Waste Management Inc.’s ‘Greenopolis’ Social Network: One Big Greenwashed Ad?

Is ‘Greenopolis’, the new green social networking site, a cool place for like-minded people to discuss their efforts to lower their carbon footprints and help the environment, or simply a multi-billion-dollar corporation’s effort to greenwash its reputation?

Greenopolis is meant to give people an easy way to communicate about green practices, providing environmental resources and facts. There’s also a ‘green merit badge’ system, that while meant to motivate and reward people for making incremental steps toward being more green, reminds me of the sort of my-shit-don’t-stink elitism that turns the general public off of the green movement (Smug Alert!).

TechCrunch, for one, thinks that Greenopolis is basically just an advertisement, and not a very well-thought-out one at that:

Frankly this should just be an application on Facebook and MySpace, it would get better traction. But that’s not what the consultants told Waste Management (a $20 billion company that, well, manages waste), I’m guessing, since today they’ve launched Greenopolis, a social network for greenies.

They’re committed, they say, to connecting people and businesses on green issues, and teach people about ways to be more environmentally sound. Like other social networks, members can create profiles and add friends. Users also rack up Green Points and have a Green Profile, which shows just how much they care about the environment.

Greenopolis, I suspect, is designed to show that Waste Management cares about the environment more than anything else. So in a way, it’s like an advertisement. See ZeroFootprint, a Canadian company we’ve covered that also creates local social networks around carbon offsetting in partnership with cities.

It’s a good point – is there really even a need for a stand-alone green social network? How many social networks can one person participate in? Are Greenopolis’ features enough to draw people away from Myspace and Facebook? Probably not, except for those people who are already committed to environmental advocacy. They’re not likely to get a huge influx of advertisers’ favorite targets: social-network-savvy teens and young adults with impressionable minds and lots of discretionary income.

One thing I noticed while browsing the member directory is that there are an awful lot of marketing professionals and companies pushing ‘green’ products (along with a whole lot of Waste Management employees). Greenopolis has the potential to become a greenwashed marketing free-for-all. Hopefully Greenopolis members approach product marketing on the site with a healthy dose of skepticism.

There’s also the fact that this is coming from Waste Management Inc., a $20 billion dollar company that rebranded themselves as ‘green’ after several toxic spills and illegal dumping allegations in the 80s and an accounting scandal in 1998. Their own ads certainly border on greenwashing – boasting, for example, that the waste they’ve collected has powered over 1 million homes, when recycling waste saves far more energy than burning it could create – plus, trash incinerators are the leading source of dioxins, super-toxic carcinogenic chemicals. Signs on their trucks say ‘Last year we recycled enough paper to save over 41 million trees’, yet they recycle less than 5% of the trash they collect.

Is Waste Management, Inc. using Greenopolis as a way to improve their image? Joe Vaillancourt, managing director of Waste Management’s organic growth group had this to say in a press release put out by the company: “We believe that by promoting and creating a dialogue about things such as conservation, recycling, and renewable energy that awareness about our environmental operations and our business offerings will increase.”

Is Waste Management America’s largest recycler? Yes – no other company has been able to get their foot in the door. But are they doing enough to legitimately call themselves green? No. You can’t trust when companies put out ads claiming to be stewards of the environment – even monster polluter Monsanto claims to be green. Since Waste Management Inc. has a virtual stranglehold on the trash industry in the U.S., they’ll continue to profit regardless of whether they make advances in green waste management practices. And as long as the public is convinced that they’re a green company, they can take their sweet time getting around to environmentally friendly practices that are expensive or inconvenient for them.

It’s difficult to categorically call ‘greenwashing’ on Waste Management Inc.’s ‘Greenopolis’, since the company has made some strides toward being greener – but not as many as they’d like the public to think (just look at their catchphrase – ‘Think Green. Think Waste Management’.) I’d like to see them take cues from Germany, where no biodegradable waste or recyclable materials go to landfills. Naturally, combating the waste problem here in the U.S. will have to be a joint effort between the corporations who package products, the consumers who buy them and waste management companies, so they can’t do it all on their own – but they can do more.

