News Tidbits

Just a few interesting and somewhat random things I've been reading:

• In a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal (titled "Common Sense Ecology for Homes"), someone pointed out a fundamental inconsistency in the green building craze.  Basically, the two goals of environmental footprint and healthy lifestyles have been conflated, and while they usually go together (making furniture with fewer toxins is good for the earth and good for your family), they are not always in alignment. In particular, tightly-sealed homes are good for energy efficiency but bad for indoor air quality.  So we can't always have our cake and eat it too, though that always seemed like a silly expression to me, since we generally do eat our servings of cake... but I digress...
• There's a new book out that I've very much like to read, called The Marketing of Thirst,* by Elizabeth Royte.  Issues of water scarcity and the bottled-water industry are coming to the forefront, and I think they will (justifiably) be getting more and more attention over the coming years.  Another book review that caught my eye: Labor Pains by Steven Greenhouse, which chronicles the decline of unions and the corresponding systemic problems in how American workers are treated today.
• There was an article on Recycline, a company I've been following for some time because I admire its goal of creating a use for recycled plastic by making products that are also themselves recyclable.  However, I recently tried to walk my talk about them, and failed.  For one, their "disposable" plates and cutlery are so durable they are actually dishwasher-safe, which makes me feel that they must have more material in them than I really need - perhaps they are more like a substitute for regular plates than for disposable ones.  Second, they cost at least 5 times as much as the alternatives.  I don't mind a 20% markup, but 500% is tough.  I'll be looking for FSC certified paper plates instead.

*Note: Apologies, I inadvertently mixed up the book title and the book-review title. As you can see from the author's comment below, the real title is Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.  Great, that's a much better title!

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Hi Melissa,
The book is actually Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.
Hope you like it!
Best,
Elizabeth Royte