Best of TreeHugger: Unrecycled Recyclables, the Walmart Government, and the Civil Rights Movement of Food

As we enter the home stretch leading up to Copenhagen, with talks moving to Barcelona, initial reports aren’t exactly encouraging. Will the United States step up and commit to a meaningful 2020 emission reductions target? And will China manage to reconcile its obligation to developing nations while working with the United States?

On the conundrum of recyclable packaging that doesn’t often get recycled, Pablo Paster takes another look at TetraPak, the company that makes aseptic milk carton-like packaging that holds everything from wine to soup to tomato sauce.

Walmart’s special software package helps its suppliers screen their chemical ingredients for hazardous materials, and it could blaze a path that U.S. government regulators could follow. But John Laumer wonders if Walmart should be acting as a kind of de facto government regulator?

Even lactose intolerant folks have found they can digest raw milk, and it’s been said to reduce allergies and asthma in children—ailments that are on the rise in the United States. But the stuff’s illegal. The author of a new book discusses the fight for raw milk, “the civil rights movement of food”?

After his list of things he loves about America, Sami Grover takes the other side of the argument, pointing at a distrust of government and a love for the car. Meanwhile, Dan Kessler spends some time in Jakarta, a city where getting around almost always requires an engine.

In his review of James Hoggan’s Climate Cover-up, a book on the “climate change is a hoax” messengers, Lloyd Alter sees a successor to Vance Packard’s Hidden Persuaders, the half-century old expose of the machinations of advertisers and politicians.

Our readers sent in their photos of their “green” Halloweens, and we celebrated 4-year-old Kiva’s milestone of $100 million in microloans.