LOL!!

Ric: Perhaps you and Susan have differing views on the ways to get there, but you both share a desire to make this planet a better place, which I applaud. I appreciate the reminder to ditch the car and unplug my chargers and think a little mindfulness as we go about our days is a good thing. My top tip: Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Now, wouldn't that make the world a little better? And it's free to boot.

.Amy, thank you. Both Susan and I support recycling. The difference is I do not support banning plastic grocery bags while some who agree with Susan recently got a legislator or two to propose a state banning of plastic grocery bags. Not only do I disagree about banning those bags, I think the recycling movement should be focusing to get more people to recycle and not this counterproductive complaining and legislating against those that already recycle. That is just wrong and a slap in the face to those who already are recycling.

I agree with you about the plastic grocery bags.People who use those reuseable bags for their groceries buy hefty bags for their garbage,so they still put plastic into the landfills.I reuse my grocery bags for garbage and line the bathroom and bedroom wastbaskets with them.I also use them for cleaning the littlbox.
I do like the CFL bulbs.They last for years.The newer ones are brighter than the ones that became available a few years back.

And how about the fact the about ninety percent of the paper that needs recycling is junk mail that floods the mailbox every single day despite requests on a local level and federal lists to not recieve it. When is someone going to take responsibility for this NON mail that is foisted upon us and is overburdening our recycleables, killing trees and dooming the planet.

The problem with plastic bags from the food store is that they are so weak, they can't hold anything. Who wants to use a bag that will break before you get it into your car. I would rather use my own reusuable sturdy bags. I especially love the insulated one for frozen foods. I do wash my reusable bags, so that isn't an issue.
I am not saying to ban them, but I don't care to use them.

I hate those stupid bulbs. I don't care if I only have on one light in the entire house, which typically is the case, it is going to be from a real light bulb. I would sooner have candlelight and in winter months often do rather than those atrocious cork screw bulbs. I did put one in the laundry room and it is just horrible.

Trees for pulp are grown on large acreage in Canada and US. It is harvested and replanted for 20 to 30 year growth cycle.It is a renewable resource.Educate yourself and stop believing the left wing propaganda .

Not exactly.
http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html

Joshua,I;ve found that the CFL bulbs last for years.I now have them everywhere in my house and outdoors as well.Because they don't need to be replaced as often,there's less chance that they will be broken. I'm a real klutz,and have never broken one.
Eleanor,we have always eaten several plant based meals per week.A breakfast of cereal and juice counts as one.This time of year,when fresh veretables and fruits are plentiful,we usually have 1 or 2 meatless dinners as well.Eggplant parm,ratatoiulle with pasta,rice and beans,and sweet potato curry are favorites.The grass fed steak is delicious as well.

And by the way they are all made in china.Obamas job program.

Flourescent lights have fallen and exploded several times in my presence, one time I dropped a bulb while I was changing the long cylider shaped tube. I did not correctly line up the little tips properly and then a explosive loud pop landed onto the floor, white hazardous waste was spread all over the floor.
Also the flourescent light bulb is just horrible for the human complexion especially bad for the acne filled face.

At one point in my life I worked with the emotionally disturbed. They would regularly beg me to turn out the horrible flourescent lights. Unless we were reading something specifically requiring bright lighting, I would comply by opening all window shades and windows. Letting the sunshine in. Most normal people hate those flourescent monster lights.

The outrage is we are being dictated to by the government.Why not then force everyone to buy an electric car or lose weight or don't eat meat or control the size of my soda .Get the idea now.And Hannity and Rush did discuss it when Obama mandated it.

you libs are all alike. If conservatives don't agree with al gore and his phony climate change lobby you think they want pollution. But I agree, we do want more jobs but not at the cost of having our taxes increased for an issue that doesn't exist. You must be an obama lover and an obvious sheep who has already drunk the kool aid. An obvious lost cause!!!!

@loretta. You cons are all alike. If liberals don't agree with your lies about al gore and our climate change lobby you think they want to tax us to death. But I agree, we do want more jobs but not at the cost of having our environment destroyed because cons pretend that the destruction of the environment does not exist. You must be a romney lover and an obvious sheep who has already drunk the kool aid. An obvious lost cause!!!!

