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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. In honor of Earth Week, we felt we'd have a little bit of fun here at the end of the show by playing a game that we're calling This or That: Which is Better for the Environment. We're going to present you with two day-to-day choices in each case like two similar products to buy, two different ways to get rid of unwanted stuff, two ways to conserve energy and you'll tell us which one you think is better for the environment.

So to play, give us a call now and we'll give you those questions at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Just how eco-friendly do you think compostable products are? Are there everyday tasks that can be switched up to help conserve water? Is there one type of go-to container to rule them all? 212-433-WNYC. Those are some of our questions. If you think you know or even if you don't, but want to find out, call to play at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Since this is a game that's all about reducing our waste, no free swag this time, folks. No prizes, just bragging rights, 212-433-WNYC. If you get these right because we have a guest who knows the answers. To fact-check your responses and to be our judge is Christiné Datz-Romero, executive director of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, who by sheer coincidence I happen to run into over the weekend because their excellent electronic waste recycling roadshow happened to come to my neighborhood, and I brought over a bunch of old stuff to recycle. Christiné, it was good to run into you, and glad you're back on the show.

Christiné Datz-Romero: Thank you, Brian. It was great to see you on Saturday with all your cables getting recycled.

Brian Lehrer: As we're getting some calls, we have a caveat between these choices we'll present to people. None of them are necessarily 100% perfect. That's the way it goes often with environmental decisions. Some of them might genuinely be a toss-up even. The first question in the game goes to you, Christiné. This or that, is it better to try a little bit or not at all?

Christiné Datz-Romero: I would definitely say it's better to try a little bit because it's the start in the right direction. We have to try to do better by the environment instead of saying-- give up and not try at all.

Brian Lehrer: Is there a most common question you get from people looking to reduce their waste as head of the Lower East Side Ecology Center?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Well, since you brought up the e-waste events, one of these questions we always get is people who bring their electric toothbrushes to these events. I only have bad news for them because the electric toothbrush while convenient and works well, at the end of life is just a big problem to dispose of. They have rechargeable batteries that should be separated from the plastic housing, but you can't really do that because the plastic housing is really very tight and it's sort of impossible to get this battery out.

I always explain to people as really-- well, I guess we have to just learn to really consider the whole lifecycle of a product and just demand more as consumers to have products that we can dispose of in an responsible way at the end when the product is not useful anymore.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Let's go to a quiz question with Marianne in Bergen County. Hi, Marianne. Ready to play?

Marianne: Hi, hi. Oh, definitely. I wish my husband wasn't listening, but I don't know.

Brian Lehrer: Say you are in your local bodega or other convenience store looking at a Coke that you want to buy in that glass bottle or that can. That's the question. Which is better for the environment, the glass bottle or the aluminum can?

Marianne: It depends. If you can recycle that can. I would say glass.

Brian Lehrer: Let's find out the answer. Christiné?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Actually it is aluminum, but I want to dig in a little bit deeper. Glass bottles are made out of sand, which is widely available here in the United States where mining for bauxite, which is the product used to make the aluminum cans happens in further afield places. In terms of transport, aluminum is just so much lighter to transport, and so we're saving a lot of carbon footprint in that respect. Then it's also just like glass is 100% recyclable over and over again. They are both excellent choices in terms of being able to recycle, but aluminum has a little bit of an edge.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Marianne, thanks for giving it a shot. Nandor in Astoria, are you ready for a question?

Nandor: I am.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Here you go. Yes. Can you hear me, Nandor?

Nandor: Okay. Yes, I can.

Brian Lehrer: Vegetables and lettuces often come in either those soft, thin bags or a hard, thick plastic clamshell. This or that, plastic baggies or plastic clamshells?

Nandor: I would say plastic baggies, though I will say I never buy, I always go to the co-op and buy mine and put it in a reusable bag.

Brian Lehrer: Well, that's the real right answer, but Christiné, clamshells or baggies? Plastic in either case.

Christiné Datz-Romero: Absolutely. Yes, we should avoid plastic, but if there is a choice between the two, it would be clamshells because they are often made out of PET which is actually recyclable. Plastic bags just do not get recycled.

