Is Glass Recycling is A Waste of Time?
Posted on February 28, 2010
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Contrary to public opinion, glass recycling does have its benefits. According to The British Glass Website,
‘The energy saving from recycling one bottle will:
• power a 60 watt bulb for 100 minutes
• Power a computer for 25 minutes
• Power a colour TV for 20 minutes
• Power a washing machine for 10 minutes”
Add to that the fact that glass is made from natural resources as opposed to petroleum based products it make it an environmentally friendly product. And just as with aluminum cans, it takes much less energy to produce products from recycled glass than it is to make them from raw materials. Another added benefit of recycled glass is that it does not lose its quality and can be recycled many times.
Far too many glass products are ending up in land fills that could be recycled. Nearly 18% of all the glass produced in the UK is sent to landfills. Stepping up the glass recycling program can generate a large amount of power, create more jobs and certainly save our precious resources.
15,000,0000,000 cups of coffee a day
Posted on February 7, 2010
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The story of how Starbucks got started is one of the darlings of the marketing industry. A young employee with a great idea that he took to the boss and was not taken seriously. The employee went out on his own and build one of the most successful businesses in existence today.
Starbucks has become famous for its coffee but it is also often used as an example of waste and pollution. According to Wiki answers, Starbucks serves 15,000,0000,000 cups of coffee a day. It is any one’s guess how many of these cups end up in our landfills. Advocates of recycling recommend that we not use Styrofoam cups since it may take up to a million years to disintegrate. Reusable containers are the preferred method of taking your daily cup of coffee to work.
Harrington Investments, Inc a long time leader in Socially Responsible Investing and Shareholder Advocacy has recommended that Starbucks ramp up their recycling program. They recommend that Starbucks have (according toEinn News) “100% recyclable or compostable cups by 2012, in-store recycling for customers in all the stores where Starbucks controls waste management by 2015, and a quarter of the company’s beverages served in reusable containers by 2015.”
The stockholders of the company are expected to vote on this recommendation in the near future, but the board of directors of Starbucks are recommending that the proposal be turned down. They cite the reason as Starbucks already has a recycling program.
In my humble opinion this looks like a matter of economics. It is going to cost Starbucks big bucks (no pun intended) to implement such a program, money they don’t want to spend. With the green movement ramping up the way it is, it would seem to be a good marketing angle to be green.
It will be interesting to see the outcome. In the meantime, avoid the styrofoam cups at Starbucks and use reusable containers for your daily coffee. Don’t be a part of the waste cycle.
For more going green tips and advice, visit A Green Lady
Electronic Waste Recycling
Posted on January 31, 2010
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Is the State of Washington ahead of the game when it comes to environmental protection? It seems to be the case as they have come up with another project to help the environment. This past year, nearly 40 million pounds of electronic waste was collected for recycling. Thanks to their Department of Ecology and grants from electronic manufacturers, a whole lot of monitors, computers and other electronic waste was kept out of their landfills. This electronic equipment contains lot of toxic metals, which have been leaking out of the landfills and contaminating our water supplies and our land.
One amazing fact that came out of this new report was that a cathode ray type television, which is being phased out now, contains 4-8 pounds of lead. Multiply that by the number of televisions per household and the number of people who own TV’s, and you have a major recycling issue.
Read more about the Olympia e-Waste Recycling Program
For more information on recycling and ideas for going green, be sure and go see A Green Lady.
Nifty Small Space Recycling Bin
Posted on January 17, 2010
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From the LifeHacker.com website comes the plans to build a nifty under the counter recycling bin, made with things easily purchased from Ikea, the home furnishing store. The recycling center is made from kitchen cabinets which have holes cut into the top and covered with wooden plates. For apartment dwellers, this may be a viable option to having recycling bins lying around, but it may take a little bit more than DIY. Not many apartment dwellers have access to a tool to make the cut, but for a small fee, a cabinet maker would be able to make the cut for you.
To read more and see how this nifty recycling bin was constructed visit LifeHacker.com
To learn more tips on going green be sure and visit A Green Lady.
Trashy Wedding?
Posted on January 10, 2010
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Andrea Parrish, 25, and Peter Geyer, 29 have come up with a novel and noble way to pay for their wedding. They are collecting and recycling aluminum cans! They are a ways away from their goal of 400,000 cans, but a little newspaper coverage may spur environmentally friendly people to help them out. If you live in the Spokane, Washington area, they will come pick up your cans, or bring them to donation sites.
If you are out of the area, be sure and visit their website Wedding Cans, and learn how you can help them out by recycling.
They are planning to get married in July and plan on having an eco-friendly wedding. I think the creativity of this couple deserves our support and it will certainly be good for the environment.
Beverly Saltonstall
A Green Lady
Is Clean Coal Really Possible?
Posted on January 3, 2010
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Coal has earned the reputation of the least environmentally friendly of all the options for power generation. It has, for several hundred years, been responsible for the generation of huge amounts of mercury, soot and other pollutants that are known to cause respiratory ailments in humans. This is especially true for the people who work in coal mines, several thousand of which die from coal-related damage each year.
