Kiera Butler

Senior Editor

Kiera answers your green questions every week in her Econundrums column. She was a hypochondriac even before she started researching germ warfare.

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Kiera has written about the environment, arts and culture, and more for Columbia Journalism Review, Orion, Audubon, OnEarth, Plenty, and the Utne Reader. She lives in Berkeley and recently planted 30 onions in her backyard.

Econundrum: Recycle Plant-Based Plastics?

—By Kiera Butler

| Mon Mar. 29, 2010 2:30 AM PDT

A café in my neighborhood sells salads in supposedly compostable corn-based containers. Since I live in one of only a handful cities in the US with a curbside composting program, I can just chuck my empty salad container into my curbside green bin. But I always wondered what might become of it in a backyard compost pile. Luckily, MoJo senior editor Dave Gilson answered my question last year in an article on the subject: Ramani Narayan, a Michigan State professor of chemical and biochemical engineering who helped develop biodegradable corn-based plastic, told Gilson that most plant-based plastics need to go to a commercial composting facility, not just your yard.

So if you can't throw bioplastics onto your compost heap, can you at least recycle them? A recent UK study recommended doing so, but I'm skeptical.

Turns out industry groups have been sparring over this very issue. Bioplastics manufacturer NatureWorks LLC recently claimed that commercial recycling facilities are perfectly capable of separating out plant-based materials from conventional plastics—an essential step in part because bioplastic melts at a different temperature from most types of conventional plastic. But the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), a trade group for manufacturers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic containers, fired back (PDF) that NatureWorks had only tested one type of sorting machine, called near infrared (NIR). "Other sorting systems were not part of the recent tests, nor were ways to address quality issues such as [bioplastics] getting stuck in the dryers during the PET reclamation process," NAPCOR said in a press release.

The recycling gurus at Earth 911 come down on NAPCOR's side. "Most biodegradable plastic should not go into normal recycling streams—there's not enough research about what will happen to it," says Earth911 spokesperson Jennifer Berry. EPA resource conservation expert Saskia Van Gendt agrees. "It's practically impossible for sorters to differentiate the different plastics," she says. For now the only foolproof way to recycle bioplastics is through their manufacturers. "And in order to do that, you need a large volume of containers," says Van Gendt. "You can’t just send one container back."

Bottom line: If you don't have access to a commercial composting facility, your best bet is to throw bioplastics in the trash. Two notable exceptions: Coke's new bottle, which is made from as much as 30 percent sugarcane-based plastic, has been specially designed to be recycled right alongside regular PET plastics. Then there's Frito-Lay's new compostable SunChips bag. Unlike the corn containers from my neighborhood café, these bags really can go into your backyard compost pile, where they will supposedly degrade in 14 weeks—no super hot commercial composting facility necessary. Cool products both, and a good sign that bioplastics might get better down the road.

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Econundrum: 12 Most Pesticide-Laden Fruits and Veggies

—By Kiera Butler

| Mon Mar. 22, 2010 2:30 AM PDT

At my local farmer's market, organic avocados cost as much as $2 a pop. Yet I can sometimes find the conventional version at the supermarket for half that (and some of the cheap ones are even grown right here in California). Considering my homemade guacamole addiction, I'd quickly bankrupt myself buying only organic avocadoes, so I usually go for the cheapos at the grocery store. My reasoning: You don't even eat the skin of the avocado, so presumably, for avocados and other peeled produce, pesticides aren't a problem. Right?

Not always. Some fruits' and vegetables' thick skins do protect the edible part from chemicals. But not all. The Environmental Working Group recently analyzed samples of 47 common produce items in the state that they're usually eaten (i.e., avocados were peeled, apples washed with water, etc.) then ranked them according to the amount and variety of pesticides the researchers found. Good news for my guac addiction: As I suspected, peeled avocadoes contain a small amount of pesticides, ranking 46th on the list. But bananas come in at a surprisingly high 27, and cucumbers at 19. "It’s really hard to use your intuition to figure out what’s going to have high pesticide loads," says EWG spokesperson Amy Rosenthal. "Skin is something to take into account, but it doesn’t always make a huge difference."

More findings: Peaches, apples, and sweet bell peppers were the three most pesticide-laden crops tested, while frozen sweet corn, avocado, and onion were least contaminated. The EWG team estimates you can lower your pesticide intake by as much as 80 percent if you steer clear of the top 12.

In descending order, the EWG's 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables:

[Read more in the Blue Marble blog]

PETA Slams Tyson's Pigeon Show

—By Kiera Butler

| Wed Mar. 17, 2010 10:53 AM PDT

Audubon's Alisa Opar reports that PETA is (predictably) up in arms over former boxing champion Mike Tyson's latest gig: Taking on Tyson, a show about pigeon racing on Animal Planet. I don't always see eye to eye with PETA, but in this case I think they're right. Audubon reported in a recent issue that "roller" pigeons—the kind of bird Tyson competes with—are bred for a "genetic seizure-like disorder" that causes them to tumble to the ground, sometimes dying on impact. And the pigeons aren't the sport's only victims. Hawks and other birds of prey are harmed, too:

When their pigeons start doing their thing, birds of prey see them for exactly what they are—genetic invalids ripe for plucking. As Tony Chavarria, owner and publisher of the Birmingham Roller Pigeon Discussion Board (roller-pigeon.com), perceptively notes, “Many fanciers have been forced to leave the hobby/sport due to incessant attacks by these birds of prey which seem to focus on these roller pigeons as a primary food source (especially in the cities).” Solution: Make the world safer for rollers by continuously killing raptors as they gravitate to roller lofts from all compass points, like stars to black holes.

