dusterOver at Gristmill, blogger JMG takes up my quixotic challenge to rid the world of compressed-chemical dusters. They’re basically greenhouse gas atom-bombs—which I described in a pair of posts here and here—and they should be banned immediately.

As far as I know, there’s no government action to outlaw the little bastards, but I do think there’s hope. In fact, this is a perfect time for the private sector to take the lead. Now if only there were some large-volume progressive-minded retailer looking to burnish its green credentials… Maybe a big wholesaler headquartered in the Northwest… like in the Seattle suburbs…

(Cough, Costco, cough.)

Did you say Costco? Hey, great idea!

Now, I’d rather have them banned outright, but incremental steps are welcome too. One good step would be for Costco to simply stop purchasing cannisters with HFC-134a, substituting cannisters with HFC-152a, which does exactly the same thing with about one-tenth the climate impact. Another good step would be to stop using HFC cannisters and instead sell CO-2 cannisters, which are drastically less harmful. A purchasing decision by an outlet as big as Costco can have a meaningful impact all the way back up the supply chain.

And then Costco should do a little trumpeting of it’s actions: make a big deal about banning the greenhouse gas bombs. That would have the effect of both raising consumer awareness and raising the bar for competitors.

If you want to contact Costco, the info is at the end of JMG’s post. But please be nice about it, fergoshsakes. Retailers are almost certainly unaware of the cannisters’ greenhouse gas contents.