Efforts like creating a ‘green’ social network shouldn’t distract the public from the actual practices of Waste Management, Inc. The company has set themselves up for intense scrutiny through their green rebranding, so they’d better be prepared to put their money where their mouth is, so to speak. Just being the greenest waste management company in the country isn’t enough when other companies are barely making an effort at all. To truly be green, Waste Management Inc. needs to really step up their environmental initiatives.

Greenopolis may hold some value for people who lack any other forum to connect on green issues, though die-hard environmentalists aren’t likely to get much out of it other than possibly networking and/or educating others. As long as members are aware of the potential for greenwashing – and don’t participate as an alternative to actually being active in their own communities – Greenopolis could act as a portal to get green newbies interested and educated in environmental issues.

Link [TechCrunch] + [Greenopolis]

Germany Collecting Italy’s Mountains of Trash

The city of Naples, Italy has long had a trash problem. Crazy as it sounds, many in the region blame the mafia, who are said to have filled up local dumps with trash from other countries that they were paid to get rid of. How it got to be so bad in the first place is no longer all that important as the problem has now gotten so extreme, Germany has stepped in to help. The two countries cut a deal allowing Italy to get rid of 160,000 tons of trash by shipping it to Germany for incineration. Most of the waste comes from the Campania region, which includes Naples, the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. The trash in Naples, especially, has gotten to be a major health hazard, not helped by the fact that residents are starting to burn the trash in the streets, releasing toxic chemicals like dioxin into the air.

From ABC News:

The deal brokered by the two countries means that over the next three months three to four trains per week will arrive at the northern German town of Hamburg after a 45-hour ride all the way from southern Europe, each train bearing some 700 tons of refuse.

Up to 60,000 tons of trash will be collected from the streets of Naples alone, and another 100,000 tons will be made up of household waste from around the Campania area.
Other German cities, like Bremerhaven and Düsseldorf, are partners in the deal. They are sharing the trash in order to put their state-of-the art incinerators to work, but Hamburg can easily handle up to 3,000 tons per week in addition to managing its own trash.

The Italians are reportedly paying approximately $235 per ton, and paying for the transport as well. Hamburg officials admit that the city makes good money helping the Italians.

Germany is warning Italy that this is only a temporary solution, and that they must find other ways to get rid of their trash.

Gee, it’s too bad that there’s no way to cut down on the amount of trash that society throws away. Ironically, Germany had a similar problem years ago and tackled it in a sustainable way – Italy could learn a lesson from them. Germany’s waste management program is so successful, they have saved some 46 million tons of carbon per year since it was put into place in 2005.

Link [ABC News]
Photo credit: Time Magazine / Chris Warde-Jones / Bloomberg

How to Stop Wasteful Phone Book Deliveries

Every year, at least once, you open your front door to find one – or possibly even two or three – phone books piled in a heap on your doorstep, driveway or lawn. Competing phone book companies put out various versions of their tomes, giving you yellow books, white books, county books and city books. And, when’s the last time you even used a phone book? Aren’t we all just looking things up on the internet by now?

If you’re sick of wasteful phone book deliveries, you can put them to a stop. Here’s how, from Simply Thrifty:

If you want to stop receiving phone books call:

* ATT/ Yellow Pages: 1-800-479-2977
* Verizon: 800-555-4833, press 4, then 5, then 2
* DEX: 1-877-243-8339, press 2
* Yellow Book: 1-800-929-3556, press 2

You can also opt out of phone book deliveries at www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org.

Link [Simply Thrifty]
Photo credit: Flickr user merfam

Buy One House, Get One Free

Top sign the housing market is still going downhill: when you purchase one McMansion, you get a smaller yet still ‘luxurious’ row home free. No kidding. One San Diego real estate developer has clearly gotten very, very desperate to sell homes.

