We hear it every day from people who are concerned about what’s happening to the environment: “What can I do? I’m just one person!” What if you were just one 8-year-old boy? Cole Rasenberger didn’t let that stop him from taking on one of the world’s largest fast-food chains over its packaging. In this episode of The Good Stuff, Annie learns how Cole rallied other kids at his school to join him in challenging KFC. And Danna Smith of the Dogwood Alliance tells us about the threat to Southern coastal forests from wasteful fast-food packaging

_ Guests_
Cole Rasenberger
Danna Smith

_Learn More_
Cole on YouTube
Occupy KFC!
Dogwood Alliance’s KFC campaign

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For holidays tainted by commercialism, Valentine’s Day gives Christmas a run for the money – big money. The National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend $17.6 billion on Valentine’s gifts this year, including $4.1 billion on jewelry, $1.8 billion on flowers and $1.5 billion on candy. But for consumers with a conscience, the very things Madison Avenue markets as expressions of love are some of the worst stuff you can buy.

Chocolate: A heart-shaped box of truffles may be a sweet dream for chocolate lovers, but it’s a nightmare for many workers. Most of the world’s cocoa beans come from plantations in Ghana and Ivory Coast, where a 2010 BBC investigation exposed the widespread use of child labor, human trafficking and even slavery to harvest cocoa.

Flowers: Most roses and other flowers sold in the United States are imported from Colombia, where the cut flower industry is also known to use child workers and forced labor. Because the flowers have to look perfect, they’re treated with immense amounts of toxic pesticides, which contributes to high rates of lung and nerve disease in a workforce dominated by women and children.

Jewelry: Child labor, forced labor and dangerous conditions are well-documented in the mining industry. Gold mining uses mercury and cyanide to separate the metal from ore, and leaves behind mountains of toxic waste – more than 20 tons of waste to make one gold ring. The film Blood Diamonds dramatized the role that diamond mining plays in fueling and funding brutal wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola and other African nations that have killed and displaced millions of people.

So should you boycott Valentine’s Day? I’m not. I’m all for showing my loved ones how much I care, on Valentine’s Day tomorrow and every day. A hand-crafted card, a heartfelt note, a home-cooked meal or (ahem) a special favor are all ways to express your love. And for a gift that keeps on giving you can get involved in efforts to change the way these destructive industries do business. Joining a campaign not only amplifies your voice but brings you together with others who share your concerns.

Last February, Change.org mounted a petition drive that persuaded 1-800-Flowers to add Fair Trade-certified bouquets to its collection and create a code of conduct that prohibits its suppliers from using forced and child labor. Now the Fairness in Flowers campaign is asking consumers to write other major florists urging them to ensure their flowers are not grown and processed with the use of exploited labor or child labor.

More than 100,000 consumers have joined the No Dirty Gold campaign, which works to get jewelers to promise to use only gold mined responsibly. To date, 80 leading jewelry retailers worldwide have signed the pledge. Global Witness, a human rights group that helped bring attention to the bloody truth about the diamond trade, recently pulled out of a flawed United Nations-backed program to certify conflict-free diamonds, but remains active in the campaign to reform the industry.

OK, here’s the toughest one to pass by (at least for me) — chocolate. Global Exchange is among the groupsworking with schools, churches and community groups to get leading chocolate companies to promise that their sweet treats don’t exploit or endanger workers on African cocoa plantations.

Real love doesn’t trash the planet or force children to work in dangerous mines or pesticide-drenched fields. There’s no reason that jewelry, chocolates and flowers have to take such a heavy toll. This Valentine’s Day, let’s show our love not only to our sweethearts, friends and family, but to the Earth and people around the world.

Your emails, blog and FB comments, often serve as sparkly, internet reminders that all across the globe there are tons of people hard at work to make this world more healthy, sustainable, and just. Yay!

Just yesterday this note came in from our new friend Alex who was traveling in Ayacucho, Peru:

…[I] was delighted to come upon the scene in the attached photo, a youth environmental group screening ‘la historia de las cosas’ [The Story of Stuff] in public (on the side of a church no less, along a very heavily used pedestrian lane).

Apparently, the name of the group hosting the event was Allpanchikrayku which is a Quechua word for “For Our Earth.” Pretty freakin’ cool, right?!

I certainly feel less daunted about trying to change the world when I know that I’m part of a big, bold, awesome, international community.

What are you doing “for our earth” these days? Tell us about it!

PS. If you’re hosting a screening of any of “The Story of…” movies be sure to put it on our Community Screenings Map! 

The past couple of days, all over the social media universe, I’ve seen a lot of posts expressing strong emotions towards what’s happening with Komen, Planned Parenthood and, of course, our favorite reoccurring character, money. While clicking around from link to link, I happened to come across this trailer for Pink Ribbons, Inc.

It’s timing is uncanny. It comes out tomorrow in Canada. Just out of curiosity, any of you fine folks in Canada in a position to get The Story of Cosmetics screened with it in theaters?

