Big Green Lies

CF bulbs are good for us despite the mercury.

Using an incandescent bulb introduces more mercury into the air than an equivalent CF bulb contains. Not to mention the CO2 from the fuels burned to power it.

And if the CF bulb doesn't break and is disposed of properly, none of the mercury gets into the air, water, or soil.

LED lighting is better for us and the environment than everything else available. But the best LED bulbs currently available are FAR more expensive or put out WAY less light. But they're getting better fast; they were 50x worse several years ago, now they're only 5x worse.

Some large sulfur and sodium lighting systems are also very efficient.

Greener commissary

Hi Dania!! I'm not a commissary director,just a shopper that is councius about the enviroment.My husband is retired from the Navy and I remember wen we wore stationed in La Maddalena(Italy)it was realy bad not having green options but I did by online so that is a very good way.I'm very new at all this. I did find the paper towels and toilet paper at the comissary hear in Virginia Beach and very important tampons yes,tampons that are organic,wow,I never new that we had organic tampons and pads,lol.
I hope to see more green in commissaries too.
Ana.

Make a Commissary Greener!

Well i do hope a director of a commissary would read this, and be concern and just selling the all-purpose cleaner, dishwasher and dishes liquid soaps it is just not enough. I have the concern of finding a good toilet paper and paper towels as well, and i know cloth rags comes in handy a times what about what i flush?

Living in Italy as part of the military has its low blows, why well because spending money in the economy is horrifying because of the Euro rates and the only place you can rely on is the commissary, which is expensive BTW. Italy is very conservative with the environment, but just as our host is we as guest should be too. Just let you all know i have talked to the commissary direct in ordering more eco-friendly products, it still shock me when i look at the shelf they are limited. Well, i guess i have to be persistent!

Dania♥

Re: Mercury in CFL Bulbs

Well, we moved into the house I'm in now 7 years ago, I put fluorescent fixtures everywhere I could, and only one has burned out so far...I'm very energy conscious, however...

I would recommend saving bubble wrap whenever you get a package in the mail that comes with it, and wrap the bubble wrap around the bulb, secure with a piece of packing tape, and using a sharpie to draw a skull/crossbones with "CFC" on the bubblewrap, LOL...

I only have one lightbulb now, so am storing it, not worried about recycling it NOW>...HOWEVER, maybe everytime I have an errand, I'll go to a different retailer that sells these bulbs, ask to speak to the manager, and insist that since they are profiting from the sale of these bulbs, they should be taking the spent bulbs back for recycling...maybe threaten to get a grass roots petition going, and call the local newspaper with a story...Hell, there are lots of ways, but this problem needs to be solved community by community at a grass roots level...

Places like Home Depot or Lowe's sell these, and even light their own buildings with fluorescents--the larger ones, yet still fluorescents--so they must recycle them, no?

Short of any grassroots revolution and making retailers who profit from the sale of these provide convenient take-back of the compact fluorescents, Check www.sierraclub.org website under 'recycling" or www.earth911.org, you can find out where to recycle specific things--even these bulbs--in your area.

Green Washing and Cleaning

Have you also noticed that the liquid laundry soap appears fluorescent in the machine. I also tried shaklee products and noticed it kind of glowed once it got into my washing machine. I believe it may contain an optical brightener, which as I understand it is not all that good for people or the planet.

Mercury in Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

There has to be some kind of an answer about what to do about these wonderful bulbs that were supposed to be better for our environment than the old bulbs we all used to use.

I just found out, on a show on TV that these bulbs, contain mercury.

Wanna Be Green

I know Tide hasn't advertised that their new concentrated formula is all natural, but it still irks me that they claim to be helping the environment. Yes, this product uses less plastic and less product, but it is not all natural and still therefore polluting the Earth. And they still make the gi-hugic 200 lb. containers of detergent on top of it anyway. Phew! That felt good. Take that Tide. :p

Pottery Barn

My sister registered with them for her wedding so I bought her a gift. Come to find out, I ended up on their mailing list and started getting catalogs. They had an issue from 2 months ago that was their Living Green issue. Aside from them sending out a 160+ pg full color catalog I never asked for and wasting all that paper, they had tons of things in there that mimicked reused items but were really brand new wood and toxic paints. Then they had in fine print in the back their disclosure about the percentage of organic cottons and other recycled earth friendly products actually used and I don't remember any of them being more than 10% - including the catalog itself.

Yeah, that stuff bothers me intensely too. Another one I dislike is Ethos water, at Starbucks. Playing heavily on your emotions to want to provide the same good water to kids in Africa and elsewhere, they sell you an overpriced bottle of water in a plastic container. Without getting into all the reasons bottled water is bad, I will say this: I'd much rather set aside a nickel for every glass of tap water I drink at home and send it off to help those kids directly (since a nickel is how much Starbucks gives them).