From the LA Times:

We thought, ‘Why does it just have to be on Pop Tarts and restaurants? Why not buy one home, get one free,’” Dawn Berry of Michael Crews Development told 10 News in San Diego.

More: “Michael Crews Development is offering new, 2000-square foot cityscape row-homes worth $400,000 in Escondido for free — if you buy one Royal View Estate home in San Pasqual Valley starting at $1.6 million. ‘You know it’s a straight-up legit deal; no prices have been increased, there are no hidden costs. Michael is just giving away a free home for people that buy at Royal View,’ said Berry.”

“Adam Rossman of Michael Crews Development added, ‘People have been coming in saying, ‘How can you do this?’ Well, it’s our way of dealing with current market conditions to move some inventory.’ “

Another real estate development company, Toll Brothers, posted a $93.7 million dollar loss last quarter, so clearly things aren’t going so well, even in previously booming areas like Southern California. In previous years, when the real estate market in such areas was so hot that it was incredibly difficult to find an affordable home, developers like these saw their bank accounts growing distended as they built more and more subdivisions, condos and retail space with the assumption that all units would easily be sold.

Considering the greed in the development industry, I think it’s poetic justice that they’re finding the rug pulled out from under them – how many times did they find loopholes in laws and ignore the public’s wishes so they could build a mini mall on natural, untouched land?

Link [LA Times] + [Huffington Post]

Celine Dion’s Florida Mansion Used 6.5 Million Gallons of Water in Two Years

Celine Dion, despite being known for singing an incredibly annoying ubiquitous song for the blockbuster film that made Leonardo DiCaprio a household name, apparently hasn’t learned much from the actor. The Palm Beach Post checked out the Canadian diva’s water usage at her Jupiter, Florida home and what they found is astonishing. Over the past two years, 6.5 million gallons of water were used at the home. And that’s just one home of many she owns.

ABC News has it:

That’s nearly 18,000 gallons of water a day, about 100 times more than the 170-gallons-per-day the average resident uses every day, according to the Florida-based U.S. Water Institute. Dion’s annual water usage could fill more than 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

For the past few years, according to Graham, Florida, along with much of the southeast United States, has experienced a water shortage due to increased population and record-low rainfall. In addition to causing a spike in water prices, the drought has created a tug of water in the northern part of Florida with neighboring Georgia, over water from Georgia’s Lake Lanier.

“If we want to protect our ecosystem, we’re certainly going to have to be more careful,” Graham said. “Definitely, anything like 6 million gallons per year is way out there.”

When you think about it, it’s not all that surprising. She looks like the effing cryptkeeper. Maybe all of that water is necessary to keep her skin from collapsing in on itself. That, and the blood of 666 virgins. Seriously, this woman is the spawn of the devil. How else can you explain the fact that she’s so popular despite a tremulous voice that makes me want to hide under my bed when I hear it?

Link [ABC News]
Photo credit: Columbia Records

Holy $#@%! The Average American Family Wastes 122 lbs of Food Every Month

Being freegan never looked like such a good idea. The average American family of four produces 122 pounds of waste each month, and most of that goes straight to landfills. That total doesn’t count food wasted by farms, processors and wholesalers. It adds up to a whopping 1,464 pounds per year. That waste includes lots of stuff that’s perfectly good, and the rest could at least be composted. Remember that the conditions in landfills prevent things from biodegrading like they would out in the open. This kind of waste causes our landfills to pile up, fast.

Christ on a bicycle, this is insanity. I knew we were a wasteful culture, but, wow. Most of us can recall our mothers telling us to eat up because there are starving children in Ethiopia, but damn, clearly what we really need to be doing is buying less in the first place – or giving the stuff we can’t eat to those in need. It’s truly sad to see so much waste when there are so many people struggling for a morsel of food every day.

Click here to see a higher resolution copy and read the details. Crazy!

