waste of the week

Waste of the Week #18: Cork Recycling

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Cork recycling!  So it looks like you can give your corks to Terracycle and they’ll turn them into cork boards to sell.

You could hold onto yours (natural, synthetic, whatever) until you have enough to make a cork board, which surprisingly doesn’t take that many to do if you glue them all in the long way.

The survival nuts burn cork to make face camoflauge (I haven’t tried it), so I guess there’s always that option too…can’t say I don’t have a bag of them in the basement ready for whatever. 🙂

It’s weird… the more I learn about recycling, the less I tend to trust it.  Hopefully the corks get to where they need to go, and chances are good they do…but I can’t help but look sideways at grocery stores collecting plastic bags, wondering if they actually get recycled.  Cork recycling definitely seems more straight forward than hinging a material’s recycling chances based on market value.

Anyway, I guess all I’m saying is that when it comes to recycling, if you can do something yourself, do it yourself.

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Humanure Handbook Review / Holy Crap, I Love My Compost Toilet!

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If there was any book I’d recommend, even to someone that isn’t interested in environmental issues, it’s Humanure Handbook.  I can confidently say this book is at the level of Silent Spring, and possibly higher ranking on my list than Rubbish.

How could a book about composting your bowel movements be important?

Urine, feces and food scraps are super high in nitrogen.  Leaves, cardboard, paper, straw, hay etc are all high in carbon.  When you mix these two components together, in time you get beautiful, fertile compost that our earth desperately needs.

What you don’t get is chlorine and sodium hypochlorite (amongst other things used in the water treatment process), and polluted air from burning off sewage sludge, or possibly worse having that sewage sludge spread on farmlands as a “soil amendment”, and then used to grow our food.

Jenkins goes into great detail about the history of feces around the world, from how 78,000 tons of humanure was bought for $31,000 gold in China, to how it has become a problem that seemingly no one wants to address.

Defecating in our water isn’t good.  Even myself, spending most waking hours reading about environmental issues in one way or another, sees how this doesn’t register as a huge problem at first observation.

We flush the toilet and it goes away, just like our trash gets picked up at the curb and disappears.  We forget about it, and that’s because very few of us ever confront it.  That being said, please go visit a sewer treatment plant, a trash incinerator (which you will be deceptively urged to call “waste to energy”) or a landfill.  All awesome eye openers.

We don’t notice what we breathe in, we don’t taste toxins.  Jenkins can get pretty grim at times (especially in the beginning) but I can’t argue with him whatsoever…he simply tells it like it is.

His solution is pretty simple: A compost toilet paired with a compost pile and a rain barrel, (for cleaning).  It goes without saying he’s an advocate of curbside compost collection as well.  While I am too, composting at home is ideal since there’s no point in waiting around for your community to start curbside compost collection.

I went along with his easy-to-follow instructions for building a “lovable loo” and needless to say I am very impressed.  It took me a couple hours to construct the toilet, and I love it.  The sawdust created from constructing it was the first addition to the bucket, how perfect.

[It lives in my basement next to the washing machine, not outside! I just wanted to get a good picture.]

I fill one 5 gallon bucket a week, and I have to make a trip to a local woodshop every few months to pick up my sawdust supply, which is a mutual benefit for sure.

I have a 3′ x 3′ x 3′ compost pile in the yard that is always cooking at a sustained higher temperature than I ever got without the humanure additions.  No matter how much material I dump in per week, the pile seems to stay the same size!

This is the magic of humanure composting.  Jenkins states to fill one compost bin for a year, then switch to a brand new pile for a year.  Once the second pile fills up after a year, empty the first one, which will be nothing but beautiful compost.

It’s not all perfect, though.  I’d say the trickiest part of the process, which I don’t recall being mentioned at great length in the book (time to read it a third time), is the dust issue.

Using fine sawdust can be a bit…dusty, of course.  I found that adding a spray bottle into the mix worked decently, but it is a bit too laborious.  I want to spend my time on the can reading a book, not spraying down sawdust.  Therefore, I just sprinkle the whole bucket’s worth of sawdust with some rainwater from my watering can.  Much, much better.

