Computer equipment contains some pretty toxic materials, including lead, cadmium, mercury, and PVC plastics. Over 70% of the heavy metals in landfills come from electronic equipment. Additionally, 60% of electronic equipment that is 'thrown out' doesn't make it to the landfills; instead it is shipped to other countries where there is often less money and resources to dispose of it properly.

Last week, Tom 'Smitty' Smith of Public Citizen met with local environmental organizers at the Dallas Clean Air meetup to discuss several issues, including the outcome of the Sunset hearings for Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and the Texas Railroad Commission. Every state agency must go through a Sunset review where it's practices are evaluated and the agency may or may not be permitted to continue. 

Hundreds of people from across the state showed up in Dallas on Friday (January 14th) to participate in the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Public Hearing to support EPA's enforcement of the Clean Air Act in Texas.

And why? Because Texas residents cannot get help from their own state agency, Texas Commission on Environment Quality (TCEQ), to safeguard their basic rights to clean air.

Paper or Plastic? used to be the question at the supermarket. But unless you've been in a coma for the past few years, the answer is steadily becoming neither as more people are moving to reusable grocery bags. 

And what's wrong with the plastic bag? Well, first, it's made of petroleum, a non-renewable natural resource. If we have a resource that of limited supply and we're depending on that resource for transportation and growing food, why squander on making bags to carry our groceries. And the option of paper bags carries even heavier consequences.