AttemptGreen.com

There has been much debate and many studies done weighing the factors of the packaging of wine.  I find this debate to be troublesome based on the fact that when I buy a wine, I’m looking for taste, not necessarily packaging.  So I decided to do some research to see if there was some compelling reason to change my ways.

Franklin Associates has done a very informative study (search for “tetra pak”) on the comparison of glass bottles, tetra paks, and PET bottles.  Based on who paid for the study (sponsored by the manufactures of tetra pak), read the numbers carefully and with a grain of salt.  However, they make a compelling argument for tetra paks, weighing factors like manufacturing of the packaging, transportation to the winery, transportation to the distribution center, and how the product is disposed of.  With all those factors being equal, the packaging with the lower weight will always win.

As a consumer trying to make a better decision, there were some assumptions that bothered me though.  The comparison was done assuming the winery was in northern California and had to ship 1500 miles to a distribution center.  With that fact, the tetra pak beats the glass bottle hands down, as it should.  But I wanted to see if buying a tetra pak from a California winery is better than my local (Ohio) wine in a glass bottle.  Apparently this study was trying to sway the wineries to make the change, not the consumer forcing the change with buying power.

Unfortunately what I was looking for isn’t available.  So my assumption (using just my brain to come up with this) is that almost all the transportation effects on the environment have been eliminated and therefore local is a great choice.  Additionally, it has the added bonus of supporting your local economy.

My conclusions: If you are going to buy wine from a long distance winery, try to get one in a tetra pak.  I personally will stick to local wineries (and likely buy it directly from the winery).  Regardless of which way you go, always make sure you recycle or reuse the packaging.  I’ve found tons of craft projects using wine bottles and corks… Do a search and find out.

Dave sent me a great link with information about solutions to some of the current environmental issues.  I was looking at the tire recycling solution available, which is genius.  Then I got to thinking what other things are going on that I can contribute to involving recycled tire rubber.

I stumbled into this company called Simple Shoes, making shoes out of materials like recycled tires, recycled plastic, organic cotton and hemp. As I read about the materials they used, business practices, and their factory charter, I realized I could feel good about the materials and the labor put into these shoes. All around, I was inspired by this company.

While this company is amazing in the simple concepts, their shoes still look pretty cool. What about price?  Yes, they are just a little bit more expensive than I would normally pay at local (chain) store, but honestly I can’t say it is that much more. Not only that, but shipping is free. So once I get the new shoes in a few weeks, if you see me around check out the soles.

So I recently received an email from Verizon offering me a brand new cell phone for free.  Well, that’s just the hook and they just want me to extend my contract again.  I don’t foresee not using Verizon since almost all my family and many of my friends are also on Verizon, making the majority of my calls free.  This provides me an opportunity to get a new cell phone for free.  As I contemplated this, as much as a new phone would be cool, what would I do with the old phone?

Most major cell phone service providers have nice donation/recycling programs.

• Verizon – HopeLine donates your old phone to support victims of domestic violence
• T-Mobile – will recycle or reuse old devices and all proceeds go to their charity programs
• Sprint – will recycle or reuse old phones and proceeds go to Internet Safety for Kids, they additionally have a buy-back program for old Sprint PCS or Nextel phones
• AT&T – is a complete recycling program for phones and accessories

As I was looking into other options, I found this article called 50 Ways to Leave Your Cell Phone with many other options. So for those of you that might have one (or 3) older phones that you don’t use (you know who you are), take that step and donate/recycle those devices.  One of the cool things about most of these donation options is that they will also take batteries, phone accessories, even PDAs.

My final decision on this whole new cell phone thing goes back to the three Rs.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  In this case, I’m choosing to reduce.  This means that I have decided to not get a new cell phone at this point in time.  My current cell phone works just fine and ultimately the newer cell phones don’t provide features that I can’t wait to get my hands (except the iPhone, but that won’t work with Verizon anyway).  So until there is some compelling reason for me to get a new phone, I’m sticking with what I have.