waste

How to Reduce Household Food Waste

- Adam Clare

It was recently found out that Canadians waste a lot of food, 51% of which is wasted inside the home. This means that there are ways that each individual can make a difference! The CBC has a tip sheet on what you can do at home to ensure you don’t throw out perfectly good food.

4. Don’t assume you need to buy in bulk
Grocery chains like Costco and Sam’s Club have enjoyed great success by convincing consumers that they will save money if they buy in mass quantities. But some experts warn against this purchasing strategy.

“People buy in bulk to make an effort to save money, but what they’re not realizing is that if they buy more than they need and throw away food that’s rotten, they haven’t saved money. They’ve actually wasted food and wasted money,” says Rosenbloom of Words to Eat By

Read more ways to reduce waste at the CBC.

A Zero-Waste Town in Japan

- Adam Clare

In Japan the town of Kamikatsu people there create zero-waste while living a modern life. The community has taken the idea of a plastic bag ban to the next level and have banned garbage outright.

The crazy part? Most locals actually seem to like the extreme recycling process. Kikue Nii, one resident, claims that the town’s no-waste policy makes her more mindful of what she’s using, and helps her to take advantage of every last scrap. “I think I produce less waste because I have to compost it,” she told BBC News.

“When I can’t use the whole vegetable or meat, I try to cook it again with wine and so on. It makes a very good soup. Everyone should have a composter if they can.”

Read more here.

The Reality of the Paperless Office

- Adam Clare

A PDF- making company (no idea these eve existed) recently sent me something that caught my eye about a survey they conducted:

In this survey, three out of every four Americans say they want to reduce paper consumption for the environment, including:

·         48.0% - willing to reduce their use of newspapers

·         45.9% - willing to reduce their use of magazines

·         37.6% - willing to reduce their use of forms, contracts, documents

·         31.6% - willing to reduce their use of books

·         6.1% - willing to reduce their use of toilet paper

Essentially, Americans are willing to half their paper consumption in the next five years. That’s fantastic for the environment! That means fewer trees will be felled uselessly and fuel consumed to transport paper will be reduced too.

They compiled an info-graphic about their survey results.

TerraCycle Helps Schools Recycle and Learn

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

TerraCycle is a company that wants us to rethink waste. They collect materials that would be sent to landfills and use them to create new products thereby creating less waste filling up the landfills.

Here in Canada they have been quite successful with their school programs – and have given money back to schools that have been good waste collectors. They have successfully diverted one million drink pouches from landfills in Canada alone and turned them into useful products.

Across Canada over 2,700 schools, non-profits and community groups have joined together to help collect the one million pieces. Exactly how much is one million drink pouches? It is enough to cover nine hockey rinks or 33 basketball courts. Students, teachers and community members from almost 3,000 communities across Canada are working together to assure this packaging is no longer waste and can be given new life by TerraCycle.

“It gives the students a chance to participate and see results for their actions. We can collect waste and get paid for it,” says Sandra Ross, parent volunteer at William S. Patterson P.S. in Clandeboye, Manitoba.

TerraCycle is upcycling and recycling the packaging collected by the Drink Pouch Brigade members into a range of eco-friendly consumer products that should be in stores within the next 6 to 12 months. TerraCycle can turn the pouches into everything from upcycled pencil cases to park benches!

Check out TerraCycle’s website.

Tubeless Toilet Paper

- Adam Clare

Nobody really thinks that much about toilet paper and I think that needs to change. Kimberly Clark took five years to respond to Greenpeace’s campaign to get the company to kill fewer trees.

Today Kimberly Clark they have done one more green thing and this time with no needed push from environmental organizations. In order to save trees and money Kimberly Clark has announced the tubeless toilet paper roll.

The 17 billion toilet paper tubes produced annually in the USA account for 160 million pounds of trash, according to Kimberly-Clark estimates, and could stretch more than a million miles placed end-to-end. That’s from here to the moon and back — twice. Most consumers toss, rather than recycle, used tubes, says Doug Daniels, brand manager at Kimberly-Clark. “We found a way to bring innovation to a category as mature as bath tissue,” he says.

He won’t disclose the tubeless technology used but says it’s a special winding process. A similar process is used on tissue the company sells to businesses but not to consumers.

Behind the marketing push is a growing consumer demand for environmentally friendly products.

One environmentalist applauds the move. “It’s a positive example of how companies are seeking creative ways to reduce environmental impact,” says Darby Hoover of the Natural Resources Defense Council. But more relevant than nixing the tubes would be more recycled content in its paper, Hoover says. While Scott Naturals normally has 40% recycled content, this test product does not — but future versions will, Daniels says.

Read more about toilet paper here.

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