Brian Lehrer: There you go. I would have gotten that wrong too because we think of those clamshell as, "Oh, my God. Such a big and hard thing. A must to avoid compared to something that can squash up like those little baggies," but now we know. Is it because of what-- well, the [unintelligible 00:07:31] recently wrote, "That's because the box is typically made from number one, polyethylene, which is widely and easily recycled and considered safe for one-time use. Some brands even boast 100% recycled containers, which helps.

Salad bags, on the other hand, should be our last resort because that type of plastic is almost never recyclable thanks to additives and polymer barriers meant to protect the veggies inside." I guess, Christiné, per that and per your answer, it begs the question of whether size is the thing or if something that seems so-- you can squash it up into a small little thing like a little sandwich bag or something, it's still not necessarily a great choice.

Christiné Datz-Romero: Yes, it's a little bit counterintuitive to have clamshells coming up on top. Again, as your caller was saying and you were saying too, the best way, of course, is to avoid the plastic altogether.

Brian Lehrer: Deborah in Queens, who I think is calling from a very interesting environment. Deborah, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Deborah: Hi. How are you? Yes, I'm a school teacher and I'm here with my co-teacher Adam, and we teach a climate solutions class at Queens School of Inquiry, which is a public school in Flushing. When we heard you were doing this, our class wanted to call in and see if they could get it right.

Brian Lehrer: That is so great. Hi, kids. How many students do you have? What age?

Deborah: Well, it's 10th graders here. We also have 9th graders, but they went on a field trip today, so we have eight 10th graders here today.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Maybe they should please raise their hands. You want to take-- what?

Deborah: Okay. They're ready.

Brian Lehrer: We heard the response. We heard there's a group there, yay. You're getting your iced coffee to go, not that we're encouraging teenagers to drink coffee, but this happens to be the next question up. You're getting your iced coffee to go or maybe it's just water. This or that, paper cups or plastic? You want to take a poll there, Deborah. Paper cups or plastic?

Deborah: What do we think?

Speaker 1: What do you think?

Brian Lehrer: Raise your hands if it's paper, right? Raise your hand if you think paper. They all think it's what?

Deborah: Everybody says paper.

Brian Lehrer: Everybody says paper. Christiné?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Yes. I also think it should be paper. Because paper cups actually are recyclable here in New York City. Again, the best choice, of course, would be to bring your own cup to that coffee shop and have them fill it for you. If you have the choice between a paper cup and plastic, I would go with paper.

Brian Lehrer: Now, it's interesting because we have an opinion from US News & World Report that says, it's really plastic depending on the number, that is plastic number two or number three, depending on the number. US News & World Report's opinion is single-use paper coffee cups are lined with a thin plastic film that helps keep liquids hot and prevent them from leaking through the cardboard.

That lightning releases more than 5 trillion plastic nanoparticles per liter when hot liquid is poured into a 12-ounce single-use cup, according to lab results published recently in the journal, Environmental Science & Technology. Christiné, this one's obviously a close call, but I think you just said that those paper cups despite that lining are recyclable in New York.

Christiné Datz-Romero: Yes they are.

Brian Lehrer: There you go. What about the numbered plastics implied in that answer that some number of plastics might be more recyclable than the paper or at least more recyclable than other plastics?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Yes. I think the plastic industry came up with a real, I would say, a scheme of numbering plastics and putting a little recycling symbol on those plastics, which implies it's recyclable. The reality really is that number one is very much recyclable, and number two is also, but the higher you go into numbers, the least recyclable the materials really are in curbside recycling programs. I feel that number is a greenwashing of the plastic industry because that symbol implies, "Oh, yes, don't worry, it will get recycled." When in reality, that's oftentimes not the case.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting complex answers from Christiné Datz-Romero and US News & World Report. Deborah and class, I think you have a good lesson plan for tomorrow to kick around those answers.

Deborah: Yes. Great. Thank you.

Speaker 1: [chuckles] Thank you.

Speaker 2: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks for playing. Bye, guys. All right. Mook in Cabo, North Carolina, you're ready to play?

Mook: Yes, I'm ready. Also, Brian, thanks for reading my tweet yesterday when I was on the train.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, that was you on the Amtrak?

