Doing more by throwing out less.

/

Did you know? The United States is home to 4% of the world’s population, yet produces more than 12% of the trash — to the tune of 4.9 pounds per person per day – and over 28% of our garbage is packaging. That means we throw out 82 million tons of material every year.

Want a scarier number? Every 15.5 hours, we throw out enough plastic to fill the stadium where the Dallas Cowboys play, and 91% of it isn’t recycled. It’s enough to make you want to refill that olive oil bottle instead of buying a new one.

It’s no secret our groceries come with a lot more packaging every day, but we probably don’t think about it more than once a week when we take out the trash. The Almanac takes a look at two Peninsula “refilleries” trying to reduce our collective climate footprint.

Community Preparedness

/

There’s only so much you can do to protect your home from the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. If we’re not prepared as a community, we’re all vulnerable.

CHIC (Pearl)

Many of the changes we need to make are actually pretty simple. We just need to focus our efforts on things like replacing old water, sewer, and electrical infrastructure, expanding the ranks in our fire departments, and upgrading their firefighting technology. How can you make this happen? Start by talking to your local city councilperson or the appropriate public agency.

GEEK (Kevin)

Whenever government officials pass the buck on the climate crisis, their objection seems to come down to money. As in, they don’t have any. Well, here’s the thing: The upfront costs of adapting to a new climate reality are naturally high. But the long-term payoff on the investment would be huge, particularly for our children — and our grandchildren. I, for one, think it makes a lot of cents!