May 2, 2008 Weekend Challenge
May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Put the Cycle in Recycle
April 18, 2008 | 1 Comment
It’s a new explanation of the idea of recycling that I heard on TV recently. A huge part of Recycling is the Cycle. If you purchase a product and its packaging and they are manufactured from virgin material and then you toss what you can of the packaging into the recycling bin - IS THAT REALLY RECYCLING?
Those arrows we are so familiar with create a loop. The first part of the loop is consumers placing recyclable materials in a special bin, not the trash. The second part of the loop is manufacturers purchasing the post-consumer waste to be re-purposed into a product or packaging. The last part of the loop is that we as consumers need to purchase products made of recycled material to show manufacturers that we appreciate their effort and to help keep them in business.
Just because I send a full recycling bin out to the curb every week does not mean that I am helping the environment. I need to be more careful about making sure to purchase products and packaging that are MADE of recycled material (it is usually proudly listed on the back of the product/packaging). It seems a daunting task. I purchase so many products, where do I start? Here is an idea (I found it on the BRBA Australia website):
- Identify one product you purchase
- Identify a similar product that uses recycled content
- Purchase it, if you like it, keep it, if not continue searching
- Start at #1 again with a different product you can replace
When you look for products and packaging made from recycled content, don’t just look for the triple looping arrows symbol. There is not really government regulation regarding the symbol. Look for wording near the symbol like “Contains Recycled Content”, ” Made from Post-Consumer Waste” and “Made from Pre-Consumer Waste”. Sometimes a percentage will be included. Obviously, the higher the percentage, the better.
I was giving myself a free pass to purchase plastics just because they had a recycle symbol on them.
Not all things recycle neatly into the same thing, as do glass and aluminum. Plastics are a good example. They don’t recycle as well as natural materials and most of it may end up in a landfill anyway. I was able to download a plastic packaging resin code chart from the American Chemistry Council’s website. A good example would be the plastic bottles used for water, made from PET/PETE (Polyethylene Terephthalate) can be recycled into, among other things, fiber for carpet. Bottles for milk, plastic bags and cereal box liners are made from HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) and it is usually recycled into bottles for non-food items and plastic lumber. Plastic products are made from non-renewable natural resources. A plastic product that is remade and then possibly not recycled after it’s end use will still end up in a landfill. This ends the cycle, instead of completing the loop of recycling. The unnecessary purchasing of products and packaging that use non-renewable resources is like throwing those resources away.
It may be a little more work until you get used to it, but by purchasing recycled products you are:
- supporting recycling programs
- creating jobs
- conserving natural resources
- saving energy
- reducing waste and pollution
Answers: How Long Does It Take To Biodegrade?
April 12, 2008 | 7 Comments
From 4/11/08:
Can you put this list in order? (Answers below)
- Tin Can
- Disposable Diaper
- Plastic 6-pack Holder
- Paper
- Wool Cap
- Aluminum Can
- Glass Bottles
- Rubber Boot Sole
- Banana Peel
- Cigarette Butt
- Hard Plastic Container
Here are the answers to the list I posted yesterday: (I did my research at the Bureau of Land Management)
- Paper: 2-4 Weeks
- Banana Peel: 3-5 Weeks
- Wool Cap: 1 Year
- Cigarette Butt: 2-5 Years
- Disposable Diaper: 10-20 Years
- Hard Plastic Container: 20-30 Years
- Rubber Boot Sole: 50-80 Years
- Tin Can: 80-100 Years
- Aluminum Can: 200-400 Years
- Plastic 6-pack Holder: 450 Years
- Glass Bottles: A Very, Very Long Time (Forever)
I am sad to say that I am confused by time frame claims above regarding cigarette butts and plastics (container and 6-pack holder) by our governmental resource (in this case, the Bureau of Land Management). I have found credible websites that list a time span closer to 12 years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade and some filters are made of a material that never degrades (Butts Out website and Cigarette Litter website). My research has also shown that scientists estimate plastics can take 1000 Years to degrade - meanwhile, they litter the environment, harm wildlife, leach plasticizers and other toxins into the environment and aren’t fully recyclable . (See these websites for competing information and to learn about plastic: Education World, Salon). Depending on where I research, I’ve found estimates from 20 years to forever given as an estimation to the biodegradation of plastic. The American Plastics Council website wrote a nice article about how plastics can’t be expected to degrade in a landfill because landfills are mummifiers, not composters. Then they changed the subject and quoted statistics regarding how much paper vs. plastic is estimated to be contained in landfills.
