Recycling Tips and How to Recycle
Cups, corporations, rules about recycling and everything you need to know about making postconsumer goods into the goods that we use. If it's a headline about how to recycle, read it here.
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When Semantics Matter: Landfill vs Trash
I recently returned from a trip to San Francisco. Now, I love San Francisco just like most neo-hippies do, but I do not think that it is the perfect city like many will profess (If I did, I would live there). I say this so that you don’t think that I’m one of those girls on a bandwagon about how San Francisco does everything right. Believe me, I am not that girl. However, the city has nailed one thing fabulously: They’ve found a way to make residents think about landfill size every single time they throw things away.
UK Winemaker Goes Eco Friendly With Bring Your Own Bottle Plan
Frankly, we’re not sure why this one hasn’t been getting done the world over, particularly at localized wineries – or perhaps this idea is just near and dear to our hearts because we drink so much vino at TGB. London’s Borough Wines has launched a bottle refill program, which not accounts for about half of the wine sold in the shop, according to The Guardian. That’s far more than what the owners expected when they opened up their doors this year. Of course, when we lay out the savings for you, you’ll see why this is not only an eco friendly solution, it’s an economical solution for the world of wine drinkers.
DHL Adds Recycling, E-Scrap and Waste Management to UK Operations
We’re not sure if this is good news because it gives corporations a structured way to deal with recycling or bad news because it’s evidence of the growing waste and waste management issues across the world, but DHL has launched DHL Envirosolutions in Europe. The new arm of the company offers trash and recycling hauling, assistance for complying with packaging and e-scrap laws and even energy audits. Good news, right?
German Town Successfully Recycles Seventy Percent of Waste
Go take a walk around your own hometown or city. Take a look at how much is in the average person’s recycling bin versus in their trash. Then think about the fact that much of what’s in the recycling bin will actually be deemed “non-recyclable” by the recycling facility and will end up in a landfill anyway. Then stop, and think about the fact that Neustadt an der Weinstrasse in the German Palatinate wine-growing region currently successfully recycles seventy percent of the residents’ waste successfully.
Pepsi Announces First All Plant-Based Bottle
The big news in the sodapop world this week was that while Coca-Cola continues to hold its first place status as the most popular cola, Diet Coke has overtaken Pepsi, sliding itself into the number two slot. We’re not going to condone the drinking of soda, diet or otherwise (although we admit to indulging here and there), but we will say it’s a bit of a shame that Pepsi is losing popularity since they’ve just come out with an all plant-based bottle.
What Would Happen if You Saved All of Your Trash?
Imagine, briefly, that it was a year ago and you were setting your 2010 New Year’s resolutions. What did you resolve? Was it to lose weight? To spend less? Was it a sustainable and eco friendly New Year’s resolution? And did you keep it? Well, last year, Brennan Bird, a senior at UC Davis made a sustainability resolution to save every piece of his non-biodegradable waste packaging for the year and then repurpose all of the material he saved into upcycled and recycled building projects. And you know what? He kept his resolution.
A Great and Eco Friendly Reason to Kill Your Ed Hardy
Raise your hand if you hate douchebags wearing Ed Hardy sequined shirts and the equally offensive Affliction shirts (yes, Jocelyn Saurini, we’re talking to you). Right now, all of Las Vegas raised their hands and waved them energetically. Well, you now have an opportunity to help remove the eye sore fashion from the world by encouraging your “friends” who own a piece to donate their Ed Hardy or Affliction t-shirts to help clothe a homeless person. They even get a t-shirt from the effort’s sponsor in return.
Seattle Bans Phonebook as Part of Recycling Legislation
For many of us, the idea that we won’t get yet another unwanted phone book delivered to our doorstep despite our continued protest that we just don’t want one and have the internet for a reason is a wondrous thing. But for many older people as well as an entire industry of marketing and advertising, the idea that paper phonebooks would be banned is almost unthinkable. Unthinkable unless you live in Seattle, were an ordinance has been approved that would make unsolicited delivery of paper phone books illegal.
San Jose Joins LA to Ban the Bag
We love that there is essentially a big, localized “screw you” going on to California lawmakers and lobbyists who bowed to big, plastics industries and their misinformation campaigns about banning plastic bags. After the State of California failed to ban the bag, a series of local bans (some of which already existed) started popping up. First, Los Angeles County banned the bag. Now, just in time to make us feel like we’re getting an early holiday gift, just last week became the largest city in the United States to officially pass an ordinance that bans plastic bags.
A Simple Solution to the Food vs. Biodegradable Plastic Question
These days, we want to do every thing we can with corn other than ingest it as high fructose corn syrup. We want to use it to create ethanol for biofuel. We want to use it in animal feed. We even want to use it to create biodegradable organic plastics as opposed to petroleum-based plastics. But as the nastiness that is mother nature of late has altered the weather pattern and created scenarios where food, including corn, is at a premium, the question has arisen – is the corn product market an irresponsible use of a food product?
