How to Have a Greener 2010

December 27th, 2009

Every year, millions of people make the decision to live a greener lifestyle, even though they don’t have a clue what that means. Here is a list of ways that you can live MORE green in 2010.

Stop Using Paper and Plastic Bags

Cost: $1

Twelve million barrels of oil were used to make the 88.5 billion plastic bags consumed in the United States last year. And it takes four times more energy to make paper bags. The best choice is reusable shopping bags.

Stop Using Plastic Water Bottles

Cost: $14.98 for aluminum water bottle

Did you know that it takes 26 bottles of water to produce the plastic container for a one-liter bottle of water, and that doing so pollutes 25 liters of groundwater? Stop buying bottled water.

Stop Receiving Unwanted Catalogs

Cost: $0

Each year, 19 billion catalogs are mailed to American consumers. Visit CatalogChoice.org to put a stop to unwanted catalogs.

Give up Paper Towels

Cost: $6.95

Instead of using paper towels, buy some reusable microfiber towels, which grip dirt and dust like a magnet, even when they get wet. When you are finished, toss the towels in the wash and reuse them again and again.

Run a Fully-Loaded Dishwasher

Cost: $0

Running a fully loaded dishwasher – even without prerinsing the dishes – can use a third less water than washing the dishes by hand, saving up to 10 to 20 gallons of water a day.

Lower the Temp in Your Fridge

Cost: $0

Your refrigerator accounts for 10 to 15 percent of the average home energy bill each month. Set the thermostat to maintain a temperature between 38 and 42 degrees, which will protect your food from spoiling while saving electricity.

Stop Wasting Gas

Cost: $0

Increase your gas mileage by checking your tire pressure. More than a quarter of all cars and nearly one-third of all SUVs, vans and pickups have underinflated tires, according to a survey by the Department of Transportation.

Avoid Waste – Recycle

Cost: $0

For every trash can of waste you put outside for the trash collector, about 70 trash cans of waste are used in order to create that trash. To reduce the amount of waste you produce, buy products in returnable and recyclable containers and recycle as much as you can.

Tags: plastics, plastics recycling, recycling, saving water
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Have a Green Christmas

December 20th, 2009

It’s time to sort through the family casserole recipes, get out the decorations from your attic, and start stockpiling your gift wrap. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we often overlook our everyday green habits. But even the deepest snow can’t cover your environmental footprint.

Be Waste-Wise

Did you know that household waste increases 25 percent each year between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day? Add in the extra wrapping paper and food waste, and your household waste may have more than tripled in just one weekend. Instead, try wrapping your presents with colorful magazine pages or newspaper.

Reducing your waste starts in the store. Some greeting cards, gift wrap, and gift bags are recyclable, but most traditional trappings are not because of their non-paper additives.

When adorning the house with holiday greens, keep in mind that these products can be composted. Your community may host programs or events to collect Christmas trees for mulch, and check to see if garlands and wreaths are also accepted.

Keep Your Cool

As the temperature falls over the next few months, adjust your thermostat accordingly. Remember that the more guests in your home, the lower your thermostat can go. Adjusting the thermostat by just two degrees is the equivalent of losing 2,000 pounds of carbon emissions annually and almost $100 in energy costs.

Shop Smart

No matter the state of the economy, people are going to shop during November and December. That doesn’t mean you need to shop in-store and stand in line to ship packages, amounting to a waste of time and fuel. Instead, try online shopping and public transportation.

When it comes time to ship, avoid holiday lines and unnecessary travel. Use the U.S. Postal Service to order packaging products online and have your postal carrier pick them up. They’ll be coming to your house anyway, why not save yourself the time it would take to drive to a physical location and wait in line?

Tags: holidays, paper recycling, plastics recycling, recycling
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Breaking Down Plastic Recycling Codes

