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How To Recycle Better, Address Climate Through Diet And More For Earth Day

Photo by Bill Rinehart/WVXU

Cincinnati Edition explores Earth Day themes on Thursday's show.

The fight against climate change is being waged to varying degrees globally, but it can also be fought in the kitchen and in our lifestyles, argues author Paul Greenberg. The best-selling writer of the book Four Fish is back with a new title, The Climate Diet: 50 Simple Ways to Trim Your Carbon Footprint. In the new book, Greenberg explains how we can choose foods that are more environmentally friendly (like opting for more chicken and less beef, and also cutting back on cheese). He also writes how the way certain types of food are brought to our markets can also be detrimental to the environment. For example, out of season produce is often flown to our area, while frozen products have a longer shelf life and can be transported by ship, leaving a smaller carbon footprint.

Paul Greenberg joins Cincinnati Edition to talk about the book.

Meanwhile, nearly every local municipality or county has a recycling program. And the way most Americans participate in recycling is through a municipal curbside program. But the way we go about tossing items in those little green bins isn't always effective.

In fact, we often toss things in there that aren't even recyclable.

Worse still, we've lost track of the first two words in the phrase, "reduce, reuse, recycle." 

That's according to author Jennie Romer, whose new book, Can I Recycle This? A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics, explores the recycling process, explains what can and cannot be recycled, and teaches us about that famous "recycle" symbol that might not mean exactly what you think it does when it appears on an item you've purchased.

Jennie Romer talks to us about the new book.

And when looking for a new computer, it may be more sustainability friendly to look for an old one, instead. That's according to the Cincinnati Computer Cooperative Executive Director Frank Adams. He joins us to explain what he sees as the benefits to purchasing a refurbished electronic device over a new one.

Listen to Cincinnati Edition live at noon M-F. Audio for this segment will be uploaded after 4 p.m. ET.

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Michael Monks brings a broad range of experience to WVXU-FM as the host of Cincinnati Edition, Cincinnati Public Radio's weekday news and information talk show.