Green Deen

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We live in a society that is highly dependent on drugs. Personally, I'd rather not take medicine. I prefer drinking tons of fluids and resting over popping pills any day. Nonetheless my medicine cabinet is piled high with bottles upon bottles of prescription medications. Some of these medications are expired and others I have no use for.

Given the wide array of side effects and contraindications that are attributed to various pharmaceuticals and given the fact that our water supplies are already showing traces of these pharmaceuticals (due to the body's inability to fully metabolize and absorb ingested medications), it is pertinent that a conscious effort is taken to properly dispose of any drugs that might be lingering in the medicine cabinet for one reason or the other.

Here are some tips:

1. Keep all medicines out of the reach of children and pets.

2. Do not flush pills down the toilet.
The presence of contraceptives in the water supply can be attributed to its excretion in the urine. Urine gets flushed down the toilet. Because a system that is able to completely rid the water of such pollutants has not yet been developed, contraceptives and other medications find their way to our water ways. You can prevent larger amounts of pharmaceuticals from reaching the water ways by not throwing you unused and unwanted medications down the drain or in the toilet.

3. Ask your pharmacist if they take back unused medications.
Some pharmacies such as Kaiser Permanente will take back unwanted, unused or expired medications and will properly dispose of them at no cost.

4. Ask around in your neighborhood.
Some cities have collection centers or will often have arrangements where residents can bring in any medications that they may want to get rid of. There are various locations in the Los Angeles area that take expired and unused medications. To find an location near you visit Earth911.

5. If you absolutely must dispose of medication in the trash, follow these steps:

• If the medication is a liquid , mix it with cat litter, coffee grounds, saw dust or something that will make it look less appealing to anyone who may want to ingest the med for whatever reason.
  
• If the medication is a solid, crush them, add water and mix with cat litter, coffee grounds, etc.
  
• Close the container tightly. Remember to remove any personal information that may be on the label.
  
• Tightly secure the bottle shut with layers of strong tape (duct tape, electrical tape, etc.).
  
• Place the sealed bottles in at least three plastic bags being sure to tightly secure each bag with layers of tape.
  

Sources: Earth911, Casa Sugar, Noaa Research

Labels: medicine disposal, safe, Water

By Larry West, About.com

Looking for small ways to make a big difference for the environment? Why not start by making yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

As members of the PB&J Campaign (no, I’m not kidding) like to say, “You don’t have to change your whole diet to change the world. Just start with lunch.”

Eating a plant-based lunch (such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bean burrito, vegetarian chili, or a hearty salad) instead of an animal-based lunch (such as a hamburger, a tuna or grilled cheese sandwich, fish and chips, or chicken nuggets) will save water, preserve land and slow global warming.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Slows Global Warming
Every time you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or other plant-based meal instead of one that features red meat, such as a hamburger, you save the equivalent of almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Eating a strictly plant-based meal compared to the average American lunch still saves 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. That’s about 40 percent of the carbon you would save by driving a hybrid vehicle for the day instead of a standard sedan.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Saves Water
Growing plants for food takes a lot less water than raising animals. As a result, every time you substitute a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or some other plant-based meal for an animal-based meal such as a hamburger, you save about 280 gallons of water. Eat three PB&J sandwiches a month instead of animal-based meals and you can save as much water as you would by switching to a low-flow showerhead.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Saves Land
Raising animals for food takes a lot of space. For example, animal products require 6 to 17 times as much land as soy to produce the same amount of protein. Eating a plant-based lunch like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a hamburger, ham sandwich, or another animal-based meal saves anywhere from 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, overgrazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

How Eating One PB&J Sandwich Helps the Environment
By eating lower on the food chain—plants instead of animals—you also consume fewer resources. Why? Because, basically, everything you eat comes from plants. You either eat plants directly—in the form of fruits, vegetables and plant products such as peanut butter—or indirectly after animals have converted plants into meat, milk, eggs, butter and cheese.

The problem is that animals are not very efficient as living food factories that convert plants into food for humans. Animals use most of the plants they eat to produce the energy they need to walk around and keep breathing. To stay alive long enough to become part of your lunch or dinner menu, every cow, pig and chicken has to eat much more protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients than it will yield once the ax finally falls. As a result, it takes several pounds of plants to produce one pound of beef, pork, chicken, eggs or milk.

Inevitably, that means it also takes a lot more land, water and fuel to produce one pound of meat, milk or eggs than it does to produce one pound of edible plants. Not only do the animals need food, water and room to roam, but growing the plants to feed the animals that will, in turn, become food for you requires even more land and water as well as fuel for farm machinery and irrigation pumps.

To help provide some context, the PB&J Campaign says the water required to produce the beef in one hamburger could grow enough peanuts for 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And the land required to put that same beef patty on your bun could produce enough peanuts for 19 PB&J lunches.

How You and Your Diet Can Make a Difference
Basically, this all comes down to your power as a consumer. Every time you choose a hamburger, omelet or grilled cheese sandwich over a plant-based meal, you’re telling your local restaurants and supermarkets to buy more meat, eggs and dairy products. By choosing more plant-based meals, you’re asking for less meat and a more efficient use of resources. Either way, your unspoken but unmistakable messages are received by your local merchants and conveyed to wholesalers and farmers.

Want to do more? Share this information with your friends, coworkers and family members and urge them to take action. Encourage your school or office cafeteria, and the local restaurants you frequent, to offer more plant-based dishes. Organize a weekly PB&J lunch (or other plant-based meals) at work, home or school and calculate the positive environmental contribution you’ve made.

Read on from Source.