Westward Ho!

Paper Or Plastic?

Like a good Californian -- and believe me, there are bad ones -- I'm a neurotic environmentalist and sustainability nut. Sure, those are easy claims to make these days when so many of the permaculture movement's hangers-on are so shallow (scroll down for painfully hilarious article commentary). But I really do lose quite a bit of sleep worrying about where the things we consume actually come from and where they go, and what they're made of, and how much energy is used to produce and recycle them, and whether the material is carcinogenic and/or toxic. Even the word "recycling" is fairly meaningless until we define our terms and look closer into the process at the local and larger scales.

I've never wanted to be one of "those" people, and I'll readily concede that I'm still sometimes guilty of choosing convenience over correctness, but I do try. Someone's gotta. The most important thing to remember re sustainability is to choose your battles wisely. Environmental, financial, social, and personal health concerns often have their own separate sets of issues and mitigation tactics. Figure out what's most important to you and fight the good fight, but don't put yourself in the looney bin if you can't be all things to all species. That said, don't be superficial either; think holistically about the world you'll be passing down to your kids.

A while ago, I picked up Daniel Imhoff's Paper Or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World (Sierra Club Books, 2005). The book is a well-researched info guide to one of the world's biggest industries, demystifying what most of us take for granted -- the stuff our stuff comes in. I appreciate the at-a-glance sidebar blurbs, such as the one I'm excerpting below, "Beverage Containers":

Foil Pouch
Advantages: Convenient, lightweight, and easily compressible.
Challenges: These multilayered, nonrecyclable materials are destined for the landfill. Soft-drink companies are rapidly adopting this packaging system, often to package a high-fructose product.

Single-Serving Plastic Bottle (accompanied by pictures of the various bottles mentioned below)
Advantages: Flexible and lightweight. Sometimes burned for energy generation.
Challenges: Only #1 and #2 have high-end recycling markets. Plastic #3-#7 lack a strong recycling infrastructure. Pollute waterways and marine areas. Oxygen barriers, fillers, and other coatings on bottles prohibit recycling. Plasticizers and other additives can potentially be toxic.

Gable-Top Carton (e.g. cardboard container of milk)
Advantages: Long-distance solution. Can be repulped and downcycled into paper towels and tissue paper at the end of life.
Challenges: Only reprocessed in certain markets. Can rot if not collected and reprocessed in a timely manner.

Aluminum
Advantages: Easy to recycle and has fairly brisk recycling markets in many areas of the world. Very strong material.
Challenges: Virgin aluminum is extremely energy-intensive. The mining and production of virgin aluminum has heavy impacts on habitats, particularly aquatic systems. Ultimately, it rusts and breaks down. While recycling does save considerable energy, the cans are not refillable.

Single-Serving Glass Bottle
Advantages: Highly recyclable. Strong markets for glass recycling in many regions of the country. Efficient use of materials.
Challenges: Heavier than many plastics and often not seen as desirable for long-distance transport of beverages. Doesn't biodegrade.

Refillable Glass Bottle
Advantages: Highly reusable. Ultimately recyclable. Works on a refill deposit system.
Challenges: Heavy weight limits the glass bottle to short-distance transport and therefore favors local food producers. Requires producer and consumer commitment or strict legislation.

Slap the Nerd: Whack-a-Mole + Wedgies

Are you a masochist with a yen for projecting your self-flagellatory impulses on those who happen to look and act a lot like you? Do you have excellent fine motor skills? Are you on a high-speed connection? If yes, then by all means, slap yourself silly. (via MeFi)

Maps, They Don't Love You Like I Love You, Part Deux

Frontier Airlines hub-and-spoke style route map, you are v. v. pretty.

greenKarat

Not that I'm in the market or anything, but an ad for a jewelry company called greenKarat came up in my Gmail and it made me think of an ethical-minded friend who was getting married and requested to her fiance that she would rather wear a cubic zirconia ring than contribute to the whole "blood diamonds" industry. Rightly so (although I'd sooner wear a Cracker Jack ring than something I've always associated with the Home Shopping Network). And of course there are considerations about mining limited natural resources in the name of human vanity. So if you know anyone with knot-tying on the brain, pass this link along.

Their mission statement says:

Throughout history, jewelry has held a special place in the fabric of human culture. Unfortunately, industrial methods of extracting jewelry’s precious metals and gems from the earth damage the land and endanger ecosystems. Further, industrial values frequently reduce the labor component of production to the level of a cog in a machine.               

Because of the cultural importance of jewelry, it is impractical to impose an end to its use. Efforts to create startling change rarely achieve significant impact. Long-term progress is realized when consumers internalize new values and infuse them into custom.                     

