[Show as slideshow]

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 12

Artist Ethan Estess is studying marine conservation and communication at Stanford University. (Photo by Jake Richardson)

By Jake Richardson
January 21, 2012 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA– Recology’s Artist in Residence program had an exhibition of recycled art made from materials scavenged from the San Francisco dump on January 20th and 21st. The featured artists were Ethan Estess, Terry Berlier, and Donna Anderson Kam.

Estess is studying marine conservation and communication at Stanford University and his art work focused on marine wildlife and ocean-related issues. Of particular note was his large whale tail covered in rope titled Last Dive of the Farallones: 100,000 Marine Mammals Killed Each Year. Another one of his sculptures features a toy shark completely entangled in fishing line. He says he wants his art to “create an emotional connection between people and the environment because once that connection is established, people can change their behavior.”

Terry Berlier is a visual artist and professor of art at Stanford.
“I came here in the spirit of experimentation, and that is necessary for communication when there is so much thrown away,” Berlier says.
She filled a shopping cart with sculptures she made from wet cement she found. The cement sculptures express the heaviness of personal consumption, both for shoppers and the environment. She also filled a birdcage with the cement in reference to a situation she read in Garbage Land from Colombia. One part of the book describes birds that became so obese from eating from a dump that they could no longer fly.

Berlier also made a musical device by connecting 88 piano keys on a recycled wooden spool and routing them through a laptop she also found in the dump. Electronic speakers sounded the notes when the keys were pressed.

Another one of her large sculptures was based on the historical design of an acoustic locator, which was a sound amplification device used typically in war times long ago. Her design, however, was associated with one used for listening to balloon ascents.

Donna Anderson Kam mainly works mainly with two-dimensional art, and most of her exhibited work was color drawings done in pastel, chalk and paper she found mixed into all the garbage in the facility. You wouldn’t know the source of the paper just from looking at her beautiful images. Some of them reference the collection of thrown away materials, in scenes such as a young man next to a pile of old rubber tires. Her series at the exhibition was titled “Little Hollywood.” She says the process of discovery and experimentation with the dump materials was like a fun game.

All of the art work by the three artists in residence could be shown in museums, and it might be effective to include their show, or part of it, in facilities such as Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco.

Recology will have more exhibitions by their artists in residence throughout the coming months.

© 2012 SCGH, LLC.

Electronics go out of style faster than clothes these days. Americans throw out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers every day, according to Time. E-waste piles up and often gets shipped to poor countries where it causes serious environmental and health problems.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to letting e-waste accumulate and leach dangerous chemicals into the surrounding soil and water. In this video, Michael Pittman from 2nd Solutions explains to Sierra Club Green Home how smelting makes it possible to recycle old electronics.

You can also learn about batteries’ eco afterlife, or find places to recycle your cell phone safely and sustainably.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For related articles, see:
Electronic Waste: How to Properly Dispose of E-Waste
Common Trash That’s Actually Recyclable

[Show as slideshow]

 

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

Take inventory and then properly discard all unnecessary household chemicals. (Brbankston, Stock Xchng) Note: Products are for illustration purposes only.

By Mike Brandolino
January 9, 2012

There is a very good chance that you have a stockpile of household chemicals including old home and garden cleaners, pesticides, paints, motor oil, grease, and other potentially hazardous materials stored in your home, garage, or outdoor shed.

During the winter months, you may want to take an inventory of the chemicals in your home and determine what is needed and what can be discarded. It’s a great way to get a head start on spring cleaning.

Remember, never assume that it is safe or legal to dispose of household chemicals down the drain, in a storm sewer, or with general household trash. The local waste systems may drain in waterways or treatment facilities, which cannot process chemical waste. Your household chemical waste can create much bigger environmental problems for your community and local ecosystems and wildlife habitats.

It is best to check with your local municipality to follow all the proper chemical disposal guidelines and regulations. Some areas have chemical drop-off sites or specific collection dates. Contact your local waste collection facility or municipal office for safe household chemical disposal procedures.

