Pacifica Riptide

Wrapping Cloth: A Green Way to Gift-Wrap

Here's an eco-wrap idea. I was inspired by the amazing art form of Korean Wrapping Cloths. Buy holiday-themed yardage to wrap presents and reuse every year. Some of this fabric is way more beautiful than paper anyway. Too late for this year? Pop down to a Jo-Ann store after Christmas and buy it at half-price. You'll be ready for next year. Each year I get another assortment. Now I'm going to implement birthday cloth wraps. Encourage your giftee to pass on the wrap. Happy holidays.

Amelia Williams

Give the Gift of Clean Air and Water This Holiday Season

Download Green Holiday PR

Paul Donahue, Linda Mar Beach

Sustainable San Mateo County: 2013 Cover Photo Contest

Contest Details

Find Safer Home and Garden Products

Download IPM advocates PR

Plastic Not Fantastic: Food Storage Always Safer in Glass Containers

Mr. Green's Advice

Tuolumne River Water Transfer Stopped

We stopped the water transfer from the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) to the SFPUC! It took a year of collaboration between farmers, environmentalists, and the City of Modesto, but we did it. Yesterday the MID board voted to cease negotiations with the SFPUC. You can read about it at http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/09/18/2544402/modesto-utility-rejects-sf-water.html

To learn more about TRT's reasons for opposing the transfer, please visit http://www.tuolumne.org/content/article.php/20120820135626172

Many thanks to those of you who helped by attending public hearings and sending emails. Our efforts really made a difference! Please join us on October 4 to celebrate another recent victory -- the acquisition of Dos Rios, 1,600 acres of farmland at the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers that will be restored to wildlife habitat. For details, please see http://www.tuolumne.org/content/article.php/20120802100516719

Peter Drekmeier
Bay Area Program Director
Tuolumne River Trust
111 New Montgomery, #205
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 882-7252 x 302
peter@tuolumne.org
http://www.tuolumne.org/bayarea

Right to Know: Big Organic Joins Corporate Coalition vs. Proposition 37

Click for Details on Monsanto-Led Campaign

Friends & Enemies of Your Right to Know About GMO Food & Drink

Friends and Enemies of Your Right to Know

Click the link above to read about the giant corporations trying to defeat California Proposition 37, which would protect consumers' right to know about genetically modified food and beverages on store shelves.

DIY: Make Your Own Recycling/Compost Pail Liner with Newspaper

Thanks to Larry Rosenstein for sharing this item from SF Gate.

A reader recently wrote: "I am a lazy and inconsistent recycler and worry about my carbon footprint only when I'm in the market for new shoes. Like most San Franciscans, I have the requisite green recycling bucket under my sink though am never quite sure how to line it. I know I can buy mass-produced biodegradable liner bags, but buying something simply to recycle it seems backwards." In honor of Earth Day, we offer an alternative in this simple origami project using The Chronicle, which is 100 percent compostable and printed with nontoxic ink.
1. Open up the paper, remove and recycle the inside pages. Make a right triangle by folding the bottom left corner to the top edge, flattening the fold. Cut off and recycle the extra piece. Position the triangle, so the fold is at the bottom.
2. Separate the layers at the top of the triangle and bring one side down to the bottom edge. Make a crease; unfold. This crease will be your guideline.
3. Bring the bottom left-hand corner to the right edge, aligning it with the crease. Flatten the fold.
4. Fold the right-hand corner to the left side. Flatten the fold.
5. Separate the layers of newspaper at the top. Fold one side down, pressing to flatten.
6. Turn the container over and repeat.
7. Open the completed container and adjust to fit your countertop bin. For a stronger
liner, double up on the newspaper.
(Earth Day Origami, SF Gate, April 22, 2012)

Compostable/Biodegradable Bags: Getting to the Bottom of It

CLICK COMMENTS BELOW TO SEE READERS' SUGGESTIONS

After we posted Recology manager Chris Porter's clarification on so-called compostable/biodegradable bags, we got the following email from reader Lori Fisher, a Pacifica resident:

Checking with Recology, I got a different answer from someone else regarding biodegradable bags. The BioBags would get caught on their sorting/moving tables. I had called asking if I could get a compost pail I had seen a neighbor using to work with my new BioBags I purchased at Costco. BTW: No compost pail is available.

Now some of what is on the box of BioBags -- Food Waste Collection Bags Certified Compostable:

"BioBags are approved by the San Francisco Department of the Environment for their food waste collection programs."

"BioBags are approved by King County Solid Waste Department for their food waste collection programs."

"This certification assures that BioBag products meet the specifications found in ASTM D6400 and will compost rapidly & safely when placed in a municipal or commercial composting facility."

"BioBag products are made from starches derived from plants, vegetable oils, and the world's first patented compostable polymer. No polyethylene is used in the production process. We are fully certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) and meet the requirements of California law regarding environmental claims of plastic bag manufacturers." (This is a USA product)

Website for more info: www.biobagusa.com

Facts & FAQs: http://www.biobagusa.com/biodegradable-bags.html

About Mater-Bi: http://www.biobagusa.com/mater_bi.htm

A brown bag cannot hold your greenwaste from the kitchen to your outside container without falling apart, especially when you have "wet" greens. Think of the Glad garbage bag commercial. I don't want that kind of mess to clean up. (Editor's Note: I double the bags, ordinary brown-paper sandwich sacks from Costco.)

Tell me why we cannot use these BioBags? San Francisco outlawed plastic bags but allows these special bags in its compostable waste collection.

Lori Fisher