The term clean coal technology has been very regularly used as a buzz-word in the ‘aughts last decade as the installation of “scrubbers” to cut down on the amount of sulfur dioxide that is emitted has been installed in the plants.
Though the smog and acid rain producing chemicals are removed from the stack output, it still ends up in the materials that are used to “scrub” it out of the emissions. Regulations are in place that this also allows much lower grades of coal to be legally used, with little or no net improvement in emissions.
The battle over the use of coal will continue until effective alternative energy sources are developed and gain widespread use.
Are Plastic Bags Really That Bad?
Posted on December 20, 2009
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Yes, they really are that bad! No, they won’t be the cause of the sun falling out of the sky, but in terms of recycling and litter, they are a monumental environmental disaster.
It is estimated that 100 billion or so plastic bags are used annually in North America. These bags required the equivalent of 12 million barrels of oil in their production. Most of these bags ended up in the few remaining landfills, but a good portion of them were picked up by the wind and scattered over our land and our waterways. Plastic litter is the most common form of litter seen in our urban and rural areas.
Recycling plants hate plastic bags, and they have taken to the practice of not accepting them even though they accept most everything else.
The reason for this is simply that they gum up the recycling machines causing frequent jams in the machinery. The machinery has to be shut down in order to unjam the plastic bags, causing lost time and money.
When plastic bags are recycled, they can be turned into useful products such as plastic “lumber” and other inherently non-recyclable materials.
The trend is to ban plastic bags from being used in grocery stores. The reusable eco-friendy grocery bags are going to be the only bags available in the foreseeable future. This is one more trend of going back to the “good old days” when great grandma took her cotton grocery bag to the store when she went shopping.
The Other Side of the Recycling Effort
Posted on December 6, 2009
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The National Post, a Canadian newspaper recently printed a story about whether recycling is really the best thing for the environment. In my last post I talked about how important it was to recycle properly. This article titled “The recycling conundrum: How your blue bin hurts the environment“, reveals the other side of the recycling story.
According to this article the only material that is really recyclable is metal, but metal only accounts for 2% of the total trash that goes to the landfills. In the City of Calgary, all the glass they collected through their new recycling program is still sitting at the landfill with no buyer for the glass in sight. This same scenario is being played out on other Canadian cities. They are finding that the price of sand is so cheap, they don’t need to recycle glass.
Germany is stockpiling tons of plastic, with no where to send it. The cost to recycle the plastics is $4000 a ton and the resale price is $32.00 a ton.
Government subsidies have been used to keep these programs afloat since a majority of the programs are running in the red.
It looks as though incineration is the next viable option. Britain, Germany and Russia have or are building incineration plants which convert trash to energy.
The final comment in the article is interesting reading. Go to the National Post to read this very interesting viewpoint on recycling.
To learn more about recycling visit the Total Recycling Website and get your free report.
http://totalrecyclingwebsite.com
Common Recycling Faux Pas That Do More Harm Than Good
Posted on December 6, 2009
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Recycling gives people that warm and fuzzy feeling. Tossing stuff into a recycling bin makes people think they are always doing a good thing. In actuality you may be doing more harm than good.
Recycling facilities are plagued with having to deal with the non-recycling waste that people put into the recycling bins thinking they are doing the right thing. They appreciate that people are making the effort to recycle, but when those non-recyclable items find their way into the waste stream, that is not a good thing.
There are several common trash items that should never be put into the recycle bin and put out to the curbside for pickup. The reason for this is that they contaminate the products that are recyclable making them a less useful end-product.
Part of the problem is that each recycling center is a bid different. Each has their own specialized equipment, and each has the ability to sell different recyclable products. But for the most part any products that are bio-plastics, such as disposable silverware, packaging peanuts, and containers make of bio-plastics. Plastic bags are probably the worst offender as they clog up the sorting machines forcing them to stop and unjam the machines, loosing precious time.
Other problematic materials are plastic lined aluminum and steel cans, aluminum foil and plastic bottle caps that are usually made of a different material than the recyclable bottle.
As the world is moving towards a greener lifestyle, it is important that people be aware of what is actually recyclable and what is not. It isn’t enough to just throw everything into the recycling bin thinking you are doing the best for the environment.
To learn more about how you can take easy steps to begin taking recycling a step further, get your free report @ the Total Recycling Website http://totalrecyclingwebsite.com
Going GreenTips – Get the Trash Out of Your Life!
Posted on November 23, 2009
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It’s quite amazing to find out how much trash each individual in the United States generates on a yearly basis. Rather than amazing, it is rather appalling. The U.S. and other large developed countries generate far more trash per person than the under developed countries.
The easiest way to “go green” is to follow the guidelines suggested in the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle plan to reduce the amount of waste that is generated. This is one of the going green tips that makes a lot of sense. With some easy to make changes in our lifestyles in regard to trash, we can make huge difference in the goal towards a sustainable planet.
For more information on how to get the trash out of your life by setting up a household waste management program, visit http://agreenlady.com
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