Last night I was down about life so I bought coke and pizza and yes both them are recyclable  so that good.  

I had to go out and get some food shopping and forgot to take a bad with me but that OK I put the paper bags in my bike tailor (so not even used and petrol) that I had on as I needed to go and get a printer from some one that I found off free cycles (raaaaaaa free printer).

Now as I am writing I realise that the bags in the bin are plastic and will go to land fill (any hints around this problem please - the bin people refuse to take bins away with out them being in bags)

The second issue is that I have had to turn my computer on to right this mail and this is using electric sourced from the mains.  Is anyone able to suggest a way that I can charge my laptop up with out using mains electric please.

Shalom

Rik

http://consumer.healthday.com/.....AID=672656

Sobering but real, if not alarming. Some adult content (swearing).

http://www.vice.com/toxic/toxi.....and-1-of-3

Thanks for the response. I'm living in a small town in Italy, and as you mentioned, even at the farmers market people bag things before you know what's happening. Lately I've had to swallow my pride a lot and empty out all the bags afterwards. Usually the shop-keepers think I'm crazy rather than conscientious...Also I was hugely disturbed to find that at the big grocery chains here it's REQUIRED to put each different type of produce in a separate plastic bag...otherwise the cashiers get angry with you and make you go and get one. You also have to wear plastic gloves (single use of course) in order to pick up produce. Ridiculous because who knows how many hands have already touched each piece of produce! My solution has been to reuse the same plastic bags, but it seems ridiculous....

Ok maybe this post belonged in the "rants" section. Thanks for the information Eva. 

I can´t say that I´ve seen a plastic bag ban in effect here; the shops seem to be handing them out as much as they used to. However, I did notice that one food stall at a market handed out biodegradable bags. Thank goodness, because my purchase was bagged and handed to me before I knew what was happening.  Most food products one buys at the cheese or deli meat counters come wrapped in paper, though some of that has plastic coating. And many more types of plastic are taken for recycling, that´s for certain.

There seems to be some incentive locally for certain projects. A neighboring town from where my friend lives is running a big composting campaign.

The one thing I would worry about is if you have a pickup service from your home. There is no way for me to know if the company was separating the stuff or just dumping it all to go into the landfill.

Since this was originally posted 3 years ago I thought maybe systems have improved...does anyone have information on that?  

I don't know the answer to this yet, but I'm heading for Italy in 2 weeks and staying with a friend who lives there.  She's very environmentally conscious, so I'll check with her.  I know that recycling is required by law in Italy, which leads Europe in recycling of waste materials, so there's certainly a consciousness about this aspect.  And, last year, Italy became the first nation in Europe to ban plastic bags! http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2.....onwide-ban

Since being inspired we've been able to reduce our waste significantly and hope to soon be able to order the smallest garbage can (20 gallon) from our garbage company. This is saying a lot because we have 8 people in our household and have been recognized 4 years in a row as the greenest family in Lafayette and in Contra Costa County.

Thanks for the inspiration.

http://mychiclife.com/2011/04/.....ork-in-it/

"In 2009, the Austin City Council passed a Zero Waste Plan with the goal of reducing the amount of waste sent to area landfills 90 percent by 2040."  I'm proud our city has taken this challenge on but it will be a difficult battle.

Badartworld