NY Mayor Does Not Fancy Plastic Bags

There's so much cool stuff to talk about right now. Someone who would score high on the awesome-scale posted an instructable on how to make your own Lego Gummies (Lego candy), and today is Poppy/Remembrance/Veteran Day. But maybe more about that later.

But first, the New York Times reports that the NY mayor has a plan to reduce the usage of plastic bags. Since plastic bags are bad for the environment because they are almost always thrown away after they have been used, they also contribute to a bigger ecological footprint. So, reasons enough to get rid of the bags. Bloomberg (the mayor) wants to do this by charging shoppers 6 additional cents at the counter.

Photograph by nadi0

I can imagine people reconsidering using a plastic bag if they are charged for it. Experience has proven it's true, when the Brooklyn IKEA raised the price of their bags with 5 cents the demand was cut by half.
Hopefully New Yorkers will invest some bucks in sustainable alternatives (as in the picture above) that are made from organic cotton and can be (re)used many, many times. (And thereby reduce their own ecological footprint).

-jdh

Consumer Consequences Quiz

I always thought I lived a somewhat eco-friendly life. I recycle, I carpool, and I try to eat a lot of local/organic foods. But that vision changed a bit when I took a quiz called Consumer Consequences. Run by American Public Media, this quiz asks a few questions about your lifestyle and then sees how many resources (or planet Earths) would be needed if the 6.6 billion people on this lovely planet lived the same way you did. My results were staggering…2.7!

But the best part about this website is definitely toward the end. You see, this website wasn’t designed to make you feel bad or guilty, but rather to simply make you aware of your living habits. They give you a clear picture of what you consume and give you a chance to improve your score by giving you suggestions on what areas of your life you need to work on. So take the quiz and challenge yourself and your friends to living a greener lifestyle! In a couple months, you could even check back again and see if your scores have improved.

Cheers,

Carla

Amsterdam Reduces It's Own Carbon Footprint

For the past few years everyone from every single direction has been shouting at us that we should reduce our carbon footprint. But what about the government? municipalities? cities?
The Dutch capital of Amsterdam took a step in the right direction.

flickr image by francescomontalbano

So what happened?

Recently the city council and a few other parties managed to agree upon a new concept. "City Cargo". This is all about using the current tram-tracks (for people unfamiliar with trams: a tram is a sort of a train but then riding on the street) for cargo. Today there is a load of small companies situated in Amsterdam who all get their deliveries done by polluting Diesel vans. In the future this cargo shipment should be done by the trams. Which is great since trams use electricity and thus don't contribute to a bad quality of air in the city center.

Furthermore the schedule of the new cargo-trams has been created in such a way that they don't interfere with the passenger trams. Amsterdam is such a great place.

via:treehugger

-jdh