Our greater goal at greenKarat is to end destructive gold and diamond mining. We do not, however, strive to force that change through radical activism. While activist organizations play a critically important role in educating and motivating consumers, we believe that widespread and permanent change will ultimately occur through the voice of consumer buying decisions.                     

Our mission is to provide an ecologically and socially responsible jewelry alternative to those who seek change. We want to help you, in some small way, become part of the permanent solution. Together we can make a difference.

Sad News

Last time I was at Skylight Books, I was wondering why their adorable mascot Lucy wasn't in the window. Unfortunately, she's sick with feline lymphoma. There's going to be a bake sale benefit for her this Saturday at the store -- so if you're a fan of Lucy, Skylight, or just sweet orange furballs in general, please stop by. They're located at 1818 N. Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz Village.

Watch a documentary about Lucy.

Memo to Silver Lake

Regarding your parking situation...

Get over yourself.

I say this as a twice-resident (ok, a subletter) of your neighborhood: once up on the northeast side of the reservoir where Glendale Blvd and Silver Lake Blvds intersect, and then on Sunset and Descanso, above Dusty's. I still visit frequently. I'm one of THEM. I'm in ur gelato shop, contaminatin ur peaceful oasis. I'm on ur hillsides, admirin ur Neutras.

I also say this as a non-driver. Look, I know the parking is bad. But as the article says, the neighborhood was not built to accommodate that many cars. If you're a resident and parking is a consistent concern for you, maybe it's time to consider moving somewhere more suburban and car-friendly. How about Glendale? Silver Lake is one of a handful of places in L.A. where it's easy and pleasant to live without a car, and I'd love to see more people taking advantage of that, and more planners working toward cultivating a sense of "walkability" in older neighborhoods.

To visitors: There are many buses you can take to get around tha SL, including the new DASH line. If you're going to Sunset Junction, that's just a short walk from the Red Line Sunset/Vermont station.

Back where I'm from (the evil New York City), many people don't have their own spaces at home, but there are many offsite parking structures/lots where they can pay a monthly fee for a guaranteed spot nearby. Why doesn't Los Angeles have more of these? If the City thinks its draconian development policies about minimum allotments makes these businesses redundant, they're dead wrong. I'm not the keenest advocate of letting markets run things, but hey, if people HAVE to have their parking, why not make these alternatives available and then let car owners pay for it? They're already paying anyway -- as reflected in the price of their home, and there's seldom an opt-out plan for those who don't intend to use the space. With apologies to Don Shoup, the land that car sits on ain't free.

neosporin... now 44 percent more portable!

[N]ot only were the lame words "Neosporin tote" now lodged in my head, but I had one more pointless piece of plastic in my life. This little ointment vessel is hardly the worst offender out there, but as an example of insidious disposable culture, it's typical. I decided I should learn how it came into the universe. Behind our current environmental unraveling is not some vast and unknowable engine, after all, but a bunch of people, myself included, going to work in the morning and not being part of the solution.

SF Gate, via green LA girl

OH HAI.

Have no internet access at home right now -- still waiting for (now rescheduled) Time Warner installation. Am checking in periodically wherever there's a connection available.

Recovering this morning from awes wknd at Fuck Yeah Fest IV, which really surpassed my expectations all around -- it was one of the most well-organized festivals I've ever been to, and it was obvious a shit-ton of work and thought and experience went into putting it together. Good to see so much energy there -- with the exception of a few indiepoppers, it was like a full-on 2-day hardcore/noise show, with super-talented bands that actually got the audience to carry the crowd-surfing singers (this never happens back in jaded NYC). Cool to see drug-outlaw Don Bolles in attendance too. :-)

I didn't take any pictures or video but everyone else did, so if you need to perv on the Pissed Jeans singer's love handles, keep checking Flickr and Youtube.

San Dimas High School Football Rules!

There is an act playing the Echo tonight called Lymbyc Systym.

Diversity

Bob "Bowling Alone" Putnam wonders whether "diversity" helps or hurts the strength of communities.

It's an interesting debate, in an era where it's de rigeur to celebrate the heritage of particular ethnic groups by naming districts after them (Little Armenia, Historic Filipinotown, et al), while at the same time these districts are more ethnically diverse than ever before, making these distinctions largely arbitrary and exclusionary. What good is the name "Koreatown" when so many of the neighborhood's residents are Mexican, Central American, and -- increasingly -- white? What happens when the moniker becomes obsolete as the neighborhood character changes? Is it still important for the Chinese of Los Angeles to have a Chinatown to raise their social capital and offer guidance and support to new immigrants? Or is the bigger question whether all of us as Angelenos need Chinatown as a monument to our local history? Does diversity imply assimilation into the American mainstream, and does ghettoization make it more possible for groups to hold on to (and be collective advocates for) their homeland traditions?