Archive for the ‘garbage’ Category
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Tangled on how to tie the knot and mind the planet? Traditions and expectations for the perfect wedding day can push consumerism over the top. But with some creative alternatives they don’t have to outshine a low carbon wedding.
From the dress and tux to rings and the gift registry, green weddings is a big topic in the latest David Suzuki Nature Challenge newsletter . Innovators like Vancouver-based photographer Brendon Purdy leaves no trace (except for the couple’s memorable pics) when he photographs weddings. Packing his gear onto his bicycle, Purdy’s travels to photograph the special event are completely carbon neutral.
Are loved ones doing the traveling instead to join the celebration? Queen of Green Lindsay Coulter offers up smart and sustainable low-emission wedding ideas in a recent article . Get inspired, get active and share your green wedding tips!
Tags: carbon neutral, green house gas emissions, green wedding, low carbon emission
Posted in Consumer Issues, David Suzuki's Nature Challenge, Green Living, Lindsay, climate change, energy, garbage, off the grid, transportation, vacation/holiday | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Diana from Vancouver, BC writes:
Our household regularly recycles clothing through the bins and pickup services widely available around Vancouver. However, over the years I have accumulated quite a backlog of non-reusable cloth: ragged tea towels, worn-thin and torn sheets, stretched-out and stained t-shirts, old underwear, etc.
I can find articles online that discuss the usefulness of these things; that they can be recycled into new cloth or carpet underlay and other things. But I can’t find anybody who can tell me where to take them for this purpose. Do you know?
Lindsay writes:
A backlog of cloth, and rags you say? Well, let’s see… my wardrobe goes through a certain chain of events from brand new to dog-walking attire to pajamas, and then off to Goodwill or Salvation Army in most cases. I don’t have one answer for you where cloth is concerned but let me see if I can get you started on your homework:
1. Contact the Recycling Council of BC . Not sure if they handle cloth, etc. but they may know who does. They have a phone-in hotline or you can email them.
2. If the items are still wearable consider donating them to a local Men’s or Women’s shelter. Wish Drop-In Center Society is limited to women items only. Their most urgent request is for toiletries - if you have some used and unused items (things like lotions, make up toothpaste, soaps etc.) that you would like to get rid of, don’t throw them out - they would use them gladly. They will also take new or used lingerie (underwear, bras).
3. Paper was once made from cloth, before it was made from pulp (trees). Perhaps find out, via Google searching, if anyone in Vancouver does paper making? Or try it yourself. We showed folks how to make paper from their scrap paper at home, but you can likely find a recipe or YouTube video of how to do it from cloth.
4. Next would be to think about who could use spare clothes in your area. Maybe you could wash, bundle and bag them and call up your local automotive shop? Or the car wash near by or the local community hall, etc. Just think who might go through a lot of them and see if they can be useful to someone else. I’m also thinking of artists or studios who make big messes, maybe call the Emily Carr Institute on Granville Island?
Tags: cloth and rags, men's shelter, paper making, recyling clothing, reuse, women's shelter
Posted in Consumer Issues, Green Living, Lindsay, garbage, recycling, sustainability | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Bev from Brampton, ON writes:
I have often wondered when I’m shopping what containers are the best choice for me to make for recyclables: plastic, glass, or aluminum?
Lindsay replies:
Things to consider about packaging of your consumer goods:
1. Avoid excess packaging whenever possible or buy the equivalent product or brand that uses minimal packaging.
2. Check in with your local recycling depot to see what they accept. Although many items are recyclable, your municipal facility may not accept them, hence they end up in the landfill.
3. Plastic: aim for those numbered #2, 4, 5 because you can reuse these safely. Generally they are the safest forms of plastic. Again, check with your local depot to see if they recycle #1, 3, 6 and 7, as it will vary.
4. Glass: I like it because I can reuse it. It’s accepted at most recycling depots.
5. Aluminium: it’s usually recyclable in your blue box and can be broken down and used again and again.
6. Buy bulk to reduce packaging all together and reuse the plastic bags you buy your goods in. For example, I keep the twist tie and bag together, tucked beside my flour jar. When I need to refill, I grab the bag and head to the store. You don’t even need to search for a pen or that secret code because you’ve already labeled it!
Tags: aluminum, blue box, buy bulk, consumer issues, glass, packaging, plastic, recyclables, recycle, reduce, reuse
Posted in Consumer Issues, Food, Green Living, Human Health, Lindsay, Newsletter response, climate change, garbage, gardening, recycling | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Mary Cassells writes:
What really bugs me is all the plastic. Not just credit cards and ID cards, but plastic bags. Often, the sales clerk will not let me leave the store with my purchase without the purchase being in a plastic bag. This is especially the case in big department stores like Sears and the Bay. They assume I am about to shoplift. Perhaps a compromise would be paper bags. I don’t know. I just seem to accumulate the plastic bags.