December 14th, 2009
Not all plastics are the same, which is why there’s a number code on the bottom for recycling. Here is a breakdown on the plastic recycling codes, including where you can find each type of plastic and how it is recycled.
Number 1 Plastics – PET, or Polyethylene Terephthalate
1st Life: Soda, water, and beer bottles; mouthwash bottles; peanut butter containers; salad dressing and vegetable oil containers; etc.These are picked up through most curbside recycling programs.
2nd Life: Polar fleece fiber, tote bags, furniture, carpet, paneling, and occasionally made into new plastic containers
Number 2 Plastics – HDPE, or High Density Polyethylene
1st Life: Milk jugs, juice bottles; bleach, detergent and household cleaner bottles; shampoo bottles; some trash and shopping bags; motor oil bottles; cereal box liners; etc. These are also picked up through most curbside recycling programs.
2nd Life: Detergent bottles, recycling containers, floor tile, drainage pipe, benches, picnic tables, and fencing
Number 3 Plastics, or PVC
1st Life: Window cleaner and detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, clear food packaging, wire jacketing, medical equipment, siding, windows, piping; etc. These items are rarely recycled because of the cost invovled.
2nd Life: Decks, paneling, mud flaps, roadway gutters, flooring, cables, speed bumps, and mats
Number 4 Plastics, or LDPE
1st Life: Squeezable bottles; bread, dry cleaning and shopping bags; tote bags; carpet; etc. These items are rarely picked up through curbside programs, but some stores will accept plastic shopping bags for recycling.
2nd Life: Trash can liners and cans, compost bins, shipping envelopes, paneling, lumber, and floor tile
Number 5 Plastics – PP, or Polypropylene
1st Life: Syrup bottles, ketchup bottles, caps, straws, medicine bottles, diapers; etc. These are picked up through most curbside recycling programs.
2nd Life: Battery cables, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, and bins
Number 6 Plastics – PS, or Polystyrene
1st Life: Disposable plates and cups, meat trays, egg cartons, carryout containers, aspirin bottles, compact disc cases; etc. These are picked up through some curbside recycling programs.
2nd Life: Insulation, light switch plates, egg cartons, vents, rulers, foam packing, carryout containers
Number 7 Plastics – Other
1st Life: 3 and 5 gallon water bottles, sunglasses, DVDs, iPod and computer cases, signs and displays, nylon; etc.These items are not traditionally recycled, but some curbside programs now take them.
2nd Life: Plastic lumber, and custom-made products

Not all plastics are the same, which is why there’s a number code on the bottom for recycling. Here is a breakdown on the plastic recycling codes, including where you can find each type of plastic and how it is recycled.

Number 1 Plastics – PET, or Polyethylene Terephthalate

1st Life: Soda, water, and beer bottles; mouthwash bottles; peanut butter containers; salad dressing and vegetable oil containers; etc.These are picked up through most curbside recycling programs.

2nd Life: Polar fleece fiber, tote bags, furniture, carpet, paneling, and occasionally made into new plastic containers

Number 2 Plastics – HDPE, or High Density Polyethylene

1st Life: Milk jugs, juice bottles; bleach, detergent and household cleaner bottles; shampoo bottles; some trash and shopping bags; motor oil bottles; cereal box liners; etc. These are also picked up through most curbside recycling programs.

2nd Life: Detergent bottles, recycling containers, floor tile, drainage pipe, benches, picnic tables, and fencing

Number 3 Plastics, or PVC

1st Life: Window cleaner and detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, clear food packaging, wire jacketing, medical equipment, siding, windows, piping; etc. These items are rarely recycled because of the cost invovled.

2nd Life: Decks, paneling, mud flaps, roadway gutters, flooring, cables, speed bumps, and mats

Number 4 Plastics, or LDPE

1st Life: Squeezable bottles; bread, dry cleaning and shopping bags; tote bags; carpet; etc. These items are rarely picked up through curbside programs, but some stores will accept plastic shopping bags for recycling.

2nd Life: Trash can liners and cans, compost bins, shipping envelopes, paneling, lumber, and floor tile

Number 5 Plastics – PP, or Polypropylene

1st Life: Syrup bottles, ketchup bottles, caps, straws, medicine bottles, diapers; etc. These are picked up through most curbside recycling programs.

2nd Life: Battery cables, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, and bins

Number 6 Plastics – PS, or Polystyrene

1st Life: Disposable plates and cups, meat trays, egg cartons, carryout containers, aspirin bottles, compact disc cases; etc. These are picked up through some curbside recycling programs.

2nd Life: Insulation, light switch plates, egg cartons, vents, rulers, foam packing, carryout containers

Number 7 Plastics – Other

1st Life: 3 and 5 gallon water bottles, sunglasses, DVDs, iPod and computer cases, signs and displays, nylon; etc.These items are not traditionally recycled, but some curbside programs now take them.

2nd Life: Plastic lumber, and custom-made products

Tags: plastic codes
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The History of Plastics Recycling

December 8th, 2009

Although plastics have had a remarkable impact on our culture, it has become increasingly obvious that there is a price to be paid for their use.