You can try searching the Web for “household chemicals [your county],” or you can use Earth 911’s recycling center search. This search works by putting in the name of the material you want to recycle (ex: oil) and your city or zip code.

Keep chemicals out of your local soil and water by disposing of them properly. Spread the word!

© 2012 SCGH, LLC. 

[Show as slideshow]

 

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

Coca Cola, which makes Dasani, says it plans to increase the amount of plant-based material in its beverage bottles. (Leonardo Bonanni, Flickr)

By Debra Atlas
January 6, 2012 

It takes 17 million barrels of oil to produce the disposable plastic water bottles that Americans buy each year. Coca-Cola’s brands Dasani and Odwalla claim to have a solution: plant-derived plastic, also known as bioplastic. Sierra Club Green Home decided to find out how bioplastic bottles compare to conventional plastic bottles in terms of environmental effects.

In 2009, Coca Cola introduced its Dasani PlantBottle, which includes up to 30 percent fiber from Brazilian sugarcane and molasses. Then the company launched its new Odwalla PlantBottle in 2011, the first single-serving beverage bottle made from 100 percent plant-based material. The company says it intends to increase the amount of plant-based material used in its Dasani plastic bottle by utilizing nonfood, plant-based waste such as wood chips and wheat stalks to produce recyclable PET bottles. However, in the two years since Coca-Cola introduced the PlantBottle was introduced, the level and type of plant-based material has remained the same.

Will this move help the giant beverage manufacturer reach its corporate sustainability goals? Or are they merely products wrapped in a greenwashing veneer?

Although these new plastic bottles are made with plant fiber, their environmental impacts are the same as plastics made from oil, according to environmental journalist Amy Westervelt.
“They don’t biodegrade, they pollute the world’s oceans and soils, and still leach potentially harmful chemicals into our food,” she says of bioplastics.

What’s more, plant plastics aren’t necessarily free of harmful chemicals, explains Westervelt. A surprising fact about these new plastic bottles is their chemical composition.

“The PET resin from plant-derived bottles is identical [to] that of petroleum-based PET [plastic],” says Christina Piles, who supervises the recycling of hazardous waste for the city of Redding, California.

Another of bioplastic is that petrochemical fertilizers are often used to grow the plants that are used to make the bottles, says journalist Mary Catherine O’Connor. And, despite its name, it can’t be composted.

“The compostable plastic industry started making this material without input from the composting industry,” says Will Bakx, co-owner of Petaluma, California’s Sonoma Compost. “They never thought through the lifecycle.”

Although they may not be all Coca-Cola would like you to believe, there are some upsides to these two bioplastic bottles. Both of them are recyclable, although there is some consumer confusion on this matter.  And the new Odwalla HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic is made from Brazillian sugarcane that is sustainably-grown, rainwater-fed, renewable, and non-GMO. What’s more, using this material doesn’t take anything away from crops grown for human or animal consumption.

That said, if Odwalla’s HDPE bottle is made from such great material, why didn’t Coca-Cola use the same stuff for other beverage bottles? HDPE can’t hold carbonation, so it couldn’t be used for soda, but why not Dasani water?

One possible explanation is the PR benefits of launching two types of plant-based bottles. Perhaps having two bioplastic bottles seems like twice the green effort. Even though “up to 30 percent” plant-based doesn’t sound too convincing, their 100 percent plant-based Odwalla bottle probably scored points with the public.

As we know at Sierra Club Green Home, there’s usually more to the story than meets the eye, and that may well be the case here. Still, if Coca=Cola can come up with the HDPE bottle for one product, why not both?

And if both of these bottles are so chemically similar to petroleum-based plastic, are they really a necessary invention?

For related article, see:
Future of Plastic in Plants, Not Petroleum

© 2012 SCGH, LLC. 

[Show as slideshow]

 

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

Paper waste makes up a substantial portion of our landfills-- as much as 25%. (FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

By Albert Segovia
January 4, 2012 

More than a quarter of landfill waste comes from paper, according to the Environmental Paper Network’s 2011 report. While large publishing companies are slowly making changes to reduce their impact, Sierra Club Green Home readers can do their part as well. Here are the basics: buy consciously, recycle properly, and reduce paper use.

