TH Exclusives

Hardwood pulp futures market price trend. Image credit:INO.com

Today's printing and writing papers commonly have 20-30% recycled content. For fiber packaging materials, 60 to 100% recycle content is typical. It took decades for industry to reach those levels. Can you imagine what would happen if the paper industry had to price-compete against oil companies for waste paper feedstock? Recycled content of all manner of papers would surely decrease. More virgin forests would have be cut to make up the difference, whenever ethanol demand spiked. Singled-minded researchers from the National University of Singapore seem to have conveniently overlooked that predetermined outcome.

TH Exclusives

Sorghum seed cluster. Image credit:Wikipedia

Remember all the excitement over growing switch grass as feedstock for ethanol fuel? Forget that sissy fermentation stuff. Real powerhouses burn it outright. NRG Energy Inc, a company with combined generation capacity of 24,000 megawatts, plans trial burns of switchgrass and sorghum (as pictured) to supplement the coal normally fed to boilers at the company's Big Cajun II power plant, in Louisiana. Sorghum has been around for centuries as a food grain, a molasses substitute, and a pasturing plant. Chopped up, it is also used for sileage. Because power plant emission limits are measured on a per-ton of fossil fuel consumed basis, and because coal fired plants may be carbon "capped" in proportion to fossil-fuel derived emissions only, a power plant might be able to add some biofuel, up it's capacity, stay within permit limits, and avoid purchasing carbon credits. Sounds like a strategy.

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So you go on vacation and there is no sun; no problem if the resort has SoleiraSun. Each of these little light fixtures pumps out 12,000 watts, the equivalent of 800 Compact Fluorescent bulbs, perhaps the electrical consumption of a dozen houses, so that you feel like you are on the beach.

TH Exclusives

North Face men's "Hedgehog" model shoe, with "AgION® antimicrobial footbed covering Lightweight, compression-molded EVA midsole." Image and caption credit: North Face

If a manufacturer claims that a consumer product suppresses bacterial growth to the benefit of human health, it is, in effect, asserting that there is a pesticidal or "anti-microbial" property. Which tiptoes up to "antibiotic." As a matter of Federal law, firms must not make that claim in the USA, with promotional materials or on packaging, unless the pesticide has been registered for that type of application. The logic is impeccable for this requirement: ignorant product designers have been tempted to put hazardous substances in contact with human skin. Without proper registration, consumers might end up paying a premium for an unsubstantiated foofoo dust claim. Or, there could be unanticipated, adverse environmental consequences after use of the pesticide becomes widespread - poisoning out a sewerage treatment plant, for example. North Face apparently skipped the registration check for a large footwear line before such a claim was made. EPA noticed in a San Francisco shoe outlet!

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Photo via NotCot

We post fairly often about the green and un-green sides of cosmetics; just the other day we talked about how lipstick can be chock full of lead, or how your mascara might contain mercury. But mercury isn't the only BS component we can find in mascara these days. If you look for it, you'll also find electronic parts...

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Sources of oil consumed in USA during 2008. Image credit:USEIA, via LabelMyFuel.org

The press release of an investment firm called Growth Energy states that "...General Wesley Clark, Co-Chairman of Growth Energy, today called on the United States Congress and the White House to take action to dramatically enhance the market transparency of the nation's fuel supply by requiring a national standard of country of origin labeling (COOL) for fuel." Turns out Growth Energy an interest in corn-based ethanol. For the sake of discussion, let's assume this proposal flies. What would consumers see over and over? How would their buying habits be influenced?

TH Exclusives

all photos from foodgeekery

TreeHugger looks forward to the day when they finish Sovietizing the American healthcare system and the Obama Food Police start banning unhealthy foods and make us all eat like John Mackey, (like they did in the UK when they banned deep fried Mars Bars and in Canada when poutine was abolished) to reduce obesity and health care costs. First item on the list will be this new sandwich from KFC, where they have taken the obvious step of getting rid of whatever fiber there was in the bread by replacing it with two slabs of fried chicken.

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Image via Sur la Table

Kitchen gadgets are notorious for uselessness. Or rather, notorious for being so specialized that you only have a need for them once every few years, if more than once at all. They're a big source of plasticrap, and here is one shining example - the Cherry-It Pitter.