January 11th, 2008
I am old enough (cough) to remember when it was actually environmentally cooler to tell the grocery store checkout person that you wanted a plastic bag. Use a plastic bag, save a tree!
I guess that may sound naive now, but that’s what people were thinking in the 1980s.
Now things have turned 180 degrees and plastic bags are the scourge of Satan. China has just banned them, and many American cities are looking to do so as well.
The reason? People are lazy asses, I guess, and they just don’t know how to reuse or recycle these bags properly. So they end up flying around and causing all sorts of havoc. (I have to ask…just how do plastic bags escape from people anyway? The way they fly around, it’s as if some kid had a balloon on a string they let go of. My bags never fly anywhere – they are carrying stuff! Duh!)
Yet, when you look at it from a manufacturing and transportation standpoint, which is truly better: Paper or plastic? (more…)
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January 10th, 2008
One of my best friends in the office is a label maker. It is a small machine that has a keyboard with a tiny screen and all it does is output sticky labels. I finally got one to get some serious organizing done and I find it truly makes my filing 10 times easier.
I also re-use my folders this way, by applying new labels over the old ones.
Yet, I have to wonder. Which is worse for the environment: Throwing out used folders and killing more trees to make new ones, or re-using folders by sticking on a label that requires new tape, a piece of electronics, and waste in the form of a used tape cartridge?
Another option is to create new labels with a computer, but that also takes up paper, involves adhesive, and uses up printer ink.
I suppose I could just handwrite on the sheet of computer labels, but for some reason that seems to drop my productivity and organization by a huge amount.
I think my biggest concern with the portable label maker is the cartridge. There seems to be no way to recycle it.
Perhaps I should just get one of those old fashioned label creators, that punches it out on a simple roll of tape.
But then I wouldn’t have my fancy label-making toy. See…I’m now justifying my e-waste. Shameful, really. Oh well.
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