The first controversy arose in the late 1950s and early 1960 when there were a number of incidents where small children crawled into plastic bags used by dry cleaners and suffocated.  The plastics industry managed to fend off trouble by launching a massive public-education campaign.

By the late 1960s, plastics were increasingly seen as a symbol of an outdated 1950s consumer culture.  The term “plastic” became an insult, used to describe someone thought of as soulless.  At the end of the 1960s, the Beatles would even sing of “Polyethylene Pam,” a “go-getter” who would do anything to get ahead. This was partly just a fashion statement, since plastics remained in widespread use anyway, and in many cases were much more effective and environmentally benign than alternative materials.

Plastic was almost too good, as it was durable and degraded very slowly.  In some cases, burning it could release toxic fumes.  There was also the problem that manufacturing plastics often created large quantities of nasty chemical pollutants, and depleted the Earth’s bounded supply of fossil fuels.

By the 1990s, recycling programs were common in the United States and elsewhere.  Thermoplastics can be re-melted and reused, and thermoset plastics can be ground up and used as filler, though the purity of the material tends to degrade with each reuse cycle.

Products such as automobiles are now being designed to make recycling of their large plastic parts easier.  To assist recycling of plastic disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the Society of the Plastics Industry devised the now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type.  A recyclable plastic container using this scheme is marked with a triangle with three “chasing arrows” inside of it, which enclose a number giving the plastic type: PETE, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS, and OTHER.

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Tags: trivia
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How to be Eco-Friendly at Home

December 1st, 2009

The average North American produces between 60 and 150 gallons of wastewater every day, much of it a result of washing dishes and clothes. Municipal water treatment facilities do their best to filter out the synthetic chemicals common in most mainstream dishwasher and laundry soaps, but some of these pollutants inevitably get into rivers, lakes and coastal areas, where they can cause a wide range of problems.

Dishwasher and laundry soaps can pollute water and cause harmful algae blooms. Perhaps the most worrisome of these pollutants, phosphates, can cause large build-ups of algae and bacteria that rob water bodies of oxygen and thus choke out other life forms. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in 1972 banned the use of phosphates in laundry detergents and dish soaps used in the region, and resulted in a significant decrease in algae blooms throughout the Great Lakes.

Chemicals in dishwasher and laundry soaps pose health risks. Despite the success of the agreement, phosphates and other synthetic chemicals continue to be widely used in laundry and dish soaps throughout the world. They also trigger allergies, irritate the skin and eyes and carry other health risks.

Consumers can choose eco-friendly dishwasher and laundry soaps. Fortunately, consumers now have more environmentally friendly choices than ever. Many of these greener options are available at retail stores.

Check ingredients in dishwasher and laundry soaps. Be sure to look at the ingredients of product, and not just the slogan on the package. Remember, natural products can still be toxic.

Tags: saving water
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Why Should I Recycle?

November 23rd, 2009

About 2.8 million tons of household appliances, 10 million automobiles, and many tons of other products containing mixed plastics are scrapped each year. Although the metals from these products are recovered for reuse, the remaining nonmetallic material is lost and disposed of in landfills.

Over the past 15 years, as the amount of metal used in automobiles, appliances, and other products decreased and the amount of plastics significantly increased. If they cannot be separated completely, the plastics lose most of their value.

Separating plastics from the rest of the waste is challenging because many separation methods depend on material density. ABS and HIPS are similar in density and cannot be separated to a high enough purity or employ large quantities of organic solvents, which raise environmental concerns.

Recycling Really Does Make a Difference

There was a time when the idea of recycling aluminum cans seemed far-fetched – the cost was too high and the benefits too small. Now, nearly 65% of aluminum cans are recycled, which represents only 1% of the waste taken to landfills. This number continues to fall as recycling increases.

Manufacturers will be able to buy and use the plastics recovered for about 50% of the cost of virgin materials. Because of the high purity of the recovered products, the quality of consumer products will not be affected. The energy and disposal cost savings will also be passed on to consumers. In a single year, Argonne’s process could recover more than 300 million pounds of high-value plastics for reuse, save 1. trillion Btu in energy, and avoid disposal costs of $20 to $40 per ton of residue. The estimated market values of the products that Argonne has recovered so far are $0.40 per pound for ABS, $0.20 per pound for HIPS, and $0.15 per pound for PP. The process can be applied to recover other plastics from waste streams in a variety of industries.

Tags: landfill
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Mastering the Basics of Plastics Recycling

November 16th, 2009

It can be confusing when recycling plastics. Here is a list of the basic information.