Link [Groovy Green]
Photo credit: The New York Times

Unbelievable Waste: Mazda Destroys 4,703 New Cars Worth $100 Million

BoingBoing has an incredible video of nearly 5,000 brand new, straight from the factory Mazdas being flattened at a junkyard. The total value of these cars was $100 million. The Wall Street Journal has it:

It all started about two years ago, when a ship carrying 4,703 shiny new Mazdas nearly sank in the Pacific. The freighter, the Cougar Ace, spent weeks bobbing on the high seas, listing at a severe 60-degree angle, before finally being righted.

The mishap created a dilemma: What to do with the cars? They had remained safely strapped down throughout the ordeal — but no one knew for sure what damage, if any, might be caused by dangling cars at such a steep angle for so long. Might corrosive fluids seep into chambers where they don’t belong? Was the Cougar Ace now full of lemons?

Crazy – couldn’t they just have had mechanics test the cars to see if damage really was done? Or, sell them at a buy-at-your-own-risk discount? Hopefully the metal will at least be reused, because this seems like a huge amount of extremely unnecessary trash.

Link [Wall Street Journal] via [BoingBoing]

Heavy, Expensive, Wasteful College Textbooks are So 20th Century: Why Aren’t Ebooks More Readily Available By Now?

As mountains of old, out of date college textbooks continue to pile up – and updated versions are published to take their places – the current system of buying and selling these books seems more and more antiquated. It begs the question, what other options do we have? Sure, you can buy and sell used books, but there are cons to that too.

Last March, Treehugger questioned the eco-friendliness of online book swaps. While purchasing or borrowing used books is way better than constantly paying for new ones, all that shipping back and forth makes it a little less green than it should be. At least one site, 2swap.com, gets a good rating from Treehugger but isn’t geared specifically toward college students.

Nearly all college students these days have laptops, and PDF versions of books are becoming more and more common. Imagine how much easier and less wasteful it would be if college books were licensed and sold electronically for a semester of use. You wouldn’t have to lug around an insane number of 20-pound books, you wouldn’t be out a ton of money even when selling your books back after you’re done with them and the old unwanted texts would stop their endless march to the landfill.

Perhaps starting up a signature drive to get more publishers to offer texts in ebook form would be a good way for college students to get their eco-activist on. Publishers are old school and most aren’t yet internet-savvy, but they’re like any other businesspeople: if there’s a demand, and they know they can make money off of it, they’ll take action. If enough students started requesting ebook versions of their college texts, there’s no reason why everybody couldn’t make the switch. It’d result in less trees being cut down, savings for college students, and a way for publishers to get their foot into the 21st century finally.

Here’s a partial list of college textbook publishers to get started. Any takers?

Link [Treehugger] + [2Swap] + [ACQWeb]

Photo credit: Flickr user anavrin

Green Packaging Fail: Like One Of Those Russian Doll Sets

The Fail Blog has a great example of a seriously over-packed package, looks like maybe a RAM chip.

Ouch!

Link [Fail Blog]

Home Refrigeration 2.0- The Oceania Refrigerator Brings The Sexy Green Noise

OK, I admit it- I hate my refrigerator. I hate it because I know just how inefficient of a design it is. Every time I open the door to get something the reservoir of cold air that had built up tumbles out into your kitchen. When you close the door the refrigerator has to re-cool the air, only to lose it the next time you need mayonnaise or Parmesan cheese. Open the freezer for some ice cream and you’ll get the same, only with colder air.

Seriously, try this sometime- lay down on the floor about 6-8 feet from your fridge and face towards it with your head at ground level. Have someone open the refrigerator door and wait a second- you’ll feel a wave of cold air puff at your face, a river of chill being dumped out of the fridge. That air is your money, and the health of the planet, being wasted away. If it’s winter time and you’re heating your house you’ll get hit with a double whammy of having to warm that air back up.

In short, we need a completely reimagined refrigerator.

