Don't Be a Butt Tosser 

Here at Shift we we've been known to follow a tasty meal with a satisfying smoke treat. Hey, we're as susceptible to addiction as anyone. But one thing we've been trying really hard to do is throw our butts into the trash instead of flicking them Bogie-style onto the street or sidewalk. Problem with butts is that they're made of nasty stuff like acetate which is basically plastic that doesn't decompose. They also cause fires and get gobbled up by animals that think they're food. That's a lot of damage for such a small thing. But when you consider that the cigarette butt is the single most littered item in the world, it adds up. Check out these stats. They'll make you hack:

• Approximately 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are littered every year globally.
• In most Western countries cigarette butts account for around 50% of all litter.
• Smokers in the USA are responsible for more than 250 billion littered cigarette butts. Brits 200 tons, and Australian smokers litter over 9 billion cigarette butts annually, which is enough to fill 7 Olympic swimming pools.
• It takes up to 12 months in freshwater and up to 5 years in sea water for butts to break down. So there you go. It ain't pretty. But if you can remember to stub your butt and put it in the proper trash receptacle, consider it one less bad habit of yours that everyone else has to deal with.

Not preaching, just saying.

Put all that heavy reading to good use
 
This sound familiar? Gift is purchased. Gift sits in closet or under bed for days (weeks?). Gift is finally wrapped (poorly) on Christmas eve. Next morning, gift wrap is shredded into a million pieces and thrown into pile on floor. Mom says she will recycle gift wrap but everyone knows she throws it away. Life of gift wrapping actually around gift: ten hours tops.

Solution: save a tree or two and a buck on expensive gold leafed silky tissue paper and use that stack of New York Times (or Posts, we don't judge here at Shift) sitting in the corner. Get creative. Grab the Victoria's Secret insert and spiff up that box with mom's flannel PJs. Dad likes sports. Wrap his new tie in last week's ball scores. Point is, nobody really cares what a gift is wrapped in, just that it IS wrapped. (But don't use the business section unless you absolutely have to. Somehow that's just tacky.)

If you just can't bring yourself to use newspaper, there are some recycled gift wrapping alternatives. And we know just where to get them.

Tip #23 Caveat: You're going to need a lot of paper to wrap that eGO cycle you just bought, so maybe think about a big ribbon instead.

Welsh Company Proves it Gives a Shit

Creative Paper Wales is proving to be an appropriate name for one small UK company. In an ever-vigilant attempt to protect natural resources with innovative, sustainable ideas, Creative Paper has developed a new form of making paper out of sheep dip (or “poo” as they like to say). I admit, it’s an idea I never thought of and I bet you didn’t either. But it could just be crazy enough to work.

The company collects fresh sheep poo, washes it, sterilizes it and creates pulp out of the cellulose fibers. Why sheep and not, say, cow or horse? Because sheep only digest 50% of the cellulose fibers they eat, leaving lots of usable bits left over on the “other side.” Then, using traditional paper making techniques, the pulp is formed into sheets and hung to dry. The washing process produces a big pile of usable fibers that make very usable paper. As a nifty by-product it also produces a clean, rich, liquid fertilizer which the company offers to local farmers.

Founders Lawrence Toms and Lez Paylor began the line of Sheep Poo Paper™ for environmental reasons but also to show that there are numerous creative ways to think outside the proverbial box about how we tackle some of the challenges the environment faces.

It appears the idea is hot. Creative Paper Wales is currently in discussion with a Fair Trade eco-sensitive goods store in Manhattan, New York and is beginning discussions with a wide range of similar stores across the US. Look the popular line of Christmas season greeting cards as Christmas 2006 approaches.

In addition to their best selling Christmas card line, Creative Paper Wales recently introduced their Sheepy di Bergerac or “I Love Ewe” Valentine cards to the US market. Because nothing says “I Love Ewe” like a card made out of sheep dip.

For more information: www.creativepaperwales.co.uk

When Life Gives you Lemons (or toxic mines), Open up a Tourist Attraction

The Berkeley Pit Mine near Butte, Montana used to be a burgeoning business, employing thousands of workers. Now it’s widely regarded as one of the most toxic mining sites in the western United States. The Pit received national attention as a poster child of environmental damage when a flock of migrating snow geese chose to land and rest on the Pit's toxic waters in November of 1995. They drank the highly acidic water and close to 350 of them died.

But don’t think that’s going to stop the enterprising souls of this rural outpost from turning lemons into highly acidic lemonade.

As Jason Jones of the Daily Show (finally a news show that gets it right) recently revealed, Butte city planners have decided to turn the giant eyesore into a tourist attraction. For a $2 admission fee, you can delight your whole family with the awesome grandeur of a giant death puddle. Apparently some locals even believe the toxins found in the pit’s water could lead to a cure for fatal diseases.

“Some people see contaminated water,” said Butte Chamber of Commerce executive Marko Lucich. “I see wealth.” He added that admission fees brought in about $18,600 between June 15 and Sept. 30 last year.

