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Lois Henry: Hard to be environmental sometimes
| Tuesday, Jun 24 2008 5:38 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jun 25 2008 7:57 AM
Waaaaay back in the 1970s, when cranky old people like me were once young and impressionable, the nation became “environmentally conscious.”
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Bakersfield and Kern County have a joint, voluntary recycling program.
Each household in the program now recycles about 800 pounds of stuff a year, according to the city’s Solid Waste Director Kevin Barnes.
“So that’s 800 pounds of material per household that doesn’t go in the landfille each year,” he said.
If you’d like to sign up for the “blue cart” recycling program and live in the city limits, you can call 326-3114.
If you live in the county but are in the metro area, you should call your trash company and they can provide a blue cart.
Cost is $4 a month.
I know because it was on TV.
We had commercials that told us kids to “Give a hoot, don’t pollute.” And the crying Indian chief, who could forget that?
Ah, the simplicity of those times. If you were “environmental” you didn’t dump trash on the road and turned off the lights when you left a room.
These days, it seems, you need a research grant from MIT and a score card to figure out whether something is good or bad for Mother Earth.
Here’s my take on a few conflicted issues.
Light bulbs vs. CFLs
Regular bulbs use more energy. But CFLs — fluorescent bulbs — have a small amount of mercury and can’t just go in the trash. Plus, they’re made in CHINA and have to be transported here at what energy/carbon cost?
Personally, I prefer regular bulbs with a cheapskate’s eye to flicking the switch when not in use. But Congress is phasing out incandescents by 2012 unless repeal legislation intervenes.
Tap vs. bottled water
OK, so tap water is every bit as good for you, maybe better, than the stuff they’re selling as “spring mountain crystal clear” or whatever. In fact, in some cases it turned out those plastic bottles were filled with regular tap anyway. Sheesh.
Plastic bottles in the landfill are bad, but they can be recycled. So you shouldn’t duck your head in shame at the market if you buy a case now and then, as long as you recycle.
Oh, and it seems Bakersfield was ahead of the curve (even San Francisco!) on bottled water. The U.S. Conference of Mayors recently voted to stop spending tax dollars on bottled water for employees and official functions, such as city council meetings.
The Bakersfield City Clerk’s office confirmed that at Bakersfield’s council meetings water has always been tap, served iced in pitchers with clean glasses for council members and staff. Chalk one up for us.
Paper or plastic?
Paper bags consume trees and don’t decompose well in landfills. Plastic bags are petroleum based, with us forever and can kill marine life if they drift into waterways.
“We do live in a world of tradeoffs,” acknowledged Kevin Barnes, Bakersfield’s Solid Waste director.
The proposal to ban plastic bags at large groceries seems to have died a quiet death locally while council members see what the state will do. There’s a bill (AB 2058) that would require stores to charge customers 25 cents for a paper or plastic bag unless the store shows that it recycles at least 70 percent of the bags it give out through a take-back center on site.
Charging for the bags is a great idea in my view. That way, if you absolutely MUST have your plastic bag, go for it. But you’re gonna pay to play. If that bag is now worth a quarter, a lot fewer people will chuck it in the trash.
I called the Environmental staffers in San Francisco to see how their plastic bag ban is going since it became effective last December and they said they've had miniscule negative reaction.
They actually had wanted to do a charge per bag, but the grocery lobby succeeded in getting state law changed to prohibit government agencies from forcing a bag charge, so they were stuck with the ban.
“We’d love to charge a fee, that’s the best policy,” said Mark Westlund, spokesman for the San Francisco Environment Department.
Solar power vs. ugly transmission lines
I recently read that the Center for Biological Diversity (an environmental group if ever there was one) is opposing a solar power plant because the transmission line would run through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Environmentalists opposing renewable energy?
I’d love to say this is a difficult question. After all, giant power poles don’t exactly mesh with a pristine environment.
But, come on — which is worse? I’d rather see power poles in a park than tons more pollution being belched into the atmosphere from an oil-fired power plant.
It may be a tradeoff, but to me, this is a pretty simple one.
Opinions expressed in this column are those of Lois Henry, not The Bakersfield Californian. Her column appears Wednesdays and Sundays. Call her at 395-7373 or e-mail lhenry@bakersfield.com.