Yanko Design points to such a thing- the Oceania Refrigerator, designed by Tez Patel.

Check out some of it’s VERY cool and green features:

• three tiers of compartments cooled by magnetic refrigeration and individually controlled with a digital interface.
• a fourth bottom compartment passively cooled with water and ceramic materials that is good for storing veggies, fruit, and bread.
• multiple sections means you don’t expose the entire unit to the air when you get something, and using pull out drawers reduces the cascade of cold air that happens with a traditional fridge.
• a clear drawer lets you browse before you open and it has the capability of tracking food in the fridge using RFID.
• all materials are biodegradable or recyclable.

Swing over to Yanko and check out the other photos, the thing is one sexy piece of machinery.

I want one.

Link [Tez Patel] via [Yanko Design]

Do Your Part- April 1st is Energy Wasting Day

Don’t forget, April 1st is Energy Wasting Day. Here at EarthFirst HQ we’ll be cranking up the thermostat to 95, opening the windows, and idling our cars all day long in the parking lot. How much energy can you waste in a day?

Link [Energy Wasting Day] via [Trend Hunter]

Tinkering with Packaging: McDonalds Looking For Ways to Suck Less

McDonalds is a GIANT corporation. I read somewhere that 27,000,000 people eat at the Golden Arches every day. I’m no fast food saint- I admit a lifelong love affair with the Big Mac. I know how disgustingly unhealthy they are (and everything else they serve), I’ve seen Super Size Me a bunch of times, but damn it all if it’s not tasty.

Anyways, McDonalds is responsible for a lot of solid waste via those 27 million daily customers and I guess they’ve been working to reduce the impact from all those thrown away fry containers and to-go bags. Here’s a video I found at Environmental Leader of Jennifer McCracken, environmental manager for McDonald’s global packing supplier showing some of the ways they are trying to make their negative eco foot print less devastating.

Video via [Environmental Leader]

Bash Back at Bulk Mail: Send a Brick Back to Bulk Mailers on Their Dime- Legally!

Junk mail is a pain in the ass. You get all excited to check your mail, hoping for a fatty paycheck or a steamy note from Gladys in HR or at least your FerretFancy magazine, but instead you get shat on with bills for your most recent bladder operation and a ton of crap catalogues and credit card offers.

Besides being downright disappointing, crap mailings also use up around 100 million trees, around 30 billion gallons of water, and wastes about 300 million dollars in local tax money per year. Makes you just wanna leave a flaming shit on those bulk-mail guys’ doorsteps, am I right?

Well, check out this brilliant trick from the Office of Strategic Influence. Apparently, you can use those handy business-return envelopes to mail your steamy dump free of charge. The best part is that the poor bastards actually have to pay 20 cents per pound to receive your stool sample.

Okay, so it’s technically not legal to send poop, but you can definitely get away with sending something awkward and cumbersome like a brick. And there isn’t anyway they can track you down. Bwahahahaha! So fight the good fight, send a brick to bulk!

Link [Office of Strategic Influence]

BBC Puts Reality TV Show Stars Out With the Trash- Literally

Talk about trash TV - Tune into BBC America this Sunday and you might just happen upon a gaggle of lost and forlorn Brits, rummaging through mounds and mounds of their own waste. No, not THAT kind of waste… get your filthy minds out of the sewer. We’re talking garbage here, folks. Sweet-smelling and abundant, beautiful and glorious: TRASH!

For a three week period, 11 landfill-rumaging dwellers made their ways through a dump, accepting challenges along the way that involved making the most out of the one thing that they had tons and tons of: crap. Dumped, a four part BBC series, means to draw attention to the dreadful UK landfill situation and airs until the end of March.

Compared to other European nations, the UK ranks low when it comes to recycling. It is estimated that each UK resident throws away 1/2 ton of trash each year, something that this whacked-out reality show is trying to make a stink about…

Links [Green Daily] & [BBC Dumped]