The way Jenkins does it, which I can’t really abide by due to space constraints, is to have a huge pile of sawdust outside next to the compost pile.  If it got naturally rained on from time to time, it would be much cleaner to work with since it would absorb plenty of moisture.

However, I’m a bit paranoid with having such a large flammable source exposed in the yard, which is yet another benefit to putting a tarp on the compost pile.  I’ve had people throw cigarette butts over the fence into the yard… so yeah.  One of those times I wish I lived in the sticks, like Jenkins.

All in all, the process takes about 10 minutes a week to complete, and I find it to be time well spent.  Every time I empty my toilet, I find myself thinking about what the hell I’m doing, but in a good way.  It puts pressure on me to consume less and less plastic materials, because other than that, most everything is recyclable or compostable.

If you’re really into the survival/prepper mentality, this skill is a no-brainer.  If we had an extended grid-down situation or lost access to water, a compost toilet would be critically important and I’m proud to have one.

The book ends with a great interview of Jenkins…by Jenkins.  It really takes all the typical questions asked and makes it look like naive, old thinking.  I won’t ruin it, you’ll have to pick up the book to enjoy it for yourself.

I’ll say it again- if you’re into environmental issues and want to learn about one of the most critical topics not being discussed, the Humanure Handbook will make you question your lifestyle at length while being an enjoyable read at the same time.

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Pa. bill would tax 2 cents on each new plastic bag (article)

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Originally posted here, but I had to repost it: http://articles.philly.com/2013-08-23/news/41437636_1_plastic-bags-100-billion-bags-leach

HARRISBURG – An area lawmaker wants Pennsylvania shoppers to BYOB (bring your own bag) or pay a fee.

Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Montgomery) has introduced a bill aimed at reducing the volume of plastic bags in the trash by imposing a two-cent fee on each new bag used by shoppers.

One penny of the fee would go to state recycling programs, and the other would go to the retailer to help with its recycling.

Leach said his bill – like those already enacted in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Washington – would encourage customers to shop with reusable bags while reducing landfill waste.

“Two cents is a small price to pay for a cleaner, more vibrant planet,” Leach said, who set up an easel with facts about plastic bags and a bag-recycling box outside his Capitol office. “However, our goal is not to collect the fee, but to encourage shoppers to make sustainable choices at the checkout counter.”

Statistics show that the typical family uses 60 plastic bags in four trips to the grocery store, he said.

No states have yet to enact such fees, but legislatures in New Jersey, New York, and Vermont are considering implementing them, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Lawmakers in Maryland (where at least two municipalities, the City of Takoma Park and Montgomery County, already have bag fees) this year introduced a statewide five-cent-a-bag fee, but it failed to win passage before the session ended this spring.

This week, several New York City Council members proposed a 10-cents-per-bag tax.

Kevin Shrivers, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses of Pennsylvania, called Leach’s proposal a “tax scheme” that would hurt average families and benefit only makers of reusable cloth bags – many of them foreign.

“It’s a tax on the consumer,” Shrivers said. “Leach’s assumption is that the plastic bags are used one time and thrown away, but people use those bags over and over.”

But Leach said only 1 percent of the 100 billion bags used in this country every year are recycled, while the rest end up in landfills or clogging the oceans and killing wildlife.

“Most shopping trips take a half-hour to complete, but the bag stays around for 1,000 to 5,000 years,” Leach said. “Not everything we do is about instant momentary convenience. We have to give some thought to the planet.”

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Bag the Bag. Use a Backpack…Or Your Hands.

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https://youtube.com/devicesupport

http://www.bagitmovie.com/

I’m sure you’ve all been inundated (hopefully) with the horrors of what happens to your plastic bags, and equally so what happens to your reusable bags as they get stuffed in a closet somewhere.

While this topic has been rightfully blown out, keep in mind it’s probably because it’s the most consumed item in the world…crazy, right?  500 billion per year.

I think it’s a good time to ask yourself the question- are you still accepting plastic bags?  The other day, I felt like such an idiot when I received one- I wasn’t asked, it just happened.

I’ve been trying to sell food service vendors on it to no avail-

“You know, if you just asked if someone really needed a bag instead of automatically placing their styrofoam clamshell in one, you’d save some money and look a bit more reputable as a result.”