Mook: Yes, that was me. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Cool. All right, Mook. Let's say it's summertime and you're hosting a picnic for a few friends. This or that. Compostable cutlery or bring your own?

Mook: I would say bring your own.

Brian Lehrer: Christiné?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Oh, yes. Absolutely. Bring your own. We can't compost ourselves out of this disposal question, and bring your own is always the way to go because reuse is much better than using any single-use item that we use for sometimes very short periods of time, and then we just toss it.

Brian Lehrer: Mook, you got that one right. I'm going to go right on to Linda in Vernon, New Jersey. Linda, you're ready for This or That: Which is Better for the Environment, Earth Week question?

Linda: I have high hopes of doing well.

Brian Lehrer: All right. This or that. Dishwasher or washing your dishes by hand?

Linda: Ooh, I was thinking that this morning. I would probably guess, the dishwasher because I know that the washing machine is very good at managing small amounts of water. It depends on how you wash them. Some people wash dishes, just loving the faucet run and others are more careful. The way I will wash dishes I would say by myself. Yes, handwash.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Generally, dishwasher. Christiné?

Linda: Yes.

Christiné Datz-Romero: Yes. Actually, that was the right answer. It is the dishwasher exactly for that reason because it uses so much less water, it's really efficient. Usually, somebody washing the dishes would take 27 gallon per load to wash by hand, and the dishwasher only uses three gallons of water. It's also much more energy efficient in terms of getting that water hot to do your dishes. Yes, the dishwasher really wins out and it's a great convenience. It is good for the environment. That's a great combination.

Brian Lehrer: Unlike the paper cups or the plastic cups, not close. Rob in Terrytown, ready to play?

Rob: Yes, ready to play.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Rob, last week's warm weather might have launched the start of barbecue season. This or that, gas grill or charcoal grill.

Rob: Gas grill.

Brian Lehrer: What do you think, Christiné?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Oh, my God, I don't know whether we can settle this one. This is so hard. Because gas is a fossil fuel, and charcoal is also made out of wood so none of them totally renewable. Yes, I don't know whether we can settle it. I would also say barbecue season it's all about the taste, that special taste and charcoal is definitely, I think delivers on that one. I'm not sure whether I want to come down on either.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Another close one. Tanya in South Amboy, you're ready for a question?

Tanya: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: This or that. Try to sell your used clothing, or donate your used clothing?

Tanya: In terms of what's better for the environment?

Brian Lehrer: Correct.

Tanya: You try to sell them that can be sort of a pain, but if you-- I will say donate.

Brian Lehrer: We have an answer from The Washington Post here, Christiné. Do you have one for yourself at the Lower Eastside Ecology Center?

Christiné Datz-Romero: I would say the answer that I would think is or that I would share with our audience is that either we are donating or selling is of course better than just tossing it.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. A good place to start.

Christiné Datz-Romero: I think if you try to sell it's very time-consuming sometimes and maybe you can go someplace where you can either donate or sell so you also get a little bit of value back from making the effort.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. The Washington Post says sell or vet your charity if you want to donate online at Charity Watch or the Better Business Bureau's give.org website. Reason from The Washington Post a large portion of donated clothes typically aren't suitable for someone else to wear because they're in poor condition. Those unwanted clothes can then become a problem if they get shipped overseas or worse, incinerated or landfilled.

Christiné Datz-Romero has been our quizmaster on this Earth Week, which is better for the environment, This or That quiz. Do you want to just tell our listeners in about 20 seconds, what events you have coming up at the Lower Eastside Ecology Center, more on-the-road e-waste recycling, or anything else?

Christiné Datz-Romero: Yes. Spring is our busy season and we have kicked it off in style, doing e-waste events most weekends. You can go to our website lesecologycenter.org. Also, please check out our spring workshops where we have really fun events coming up like the compost walk and talk tours, and just a lot of educational fun events. We have a bike tour which is sold out but whether you want to wait for next year.

Brian Lehrer: I have to leave it there. Christiné thanks so much and props to Brian Lehrer Show producer Amina Srna for doing all that research on so many This or That questions.

 

 

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