“Our major attractions in the state continue to be our national parks, our outdoor recreation,” administrator Betsy Baumgart said. “But once people are here, they are interested in understanding the culture ... and mining is very much a part of the history and current culture.”

If you’re tired of Disneyland or need a break from the expense of Hawaii, take the kids to the Berkeley Pit. It’s good, cheap fun for the whole family. Just don’t drink the water.

For more information: Just don’t go.

Burials Au Natural

Some people are so committed to green causes, they want to be environmentally friendly even in the afterlife. For them, a growing trend has become the idea of a “green burial,” where there body is wrapped in a simple shroud and placed in a hole in the ground in a pre-designated (usually a meadow or highly wooded) area. No toxic embalming fluids (which can leak into the ground and water supply) are used, and there’s no wood casket or metal vault to waste. If a casket is used, often it’s made from biodegradable wood and non-toxic embalming fluids. Additionally, going green to your grave saves cash. The cost of a typical standard burial often runs over $6,000, whereas a green burials can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500. A green burial not only saves money, but because the plots used are generally spaced out over many acres of land, open spaces are preserved as well.

For more information: www.memorialecosystems.com

..Cause I Eats My Spinach

Long heralded as a champion among leafy vegetables — and nowadays even drafted for service in health drinks and herbal gels — spinach consumption has lately been on the rise. The crop even attained first place status in a 2005 Bon Appetite “What’s Your Favorite Vegetable?” survey. Popeye was apparently way ahead of the curve on that one — so let’s celebrate his foresight and the vegetable’s prowess. Perhaps a spinach festival — or three — is in order.

As it turns out, there is a bit of dispute when it comes to laying claim to the weighty title of “spinach capital of the world.” Alma, Arizona; Lexana, Kansas; and Crystal City, Texas all seem to think that their particular town deserves the honor. And each of these proud locales boasts an annual festival to prove its legitimacy. Each event bears its own special charm, but quilt raffles and Popeye-based publicity seem to be popular among them all.

Alma’s fest, an April affair, offers a spinach cook-off, a “Swee’ Pea Photo Contest,” and the ever-anticipated “Spinach Drop,” in which an airplane deposits a bundle of the stuff onto a bingo-style grid. The winner gets $1000; the Boys and Girls Club gets the rest. No word on who gets to keep the produce. Wilted spinach is gourmet, you know.

In Lexana, the September fair will set you back $1.00; it is, however, money well spent. Where else will you have the distinct opportunity to watch Popeye & Olive Oyl — who arrive in style on a vintage 1930s Belgian farm truck — mix “the world’s largest spinach salad?” Children can check out the petting zoo, green rock skipping, Popeye Muscle Man contest, and green bubble gum blowing competition to round out the day.

And in Crystal City, the longest-standing spinach festival tradition kicks off each year during the second weekend in November. The carnival, entertainment, and other attractions draw thousands, and a spinach queen is crowned before the celebration comes to a close. Your guess is as good as ours as to the duties and perks of being named spinach royalty.

Random vegetable festivals are good times, indeed. There does, however, seem to be a bit of rivalry amongst the towns. Let’s just say that a certain Popeye statue at one point went missing and turned up in a Wal-Mart trash bin. But that is a story for another day. In the meantime, if you’re having trouble deciding between all the choices at your local market (the big spinach leaves seem unwieldy; the baby spinach offerings seem wimpy), you will be happy to know that Planet Organics has put out a “teen” variety. No joke. …We only hope the stuff cooperates in recipes.

To the Rescue. Yet again

Consider the cow. Here’s a creature whose very existence has nurtured countless millions of people for centuries. They have provided humans with milk and beef, and served as labor animals and leather supplies. And still they can’t get over the knock of being dumb. True, sleeping upright and allowing juveniles to sneak up and tip you over is never going to win you any IQ points, but you’d think they would at least rate somewhere above the pig, an animal that lives in its own filth.

Well, perhaps the cow’s day is finally here. Proving that where there’s a human need, there’s a cow to save the day, a farmer in Vermont has created a system that harnesses the methane gas from the manure of more than 1,500 cows to provide energy for more than 300 homes.

“The girls are now officially producing two streams of income, a milk check and a power check,” said Earl Audet the owner of the Blue Spruce Farm in Bridgeport. “This is one more way to diversify the farm, improve our bottom line, and manage our manure responsibly.”

As the collected manure breaks down over time, it emits a gas that is collected in a generator and turned into electricity that is fed into the utility power grid.

Steve Costello, spokesman for Central Vermont Public Service Corp., the state’s largest utility provider said this is the “first time anywhere in the country that a farm-based generation has been offered to customers as a renewable choice,” spokesman said Friday. Other farms have only generated electricity for their own use, he said.

As you can imagine, the process of acquiring energy though decomposing manure is not pretty or clean, but it is effective. So far about 1,000 people who don’t care if their power comes from a cow, a potato, or a coconut so long as it’s reliable have signed up to receive this unique renewable energy. And they’re willing to spend about 4 cents more per kilowatt than normal. Call Audet the man with the golden cow turds. But at this rate, he’s laughing all the way to the bank.