Maybe that’s too snobby, but it’s hard not to be pissed off about it.  No one feels offended if they don’t get a plastic bag, period.

I guess the problem also lies with the people accepting them, too.  How long does your bag live for?  Ten minutes?  Could you really not carry your styrofoam clamshell, fork and bottled water with one hand?  How many times have you seen a full trash can with bags gushing out all over the place?

Bags get loose into the environment all the time, never hitting that landfill or worse the incinerator to make zero megawatts of “clean energy”.  They just blow away, downhill, into the gutters, into the trees, into the water, to get suntanned to the point of becoming little fish for the birds and other fish to eat.

What really bothers me is the plastics industry response that it’s your fault- clean up after yourself.  Of course, there’s no mention that the plastic bag recycling rate is in the single digits.

Lately all I’ve been thinking is screw the numbers.  While they are of course important, and you can’t manage what you don’t measure, the majority of us aren’t scouring the web looking for recycling data and then basing a decision on it.

For just a second, think about when it is exactly that you receive a plastic bag.  I’ve learned that if you try to change everything all at once, it’s annoying and within a short amount of time you revert to your old ways.

Therefore, let’s take a look at the following situations, and chip away one at a time:

-grocery store
-beer store take-out
-take-away meals (lunch, late-night, whatever)

My answer for the grocery store and the beer store: use a backpack.  That’s it.

For the lunch or dinner take-out scenario: refuse the bag, then ask them why the hell they wanted to give you one.  if you must, have a reusable bag ready.

Personally, I hate the standard reusable bags and I don’t use them.  A lot of the polypropylene bags have been found to contain lead, and simply don’t hold up for very long.  This is why the backpack is my top option, but for those situations where you end up going somewhere don’t have one, there’s the Chicobag.

Full disclosure: I am not an affiliate, salesman or connected in any way to the company…I simply feel like they are the best option I’ve seen.  The owner has even beat the plastics industry in a lawsuit…more on that in a moment.

A few months ago, I got one as a gift- if you’re not familiar with these and you’re looking to finally stop using plastic bags once and for all, this is a big step in the right direction.

While they’ve created several different models, the “micro” model is smaller than your fist and is attached to a carrabiner so you have it wherever you go.  You could wear it on your belt loop, although honestly it bounces around a little too much for my liking.  Some other spots for it include in your car’s glovebox, or attached to your bike saddle.

They’re nice because they’re made from durable polyester and expand to be just as big as their non-woven polypropylene lead-containing made in China counterparts.

While they are synthetic, the company accepts their bags back if they get damaged to recycle them into new products, which is better than sending it out for recycling and hoping something good happens to it.  If they’re still functional, they’ll donate them.

One last thing about the Chicobag- they recently were involved in a lawsuit in which plastic bag manufacturers sued them (in South Carolina, where no anti-SLAPP laws are present) for “irreparable harm” to their companies.

A SLAPP suit basically would allow for the plastic bag companies to outspend them in court until the opponent gives up.

Miraculously, Chicobag ended up winning, which is pretty amazing but of course the only possible result here.  Learn more about that lawsuit here:

ChicoBag Lawsuit

If you really want to get annoyed, check out what one of the losing companies in the lawsuit did: http://www.bagtheban.com .  While I shouldn’t be giving them any attention, I can’t ignore something this outrageous.  Contact them and ask how they can live with themselves: general@hilexpoly.com .

While the problems of the world are not just plastic bags, phasing them (and other plastics) out of your life is substantial for making an impact.  Further, it’s like any other change- once you really go for it, within a few days you don’t even notice it.  Be sure to follow it up by reducing other plastic consumption patterns you have going, BUT- take your time.

I had a few challenges along the way, but at the end of the day it just came down to breaking habit and changing behaviors once or twice.  After that, I never thought about it anymore.

Plastics really are the enemy when it comes to material choices- no one even knows fully what’s in them due to trade secrets and all that business B.S. that won’t be put aside in favor of human health.

While it’s hard to imagine a life without any plastic whatsoever, I know that you can drastically reduce the amount you take in by simply refusing a bag and identifying the situations where you consume plastic, eliminating them one at a time.

waste of the week

Waste of the Week #17: Panama Problems

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It’s been over a month now since I returned from Panama/Bocas Del Toro, and I still don’t know what to say about it.