• Buy consciously: Look for paper and print products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This supports responsible forest management, and directly benefits the communities who supply raw materials from forests.Nontoxic ink cartridges are also widely available. Compared to oil-based ink, soy- and vegetable-based ink cartridges emit considerably fewer volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

• Recycle properly: recycling helps to offset the high levels of waste associated with printing. Make sure recycling bins are available in your home, neighborhood, and workplace.

• Reduce paper use: print on both sides of the paper, write notes down on scratch paper (or type them into your phone) instead of printing, and check the print preview to ensure that you are not printing unnecessary pages.

Sustainable printing certifications also exist for companies who wish to reduce their facilities’ ecological footprint. Organizations such as the nonprofit Sustainable Green Printing Partnership exist to promote and implement this type of sustainability.

Print with the source and destination of your pages in mind, and you’ll be helping address a major source of our waste. Spread the word about sustainable prints!

For related articles, see:
Send the Write Message with eco-friendly greeting cards.
Opportunity Green Start-up: PrintEco saves paper when printing pages from the Internet.

© 2012 SCGH, LLC.

[Show as slideshow]

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 8

Americans use a staggering 2 million plastic water bottles every five minutes in the United States, the large majority of which are PET plastic made from petroleum oil. (Courtesy of BioCor)

By Debra Atlas
December 21, 2011

We use a staggering 2 million plastic bottles every five minutes in the United States, the large majority of which are PET plastic. And our rate of recycling is worse than dismal: not quite 13 percent nationwide.

Glimmers of hope are emerging. In states with mandatory recycling laws, the recycling rates are almost 28 percent for PET plastic. Only 10 states have the so-called “bottle bills,” yet those states have the highest rate of recycling in the country. Of these, two made major headway in 2010:

• California reached 82 percent recycling; and
• Washington state achieved an overall recycling rate of 49 percent.

It begs the question: What would happen if the rest of the country implemented similar laws?

Plastic is a large expense in the beverage industry. The global price of oil directly affects the type of plastic being produced. In 2008, when the price of oil soared to more than $100 per barrel, companies began scrambling to find alternatives to plastic bottles.

Enter bioplastics. Several companies have created bottles made from plant-based materials. Coca-Cola Company launched its Dasani PlantBottle, made with up to 30 percent plant-based material, and its Odwalla brand PlantBottle, made with 100 percent PLA (polylactide or polylactic acid), a polymer made from renewable plant materials.

Another beverage company to make the switch is Nature’s Bottles. Its PLA bottles are made from Ingeo, a purportedly non-GMO, corn-based material that is touted as the world’s first biopolymer to show a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

PLA is fairly unique, says Mike Centers, executive director of BioCor, a northern California-based recycler of PLA. You can recycle it relatively inexpensively compared to PET and other plastics, he says. And it can be made into useful products such as clamshells (traditional throwaways) and even beer cups. All the beer cups at the Oakland Coliseum stadium are made from PLA.

Centers launched BioCor in 2010 to help create a market and an infrastructure for collecting plant-based waste material, both industrial and post consumer. Watch this video on end-of-life PLA:

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to research firm Pira International, nearly half of all bioplastic packaging in the world is PLA.

The market for the material is thriving, says Centers. Bioplastics is a high-growth industry. In fact, manufacturers want to use PLA to develop secondary markets, Centers adds.

Coca-Cola took “an innovative approach” with the Dasani PlantBottle, says Centers. It took one of the chemicals that make up PET and found a way to derive it from plants instead.

“They’ve captured the imagination of what everyone’s trying to do but haven’t gotten there yet,” Centers says.

HDPE (high density polyethylene) is a petroleum-based plastic, one of the most common types of plastic products found today. Both HDPE and PET types of plastics are moving towards being plant based, says Centers.

