USA Weekend’s ‘ThinkSmart, The Green Issue’ presented a negative, one-sided view.
Printed on 100-percent recycled fiber, the 16-page Sept. 17-20, 2007 USA Weekend newspaper supplement, “Think Smart, The Green Issue, a special midweek edition of your favorite weekend magazine,” delivered “37 exciting, easy ways to help Earth.” Among the issue’s packaging-related recommendations were the following:

- Buy eco-friendly cosmetics. Organic makeup is only part of it; consider the packaging, too. Some containers are designed to degrade, like Cargo’s PlantLove lipstick tubes (shown), which are made of corn. And the boxes they come in are infused with seeds; plant them and they’ll grow.

- Don’t microwave food in plastic. “Every plastic thing you buy starts as oil and never degrades,” according to Wendy Gordon, general manager of National Geographic’s The Green Guide.

- Use powder detergents. “Laundry liquids contain 70-percent to 80-percent water,” said Gordon in the issue. “It costs energy and packaging to bring this water to the consumer, which is unnecessary when your machine adds it.”

- Use biodegradable packing material. Grab biodegradable packaging peanuts to secure your stuff. Available at many packaging-supply stores, they’re made from cornstarch and will dissolve in water. No more wasted space in landfills. Organic packing materials are static-free. And don’t you hate it when Styrofoam peanuts stick to your clothes?”

- Skip the bottled water. The oil used to make plastic water bottles in this country is enough to fuel about 100,000 cars for one year. Plus, only one in six bottles was recycled in 2004.

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