Coming to Portland recently was the easiest move I’ve made in a…well, let’s say it’s been my easiest move ever. It’s a friendly big city, which is rare. People reach out and encourage new ideas, helping out with advice when asked, jump at the chance to collaborate over coffee.

 Also, I’m finding that Portland lives up to its reputation of being a very green city.

Thanks to recycling and aluminum can redemption, recycling bins are overflowing each week behind my building, while the dumpster is hardly a quarter filled.

Cafe workers here usually ask, “For here or to go?” and if the answer is for here, I get a real plate and cup. I find myself thinking twice about how many paper napkins I actually need for a meal.

 This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. Having just visited Southern California for the week, I saw how much valuable stuff was thrown out, how many oversized trash barrels were needed for each house, how little recycling was being accomplished. The feeling I got in the rich town I visited was that there will always be more [plastic, glass and paper], so just toss it.

 Here I see Portlanders grouping together to use fewer disposables and to reclaim what the rest of the world seems to know for a fact (which most of America is only slowly remembering): smaller is better, less is best.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 7:38 am and is filed under Energy Future, Environment, General, Livability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.