...good green news...

as we get closer to blog action day on 10/15... here's a piece of good news from today's new york times:

"Seattle now recycles 44 percent of its trash, compared with the national average of around 30 percent, which makes it a major player in big-city waste recovery. Its goal, city waste management officials said, is to reach 60 percent by 2012 and 72 percent by 2025.

In many other parts of the country, recycling is in the doldrums — and in some cases backsliding — despite the sounding of environmental alarms about global warming and shrinking resources. And it is a far cry from recycling’s heyday, after the nation was jarred into action in 1987 by images of a barge carrying garbage from Long Island being towed up and down the East Coast in search of a place to unload. Six months later, its cargo was returned to New York and burned in a Brooklyn incinerator.

The wandering barge had a profound effect on the American psyche, and within three years most states had passed laws requiring some kind of recycling. But recycling victories are now gauged in much smaller increments. In Seattle’s case, the latest success is measured in scraps.
As the law now stands in Seattle, residents of single family houses are allowed to mix food scraps with yard waste, which is then shipped off to be composted. Recycling of food scraps will become mandatory in 2009.

The new law may add yet another container for curbside pickup, which already includes receptacles for nonrecyclable trash, yard waste, glass and other recyclables. In Seattle, many residents take pride that their weekly nonrecyclable output fits in a container no larger than the average countertop microwave."

and another interesting tidbit from the nyt today: seltzer water, how to get your fizz without the guilt of buying and using plastic bottles. read about the three devices you can get to create your own fizz at home!

the reporter also tests several siphon bottles with "a coated aluminum interior from iSi North America (about $40) and a two-liter Liss with a stainless steel interior (about $65). You can buy them online at amazon.com and prairiemoon.biz or from stores like Target or Williams-Sonoma. Boxes of 10 disposable cartridges cost $6 to $10. They can be used for either product and are usually available where siphons are sold."