Goodbye yellow brick road
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 4 » Goodbye yellow brick roadIf your fingers prefer typing to walking, can you opt out of Yellow Pages delivery?
Plus: Rainforest Alliance or Fairtrade?
Is there a way to stop receiving a physical copy of both Yellow Pages and White Pages?
The Yellow website is excellent, and for many people the actual Yellow and White Pages books are becoming redundant. Unfortunately, there’s not yet any way to opt out of receiving them. Kellie Nathan, Yellow Pages marketing director, says the firm is very conscious that “a growing number of people perceive the cost to the environment of producing, printing and delivering phone books to be greater than the value they get from them”, and it is carefully monitoring public opinion. It will consider introducing an opt-out when it sees enough demand.
You can help Yellow Pages with its monitoring: write to PO Box 17-157, Greenlane, Auckland or use the web contact form to register that you’d like to opt out in future. You can also phone them on 0800 803 803 or fax 0800 114 753.
Meanwhile, a heck of a lot of people haven’t yet jumped online. Every week New Zealanders refer to the Yellow or White Pages a whopping 9.3 million times, according to a TNS Conversa report from March 2008.
Seems our fingers aren’t just walking, they’re running marathons.
Why do supermarkets use plastic bags when for many years paper bags worked just fine?
Brace yourself. When it comes to supermarket checkout bags, it might be that plastic supermarket bags are—gasp—actually better for the environment than paper bags. A US-based lifecycle analysis by Franklin Associates found that plastic bags create fewer greenhouse gas emissions and require less energy to produce than paper. Head to good.net.nz/2/paper1 and good.net.nz/2/paper2 for the surprising details.
The study didn’t account for what happens after the bags are used, however. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, which is their biggest problem—and paper’s big advantage. A plastic bag in the sea does a lot more damage to wildlife than a paper one.
Why can’t supermarkets use biodegradable bags? Kevin Graham, managing director of biodegradable bag supplier Friendlypak, says it’s a supply issue. Because of the huge volumes of plastic bags supermarkets require, there just aren’t enough biodegradable bags to go around.
We suggest you get in touch with your local supermarket and let them know your feelings about plastic. Then get yourself some reusable shopping bags, which are clearly the best choice of all. An Environment Australia government study found that, from an energy standpoint, canvas bags are 14 times better than plastic bags and 39 times better than paper bags, assuming you get 500 uses from the canvas bag (that’s ten years of weekly shops). For your fruit and veg, we’re big fans of the Onya Weigh reuseable produce bags.
What is the difference between Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee? Is one better than the other?
When McDonalds began selling Rainforest Alliance-certified coffee in June, not many people (including us) had heard of the certification scheme. It’s not as well known as the Fairtrade mark, but does that mean it’s not as good?
First things first: either certificate is better than no certificate at all. There’s really no excuse now for drinking coffee that hasn’t been certified by someone. And if you’re wondering which tastes better, unless you’re a hard-core coffee connoisseur that’s in the hands of the barista rather than the bean-grower.
As for which is better for farmers, the short answer is Fairtrade. FLO International (which runs the Fairtrade mark) offers growers a guaranteed minimum price. That puts more money directly into the hands of farmers in the developing world. It also offers pre-financing, so farmers get paid for their coffee before the buyer receives all of it. More is paid for organic coffee, so almost all Fairtrade-certified beans also have organic certification, which means the farms have less impact on the land.
Rainforest Alliance requires its members to meet environmental, conservation, housing and sanitary standards, but it doesn’t offer pre-financing and only requires workers to be paid the minimum wage in their own country. Often, that’s not a living wage. Rainforest Alliance-certified farmers are generally paid around 20 percent less for their coffee than the price paid to Fairtrade-certified farmers. Head to good.net.nz/2/coffee for more information.
But unlike the Fairtrade scheme, improving farmers’ conditions isn’t the reason that Rainforest Alliance exists. It was launched 20 years ago to protect rainforests by providing farmers with economic incentives to stop them destroying their environment—and it has done some great work. Its highly regarded SmartWood programme helped found the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC).
If there’s one big problem with the Rainforest Alliance certificate, it’s this: the seal can be used on coffee containing as little as 30 percent certified beans. That means up to 70 percent of the coffee beans in a bag bearing the Rainforest Alliance seal might not be certified at all.
That’s a trick McDonalds New Zealand won’t be falling for: its espresso is made from 100 percent Rainforest Alliance-certified beans. Don’t drink its filter coffee, though, which is of the non-certified, don’t-ask-don’t-tell variety. Anyway, filter coffee? Come on, surely you’re not that desperate.
Can plastic containers that have no recycle number or triangle still be recycled?
This really depends on where you live; but in Auckland and Manukau, where plastics marked one to seven are recyclable, the answer is no. That’s because most plastic is still sorted manually. To determine a type of plastic with no recycling mark requires infrared scanning equipment.
To find out your local council’s recycling policy, ring them and ask. And while you’re by the phone, why not ring the company that made your unmarked product? Ask them if the packaging is recyclable—and if it’s not, tell them what you think about that. Most businesses don’t want to inconvenience their customers, so your call might just start a change of direction.
The easiest way to avoid the problem is to avoid purchasing items in packaging that can’t be recycled, says Jo Knight of Zero Waste NZ.
Thu February 05, 2009 @ 02:01 PM