Lindsay, Queen of Green, replies:
Well depending on where you live, cloth bags do seem to becoming the norm. Some municipalities have even banned plastic bags all together! You’d like the movie Addicted to Plastic.
I have had the argument with such sales clerks as well. One time after I ended my battle with the cashier, I took the plastic bag, only to walk over to customer service counter and hand it back, explaining why I didn’t need or want it. That was about five years ago now!
Next time, tell them you’re saving them money. I mean most stores give you a credit for NOT taking a bag or they’ll charge you for it. Also ask for them to use their store tape. They often have this handy for large items that can’t fit in a bag anyway. I know the last time I was at The Bay, I used my own bag, no problem.
Just keep at it. If we all refuse the bags and lobby our towns and cities to ban them, the merchants will figure it out!
Tags: cloth bags, consumer issues, plastic bags
Posted in Consumer Issues, Green Living, Lindsay, garbage, recycling | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Lisa Wilson from St. Catharines, ON writes:
We are lucky enough to live within a region that has a curbside composting program, which led me to initiate something in my workplace. I work at Brock University with 17,000 students, 1600 faculty and staff, 3 Tim Horton’s and 2 Starbucks.
In order to teach people that paper cups were compostable and plastic lids recyclable, I came up with the idea to have a cup challenge. Register a team, stack and save your cups, bring them to us to measure (rim to rim only, cup size doesn’t matter) then the first three teams to reach the top of our Schmon Tower at 167 ft would win prizes.
Well, within 35 days we had our first winner! And by the end of the contest, 86 days, we had collected 7.7 times the tower, reaching 1286 ft and over 38,000 cups. The contest has ended, but we since have the support of Custodial Services and we now have special bins for paper cups.
I need to run the challenge again, it was mostly staff that participated, and I’m hoping to find a Student group to take up the cause. Perhaps challenge York University? Besides the diversion from the landfill, we believe people have switched to refillable mugs since having the visual of almost reaching the CN Tower!
Tags: Brock University, garbage, recycling paper cups
Posted in Consumer Issues, garbage, gardening, recycling | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Lorne Schieve from Vancouver, BC writes:
Recently, residents in my townhouse complex were instructed to refrain from putting kitchen scraps into their composting units. This is over the fear of some kind of rat infestation stemming from some occasional rat sightings.
As a result of this, we have been told to only include yard trimmings in our composting units. This is contrary to the spirit of the reduce-reuse-recycle concept and it sends out the wrong message.
I am in need of some literature to take back and share with fellow residents to inform them of the correct methods of composting, its benefits, etc. and to encourage them to get started.
If you have any reference material or study results that may assist my "Pro-composting" argument I would sincerely appreciate it.
Lindsay responds:
For starters, this Nature Challenge article can help. It leads with 7 top reasons why everyone needs to compost, including a do’s and don’ts list .
When only one individual composts they can reduce their garbage output to the landfill by 40%, and lets face it, Metro Vancouver is running out of landfill space. Not to mention the tenants who are gardeners stand to benefit from the compost results of "black gold," which would be huge in terms of cutting down your strata fees to buy dirt and fertilizer for your yards. It would be silly not to compost when you can save money on those other inputs by making your very own.
The issue here is composting properly to avoid vermin. The city-issued bins are great. They’re rat and raccoon proof if set-up properly. You should check their website , ask them for some brochures about composting or print them off and then maybe hold a "how-to" session for residents. It’s very easy.
You could also address some of the preventative measures: not putting cooked or greasy foods in there, or adding cat or dog hair (or dryer lint with pet hair) which is said to deter vermin like raccoons and rats. Best of luck and thanks for taking this on!
Tags: composting, gardening, landfill, Lindsay, Nature Challenge, raccoons, rats, Vancouver, vermin
Posted in Consumer Issues, Food, Green Living, Lindsay, garbage, gardening | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
Laura Coxford from the Yukon writes:
Can you put the lint from your dryer in the compost?
Also, I work with a lady who sells Norwex products, so I had a “Norwex party” at my house and purchased a lot of products. Norwex cloths are microfiber that can get your house sparkling with only using water. It’s really amazing – I haven’t used Windex or any other cleaning agent since I purchased my cloths. I wash my windows with a cloth and water now and I’ve never had such sparkling windows. I just have to spread the word about these products because if every household used them, can you imagine how fantastic that would be for the environment?
Lindsay responds:
We did a great newsletter issue on green gardening last year that discussed composting.