It was such a beautiful place, and it was hard not to focus on the trash aspect since it was in your face most places.

It sucked taking a boat to uninhabited islands and seeing all kinds of plastics washed up on the shores.  It clearly wasn’t taken there and left behind, it was dropped off by the ocean.

Broken plastic chairs, pieces of styrofoam products, plastic bottles.  It seems like no matter where you go, these items will follow you.  What would a world look like without plastics?

I had learned that Bocas del Toro had just recently started a recycling program, and up to that point had nothing in place.  On top of that, going to the local restaurants and convenience stores indicated that they were living the single use life.

It really put a different perspective on things, since the string of islands had such a small population and you could essentially pinpoint exactly what establishments the litter was coming from: red plastic bags were everywhere, and one store on the island was using them.  I got really pissed when I saw a 2 liter bottle purchase get placed in a bag…I thought this was just Amurrican behavior, but I was wrong.

I started to think that the locals haven’t really thought much about litter, but maybe I’m just imagining that.  The travel hostels that I stayed at all seemed to have composting efforts in place (keep in mind I was trying to support “eco friendly” hostels), but none of them were as comprehensive as they could be.  That being said, The Firefly did a damn good job.

Many common uncertainties were brought up, such as: “Doesn’t the bleach in the paper mean I can’t compost it?” or “The pile is full of bugs and smells really bad, I don’t know what to do.”  Really simple stuff to overcome, but for some reason the world’s oldest natural process isn’t quite at the forefront like it should be.

The paper thing kills me, because napkins, paper towels, tissue and receipts are all perfect for composting and make up quite a bit of waste.  Especially in a place where it’s hard to find sufficient “brown materials” necessary for composting, the answer was right there in their own purchases.

It was reassuring to be able to help assess compost piles and try to teach some tips and tricks to get them psyched on composting…even on my vacation, I’m at work. 🙂

It was a fine line to tread, though.  I can’t always tell when I’m overstepping my boundaries by trying to honestly help someone out and improve their situation, and not come off like a pompous wanker.

Minimize your plastic consumption.  Non-plastic products existed for most everything at one point, so bring them back.  Straws, cups, packaging, you name it.  Paper and cardboard aren’t perfect by any means, but at least they break down and give the gift of compost when re-purposed correctly…this is especially important if recycling isn’t available for such materials.

I’ve lost my confidence in plastics being dealt with reliably…check out the book Plastic Free and see how you can be inspired by it.

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The Truth About Composting Paper Cups

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(I reposted this article from my other website, crazyaboutcompost.com)

Can you compost paper cups?  The answer is yes, no and depends.

In the same spirit as my last post on composting waxed paper, I emailed a bunch of companies that produce paper cups and asked them if their cups contained a plastic liner, and if so, what kind was used.

With the exception of Solo and Chinet, all the other companies got back to me (although Dart and Solo appear to be part of the same conglomerate, and Dart replied).  I couldn’t tell if the customer service people were weirded out by my questions…am I the only person asking this?  Probably close to it, but hopefully not the only one.

My research into Solo was definitely the most peculiar.  I had no idea there was a (terrible) song dedicated to red solo cups, and then within that song saying that “within 14 years they are decomposable”… come on Toby- plastic doesn’t decompose, EVER- it just breaks into smaller pieces for the fish to eat.  Going further, there’s a Facebook fan page sporting over 45,000 likes…for red solo cups.

Anyway, Solo does have an “eco forward” product line called Bare.  Rejoice.  This cup uses a whopping 20% post consumer recycled plastic in its plastic cups.  I was hoping their eco line would have either cups made from PLA or paper cups with a soybean wax liner, but I guess you can’t have it all.  Avoid this company.  Is their competition much better?

I’m getting ahead of myself.  My point for doing the research in the first place was because I didn’t realize that nearly all paper cups have a thin plastic (polyethylene) lining inside of them, which is to keep the cup from falling apart (think coffee).  Surprisingly, even a great deal of the “cold cups” have a liner too.

