Last week at my local Trader Joe’s, I pointed out to the store associates and manager that some of their produce were not consistently labeled. For instance, the organic Fuji apples I put into my basket had a sticker that indicated that it was from Chile, but the price sign and description indicated that it was from the USA. I am no produce auditor, but I then became curious and spot checked another item, such as the blueberries. Same inconsistency existed. Disappointed, I let the cashier know, who then immediately informed the store manager. Him and I had a brief conversation which consisted of me saying, “I just noticed that your produce is not always labeled consistently in terms of where a product is from and wanted to let you know. Not a huge deal to me (though it kind of is!), but I think it’s important for consumers to know where products are coming from.” The store manager’s rationale was that their produce is sourced from multiple suppliers, which makes it difficult to always have the proper labeling on a weekly basis. However, my comment did inspire them to enable a dry-erase system on their price and description signs so that they can be easily changed on a regular basis. Score! However, this matter may require some follow-up because I came back a week later to get apples and this is what I find:

Their suppliers really do change frequently, but the price label still indicated USA. Sigh.

On a side note, I felt good about catching the Chile/USA apple discrepancy, but at the same time, I was peeved by the fact that the apples were not relatively ‘local’ and had to travel from Chile to get to my grocery basket. I was surely getting pesticide-free apples, but the food miles kind of put a damper on my purchase. Sometimes it’s hard to win.

I adore Trader Joe’s yet have a mysterious-skepticism my because it is almost one of those too-good-to-be-true types of businesses that have amazing and innovative products, friendly staff, and hard-to-beat prices on a variety of groceries. Yes, I tend to always challenge things when it’s too good to be true because I think it’s good for validation and a sense of peace. Not all things that are shiny on the outside are healthy on the inside. There has been some angst among customers and activists about its seafood procurement, but the stores are aiming to phase out unsustainable seafood by 2012. Change is at least forthcoming, though gradually. Interestingly enough, if you look further into the company information page, Trader Joe’s does not boast about being the most environmentally friendly business — it focuses on value and cool products. If sustainability is not part of the vision and purpose of an organization’s mission, it becomes an afterthought. Therefore, I don’t blame them too much, but customer and public opinion certainly plays a role in influencing behavior. Now there’s some food for thought!

The Solution
Did you know that only 12% of plastics bags were recycled in 2007? Ouch. Where do the rest go? Landfills, oceans, sewage, you name it.

Luckily, many major grocery stores have recycling bins for plastic bags. Even Walgreen’s and Trader Joe’s have bins. Plastic bags with the symbol #2 or #4 can typically be recycled:

The best part of plastic bag recycling is that it takes very little effort. We all make periodic trips to the grocery store, so why not take some bags with you on your next trip? It is now habitual for me to think twice about what I throw away and evaluate what be prevented from going in the trash bin. The last thing that I need to see is a tree decorated with plastic bag ornaments due to people tossing them on the street! I know it is virtually impossible to avoid using plastic, but the least we could do is to properly handle the plastic we purchase.

To learn more about plastic bags and/or what to do with them, go to Earth 911. This site will also answer your questions like “Can I recycle XYZ?” and “What do I do with ABC?”

On a recent client project, I got into a discussion with client resources about recycling, and they seemed to have a mission to set me straight. They sent me a link to a Penn & Teller video clip that basically spells out to the audience that recycling is evil. The URL sat in my inbox for quite a few days, partially because I was quite busy with work, and also because I didn’t want it to ruin my week. Seriously. I grew up in an environment that embraced the theory of recycling and I still walk-the-talk and live that theory to set an example. Because I knew the nature of this video (plus other articles that supported the anti-recycling concept), I pocketed the link for the weekend to avoid making my work week purely miserable. It would have potentially had the effect of telling a child that Santa Claus did not exist, or figuring out that the Tooth Fairy was a mother sneaking quarters under a pillow. My twenty-plus years of existence would have almost been a fallacy if I was truly doing something horrible for the earth. Maybe I am a creature of habit.

So I ended up watching the video clip. I wasn’t as disappointed as I thought I would be. The video hosts, Penn & Teller, were honestly a variation of Michael Moore multiplied by two. Maybe ten. I can see how people can get sucked into their arguments if further analysis wasn’t part of the equation. Their claim to fame is that recycling is bad because the cost-benefit analysis of recycling screams negative. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supposedly launched a marketing movement in 1989 that skewed everyone’s beliefs. Turns out that recycling is costly. Well, obviously, right? There is an entire manufacturing process involved, which comes from tax dollars and waste management utility costs. Yes, it is more expensive, but how do you weigh that with what’s better for the environment? This article will even further counter my own belief.

