Green celebration just a shade off

Frito-Lay held a big media event on Earth Day to celebrate the unveiling of its new solar collector farm in Modesto. But behind the scenes, there were a few less-than-earth-friendly practices.

For starters, Gov. Schwarzenegger flew in for the event on a jet that had just come from another Earth Day event in Southern California.

Then there were the large gas-powered passenger vans that were used to transport the media and government officials from the main plant to the solar site. The vans came from a professional transportation service hired for the day – from Sacramento. The drivers made the 180-mile round trip journey in empty vans.

And Frito-Lay folks were happy to give out information touting the company’s pro-environment policies.

One problem with that: The conduits for those policies were dozens of wallet-sized plastic cards. Most which are probably on their way to landfills as you read this.

Oh well, at least you could recycle the plastic water bottles from lunch.

-- staff writers Christina Salerno and Ben van der Meer