But it all depends on the price of oil. If oil is high, Centers says, more manufacturers will convert to PLA as a packaging source.

One company that recently announced it is jumping onto this bandwagon is PepsiCo. Earlier this year, the giant beverage manufacturer revealed its plans to market a 100 percent plant-based PET bottle. It had examined the possibility of using PLA but found that it did not meet the company’s needs.

There is definitely a bright future for PLA.  It can be recycled as easily as PET plastic, and it takes only 27 to 50 days for it to break down in industrial composting facilities.

Companies interested in utilizing plant-based plastic can reach out to companies such as Nature Works (an independent company that owns the patent for Nature’s Bottles and invested in by Cargill and PTT Chemical) or a converter such as Jamplast or Mirel that can make products out of PLA. Or learn more about BioCor and its progress at BioCor.org.

Check out more articles by Debra Atlas.

© 2011 SCGH, LLC.

(By Casa Laguna Inn, courtesy of Laguna Beach Visitors Bureau)

Blog post by Gustavo Grad
December 20, 2011

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — It may feel small, but I learned from reading the Laguna Beach Independent newspaper that “all of Laguna Beach’s hotel and lodging properties have agreed to recycle hygiene products to benefit children and families in need through the nonprofit Clean the World Global. They have committed to saving lives and protecting our planet. Hospitality partners here will collect and recycle hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and gels to help fight the global spread of preventable diseases, the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau announced.

When one looks at what the numbers could add up to and the impact, this effort to recycle is not insignificant in the least, even for a little seaside town.

Eighteen hotels with 20 rooms or more and four smaller properties in Laguna have joined the partnership to recycle, for a total of about 1,200 rooms. These hotels include Aliso Creek Inn, Art Hotel, Best Western, Capri Laguna, Carriage House, Casa Laguna Inn, Crescent Bay Inn, Holiday Inn, Hotel Laguna, Inn at Laguna, La Casa del Camino, Laguna Beach Inn, Laguna Cliffs Inn, Laguna Riviera, Montage, Pacific Edge Hotel, Seacliff Laguna Inn, Sunset Cove Villas, Surf & Sand Resort and Spa, The Tides, The Retreat, and Travelodge.

Clean the World says it has hospitality partnerships to recycle with more than 1,200 hotel properties throughout North America, including 143 partners in California. Since the organization’s founding in 2009, Clean the World’s California hospitality partners have contributed more than 70,00 pounds of soap and nearly 68,000 pounds of bottled amenities. At 3 ounces apiece, that equates to 375,088 bars of soap—enough to provide more than 75,000 children with a month’s supply of soap, Clean the World estimates.

Laguna Beach, California, is a resort and artist community in Orange County, with a population of only about 24,000. This embrace of loving kindness from all these hotels going green to make a difference may seem small, but each day 9,000 children worldwide die from diseases that can be prevented by washing with bar soap.

“Laguna Beach is Southern California’s premiere seaside destination, and a city deserving of praise for its promotion of sustainability and social responsibility,” says Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder of Clean the World.

Think globally, act locally.

© 2011 SCGH, LLC.

[Show as slideshow]

 

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

This Douglas fir is transformed into a decorated, live, potted Christmas tree. (John Fogel)

By Debra Atlas

Every year, 25 to 30 million live Christmas trees are sold in the United States. Their ornaments and decorations help brighten our holiday. But after the holiday, they end up curbside as trash or, in towns offering such services, as recycling. A sad fate for such a wonderful part of Christmas.

Around the country, a new tradition is growing: renting a living tree for the holidays.

John Fogel was the first to offer this unique service in 1992 when he opened Original Living Christmas Tree Company in Portland, Oregon. He digs live evergreen trees up, root ball and all, pots them, then rents them for the holidays. Later, he picks them up and delivers them to parks, school districts, and other groups who pay around $10 to have the trees planted on their property.

“It’s something that’s good for business, for the environment,” Fogel says. “It’s about hope, feeling good about the planet and innovation.”