I know from experience that it’s difficult to use a bioplastic cup with hot liquid in it…the cup falls apart pretty quickly.  But I also know that it’s possible to use a paper cup with a PLA (polylactic acid, a compostable plastic) liner with good results.  How about a doubly thick paper cup with wax?

What is the best solution if you have to use a paper cup?  Paper cups can go in the compost pile no problem, just don’t expect them to come out for a while, and they’ll remind you that you put them in there by leaving behind a plastic skeleton.

Adding plastic flakes to our soil doesn’t sound like a good idea, does it?  What we can see and remove from the compost pile doesn’t account for the plastic we can’t see.  I’ve learned that this definitely isn’t the way to go…in other words, DON’T compost paper products that contain any plastic lining.

Microplastics are a serious concern, whether in compost or the environment.  Check out this link to learn more: http://www.ecocycle.org/specialreports/microplasticsincompost

The other option is to “recycle” the paper cup, which is more commonly done than composting.  In recycled paper processing mills, the slurry from a pulper is screened to remove plastic, ink, clay, dirt, metals, etc from the paper.  Therefore, the cup’s plastic liner is considered a contaminant.  What happens to this sludge from here?  A good guess is that it’s either burned or landfilled…great.

Any better ideas?  The coolest example I’ve ever seen resided in Panama:

YES.  A paper cup with a fold-out handle so you don’t burn your hands.  This eliminates the need for the cardboard sleeve.  I’m going to spend some time learning more about this design, and then wonder why I don’t see these more often.  Maybe they’re a bit more tedious to manufacture…who knows?  I think this idea is getting somewhere, though.  The real victory would be if this cup didn’t have a plastic liner.  I must find out.

What are other companies doing?  The range of answers went from mostly plastic liner, PLA liner, or wax lining (only in cold cups).  Another company uses sugar cane bagasse, and using this process extraction material for paper products as opposed to burning it for fuel is a better use.  Enough babbling, here’s what I found:

Brand Product Name Liner type Compostable?
Dixie/Georgia Pacific Dixie Cup Plastic NO
Dixie Paper Hot Cups Plastic NO
Dixie EcoSmart PLA YES
GP Paper Cold Cups Plastic NO
PerfecTouch Insulated Paper Cups Plastic NO
Pathways Waxed Paper Cups Wax (paraffin) YES
Dart Fusion Plastic NO
Solo Bare* Wax (paraffin) YES
Bare Plastic NO
Heavy Duty Paper PLA YES
Green Choice Compostable Paper Coffee Cups PLA YES
Crown Insulated Paper Coffee Cups Plastic NO
Regular Coffee Cups Plastic NO
Pacific Green Products Cold Cups Ingeo YES
Savannah Supplies, Inc Bagasse Cup Bagasse YES
Ecotainer Hot Cup PLA YES
Cold Cup PLA YES
*I can’t find the Solo Bare wax liner option anymore.  Did something happen since February?

There you have it.  What does this all mean?  There’s plenty of options out there for compostable plastic cup liners.  They’re more expensive, and chances are slim that they will biodegrade properly in a home composting setup, unless you have a sustained hot pile going.  This reminds me of the Sun Chips bag dilemma…technically compostable, but not likely to happen for most of us.

I’m still a fan of the wax lining, although wax also takes forever to break down and is usually paraffin, which is derived from petroleum, which may bother some home composters.

Any cups with a soybean wax liner available out there?  This might not be the right question to be asking.

Back to the boring basics we go- always use your own cup to avoid sending those plastic skeletons to the landfill/incinerator/oceans.

waste of the week

Waste of the Week #16: Organicos in Panama City – Composted or Landfilled?

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The image of recycling was ever present in Panama City, Panama- in all different designs and combinations.  The big question I had was regarding their Organics cans that I kept seeing… are they actually composting?  Are they labeling cans like this with plans to compost on a large scale in the future?  I couldn’t tell.  Then you had this cut and dry example:

So does this mean that the inorganics can is single stream recycling, while the organics is composted?  Instead of any pictures or descriptions, a simple red “i” and green “o” are used.

