miles and tons and tons of other old, worn carpet from everyone else's homes.

That doesn't have to be the case today: homeowners can choose to recycle carpet. The Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE -- yes, overused and corny, but it works) is a national association committed to keeping old carpet out of landfills and directing it to be reused. There's a carpet recovery/recycling company here in Northern VA. According to the CARE website, the organization and its partners have diverted more than 1.3 billion tons of carpet from America's landfills. That's a lot of shag!

Put another way, by diverting and recycling the carpet into other uses, CARE and the homeowners that choose to go this route have helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 238,000 tons or about the equivalent of two million barrels of oil.

The fact is there are opportunities for all of us to do something with our garbage that is better than letting it pile up in a landfill somewhere. So when you're remodeling your home or doing just about anything, think about how what you're doing can be done with a green theme. You'll like the result and our grandchildren will too.

State Parks: Where the Bikes Go

The highlight of the weekend for me recently was a trip to Pocahontas State Park. I'd been trying to get to the park for a couple of years, but never could squeeze in the time to stuff a pack, spray some insect repellent and hike its winding trails spread among more than 7,000 acres. But I had the chance this past weekend and the opportunity revealed to me just where all of those bikes hanging off the back of RVs rolling down I-95 are headed. Yep, they're headed for our state and national parks.

I pulled into Pocahontas state park and was straight-away informed by the ranger at the gate that "ticks are pretty bad this year. You should stop by the camping store and see if they're selling any repellent."

Three years ago I would have put the car in reverse and not felt bad about it. I grew up within a couple of blocks of something called "The Big Park." When my wife saw it she said, "It's a playground. Basketball courts, handball, pool. What park."

I'd point to the baseball field. She'd shake her head. That meant park to me.

Not anymore. But still, I hate bugs. They h love me so much they just swarm around my ears and stuff. But I'm older now, a subscriber to Backpacker magazine and will not let a bug keep me from enjoying the outdoors.

I took the rangers directions and drove to the camp store. It was closed, but would open in ten minutes or so. I decided to take the time and walk around the area. In no time at all I saw the kids from the ET movie. You know the scene where Elliot and ET and his single-speed posse are running from the bad guys and all of a sudden are airborne? Well these kids weren't airborne, but they pedaled like they were being chased and all of them looked like they were right out of ET central casting.

A year ago my wife and I went to Italy for our 20th anniversary. Two Americans strolling through Rome, Florence and Capri. I felt less like a fish out of water there than I did in the campground. I mean, I've been the only Black in a room before. I think that I was once the only Black in a building before, so it wasn't that. I think what I was experiencing was a completely alien sense of not belonging.

I'd read about camping -- tent camping and RV -- but never had been smack in the middle of it. I was at the same time fascinated by these kids up and rip-roaring around before 10 am, and sure that my own kids wouldn't ever want to do this. I imagined the night before: sun goes down around 8:30 and these kids and parents are soon asleep in the trailer before the moon gets too high in the sky. How else could they have the enormous energy that they displayed?

But I persevered. Hey, I'm a city guy after all.

The camping store opened up and I bought an overpriced can of bug spray. I sprayed until I nearly dripped and then drove to my first trail head. My REI pack contained a light blanket, a magazine, water and a Power Bar. I was ready.

The first wave dive bombed me fifty yards up the trail. The gnats and mosquitos buzzed me like Tom Cruise in Top Gun. I swatted my ears until my head rang and cursed words I hadn't spoken in years. But I pushed on up a slight hill, mid-morning sun slicing through the trees just like in the magazine articles and poems. I could hear Walden's footsteps beside mine and felt John Muir's breath on my neck. Oh, that was an insect flying past.

I hiked in Pocahontas for about an hour, finally getting used to the bugs or maybe the overpriced spray began to take effect. Either way I had fun, and I think everyone who goes to our state parks will enjoy them, too. Just watch out for the RV bikers. They're every-eee- where!

Checking our water

We turn on the tap, fill our glasses and drink down what comes out. The water looks clear and if we've chilled it or put in the fridge to get cold it refreshes us like few things can. But most of us don't wonder just how clean our water is.

A scan of the label on some of the top brands of bottled water shows that the stuff is just tap water poured through a filter, bottled and sold for many times the cost of production. That's capitalism, and I have no complaints about that.

But we assume the water we drink is as clean as that which we buy in bottles. But you don't to have to assume, the water authorities around Virginia are required to provide an annual report on their water quality.

And, these reports are on-line. Fairfax County, Virginia's largest county by population has its drinking water report here, while Loudoun County's water report is here.

Both counties and the other jurisdictions around the state report on their water supplies. A simple web search using your county's name and the words "water authority" should turn up the latest report.

The fact is, the water that flows out of your tap is as good as the water a lot of people pay more than $1/quart or liter. It's just not worth it.

Just about every non-clothing department store (Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart) and national chain drug store sells stainless steel or aluminum water bottles. I advise against plastic bottles because of potential leaching if the bottles are left out in the sun. That goes for the pricey bottles, too. Keep it chilled, drink it right away. The trade association of plastics manufacturers has its own website debunking some of the things we've heard about plastic bottles. I'm no scientist, but I'm always leery of what a trade group says about its products. What are they going to say, "Don't use our stuff."

Bottom line is this: Check out your local water quality report, back it up with some additional research and save some money and buy a reusable metal bottle.

Local Grocer Says it Does Well By Environment

Safeway, Inc., one of the dominant food stores in Virginia, recently published its Corporate Social Responsibility report. According to the company, it purchases 90,000 hours of wind energy, making it one of the largest users of renewable energy in the U.S.

The company should be applauded for all that it does, but here in Northern Virginia it is one step shy of Giant Foods, which makes a big deal out of collecting plastic shopping bags. The ubiquitous bag is a major danger to marine life and takes just about a day less than forever to biodegrade in the land fill.

That said, Safeway's website does a much better job of marketing the company's green credentials than Giant. Of course, Whole Foods, another grocery competitor in the Northern Virginia market also stands tall in the green area, but that's been the Whole Foods tradition since its start. That Safeway executives have taken sustainability seriously and do such a good job of informing customers about the grocery's progress and short comings -- is good to see.

The stores near me do a pretty good job of bringing locally grown foods into its stores, mindful of the carbon emissions that accompany long distance trucking of food, not to mention the emissions from air transport.