What is Your City Doing for the Environment?

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I try not to write about the environment too much in this space. However, since it does impact everyone’s health, I feel that from time to time, it’s worth highlighting. There is little doubt that if we continue to pollute the air we breath and the water we drink, we will be steadily poisoning ourselves over time.

Today, the major metropolitan city near I live, San Francisco, launched a couple of new initiatives to fight environmental problems. The city has become the first to ban plastic bags from all stores. These plastic bags have been a problem for years. They take a long time to break down naturally and very few people recycle them. For this reason, I’ve been asking for paper bags whenever I can and use them to recycle with the weekly cardboard recycling. Once I become less Lazy, I’ll buy some re-usable cloth bags and bring them with me for future purchases.

The other news in San Francisco is that the town is starting to use the restaurants’ used grease to power public transportation. San Francisco has had a problem of business disposing of grease illegally causing it to pollute the bay. This not only eliminates that problem, but it saves gasoline used to run the Muni buses. You can read more about the program at SF GreaseCycle.

It’s unfortunate timing that these came after the much talked about recent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. At least it is trying to move in the right direction.

[Update: I ended up buying reusable bags at the Lucky grocery store today. They were 4 for a 75 cents and each time I use a bag, they’ll give me a 5 cent rebate. I won’t get rich this way, but it’s a nice bonus that will help both my wallet and the environment.]

(Picture credit: Gracie Films) via CNET.com.

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Posted by Lazy Man on November 20, 2007 in Environment.

2 Responses to “What is Your City Doing for the Environment?”

plonkee Says:
November 20th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Hmm. This is a good question. There’s a token gesture towards recycling and they put a lot of money into public transport. I should probably try and find out what else they do.
Free From Broke Says:
December 17th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
I live in NYC and while there’s certainly been a lot of environmental damage done a couple of big things I’m grateful for are the cigarette smoking ban in business locales and the ban on trans fats. It’s great that San Fran is working on improving their environment!