It might surprise some readers to learn that I am a closet
environmentalist. For example, I dry jeans, sheets, and my shirts
and towels on my clothesline instead of the dryer unless it is
actively raining. I reduce, reuse and recycle.
It might surprise some readers to learn that I am a closet environmentalist. For example, I dry jeans, sheets, and my shirts and towels on my clothesline instead of the dryer unless it is actively raining. I reduce, reuse and recycle.
My family is jaded about my environmentalist tendencies. My husband sighs plaintively about how stiff his jeans are when they come off the clothesline, and is grateful that at least I dry his shirts and towels in the dryer. My kids call me the Garbage Nazi merely because I sometimes get hysterical when they sneak their paper, metal, glass and plastic into the garbage.
And I hate Styrofoam, or, more accurately, polystyrene foam. I hate it in big blocks that take up room in my recycle bin. I viscerally hate the feel of it when fast food restaurants give me a clamshell for my Chinese food or burger.
I will forgo a hot beverage rather than sully my lips with a Styrofoam cup. Touching Styrofoam to my teeth gives me exactly the same sensation as listening to fingernails on a chalkboard.
I especially hate Styrofoam peanuts because I have to pour them all into reused plastic bags in order to put them out with the recyclables. (My favorite packing material is newspaper. My second favorite is the long chains of plastic air bubbles, about Ziploc size: easy to pop so they take up less room in my garbage.)
But my hatred of Styrofoam is an aesthetic reaction, not a scientifically-valid environmentally-sound decision. The fact is that polystyrene foam may actually conserve resources, compared to the alternatives.
Franklin Associates conducted a study comparing a foam polystyrene clamshell hamburger container with a coated, bleached paperboard container, and looking at energy use, air and water emissions and solid waste.
They found that, true, the paperboard contributes 29 percent less solid waste by volume. But polystyrene clamshells require 30 percent less energy to produce. Moreover, the production of the clamshell results in 46 percent less air pollution and 42 percent less water pollution.
A study published in Science found that the manufacture of a 10-gram paper cup consumes 33 grams of wood, and uses 28 percent more petroleum in its manufacture, 36 times as much chemical input, 12 times as much steam, 36 times as much electricity, and twice as much cooling water as a 10-ounce polystyrene cup.
Furthermore, the paper cup results in 580 times as much waste water, 10 to 100 times the residual effluents of pollutants, and three times the air emission pollutants.
What about my favorite choice, drinking my cappuccino from a ceramic mug rather than a disposable cup? Consider that the cup must be washed, which uses water and energy, and creates wastewater, which must be chemically treated.
There are no easy solutions to environmental problems. There are knee-jerk, feel-good reactions, but sometimes, as in the case of Styrofoam, the reaction causes more environmental damage than it prevents.
Environmentalists are often nonplussed by the lack of enthusiasm conservatives display for environmental causes. Styrofoam is a textbook case of why. To people in industry who deal with environmental problems on a professional and scientific basis, the environmentalist enthusiasms are hysteria-driven rather that data-driven. The hysteria just gets in the way and makes it harder to actually solve the problem.
If City Councilman Peter Arellano really wants to make a positive change for our local environment, he should concentrate on changes that would have an unambiguously positive impact.
As far as his other proposals go, he should check out the footprint of biodegradable forks. Some landfills are beginning to say that non-biodegradable garbage is better, because biodegradable garbage can result in chemicals leaching into the groundwater.
Will buildings of four stories be earthquake safe? Even Americans can walk up three flights of stairs; four flights will make elevators more prevalent. Elevators use electricity.
The one thing Councilman Arellano might consider is a city ordinance that all city residents have a right to use clotheslines; in effect, prohibiting neighborhood associations from banning them. Line-drying is unambiguously good for the environment.