Either way, I though you’d all appreciate the heads up on Pink Ribbons, Inc., if you haven’t come across it already

If any of you end up watching the movie, would be curious to know what you thought. Please feel free to share your thoughts as comments below.

Just a little behind the scenes peek into how much work goes into getting Annie off the page and onto the screen!

A larger version of the image is available here.

Simply washing and reusing plastic bags reduces the need to make new ones, reduces waste and saves money. Think about it: washing them even once can cut your family’s plastic bag habit in half and you can certainly wash them more than once!

I wash mine in the sink, when I am doing the dinner dishes. While washing each one takes just a few seconds, getting them to dry can be frustratingly slow. A simple plastic bag dryer like the one Annie showed Ty can be made at home and speeds up the process.

Simply use a vase, a glass jar, even a coffee mug. Fill it with rice, beans, marbles or anything heavy enough to hold it in place. Stick chop sticks, bamboo skewers, even tinkertoy pieces in it and it’s ready to dry! Hanging the bags on these sticks prevents water from collecting in folds and speeds up the drying.

If you’re lucky, your city has a curbside composting program that collects green waste along with your regular trash and recycling. My city does that, so every household gets three bins: one for garbage, one for bottles, cans and paper and one for yard and kitchen scraps. Cities that have invested in citywide composting programs have saved lots of money, since composting green waste is cheaper and better than sending it to the dump or burning it.

Click here to learn more or get a city-wide program going in your town.

If your city doesn’t yet compost, don’t worry! You can still compost in your backyard. You’ll need a compost bin, which you can buy from a garden supply store or make yourself. There are a number of online composting guides that explain how you can compost food and yard waste. And if you don’t have a yard, you can also compost inside your garage or even apartment through vermicomposting. This takes a bit more effort but works great at reducing waste, preventing greenhouse gases and creating a great soil amendment.

Either way, backyard or city wide, composting is a key part of the solution to our waste problems.

I know it is sometimes hard to buy the concentrated brands since the upfront cost is more than the diluted ones, but do the math! The bottle of cleanser Annie and Ty had cost $12 and made 197 bottles of cleanser. Buying 197 bottled of general household cleaner costs about $600. So, even if it is more up front, there’s real savings over time.

And for those who want to go even further saving money and preventing waste, there are lots of easy homemade recipes for household cleansers that work great.

Check out more hints for reducing your family’s waste.

There’s lots more we can all do to reduce waste in our lives and, even more importantly, in our broader communities. Please sign up with the Story of Stuff Project to learn more and get more involved.

]]> http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/01/29/concentrated-packaging/feed/ 0 http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/01/27/karla/ http://www.storyofstuff.org/2012/01/27/karla/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:05:29 +0000 C. M. Samala http://www.storyofstuff.org/?p=3834 In January, Pennsylvania resident Karla Trotman spent a day in her home with our very own Annie Leonard for a taping of ABC daytime show The Revolution. A wife, mother and entrepreneur, she started her own online boutique, BellyButtonBoutique.com, in 2008 while on maternity leave. Here’s a note from Karla about her experience:

Dear Annie,

Thank you so much for the information that you found on my community. To be honest, I really never thought much about my trash. As a minimalist, I try to get rid of any and everything that is lying around. My first instinct is to just toss it. I’ve never been a “green” person. I love to shop and collect shoes like artwork. When people talk about the environment, quite honestly, my ears would turn off.

But as you know, I have two little boys, both of whom like to play outside. My 5-year old has asthma and coughs on a daily basis, more so after playing outdoors. After learning that our trash gets incinerated and basically blows right back over our home, all I could think about was how he now struggles to get oxygen into his lungs as it is. The information made me sick, sad, frustrated, and ultimately mad.

So much so that I have already started to make changes.  My first goal is to reduce the amount of waste that my family produces by utilizing the products that you gave to me. I have already started using my reusable shopping bags because, as you pointed out, they cannot be recycled and will go to that incinerator. My family’s video on The Revolution showed how many paper towels my family goes through in a given week.  Instead of being so wasteful, we have implemented bar mops for counter top spills and the regular mop for floor spills.  We are also done with single servings for snacks and beverages.

When I shop, I pay attention to the little recycling number at the bottom if I must buy a plastic container of something.  I now look for glass containers first, and then the numbers 1 or 2 as you taught me.

I loved the idea of a community shed for my neighbors to share equipment and supplies and have already mentioned it in an email to everyone.  A couple of people seemed to be really excited about enhancing the definition of “community” with this approach.  I would love for this idea to grow to surrounding communities as well.

And last but not least, I’m not quite ready for compost worms, but give me a little while and I may warm up to it!

I really enjoyed meeting you and definitely plan on staying in contact. Thanks again for the amazing information.  You have changed my life.

Karla Trotman

Clip from Annie and Karla’s Episode on The Revolution:

To make things easy, we’ve compiled just about everything you need to organize a successful event HERE.

And when you’re done having an awesome screening party, you can drop a pin on the SOS Community Screenings Map!