Types of Plastics:

  • PETE, polyethylene terephthalate: Soft drink, water, and juice bottles
  • HDPE, high density polyethylene: Milk jugs, trash bags, detergent bottles, some produce bags
  • Vinyl: Cooking oil bottles, meat packaging
  • LDPE, low density polyethylene: Grocery bags, bread bags, some produce bags
  • PP, polypropylene: Yogurt, sour cream, and margarine containers
  • Polystyrene: Hot beverage cups, some disposable plates, egg cartons, meat trays
  • Other

Making a Difference

Recycle Plastic:

  • Contact your city or county Department of Public Works, Department of Solid Waste Disposal, or recycling center to learn which plastics can be recycled in your area. You can also get state recycling information by calling 1-800-CLEANUP.
  • Only recycle the plastics that your recyclers request. Mixing in other plastics creates more work and may cause them to refuse your materials.
  • Help an elderly neighbor or friend to recycle.
  • Rinse out containers with water, then squash them. Save water by using the rinse water from one container to rinse others.
  • You can leave paper labels on bottles but throw away plastic caps and sprayer inserts, as they are usually made from a plastic that cannot be recycled easily.
  • Many plastics lumber manufacturers accept all plastics. See if there is a plastics lumber manufacturer in your area.
  • To find a facility that accepts solid polystyrene (type used to pack and ship electronics, appliances, etc.), check with the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers.
  • Recycle plastic grocery, bread, and produce bags at your grocery store. These bags are usually type 2 or 4. Both can often be mixed, but confirm this with the store. Recycle clean bags only.
  • Most printing and copier cartridges can be recycled or reused. Many office supply stores accept them, and some nonprofits collect them as well.

Tags: plastics
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How to Re-Use Styrofoam

November 9th, 2009

Styrofoam is the trademarked product name from the Dow Chemical Company and is the most common type of plastic #6. Because it is most often used in packaging to help insulate and keep delicate things from becoming damaged during transport, everybody handles Styrofoam at some point. Recycling it, however, can end up being a bit of a challenge.

But the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers reported that 69 million pounds of Styrofoam were recycled in 2008 alone, which is astonishing, considering that EPS is 98 percent air. So, we know that it does happen, but we also know you can sometimes have it around the house and you’re not sure what to do with it.

Like plastic bags, you can use them as they were intended: to secure your items in storage or send a package or protect your fragile items. If you’ve wrapped and padded every glass item you can get your hands on, and you still have leftovers, here are some other options:

Crafts abound - Remember those Styrofoam molds that you used to make wreaths as a kid? You could use that leftover Styrofoam that came with your new DVD player to do the same thing. To get your creative juices flowing, the Dow Company’s Web site has tons of ideas dedicated to Styrofoam product use.

Foundations – Along the same lines, utilize those Styrofoam pieces to keep center pieces upright, line planters or elevate trinkets on display. Go back to your school days and solar systems made of Styrofoam. See what you can stick in it. Go crazy!

Glue – This one isn’t a promise on our part, but is too intriguing to pass up: Apparently, you can make your own glue.

Tags: styrofoam
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Common Misconceptions about Plastic Recycling

October 25th, 2009

When you think abut plastics and plastics recycling, it all seems pretty simple – put your plastics into a bin and let the recycling company do the rest, right? Wrong. Here are some common misconceptions about plastic recycling.

All plastics that go into a curbside recycling bin get recycled into containers. Not completely true. Many recovered plastic containers end up being made into new secondary products such as textiles, parking lot bumpers, or plastic lumber – all unrecyclable products – and not containers.

Curbside collection will reduce the amount of plastic in landfills. Not necessarily. Curbside plastic collection programs could backfire if total use rises faster than collection. Since only a fraction of certain types of plastic could realistically be captured by a curbside program, the net impact of initiating curbside collection could be an increase in the amount of plastic in landfills.

The chasing arrows symbol means a plastic container is recyclable. Actually, every plastic container is marked with the chasing arrows symbol, regardless of whether or not it can be recycled. The only information in the symbol is the number inside the arrows, which indicates the general class of resin used to make the container.

Packaging resins are made from petroleum refineries’ waste. False. Plastic resins are made from non-renewable natural resources that could be used for a variety of other applications or conserved.

Plastics recyclers pay to promote plastics’ recyclability. No – most of those ads are placed by virgin plastic manufacturers whose goal is to promote plastic sales.

Using plastic containers conserves energy. Making plastic containers uses as much energy as making glass containers from virgin materials, so using refillable containers is the most energy conservative choice.

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