There are benefits to renting as opposed to buying a cut tree:

• Rented trees last longer;
• They are reused year after year until they are eventually sold and replanted as mature trees;
• You will have less mess—and no needle loss;
• Each tree that is rented reduces the amount of wasted holiday trees that end up in landfills; and
• Delivery and pick-up are included in the price of the rental.

Fogel accepts only the number of orders he knows he can find buyers for who are willing to plant the trees come January. This year he’ll accept around 200 living tree orders.

People can learn to make their own potted Christmas trees with the information on Fogel’s Web site. After the holidays, simply put an ad on Craigslist or contact your local parks department to donate it for planting.

Fogel plans to expand his operation through franchising. Anyone interested should contact him via the Web site.

Since 2005, residents of San Francisco have been able to rent live Christmas trees through a partnership between the San Francisco Department of the Environment and Friends of the Urban Forest. Residents can choose from four different species of evergreen trees: southern magnolia, small leaf Tristania, the strawberry tree, and a New Zealand Christmas tree (nothing like a traditional holiday tree). People can even give the gift of a planted tree named in someone’s honor. After the holiday, the trees are picked up, then replanted in neighborhoods around the city.

It’s all on a “first come, first served” basis.

In California, there are a few well-known Christmas tree rental companies:

LivingChristmasTrees.com, founded in southern California by landscape architect Scott “Scotty Claus” Martin in 2008, serves the Los Angeles, San Diego, and Orange County areas. Customers can choose from a variety of trees, including two-foot-tall baby sequoias, hardy blue cedars, and oh-so-fragrant seven-foot-tall Monterey pines. Orders include a watering tray to protect floors and you can even “adopt” a tree that they’ll bring back to your house year after year. Customers also can purchase “green” ornaments, LED lights, and stocking stuffers.

In northern California,  RentALivingChristmasTree.com serves the Monterey Peninsula, Santa Cruz, the San Francisco South Bay area, and Salinas. Choose the date you want your tree delivered (up through December 23), and you can even visit the nursery to pick out your own tree. They also carry LED lights to keep your green tree energy efficient.

Plant Manning, founded by Eric Manning in the Santa Cruz Mountains, has been offering live Christmas tree rentals for more than 20 years. Serving both northern and southern California, Manning delivers potted Colorado Spruce or Redwood Christmas trees to your home or office in his biodiesel-fueled bus and guarantees post-holiday pick-up. And you can adopt the same tree each year.

Manning’s business model is a bit different than other live tree rental companies. Because people ask for the same tree year after year, he trims the trees like bonsais. His vision is more long term, he says. He wants to keep the trees thriving for generations.

This is the real spirit of re-use, says Manning. “And there’s no waste,” he adds.

Rates and delivery dates will vary, so check with the tree rental dealer in your area. You can go online to find one in your area.

For related articles, see:
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree
Let There Be Light This Holiday Season!
Tree Tip

Check out more articles by Debra Atlas.

© 2011 SCGH, LLC.

[Show as slideshow]

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

Last year, the United States created 250 million tons of trash, a large part of which ended up in landfills. (Courtesy of Diana Fuller)

By E.Q. Lam
December 11, 2011

For more than a year, filmmakers have been laying the groundwork for Racing to Zero, a documentary on how Americans can reduce their waste to almost nothing. They have researched the issues as well as solutions. They have recruited experts, including a “garbologist.” They have produced a trailer capturing what the film is about. And now, they are ready to start full production in January.

A Kickstarter campaign to raise initial funds has achieved nearly $7,000 in pledges, with 26 days remaining to reach its $8,000 goal. Producer Diana Fuller says she is confident the 60-day campaign will be a success. The project will be funded only if it achieves $8,000 in pledges by January 6.

“What is really exciting are the people coming to help,” Fuller says.

She says people are contributing not only money but also their comments about the subject. By involving supporters of the documentary in the process, they develop a vested interest and consciousness about the issues, Fuller says. That is part of her vision to create a “wave” of cumulative action against waste.

“This is not about making a film; this is about a consuming passion,” Fuller says. “… I think it’s wonderful this project involves as many people as possible.”