Mary, in what order do each of these contributes waste (from most to least):

1. people who do not recycle
2. plastic frozen food containers
3. plastic grocery bags

The answer is the same order I listed them. Now why aren't you carrying on about people who do not recycle? If you really really really are really concerned about future generations, why are you devoting your efforts to the smallest problem? Why are you wasting (no pun intended) your waste efforts on the least waste problem? I sometimes wonder is it just "trendy" to complain about plastic bags?
And how much waste is being generated by people who renovate their kitchens and bathrooms every five to seven years by ripping everything out and replacing it? They try to justify their renovation because they used a recycled material somewhere. But that recycled something is such a small part of the job. It seems to me that we should look down at people with new kitchens and baths because they are wastefully filling up the landfills. Don’t you agree?
The great thing about encouraging more people to recycle is you cut much more waste going into landfills or up in smoke. Maybe if the greeners went back to basics and encourage more people to recycle it could become trendy. How’s about that?
I won’t say a word about you using dirty old bacteria filled cloth bags if you leave my plastic bags alone. Do we have a deal? Honestly, if plastic bags are banned in this state, I am going to stop recycling my waste.

I posted a link from the EPA about the correct way to dispose of broken CFLs in a previous comment.CFLs.Home Depot used to take ones the burned out to be recycled.I don't know if they still do because I haven't had 1 burn out in a couple of years.They do last much longer than incadesents.
I still feel that If a Republcian had banned incadesent bulbs,the conservative would have thought it was a good thing.As I said,eveyone I know started suing them when they came on the market,by choice.

Mary,I am all for reclycling.I reuse the plastic bags from the supermarket.What do you use for your garbage?If you are buying Hefty bags and using your own bags to carry home your groceries,your,defeating the purpose.I have been next in line at the supermarket where the customer in front of me brought her own reuseable bags,and they stunk?Perhaps not a health hazard,but rather unpleasant.I might try bringing my own bags to tote home paper goods and dry groceries,but I'd rather use the store plastic bags for meat and other wet items.
And,what about the smaller plastic bags used in the store for produce.While it;s not problem buying a few apples or onions without a bag,loose mushrooms and such need to be in those bags.I bring them back to the store and place them in the bin provided.

@Mary C. So what you are saying is it is safe to use that old shopping bag where the chicken last in it had leaked blood with salmonella which I did not notice? Do not tell Dateline that. Does the lettuce and fruit I next put in that bag know how not to get contaminated with that salmonella? You are welcome to believe that unproven old wives tale claiming there is no increase in food borne illness by reusing shopping bags; but, I rather not risk dying from salmonella. I just hope you do not put your family’s health at risk.
You said nothing about trying to get more people to recycle other than that it is an idea among other ideas. I am so proud of you: you compost and all that. You are a far better recycler than I could ever dream to be. But still it seems to me it would far more effective to concentrate your efforts on encouraging people to recycle than to play this I am a much better recycler because I avoid plastic bags than you are game.

I think the problem is not with using plastic bags but throwing them out after bringing home the groceries and produce.I've stated how I reuse mine.My neighbor,who has a small dog,uses plastic bags to clean up after him.A&P,Dearborn,and Whole Foods offer paper bags.Shop-rite does,too,but they're as thin as tissue and break when you put anything in them.

You can't be serious... The debt can be wiped out in a decade of a booming economy.. You can't just fix the global effect and cost of say raising sea levels. Frankly, it is this sort of lack of nuance and lazy approach to our politics that has got us hating each other.

Okay, Patrick, and I'm sure we can get that booming economy by refusing to allow drilling for domestic oil and natural gas and making it impossible to create energy with coal so that our energy costs go through the second story roof (they've already gone through the first story). Add to that all the subsidies we will need to give away to make any kind of green energy scheme anywhere near affordable for you and me and then impose more and more EPA restrictions on our manufacturing sector. Now, how exactly do you propose to create this booming economy that will wipe out $16 trillion dollars worth of debt in 10 years? Wait a minute to post so I can get up off the floor from laughing.
BTW, no need to worry about the rising seas because Mr. Obama promised at his capture of the Democratic nomination in 2008 election cycle that we would look back on that moment and tell our children that was the moment when the rising of the seas stopped and the world began to heal.

How will any post modern economy grow? That is easy innovation... Technology will bring about the next energy revolution, healthcare innovation, transportation.. etc etc... In New jersey, there is no reason why we are not a silicon valley or the research triangle... there is no reason that as we transformed from manufacturing to service to design and innovation economies that we lead the world. But we are also attached at the hip with the rest of the world... so how do we pull ahead???

I love the story of the kindle. Even if Amazon wanted to build it here and manufacture the parts here, they couldn't google it. it is an amazing study with what is wrong with this nation.