I’ve been exploring new hobbies… well new to me, and one that is quickly becoming a favorite is metal detecting. I was thinking when I was out last time, that in a sense, this is a relatively green hobby. Using rechargable batteries for my detector, and picking up trash in addition to what I dig up. Not to mention a lot of things I find can be recycled in some way. pull tabs, however annoying they are to a detectorist can serve a purpose. Folks on dialysis can use them to help offset the cost of their treatments, and also McDonalds will take them to help fund Ronald McDonald House.
The [...]
Chicago Cubs to fans: let’s recycle!
The dog days of summer will be a little bit greener this year, at least in Chicago at Wrigley Field.
Cubs fans have a lot to be proud of. Their team has taken on recycling in a big way.
Their new “Real Fans Recycle” campaign asks fans to help divert aaround 165,000 pounds of plastic and cardboard from landfills. This season, vendors at Wrigley Field will use compostable plates and cutlery, and plastic drink cups and napkins that are made from recycled content
Fans will see ushers nd event staff sporting cool “Real Fans Recycle” shirts made from 100% recycled material, including recycled PET plastic from which Wrigley Field beverage cups are made.
The emblazoned shirts are sponsored by Solo [...]
Spa Baby makes bathing baby a pleasure
Parents of young babies know that giving them a bath is challenging, frustrating and rarely fun.
An amazingly innovative Canadian product called Spa Baby makes it pleasant a pleasant experience all around.
The Spa Baby is a European-style baby bath tub that lets you bathe your baby while it’s sitting up.
It goes back to the idea of bathing them in the kitchen sink, says Brandy Cameron, founder of Spa Baby Tubs, Inc.
After the birth of her baby six years ago, Cameron discovered how difficult it was to give newborns a bath and how much they disliked the process! Searching for a better alternative, she discovered that outside of North America, it was standard to bathe [...]
Dart makes recycling styrofoam easy
Everyone tosses that foam packaging that comes with our favorite electronics, right?
Not any more.
Since the 1990’s, Dart Container Corp.– a leader in the polystyrene foodservice product industry – has been collecting polystyrene (generally called StyrofoamTM, a product developed by the Dow Chemical Company) at their drop-off centers, keeping it out of landfills.
They began at their corporate headquarters in Michigan, says Michael Westerfield, Dart’s Corporate Director of Recycling Programs.
Since then, the drop-off program has grown.
In 2007, Dart collected and recycled 106 tons of foam at the Michigan location. In 2008, doing nothing different, they recycled 200 tons of foam. In 2009, they recycled 250 tons, again altering nothing.
Since the 1990’s, the [...]
Goodwill expands their recycling to include Microsoft electronics
Goodwill Industries hasannounced it will now accept Microsoft electronics.
Those 1,900 plus facilities that participate in the Reconnect recycling program - a residential computer recycling program managed by Dell Computers and Goodwill that makes it easy, convenient and responsible to recycle your used computer equipment – will now accept Microsoft entertainment products including Xbox, Zune and accompanying accessories for free recycling.
Goodwill employees have collected 96 million pounds of e-waste through the program since 2004, which are then refurbished, repaired and resold or recycled by Dell’s partners. To ensure the collected electronics don’t add to the global problem of e-waste dumping, Dell holds its partners to a strict policy of not exporting non-functioning electronics to developing countries.
To find a participating [...]
Coca Cola develops chairs from recycled Coke bottles
Coca Cola is making recycling stylish.
In a collaboration with Emeco, the reknowned beverage company has created a line of chairs made from at least 111 plastic drink bottles. Each ”111 Navy Chair” by Emeco, a leading furniture manufacturer, contains 60% rPET ((recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic) and a special combination of other materials including pigment and glass fiber for strength. It comes in colors like Coca-Cola Red, Snow, Flint, Grass, Persimmon and Charcoal.
This eco-friendly chair - which is modeled after the original aluminium Emeco Navy Chair (#1006) designed in 1944 for the U.S. Navy - debuts this week at the 2010 Salone Internazionale del Mobile, one of the top furniture trade shows in the world.
Coca-Cola and United Resource Recovery [...]
Target establshes in-store recycling centers in honor of Earth Day
Target has been offering quality, discount products and providing customers a positive shopping experience since the early 1960’s, Now it’s expanded their green quotient.
On Tuesday, April 6th, Target introduced in-store recycling centers in all their 1,740 stores. These recycling stations are located just inside, near the front of each store.
What’s unusual about this is it’s the first time a major retailer has made full-out recycling available to their “guests”.
Target’s been recycling since the early ‘60’s, says spokesperson Amy Reilly, but behind the scenes. They’ve recycled a lot of cardboard, shrink-wrap and construction materials and were one of the first retailers to reuse and recycle garment hangers.
So why include the public in their [...]
Washington businesswoman recycles styrofoam
Marilyn Lauderdale, owner of V&G Styro Recycle is making a difference. Her Renton , Washington company does what few others do – accepts styrofoam and recycles it.
Joining the ranks of Dart Container Corp., about whom I’ve written several times, this company is filling a growing need, taking leftover styrofoam packing from electronics, appliances and and other #6 or EPS-filled packages companies and individuals regularly go through. Lauderdale utilizes a machine that conveys the used styrofoam packing into a grinder that then twists it into a taffy consistency. This is then dumped into containers where it’s compressed and shaped into 40-pound ingots that can then be used for new packaging for electronics and other items.
Lauderdale’s company serves three segments:
home [...]
Starbucks’ shareholders nix added recycling
At their recent annual shareholder meeting, Starbucks shareholders voted down a measure that would have increased recycling at stores nationwide.
Proposed by one of the shareholders, the failed measure did garner 11 percent approval from the shareholder body.
Similar proposals were put before Coca Cola and PepsiCo. Though each won only 10 percent approval, both companies have since announced major recycling initiatives.
With the Starbucks proposal, the company recommended shareholders vote against the measure, saying it already had a recycling strategy. Their cups already contain 10 percent post-consumer recycled fiber and are also recyclable and compostable in some parts of the country.
That said, many of its stores do not have recycle and compost bins [...]
Top Ten Eco-Lifestyle Changes
1. Get in the Garden – get outside and have some fun gardening! There are plenty of fantastic green products around and growing your own fruit and veg helps reduce your carbon footprint and persuades you to keep healthy!
2. Compost Compost Compost! – Make sure you keep a compost bin and make the most of your left over food scraps. Just place all peelings and left over biodegradable vegetables in your compost bin and then watch your home-grown vegetables thrive.
3. Walk – walk your kids to school, walk to work, walk to town. Reduce your carbon footprint and tone up by [...]