Film Focus on Solutions

Last year, the United States created 250 million tons of trash, a large part of which ended up in landfills, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. As the trash decomposes in landfills, it emits methane gas, a toxic greenhouse gas that causes 23 times more environmental damage than carbon dioxide (CO₂). See what happens to trash in the film’s trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Films dealing with trash have focused on the sheer magnitude of the problem of disposing of unwanted things. Racing to Zero will look beyond that to solutions by tracking efforts (for example, at the city level) to reduce garbage. The original intention of the film, then called Trash24, was to show what happens to garbage in a 24-hour day. Thus, renaming the project Racing to Zero presents a broader artistic canvas to work with, Fuller says. To her, “racing to zero” means diverting as much as possible from landfills through strategies such as inventive repurposing, recycling, and composting.

For Fuller, an arts administrator, this film is a way to present all kinds of information in a directed way. “The thing that came to me was that there’s so much. It’s such a huge thing, and people tend to think, ‘Oh well, what can I do about it?’ … It seemed to me an awful lot of people—including myself—didn’t know the answers,” she says.

The film will educate viewers about where the trash comes from and where it goes—what Fuller envisions as “a tale of revelation, hope, understanding, and responsibility.” The challenge for the artists involved in making Racing to Zero is to present the issues and solutions in an attractive way for viewers to take to heart.

“We want every person to get something out of this, to make a change,” says Fuller, who hopes the film will help change the culture of waste by opening people’s eyes. “People in this country have never really broached the subject of ‘When did I start leaving a trail of waste? Why did the minute I get out of bed did I start leaving a trail of waste?’”

The Value of Garbage

Racing to Zero seeks to inform people in a new way about their relationship to trash.

“I thought I knew all about recycling. … I started realizing I don’t know,” says Christopher Beaver, the film’s director, who has documented other environmental issues. “If you think you know about recycling or garbage, think again.”

One fact which caught Beaver’s attention in research for the film is that some 50 million Americans suffer from food insecurity that could be remedied simply with the edible food that Americans throw away.

William Rathje, an anthropologist and archaeologist, can provide even more insight into how Americans handle waste. Rathje, currently a consulting professor at Stanford University, has studied trash since 1973 and pioneered the academic discipline of “garbology,” which looks at trash as telling remnants of society. He is one of the experts who will be featured in the film.

“One of the most important reasons for Racing to Zero is a goal: It sets a goal for people,” Rathje says. “The problem is that once you recycle, you lose the goal, because recycling is the goal and you’re doing that, and that’s the end of that. And you don’t think about doing more and more and more. And the concept of the documentary Racing to Zero is to alert people to the fact that there’s a particular goal … . What they’re doing is great, but there’s a lot more to be done. The goal is to recycle and reduce and reuse everything to the point that there’s no garbage.”

Through decades of study, Rathje has observed consumer behavior which he calls the Fast Lane Syndrome: People eat what is quick and easy (prepackaged fast food), leaving fresh food untouched to spoil.

“When people go shopping, most people know what’s good for them, and so they buy fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, etcetera,” Rathje says. “But they also know what their lifestyle is, so they buy frozen dinners, etcetera. By the end of the week, the frozen dinner trays and head of lettuce are in the garbage.”

Rathje’s first principle of waste is to do what one does on a regular basis: “It’s very important for people to follow their normal pattern of behavior,” he says.

As examples, he recounts studies in the 1970s, when beef and sugar shortages propelled people to stock up on related products. But people did not know how to store or use them properly, or they would buy specialty items such as hot dog buns for barbecues or paint for home improvement projects and not use all of them—resulting in more waste as the items were thrown out, Rathje explains.

“If I’ve cooked something I’ve cooked a dozen times before, I have no problems. Stick with your normal behavior and you’ll waste a lot less,” he says.

Another nugget of knowledge Rathje offers is that while aluminum makes up only one or two percent of recycling programs, its value can pay for 40 to 60 percent of the programs. “Aluminum is one of the few recyclables where you get the money back,” Rathje says, explaining that bauxite is expensive to turn into aluminum. “Aluminum is really the workhorse of recycling in America.”

