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If you missed Heather Rogers’ lively and informative talk in the library on Feb. 25, you can view it now:

http://216.125.249.163/1061-1-Trash-Rogers.wmv

Rogers is the author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, and the creator of a documentary film of the same name. At Parkland, she spoke about the history of garbage and recycling in this country, and how the manufacturing practice of built-in obsolescence impacts our lives and our planet.

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Heather Rogers, author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, sent us a link to an article she just wrote for Mother Jones.

For this piece, she traveled to Indonesian Borneo to report on rainforest clearance for crops to make biodiesel.

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Wow! 104 Parkland students, faculty, staff and community members attended Heather Rogers’ talk in the library this past Wednesday! We’re so happy that so many got to hear her talk about the history and politics of garbage in the United States.

If you weren’t able to attend, or would like a re-cap, the News-Gazette wrote a
very good article that captured the main ideas of her talk.

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We are so excited to be able to bring another author to campus to talk about garbage!

Wednesday, February 25 at Noon in the Library
Talk by Heather Rogers

Heather Rogers, author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, will give a free talk about household garbage in the United States.

Ms. Rogers is a writer, journalist, and filmmaker, and has written on the environmental effects of mass consumption for the New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Utne and Architecture.

Her first book, Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage, traces the history and politics of household garbage in the United States. It was named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review and a nonfiction choice by The Guardian.

Her documentary film, also titled Gone Tomorrow, screened in festivals around the globe. You can see her film online at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5934530156227758850

We’ll be giving away prices, including a composting bin. Please join us!

This talk is co-sponsored by Sustainable Campus Committee and in collaboration with Unit One/Allen Hall at UIUC.

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The Library has a rapidly growing collection of books and dvds on the broad topic of green/sustainable living.   A sampling of recently acquired titles includes:

• Earthbag Building  TH1421.H86 2004 
• Easy Green Living  TX324.L68 2008 
• Geothermal and Solar Energy  TJ808.E54G46 2007 Video disc 
• The Everything Green Living Book TD171.7M375 2007
• Green Remodeling  TH4816.W33 2008
• The Natural Plaster Book TH8135.G84 2003
• Solar Energy: Saved  by the  Sun  TJ810.S28 2007 Video disc
• Water and Wind Power  TJ808.E54W37 2007 Video disc

Check out the display in the Library.

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Not sure if you’ve ever suffered from wrap rage? Read on…

wrap rage n.  Extreme anger caused by product packaging that is difficult to open or manipulate. 

“Studies in Britain have shown that injuries caused by packaging cost the National Health Service about $25 million a year. These are not industrial accidents. They occur in homes every day, predominantly, but not exclusively, among the elderly.”
—Nick Richardson, “The mounting toll of wrap wrath,” Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia), February 27, 2004

Note: This form of fury also goes by the names package rage (1999), packaging rage (1998), and even can’t-open-the-package rage (2001).

And in Britain “in just one year, 67,000 people got injuries ranging from cut fingers to sprained wrists, from just wrestling with wrapping.”

But wouldn’t you know, someone has designed a handy gadget to solve the “problem!” Argh! Don’t buy the gadget…let’s just stop buying so much stuff in the first place. With luck, if we slow down our spending, manufacturers will quickly get the message, figure out how use fewer resources and create less of an environemental impact with their packaging design. Put pressure on them with your wallet and save yourself bodily injury and trips to the emergency room.

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Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging, a multi-year initiative designed to alleviate “wrap rage,” features recyclable boxes that are easy to open and free of excess materials such as hard plastic clamshell cases, plastic bindings, and wire ties. The product itself is exactly the same—we’ve just streamlined the packaging.  – 11/3/08

19 packages converted, 90 million to go.

They’ve also launched other projects across the company to reduce waste and save energy.

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