There are choices. We all make them. I value my own health. When I shop for salmon, I prefer wild caught salmon because I don’t want to intake mercury and other chemicals that farmed salmon contains. So for my own health, I may choose to have a food product that emitted a higher carbon footprint to reach my dinner plate. At the same time, I truly appreciate locally grown products. What does one do?

I understand that going green and battling climate change goes beyond recycling; it extends to the way people consume and live, whether at home or in the office (or the way we get to an office). It’s how manufacturing processes are handled. It’s product packaging. Energy consumption (yes, turn off those lights when not in use). It can also be building construction.

On a side note, the previous client facility I worked at did not have a recycling program. I was upset at first, but I got over it because I simply brought my goods home to recycle. I was able to handle the luggage back and forth. What irritated me even more was that they left everything plugged in, especially the toasters. Sadly I unplugged them whenever they were in sight (obsessive-compulsive nature in action? Yes). If every person in the U.S unplugged their toasters or any other appliance when not in use, there could be a huge savings in energy consumption. Yet we might not be at that level because we are still, and may always be, creatures of habit.

I really want to be a person who helps change this — to spark behavioral change, and to sustain it.

There were several specific triggers that raised my sense of urgency this year. All seemed very ordinary at the time, but led me to get a little more enthusiastic about putting things in action.

1. Moving: When I came to Chicago in June, transitioning to an urban apartment was an big, yet interesting change. I was highly irritated to learn that we had convenient trash chutes on every floor, yet no recycling bins for the building. I looked up the city of Chicago recycling website, and supposedly all residential buildings of four units or more are required to have a recycling program. Obviously that is not being enforced. So now I take the recyclables to a public collection center just a few blocks away until our building provides that service (not for another six months). Having always lived in a suburb, recycling programs were aplenty. Most local waste management programs made it easy to sort out recyclables with separate colored bins, and then later to single large bins that allowed mixed items. Now we don’t even need to sort! Now that is hand holding. All there is left to do is physically separate trash from recyclables, which doesn’t require much effort or commitment.
2. The Green Book: In late June, a friend passed along this book to me since I was interested in the topic and suggested that I pass it along to anyone and everyone. I put our names inside the front flap of the book as a starting list of people who will have read the book. It is really eye-opening for all of us to read. With commentary from celebrity favorites, it is a quick read that gives easy suggestions on how to make a difference. It also provides quantitative facts to highlight the magnitude of all that we do. Numbers aren’t just numbers anymore.
3. The workplace: I had a huge dose of training and orientation for nearly three weeks straight. Food and beverages were overly abundant at most hours of the day to get us through those sessions. With all that stuff comes bottles and cans that need to be recycled, but to my astonishment, none of the large training rooms had recycling bins. How can a building that has a LEED Gold certified plaque in the lobby not have recycle bins in these rooms? I really have this uncomfortable feeling every time a bottle or can gets thrown in the trash. Oh yeah, and we have Styrofoam cups in all kitchen areas. Ugh. This year will be a great opportunity to be involved in the office activities surrounding this.
4. Sustainable business: This topic is getting a lot of attention in the news, as it should be. It basically refers to the way businesses handle their operations in an eco-friendly manner in order to have long term growth. It’s a win-win for any business in the long run, as well as becoming a standard in today’s economy.

The more I learn about this topic, the more I want to do things. I can even see it as a potential career path to take, but I just don’t know exactly what or how.

I’m definitely not obsessive-compulsive about being so green to the point where I’m using candles in lieu of electricity, boycotting travel on planes, or taking the stairs up to the 20th floor … and we shouldn’t have to go to such extremes. However, I do think there are simple things that everyone can do to make our environment better.

Here’s a simple start: Imagine the number of Starbucks coffee beverages being consumed each day, and most probably come with a paper sleeve. How about we all place our hot coffee cup sleeves in the paper recycling bin instead of tossing it in the trash? Alternatively, you can reuse it for another day. After all, most are made from some percentage of post-consumer recycled materials to begin with, and it doesn’t take that much much to recycle it. It all counts.

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