Calling for Change

Racing to Zero’s filmmakers are adamant that the film be personal and present solutions that any ordinary person can immediately implement. “I think education is incredibly important to all of us to be able to change,” Fuller says. “We have to know that we each create 4.3 pounds a day of garbage. … Industry itself has to be made to—if it doesn’t want to—understand the threat to the consumer that it makes through irresponsible manufacturing. … But it also is in our hands to start changing these patterns.”

Fuller says she hopes that the film will make consumers more aware at the point of purchase, in the store. The amount of packaging around a product creates more waste than the product itself.

“Think carefully about what we might not use in both food and other things,” Fuller says. “The packaging alone is going to last longer than the product. That’s what’s nuts.”

Rathje adds, “When you buy things at the store, you need to be a bit aware of whether it’s recyclable or reusable, or you’re buying a package that reduces the amount of garbage that is generated by your purchase.”

He gives the example of buying concentrated orange juice, which comes in a relatively small package, rather than the big plastic or glass containers of orange juice.

Unlike other environmental issues, garbage is at the doorstep of every individual, says Beaver, but so are the solutions. One person can have a “huge impact” on recycling or waste management, he says.

“If everybody would pull as much responsibility as they could for themselves, that would [help] the racing toward zero. Recycling is one of those places where you can make a difference,” Beaver says. “In terms of recycling, there is a lot that an individual can do. … And then that will lead to other things. People will say, ‘I wonder what else I’m wasting.’”

Fuller echoes the stance that, with regard to waste management, people can have an immediate effect on the solution. “Every person can make a little bit of difference,” she says. “… That becomes the collective reparation. But you can’t change till you understand. You can’t prepare if you don’t know what you’re preparing for. It is a real puzzle: We [Americans] consume more than any other place on earth, … so what are we going to do with it? It has to go both ways—the government, institutional side—right down to the individual, the collective, the block-by-block count.”

For Fuller, the process of producing the film is as important as the end product, if people are engaged. For Beaver, the possibilities do not end with completion of the film: “I hope it’s going to ignite the imagination of anybody who sees it to go further, … to come up with more and better solutions.”

To back this project by pledging at least $1, go to its Kickstarter campaign page.

Check out more articles by E.Q. Lam.

© 2011 SCGH, LLC.

[Show as slideshow]

 

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 4

Here's some Envirosax all wrapped up! (Courtesy of Envirosax)

By Erika F. Washington

You’ve seen the aftermath of a great Christmas morning. The entire living room is complete mayhem: piles of wrapping paper, crumpled tissue paper, and bows littered in every corner. You can probably fill an entire trash bag with Christmas debris, which can make even the not-so-green cringe a little.

So SCGH found an alternative to gift wrap waste from disposable wrapping paper: useful, reusable eco-friendly gift bags.

Wrapsacks is a company that manufactures and sells drawstring eco-friendly gift bags, a disposable gift wrap alternative.  You can even follow your Wrapsack’s journey as it’s re-gifted from one person to another using Track-a-Sack® on the website. The Wrapsacks come in six sizes and are made of 100% hand dyed cotton. The company offers a video tutorial on how to wrap your gifts with the Wrapsack. Prices start around $4.99.

Envirosax is proud to help protect the environment for tomorrow’s generation by providing an alternative to disposable shopping bags with eco-friendly gift bags. They are lightweight, portable, and waterproof, and each one holds the equivalent of two supermarket plastic bags thanks to reinforced seams. They can also be used as gift wrap. Prices start around $8.95.

These options seem a little pricier than buying a roll of paper and a bag of bows but, over the course of a few holidays and birthdays, the eco-friendly gift bags will pay for themselves.

Plus, you’re not adding to landfills, which makes everyone’s holiday just a little bit merrier.

For related article, see:
Holiday Shopping? Check the Eco Price.

© 2011 SCGH, LLC.