In 2007, seven members of "roller" clubs in southern California were charged with fatally beating and shooting federally protected raptors. Tyson himself has never killed an encroaching hawk, but it's said that Los Angeles' roller club members kill as many as 2,000 hawks every year. Weird choice, Animal Planet. I'll take Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom instead, please.

No Doggie Bags Allowed: Fair?

—By Kiera Butler

| Mon Mar. 15, 2010 11:50 AM PDT

Over at the Consumerist, there's a debate raging over whether restaurants should be allowed to deny customers doggie bags, sparked by one diner's recent experience at seafood chain McCormick and Schmick's way-cheap happy hour.

In a nutshell: Guy couldn't finish his burger and fries, so he asked for a take-out container. The hostess told him no, since the restaurant has a "no to-go" policy during happy hour. The burger guy's girlfriend wrote a letter of complaint, saying she was "disappointed in the restaurant’s rigid rule, mostly because the rule clearly promotes and even encourages the wasting of food." A McCormick and Schmick's representative explained the reason for the policy in an email response:

Unfortunately when we offer a To Go box to any customer, then every other customer wants one. This may not seem so bad, but with the extremely low prices we offer on our Happy Hour Food (our 8oz burgers & fries are less than half the price of the same item at a fast food restaurant and much higher quality) we immediately have people ordering a great many items that they have no intention of finishing at the restaurant.

Do you buy it, Blue Marble readers? Considering the staggering amount of food we throw away (and the considerable environmental impact of all that wasted food), can we really afford to let restaurants get away with such policies?

Econundrum: Eco-Friendly Fur?

—By Kiera Butler

| Mon Mar. 15, 2010 3:30 AM PDT

Much as I'd love to settle the fur debate once and for all, I know far better than to pretend I have the answer: PETA won't catch me telling all you Econundrum readers to run out and buy a mink coat. Truth is, I can see both sides: Fur has the eco-advantage of being biodegradable, a quality that, as I wrote in a previous Econundrum column, is hard to find in synthetic fabrics. On the other hand, there's the ethical issue: Most fur these days comes not from wild animals but from factory farms (like those from whence our fast-food burgers hail). In Canada, for example, the 2005 market for ranch-raised fur was three times the size of the wild fur market, according to the CBC. So, like I said, no grand fur proclamations here. But I think I've found one fur idea I like. There's a bit of backstory here, so bear with me.

Our story concerns the nutria, a semiaquatic mammal that is not exactly charismatic: It looks roughly like a cross between a beaver and a rat. But in the early part of the last century, nutrias' silky coats fetched a good price, so French trappers imported them from their native South America to the the southeastern US. The critters bred like crazy, and trappers made a good living off their pelts—until animal rights campaigns of the '60s and '70s made fur uncool. Demand for pelts took a nosedive, and trappers could no longer keep up with the ballooning nutria population. Today, the voracious little beasts, who prefer to dine on the roots of marsh plants, have destroyed large swaths of bayou. They've also been implicated in the destabilization of levees, which, as we all know, is not good news for bayou ecosystems or their surrounding towns.

Fast forward to 2000, when, in an effort to incentivize trappers to once again catch and kill the nutria, Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries began offering bounties—turn in a nutria tail, and the government gives you $5. It's working: Trappers are once again able to make a living off the land, and the nutria population has declined. But the program is expensive, and the market for nutria fur is still tiny. Michael Massimi, the invasive species coordinator at the Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program (BTNEP) told me that more than 95 percent of carcasses caught for bounty currently go to waste. "The problem is that for most trappers, getting a buyer for the meat and fur is not worth the effort," says Massimi.

Enter Cree McCree, a writer and fashion designer based in New Orleans. Last year, with the help of a $4,500 grant from BTNEP, McCree founded a group called Righteous Fur to promote nutria fur to fashion designers. McCree mobilized a few local designers, and the group has already staged two fashion shows this year. Recalls McCree, "We had everything from very elegant stoles and fur collar pieces to a tribute to Alexander McQueen." McCree's own contribution? A line of nutria-tooth jewelry.

McCree's project seems to be taking off. Designer Oscar de la Renta featured a nutria piece in a recent collection, and this fall, McCree will take the nutria show to New York City's fashion week. The pieces aren't commercially available yet, but that's on McCree's agenda. "Next I want to do mass market urban streetwear," she says.

So there you have it: Fur fashion that also helps solve the problem of a destructive invasive species. Not saying McCree's bright idea means you should run right out and buy yourself a new stole. Just something to think about.