Archive for the ‘Recycling’ Category
May 12th, 2009
Recycling Our Way to a More Sustainable Future
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Written by Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, courtesy of CleanTechnica.com
San Francisco is a city that knows how to recycle. We work hard to give new life to our paper, bottles, cans and other waste.
New statistics released today show we are keeping 72 percent of all discards from going to the landfill – up from 70 percent the year before.
That’s a big leap for one year. The most significant gains came from the recycling of material from building sites – due in large part to our 2006 mandatory Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.
By requiring builders to recycle debris from construction projects, we were able to divert tens of thousands of new tons of material away from the landfill. This ordinance is unique in that it doesn’t require deposits or bonds, making it small business-friendly and limiting the amount of bureaucracy needed to implement the program.
When it comes to our recycling programs, we’re always in the development phase. In order to meet our ambitious goal of 75 percent recycling by 2010 and zero waste by 2020, we are constantly looking for additional materials to recycle, and for emerging markets to make use of our recyclables.
A few years back we developed—along with the company Recology, our partner in recycling — an innovative program to collect food scraps and turn them into organic soil. Local farms and vineyards now use this soil to grow crops, which are then sold back to consumers in San Francisco. We close the loop locally.
We’ve also recently started recycling almost all types of plastic. We take everything except plastic bags and Styrofoam. Most of it gets made into plastic molding and bender board.
A seventy-two percent diversion rate from the landfill is something to be proud of, and I congratulate every San Francisco resident, business, and visitor who helped us along the way. But we can’t rest on our laurels, not when there are so many valuable resources still going to the dump.
We recently conducted a waste stream analysis and discovered that about two thirds of the stuff people throw away—half a million tons each year—could have been recycled or turned to compost. If were able to capture everything, we would have a recycling rate of 90 percent.
That’s why I’ve introduced an ordinance that will make it mandatory for everyone —homeowners, businesses, or renters — to use our recycling and composting programs. If we can get food scrap collection service into large apartment buildings that currently don’t have it, we’re going to see another great year for recycling.
On a final note, the flip side to how much you recycle is how little you send to the landfill. Our disposal tonnage is the lowest it’s been in over 30 years. Our recycling programs can and have been implemented in cities around the world. For more info on our recycling programs please visit - http://www.sfenvironment.org/.
Popularity: 5% [?]
May 5th, 2009
Make It a Green Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day is this Sunday–why not celebrate your mom in eco-style? Spring has sprung and there is no better way to fete your fabulous mama than with some thoughtful green treats.
First off, how about buying NOTHING for your mom and instead spending some special time together? You don’t need to consume anything to give a special gift. Take her on a nature hike– or to an arboretum or a museum. Or you could pack a picnic and take a bike ride. Or if your mom is a culture-vulture like mine, you can take her to a play.
Or how about a spa visit? What woman doesn’t love that? None that I know! Spa Index offers a list of eco-friendly and socially responsible spas. Many offer overnight accommodations or you can enjoy a simple afternoon of pampering. Spaaahh! And if you can’t afford a spa treatment, how about getting some nice scented oil and giving your mom a massage at home? You can follow it up with some lovely herbal tea. Eco and economical!
Flowers are a common Mother’s Day gift– but cut flowers only last a week or less, and end up in the trash. How about replacing flowers with a potted plant like an orchid or bamboo? These will continue to give your mom joy and a green boost throughout the year. Check out the amazing array of plants available from Monrovia.
If you had something more practical in mind, a set of our favorite reusable shopping bags from Olive Smart Bags may be just the thing for your green mom. Everyone needs more than one reusable bag when they go to the store, but who wants to carry six bulky totes? The Olive Smart Sack is small enough to fit in the cup holder of your car - never to be forgotten. In the Sack, are 6 colorful reusable bags each holding 20% more than a plastic bag.
Or if you want to pamper your mom with some lovely products, how about a glorious gift basket from Lula Organics? Lula Organics’ baskets contain products that were carefully selected because of their promise to strive for a healthier, more sustainable planet. Ingredients are natural and organic, paraben free, laureth sulphate free and free of synthetic scents and colors. Their baskets are all recyclable or reusable containers and they use biodegradable cellophane and cornstarch peanuts. What’s not to love?
Popularity: 4% [?]
April 28th, 2009
How to Recycle Tetra Pak Containers
Shelf stable milk and juice is a genius idea — buy in bulk to always have at the ready, less food waste, and it is fresher than canned goods. But with all the benefits of shelf stable packaging like Tetra Pak, they’re difficult to recycle due to their multi-layer construction. Curbside pickup often won’t take them and even some of the best recycling centers, like mine in Park City, can’t take them. In April though, the Carton Council and the 4 leading carton manufacturers banded together to improve the carton recycling infrastructure in the US. Europe has been recycling Tetra Pak for years, so it’s high time that we got on the bandwagon as well. (more…)
Popularity: 5% [?]