I wasn’t able to get to the bottom of it while I was there, and I haven’t been able to find many clues elsewhere either.  It seems like exchanging recyclables for cash is available at a few recycling centers, but the city wasn’t really indicating that with that amount of litter there was.  Then again, the blatant culprit was plastics, which are by far the least valuable and the most responsible for environmental issues.

I hope they have a good material recovery plan on the back end that’s out of sight, because it was too beautiful of a country to turn into a pile of trash.  My observations in Bocas del Toro coming soon…

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A Mailer Full of Mailers Mailed Back

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For all of you businesses out there looking to find a new way to connect with your market base, here’s an idea.  It’s simple, responsible, and makes everyone a little happier: The mailer mail back program.  I can’t be the first person to think of this, and I’m sure someone out there is doing it, but whatever.

You know these things?  Do you get a ton of these, perhaps from buying stuff online?  This is one of those items (alongside cardboard record mailers) that I just cannot throw out.  I’ve always been in the habit of saving pillow mailers ever since I started using ebay awhile back.  Why wouldn’t you hold onto them?  You save money on packaging (why pay for a box or a mailer?) when you’re selling your music collection to make rent.

Maybe you’re already doing this at your job.  If you work in a corporate environment pushing papers, you may be familiar with the interoffice mail folders that have a few dozen blanks on one side for crossing out the previous destination to write yours and send it on its way containing whatever crap that you should have emailed instead.

If you’re a business selling small items, reusing mailers (I highly doubt they’re recycled) and cutting shipping costs sound good to me.  Now it’s time to return the favor.

The business idea: Mail back 5 mailers to us and we’ll take 5 dollars off your next purchase.  It’s a unique and respectful gesture, it’s the right thing to do and quite frankly, it’s fun.  If I saw a business do this, I’d be more inclined to buy through them, that’s for sure…

P.S.: For those that remember this old post, I almost have enough tyvek mailers to send back…can’t wait to pay Dupont to take them back and maybe do something with them.

waste of the week

Waste of the Week #15

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It seems like every time I walk around in Northern Liberties, there’s a waste-related oddity that catches my eye.  I’d walk around there more often, but it sucks there.  I think it’s just because it reminds me of downtown West Chester, which was by far the worst place I’ve ever lived in my life.

Then again, I have to thank West Chester too. If it wasn’t for its godawful lameness, I wouldn’t have spent so much time studying trash and might have wasted my time partying like nearly everyone else instead.

I guess now it’s a good time to plug West Chester University’s Environmental Health program… loved it.  Dr. Sheehan, Dr. Shorten: thank you.

Anyway, this appears to be a normal waste receptacle… one side for trash (which doesn’t encompass much these days, does it?), the other for recycling.  Did the City get wire mesh cans that are split in half now?  Let’s take a look:

Doesn’t look that way, does it?  Let’s see here… we ask the disposer to segregate their materials into either hole, but it goes into the same can anyway.  This is a great example of how to make the public uncertain of what happens to their waste.  “I don’t recycle anymore, it all gets trashed anyway.  What’s the point?  Waste of time.”

If you are employed in the field of waste handling, you know that this is pure hell.  Nothing is worse than developing a recycling program, only to have your coworkers hear the great things your department is doing and then see evidence pointing to the contrary, falsely or not.  In other words, teach others about what goes on internally behind the scenes…most people won’t care, but those who listen will appreciate it and reinforce the mission.

The situation above makes people feel powerless and indifferent…all zero people that opened the lid and looked in, that is.  I know I tend to feel that way from time to time.  If 100 people disposed of their plastic bottles into a can labeled recycling, and then whoever services the can trashes it, they just deceived 100 people.

However, if the contents of this can are sent to a material recovery facility, hopefully the material will stand a shot and get separated and sold back to manufacturers.

This can clearly suffers from the Big Belly dilemma, as I like to call it (I need to register that phrase on Urban Dictionary or something).  If you know what Big Belly compactors in action look like, then you know what I mean already.

There’s a cutout for the “Recyclables”, but no hole on the “Dechets/Trash” side.  No one (myself included) wants to grab the Big Belly handle to put waste in the trash compactor, but they’ll gladly put it into the open hole on the Recycling side.  Same applies here.

Any guesses where the waste is going that’s placed in this can?