The EcoWomen have lots of questions about how “green” various regions are. Leave us a comment about the following talking points–we’re curious to know!
Where do you live? (city/state/region)
Do you live in a place with curbside recycling? Is recycling convenient where you live?
Do you get a 5 cent rebate for each grocery sack you use at the store?
Can you find milk/soda/water in returnable bottles?
Does your town have a farmers market?
Do you have renewable energy options for powering your home?
Is biking or public transportation a convenient and safe option for you?
Do your local representatives address environmental issues?
Can you find organic and/or fair trade goods at your local stores?
Do people compost where you live?
Do you or your neighbors grow your own food?
How would you gauge the overall environmental awareness/concern in your area?
Are buildings in your area energy efficient?
Leave a comment! We want to know! Please remark on any areas we forgot to mention!
I live in a college town in Virginia.
Yes — curbside recycling, bag rebate at Whole Foods (but nowhere else), refillable/reusable bottles (but very expensive), active farmers markets (several), renewable energy options (but somewhat limited), biking and public transportation, local reps addressing issues, organic and fair trade products, composting, home gardens, energy efficient buildings.
Overall, this is a VERY environmentally aware community.
That said, there is a huge gap between the Haves and Have Nots. So, while a large part of the population is focused on environmental matters, there’s another large segment that live in energy INefficient homes, don’t have convenient access to even basic grocery stores (much less organic options), and who are generally more concerned daily survival than with larger global issues.
There are groups here in town that are trying to address this, including putting community gardens in public housing and teaching the residents how to grow and harvest.
Alright let’s see then…
Where do you live? Black Hills of South Dakota
What’s up with recycling? Recycling is combined with garbage pickup. Literally. No separation. It’s all sorted at the transfer station. Convenient yes. Ideal for “awareness”? Hell to the no.
Do you get a 5 cent rebate for each grocery sack you use at the store? Yup…at least at Safeway where I shop. Not sure about others. And there are no “greener” mega-stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Just Safeway and Family Thrift.
Can you find milk/soda/water in returnable bottles? Only if you buy direct from the dairy. Which I’m very happy to do. We do have a few of those “bottled water refill stations” in the big city. I don’t use them, being perfectly happy with my tap water.
Does your town have a farmers market? My itty bitty town is trying to start one. The big city (pop. ~60K) has a few. And they’re pretty good once the crops start coming in. Otherwise expect canned goods like salsa and dilly beans.
Do you have renewable energy options for powering your home? Nope. Call Black Hills Power and ask for green energy and they’ll tell you they have the cleanest coal in the nation. pbbblllttt. The local energy coop we switched to on our move does offer the option for RECs. I have yet to do the research to determine if they are good RECs.
Is biking or public transportation a convenient and safe option for you? Depends. For work? For me, no (tight twisty roads with large RVs full of gawking tourists? I think not) But if you work in itty bitty town, yes. For errands in our small town? Yes. But it’s a half hour drive to the big city. So instead I try to limit my trips there and share a ride if possible.
Do your local representatives address environmental issues? Sort of. Forest and fire management are huge here, which are of course directly tied to the environment.
Can you find organic and/or fair trade goods at your local stores? Yes. We have an organic market here in itty bitty town, and big city has a handful of small natural/organic/local/fair trade geared stores.
Do people compost where you live? You better believe it.
Do you or your neighbors grow your own food? We try. We are faced with a very short (75 days max) growing season. You’ve gotta be determined. But many people do it. And we love to talk/whine about it.
How would you gauge the overall environmental awareness/concern in your area? Pretty low. (See below)
Are buildings in your area energy efficient? The new ones are getting there. But we have lots of old buildings that are not being updated.
I live in an area of contrasts. We’re being called the new Jackson Hole. As in the billionaires are forcing the millionaires out of JH and they’re coming to the Hills. But most of the traditional population are ranchers and loggers. Not a highly educated group nor white collar. As such, many do “green” things out of habit – grow their own food, sew, recycle/reuse, compost, etc. We also have a large low-income population. Survival is a priority for these folks. Which leads to thriftiness in some areas. But buying organic food and clothing is not a high priority. And they sure don’t have the money to renovate their 30 year old homes to make them more energy efficient, tax credits or no. But! New construction is becoming greener (as in builders are touting it in their press). And on-site renewables have been in the news a lot – towns discussing how to handle folks that want to put up their own windmills and such.
The Black Hills are very outdoors oriented, and that leads to a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, if for no other reason than most of our livelihoods depend on it (tourism). But when it comes to the new green thing…we’re very behind the times. There’s a thriving grassroots movement here, but it’s slow going. Most of the focus is on the low-cost, free and easy approach for the majority of the population. And the clunker trade-in is pretty slow here. These folks have large pick-ups, and they aren’t afraid to use ‘em. (Well, you would too if you made your living in the forest/on a ranch.)
I love living here, but it’s definitely not the heart of the environmental movement. Thanks for letting me ramble on…
Where do you live? (city/state/region)
Midlands, UK
Do you live in a place with curbside recycling? Is recycling convenient where you live?
Yes – we put glass, card, paper, tins, plastic all into one bin collected fortnightly. Garden waste, cooked and uncooked food into another bin collected on the same day. And a black bin for other waste collected alternate weeks to the other 2. Makes for a lot of bins!
Do you get a 5 cent rebate for each grocery sack you use at the store?