April 20th, 2009
Planes, Trains and Subway Cars!
It’s the ultimate way to recycle: reuse structures and adapt them for living and work space. Planes, cars, railcars, boats, subway cars, and trucks all have good bones that can easily be built upon and modified into something usable. We’ve been seeing a lot of these adaptive reuse projects popping up and wanted to highlight a few of our favorites.
Sleeper Car Studio Apartment
If you’re like us, as a kid you might have had an obsession with the Boxcar Children too. Their creativity and innovation to live on their own inside a rail car was inspiring and exciting. Like the Boxcar Children, Marc Riera designed this studio space inside of a 1949 sleeper car in Portland. The modern interior is complete with DSL, new stainless steel windows, grid connection, and incinerator powered toilet.
The 85 foot long car is surprisingly roomy with plenty of room for a kitchen, living space and bedroom. The sleeper car is located on a private lot in Southeast Portland and is actually on the market for $225,000. The rail car could easily be moved anywhere you want by simply hooking it up to a train engine and pulling it there on an existing rail line.
2-Bedroom Plane Hotel Suite
Airplanes also make for a good structural skeleton, since they deal with high speeds and repetitive landings and takeoffs. This 1965 Boeing 727 once carried globetrotters around Africa and South America, and now it serves as a swanky two-bedroom suite at the Costa Verde Resort in Costa Rica. Taken from it’s graveyard at the San Jose airport, the plane was transported piece by piece on 5 big trucks to bring it this resort on the edge of the Manuel Antonio National Park near Quepos, Costa Rica.
Set up on top of a 50 foot pedestal, guests of this hotel suite have inspiring views of the Pacific Ocean from their recycled room. The interior is paneled from tip to tail with locally harvested teak wood, and not as eco-friendly teak furnishings imported from Indonesia. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite also has a kitchenette, dining area and beautiful veranda, which is perfect for watching the sunset.
Subway Car Artist Studios
There are also a lot of empty subway cars being retired from active duty. An innovative art and design organization in London, Village Underground, decided to recycled ex London Underground subway cars into studio space for artists. The studio cars now sit on top of a Victorian warehouse, which is a flexible multi-use space for gallery shows, exhibits, parties and meeting space.
Artists, writers, film makers, fashion designers, musicians and more are welcome to work in the revamped subway cars at a very affordable low-cost rent. Only the original seating was removed, in fact all the levers and buttons are still in tact at the end of each car. Tables, chairs, couches, bean bags and power outlets were brought in to make them functioning for the artists.
Van Studio Apartment
The last example of creative and adaptive reuse of retired transportation equipment is an old transport van that has converted into a studio apartment. Dubbed the “Peggy M” by the owners of the studio, it gets 15 miles per gallon, but does run on biodiesel. The Ford Econoline-350 was almost completely outfitted with free things off craigslist - even an upright piano, table and chairs, work shop space, and two mattresses that hang overhead on a pulley system. The artists drove around and sold paintings out of the back.
Popularity: 19% [?]
March 25th, 2009
NatureMill Makes Indoor Composting Easy
The NatureMill Indoor composter is the ideal gadget for any ecowarrior without a yard or garden. The composter allows you to recycle your waste food easily and quickly. You can compost up to 120 lbs (55kg) of waste per month using the indoor composter!
The composter mixes and heats the waste, as well as adding moisture to encourage the breakdown of food matter. Once the food waste has broken down, you can then retrieve the compost from the bottom container of the composter.
The heat kills nasty bacteria and destroys the majority of smells. If you do smell anything from the composter, the worst you’d smell would be damp straw or mushrooms. The carbon filter inside the composter helps with the odors and only needs replacing every 5 years. Although the composter is always switched on, it only uses 5kWh a month, which costs very little in real money. Just pence really.
If you live in an flat (or apartment as they’re called in the US), then the NatureMill Indoor composter is a perfect way to reduce your landfill waste even if you don’t have a garden. The composter is small enough to fit in a kitchen cupboard, or could be stored in your garage if you have one. You can use the newly created soil to top-up your indoor plants with some natural fertilizer.
And here’s the best bit about the composter. Due to the way the waste is mixed and aerated, the decomposing material releases no methane into the atmosphere. This means you can do your bit to help reduce greenhouse gasses too!
This guest article about the NatureMill indoor composter was written by Dan Harrison. Dan has a passion for all kinds of eco-friendly gadgets. Dan also runs DailyEcoTips.com where you can read a new eco tip every day!
Popularity: 6% [?]