In all the documents I’ve seen, lint is a winner. You may have to test it in your compost bin because everyone’s individual conditions are different. I compost mine because most of my lint is cat or dog hair. I’ve read that this keeps rats and other vermin away, the smell of a predator that is! You’re lint is also fine if your towels, clothes, etc. are from natural fibers. Things like cotton, bamboo, etc. will biodegrade.
As for microfiber cloths, they are made of petroluem-based products but they are reusable and only need water instead of toxic chemicals, which seems to outweigh what they’re made of. At least that’s what I’ve read in other green resource-type books.
I’ve received one as a gift and have used it a bit here and there. I personally love the 100% club soda and newspaper or rag option for windows, just because I can reuse what I already own. You are right though. It’s a huge impact if we could get people off of the toxic store bought options and using paper towel!
Tags: composting, lint
Posted in Consumer Issues, Green Living, Lindsay, garbage, gardening | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
Brigitte shares her story on doing her part for the environment:
I just wanted to share some of what I am trying to teach my 4-year-old son about the environment and our part in it. We live in a small town north of Whistler and we walk, ride our bikes or sled to his school every day, and recycle every week.
We live in a very small condo with geothermal heating. We only use heat in the winter maybe about 2-3 hours a day. I always turn lights out if we are not in that room. We have air conditioning but do not use it in the summer. The best thing is that we have an Athena/Ionways water machine that gives us Alkaline water right from our tap and we fill our glass bottles up every day, NO PLASTIC BOTTLES EVER! Only about 1/10 of plastic bottles are ever recycled, and 1.5 million barrels of oil are used annually to manufacture the bottles! This water machine has changed our lives.
I also own a house cleaning business using only acidic water produced by this machine and tea tree oil for disinfecting as well as other natural products. I am hoping to buy some land soon in BC and be totally self-sufficient, living off the land! I teach my child to love and respect everything in nature and he loves the song by Jack Johnson, the three R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! He also always stops to pick up garbage on the ground and finds a garbage to put it in!
Tags: air conditioning, children, environment, geothermal, love, nature, plastic bottles, recycle, reduce, respect, reuse, tea tree oil
Posted in Consumer Issues, Green Living, Green Parenting, energy, garbage, off the grid, recycling | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Mary Margaret McMahon from Toronto, ON writes:
I always thought glass bottles were better for the planet than plastic but some people have been arguing with me about that lately. Is glass really better?
Also, I’ve been promoting the use of biodegradable bags for our residential composting program but today someone told me the carbon footprint for these bags is worse than plastic bags because they are made from corn and take up valuable agricultural land and release a lot of methane. Please tell me they are still better than plastic!
Lindsay writes:
First, in a nutshell, glass is great. It’s easily cleaned, doesn’t leach toxic chemicals and can be reused. When shopping, I always opt for a glass container versus plastic. I also then covet all glass jars in the house and reuse them. As far as recycling glass goes, it’s possible but does take a lot of energy.
When using plastics, stick with our jingle "2, 4, 5 keep yourself alive." Those numbers are the safest to reuse, although 1-7 are all recyclable depending on your town or municipality.
The fewer plastic or bioplastic bags you can use in your home the better. Be greener trash bag is one that is made from recycled materials or biodegradable. Bioplastics are typically made with corn. And yes, corn is one of the most common GMO or GE crops out there. You’ll never really know if a bioplastic bag is made from GMO or GE products because Canada and the US don’t label GMO crops. Our federal government voted against doing so.
Plastic bags from recycled content require 40% less energy to make. Making virgin plastic involves massive amounts of chemicals and results in air pollution. Plastic however never degrades completely – it only photodegrades, which means it breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. This is why there are thousands of plastic particles out there and some bird bellies are about of 50% full of plastic (watch the movie Addicted to Plastic).
Biodegradble plastic bags breakdown into CO2 and water mostly, with no toxic chemicals. The trick is to find out if your bag can breakdown in your municipal facility. Some of the products on the shelf will breakdown in your home composters, others need 3-6 months in a municipal landfill. You can ask the company that makes them. One fact I found said that bioplastic uses 68% less fossil fuel when manufactured and release 80-90% less greenhouse gases than traditional plastic bags.
As a final note, bioplastic (like anything else made from a renewable resource) will release methane in a landfill. Some landfills are even harnessing the methane gas to make energy – not always a bad thing if it’s not released into the atmosphere.
Tags: biodegradable, bioplastic bags, carbon footprint, CO2, composting program, corn, genetically modified crops, glass bottles, landfill, methane, plastics, pollution, recycling
Posted in Consumer Issues, David Suzuki's Nature Challenge, Green Living, Human Health, Lindsay, garbage, recycling | 2 Comments »