No, but I get one green Tesco point instead.
Can you find milk/soda/water in returnable bottles?
There is a milkman who delivers here but he delivers too late for us.
Does your town have a farmers market?
Fortnightly
Do you have renewable energy options for powering your home?
We can access a green energy tariff.
Is biking or public transportation a convenient and safe option for you?
Yes when going round town or further afield as we are near a major train station. Sadly not suitable for my work as I go across country and the train line goes up and down.
Do your local representatives address environmental issues?
Not really.
Can you find organic and/or fair trade goods at your local stores?
Yes, lots.
Do people compost where you live?
Some
Do you or your neighbors grow your own food?
A little, we had strawbs this year and are patiently waiting for the toms to go red. Neighbours do much more and we hope to emulate them next year.
How would you gauge the overall environmental awareness/concern in your area?
Relatively high.
Are buildings in your area energy efficient?
Our houses are under 10 years so yes.
Where do you live? Québec Québec Canada
Do you live in a place with curbside recycling? YES!!!
Is recycling convenient where you live?
Yes!
Do you get a 5 cent rebate for each grocery sack you use at the store?
Not at all the store, some store have a new method of “you bring your own bag or I charge you 5 cents for my plastic bag”!!
Can you find milk/soda/water in returnable bottles? Soda only but I don’t buy soda.
Does your town have a farmers market? Yes but too far from my home for me to go ;o(
Do you have renewable energy options for powering your home? Yes, hydroelectricity
Is biking or public transportation a convenient and safe option for you? Not really but feasible though
Do your local representatives address environmental issues? No, I live in a conservative place ;o((
Can you find organic and/or fair trade goods at your local stores? Yes
Do people compost where you live? I don’t know but I would say no
Do you or your neighbors grow your own food? I don’t know, I don’t think so
How would you gauge the overall environmental awareness/concern in your area? Bad, the majority of people are not even recycling ;o(((
Are buildings in your area energy efficient? I don’t know, sorry.
Where do you live? Greater Wellington region, New Zealand
Do you live in a place with curbside recycling? Yes
Is recycling convenient where you live?
For the basics yes, specialty recycling is much trickier
Do you get a 5 cent rebate for each grocery sack you use at the store?
Nope, lots of stores will charge you 5c for one of their plastic bags tho to incent use of reusable bags
Can you find milk/soda/water in returnable bottles? No, but heaps in recyclable tho
Does your town have a farmers market? Yes two right in my town and another 10 or so close enough to travel to
Do you have renewable energy options for powering your home? Yes, hydroelectricity
Is biking or public transportation a convenient and safe option for you? There is ample opportunity to use both but I don’t as it’s tricky to do so with a baby
Do your local representatives address environmental issues? No
Can you find organic and/or fair trade goods at your local stores? The bigger ones yes
Do people compost where you live? Some
Do you or your neighbors grow your own food? Yes, and gardening is growing in popularity
How would you gauge the overall environmental awareness/concern in your area? Just adaquate
Are buildings in your area energy efficient? Largely no, this is a huge problem in NZ and the government is addressing it.
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Portland, Oregon is the green theme city – honestly. I’ll have to do more posts to prove it. Even people living on city-sized lots try to grow a lot of their own food.
We’re all a bunch of ECOaddicts
Where? Suburb between Washington DC and Baltimore, Maryland, Mid Atlantic
)
Curbside recycling? Yes
Recycling convenient? Yes! We have a wheeled recycling bin the size of a large trash can. All recycling goes in it, and the list of recyclables grows each year.
5 cent rebate for grocery sacks? Only some stores.
Returnable bottles? Only through milk delivery.
Farmers market? Three
Renewable energy options? Not that I have found.
Biking or public transportation? They are an option, but I can’t take my kids to daycare on my current bike!
Representatives address environmental issues? Yes.
Organic and/or fair trade goods? Yes! We have several stores in the area.
Compost? Some. The county offers free compost bins.
Grow your own food? I have a small garden as do some neighbors.
Environmental awareness? Many people seem at least somewhat eco-friendly.
Buildings energy efficient? Not really, although there are some greener houses being built and there is more awareness too.
Where? Suburb of Milwaukee.
Curbside recycling? Yes
Recycling convenient? Yes.
5 cent rebate for grocery sacks? Yes, but I use cloth bags (and have used for ten years) because they are convenient, they carry more weight than plastic, and I don’t want plastic bags cluttering my house.
Returnable bottles? Yes, but the milk costs SEVEN DOLLARS. No thanks.
Farmers market? Yes, but it is far less expensive to buy produce off the bargain counter at the grocery store than to shop the FM.
Renewable energy options? Not that I know of.
Biking or public transportation? The bus stop is two blocks from my house, but it would not be convenient. Biking is not an option half the year here because of snow and ice.
Representatives address environmental issues? I don’t know.
Organic and/or fair trade goods? Whole Foods has organic, I think, as does the store I walk to, a mile from my house.
Compost?Probably. I don’t. I throw yard and garden waste into the yard waste bin and it’s picked up with the trash, in theory to be composted somewhere.
Grow your own food? I have a small garden that has been far less productive than I would like.
Environmental awareness? Don’t know.
Buildings energy efficient? Ha. It’s a 1928 brick house that leaks heat, even with new storm windows. We wear all our clothes in the winter and put on a few extra pounds just so we don’t burn our retirement fund to keep warm.