There is a biodegradable plastic made from corn (PLA - polylactic acid) becoming more widely used. You can read about it here (Smithsonian website). It is nice to see more “natural” alternatives in development, although a better solution might be to work on our throwaway society’s mindset.
Future generations will deal with our waste for thousands of years to come, it is up to us to prevent the generation of waste and develop better and more creative ways of manufacturing and packaging our products. A great way to begin is by consciously lessening the amount you throw away and seriously thinking about the “cycle” of recycling - buy recycled, don’t just fill a recycling bin!
How Long Does It Take To Biodegrade?
April 11, 2008 | 3 Comments
Can you put this list in order? (Answers posted tomorrow)
- Tin Can
- Disposable Diaper
- Plastic 6-pack Holder
- Paper
- Wool Cap
- Aluminum Can
- Glass Bottles
- Rubber Boot Sole
- Banana Peel
- Cigarette Butt
- Hard Plastic Container
Don’t Medicate the Earth!
April 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Many of us are acting as unwilling doctors without a license to prescribe when we dispose of our old or unused prescription or over-the-counter drugs and medications.
I had reason to clean out my pantry last week, call it an ant invasion, and I found many old drugs that I wanted to clean out. We either didn’t finish the prescription or in the case of o-t-c drugs, they had expired. Now that I am in my Earth-friendly state-of-mind, I had to set them aside and find out what to do with them. They have been sitting on the kitchen counter for about 4 days now and it is freaking me out. I don’t like to leave drugs sitting around for the kids’ sake, I don’t like the clutter and my husband actually asked about it (he usually doesn’t notice clutter). So, in a spare moment this morning, I went online and checked into “prescription drug disposal” on Google. Several articles came up, some from non-professionals, some from government agencies and some from university studies. In any case, the answer is not good…and the answer is the same as I seem to be noticing lately when it comes to living green…
There is no good answer!
How many of you flush drugs? Who told you, probably your doctor. A seemingly trustworthy source.
Never flush drugs of any sort!
Studies have shown that water treatment plants aren’t capable of removing drugs from water. So, by default, animals are being harmed, and it’s not just animals, think of invisible bacteria now being exposed to let’s see…oh…antibiotics for example. That just can’t be good.
Other options include throwing in the trash or sending to a reliable source (usually a pharmacy) for proper disposal (probably incineration - doesn’t sound that great either).
So unused prescription drugs are either:
- Ending up in the ocean
- Ending up in a dump/landfill and thus the ground water table
- Ending up in the air
I just don’t see a good answer here - Do you?
I called my local Rite-Aid and the pharmacist offered to take the drugs (he didn’t know how they were actually disposed, but he did say that they are all placed in a bin and sent to corporate for disposal). I can’t believe I’m actually suggesting this, but the other option was the trash.
Here’s what to do if you choose to throw away unused drugs:
- keep them in their original container
- take off the label (for your safety)
- place the pill container in a resealable plastic container (old margarine crock)
- throw away
We’ve all been told that old drugs lose their potency, so hopefully if you toss your drugs into the trash, by the time the 500 or so years pass for the plastic containers that are holding the drugs to actually decompose, the drugs will have lost their potency and will hopefully no longer be a threat to groundwater or the environment. Let’s HOPE!
In the meantime, if a doctor or anyone tells you to flush drugs - let them know it’s not proper anymore. Be safe with your health firstly, but try to take all of a prescription, or try to only receive what you will use - not extra. Don’t stock o-t-c’s when you’re not sick, but purchase them as you need them.
And finally, demand a better answer to the problem of prescription drug disposal. Demand this answer from drug companies, from pharmacies, from the government, from your waste collector. Don’t just sit around waiting for an answer - DEMAND IT!
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