apples and cell phones - totally unrelated
- My neighbor and I stopped at the grocery store on our way home from having ice cream for breakfast (shh…we were up at 4:45 a.m. and did a 13+ mile workout - him running and me biking). Our mission: get some necessary items for the backyard dinner that night. One of those items was an apple. Looking, looking, looking. No apples. WTF? There are a few issues I want to point out about this. It’s the NE of the US - it’s pretty much apple season here, which means apples should be everywhere. More cost effective and better for the environment to be eating apples as your fruit of choice right now if you live in this area (I’m in Philly). Instead of baskets full of various types of apples, there were oranges (shipped from FL or CA), peaches and nectarines (possibly from the SE - it’s the end of that season in this area) and summer berries (also the end of that season here). The more foods we eat from further away, the more damage we’re doing. Examples like this particular one were what helped me decide to join the co-op. Yes, I pay a yearly fee to be able to shop at my grocery store of choice, a small neighborhood co-op that you can barely walk down one of the two aisles without bumping into someone. But I’ll tell you what - when I can’t find apples in a grocery store, that $30 fee looks like a better investment every day. Also, I am quite happy with the stash of Pink Lady apples that are in my fridge :)
- Thanks to Netflix, I’ve been watching a show called Eco Trip with David de Rothschild. Tonight I watched two episodes - bottled water and cell phones. Holy crap! The cell phones episode was ridiculous. There is something used to produce the chip (I think - sorry, I wasn’t paying 100% attention to this part) inside the cell phone, and it comes from the Congo. Short explanation - it’s causing major damage to get this particular “ingredient.” Also, there was a statistic in the range of billion of cell phones sold every year (US? World? Again, not paying 100% attention…there were dishes to be washed). This is because on average, a cell phone is used for 18 months. Most end up in landfills or incinerators, the landfills possibly the worst because of the toxic metals infiltrating groundwater. While it’s possible to recycle cell phones, this is sketchy as well. Much of our e-waste ends up in 3rd world countries. The UN developed the Basel Agreement, something the US signed, but did not ratify (i.e. we don’t follow its policy). The Basel Agreement basically stated that wealthy nations would not send waste to poorer nations. Where does much of our e-waste end up? Asia and Africa. In those countries it is often burned (sometimes in the middle of neighborhoods) in open areas, sending all the toxic fumes into the air. Workers earn approximately $1 a day to pick through the waste, being exposed to all the nasty chemicals that do such harm as cause cancer and birth defects. The waste, which is supposedly being recycled, also ends up in waterways of those dumping countries, putting all of the toxins in their water. Just because it isn’t happening within our borders doesn’t mean it’s any less harmful. These faraway lands DO NOT need to be damaged and poverty stricken people do not deserve to die because of our materialistic behavior. And really it’s not just cell phones - it’s computers, TVs, stereos…all electronic waste.
I’ve already bitched once tonight about other people bitching. So is that all I’m going to do? No way. There are solutions to these problems we face. As for the food - don’t support a store or company that is importing foods from far-away places, even if it’s the other side of our own country. Look into the 100 mile diet and the locavore movement. Maybe those are extreme options. How about just seeking out what you can, when you can? Every little bit matters. A lesson from my most recently absorbed reading - the “little stuff” is what makes up the big picture. If the big picture is eating locally, that means every one of us makes a difference even if we buy a couple of local apples or ears of corn, or some chicken raised in our region of the country at least. Lots of areas have farmers markets - even big cities. Find yours! Buy some produce that was harvested in a town you could probably drive to in less than a day and enjoy it FRESH! Let those tomatoes ripen on the vines those couple of extra days, or those apples keep their crisp when you bite into them.
And as for all the junk? Do you really want that fancy new phone you see in every advertisement? Maybe. Do you really need it every year that your upgrade rolls around? Probably not. Start purchasing items of real value. So many phones have innovative this or that, but until they’re really tested out on the market, they break or have software issues or some other glitch. Find out what’s the most lasting product for your dollar. Do you really want to be wasting money right now anyway? Chances are, your answer is no. When my last cell phone broke, I hit up amazon.com where I purchased a discontinued, unlocked phone that I could use with my carrier. Not only was it cheap (and still working, months later), but I used something that may have otherwise gone to waste. [And just a thought here - you probably don’t need to run a small country with your phone. Detach yourself and enjoy the world…have real experiences, not electronic ones.] If you have electronic waste, please look into the option of recycling it, and check out the reputation of the company that will be doing the recycling. There is a NY-based company called WeRecycle! LLC, and it really does it right. Many towns offer an e-waste collection. Before you dump that junk, give your Public Works department a call to find out where the e-waste is going. Taking the initiative to get that one extra bit of info can have a big payoff - it’s that little thing that helps make the big picture that much more beautiful.
