It’s Black Friday, which we celebrated 5 years ago by visiting Rio de Janeiro for a couple weeks.  Rio is one of the world’s most unique and beautiful cities for countless reasons.  Incredible beaches lace the city; good food is abundant for all budgets; and the city seems stuck in 1960, with abundant mid-century and [...]

I’ve been to most large North American cities, and I have to say Ottawa has one of the more impressive recycling programs.  The city of Ottawa is hard on its citizens:  according to its data, Ottawa residents are in the middle of the pack, behind Halifax and Edmonton but ahead of Calgary and Montreal.  Here’s [...]

On Wednesday I attended the Best Events Los Angeles conference as a guest of Jaime Nack, President of Three Squares Inc.  The organization invited Jaime to speak about organizing “green” events at a time when companies and event planners don’t have the green to spend.  Jaime was the Director of Sustainability and Greening Operations for [...]

It happened again Wednesday morning, infuriating me:  someone had gone through our garbage overnight, taking about our bottles and cans from the recycling bin . . . and putting all the paper and cardboard in our blue bin into the black trash bin.  Once again, I had to separate my garbage, and I was seething.  [...]

Every Tuesday night when I put out my trash cans, I’m clench my teeth when I see the amount of trash that’s going to end up either in the Inland Empire or South Central—or wherever LA’s garbage ends up. (more…)

I grew up in the 70s, and one commercial or PSA I still remember is the “Don’t Be a Litterbug” campaign.  American highways up till then were NASTY.  Just gross.  Despite Lady Bird Johnson’s best effort, many of our country’s roads were strewn with trash. We’ve gotten a lot better.  Oh sure, cities like Los [...]