Recycle 2 Save

Plastic grocery bags are fully recyclable and can be used in a variety of new products.. BUT (and it's a big but) many material recovery facilities that receive bags mixed in with the residential recycling will end up discarding them as trash. The equipment that processes the recycling has screens that will become clogged by the plastic bags creating a housekeeping issue (which does not allow the sorting equipment to run effectively). In some systems there have been adjustments made (air vacuum systems intended to suck the bags up) in order to assist in keeping these bags from being a potential problem but they aren't fail safe. To get the most out of plastic bag recycling place them in collection units setup to specifically recover them. Like all recycling .. the cleaner and more segregated you keep the material the more potential it has to be successfully recycled. Most grocery stores have displays/bins setup in the entrance. If your location fails to have these bins ...

Keep your recyclables in a dry, covered area that is protected from sleet, snow and rain. Items that arrive at the MRF (materials recovery facility) saturated will typically have picked up glass, dirt, and other contaminants making it less recoverable and increasing the amount that will end up in a landfill. Single stream collection specifically will significantly increase this issue but even paper that is extremely wet and/or frozen can potentially be an issue. 

We recently had a great giveaway on facebook that we asked our followers to guess what item in the picture was made from recycled content. I was hassled a little that everything in our offices should be made of recycled content. Unfortunately we aren't quite there but we are certainly trying. We have ensured that any new materials that we have purchased as promotional items contain a recycled content (if available).  Some products simply are not being produced using a recycled content but many are, it does sometimes require a bit more research and the variety is often more limited.  The good news is that it has never been easier. I have sometimes been left wanting but for the most part with a little determination, I have been able to find a product that falls within our requirements and was made from something that was diverted from a landfill. We need to let manufacturers know.. WE WANT recycled content products. The more we buy and the more vocal customers are the more op...

We talk all the time about the amount of waste that a single person creates daily (with staggering amounts contributed to households and businesses). It's also been pointed out that despite you not opening your car window and chucking it out that when you throw it "away" it has to go somewhere. At this point it is handled the best way that we know how but much of that involves the "stuff" being buried. We know that practices are in place to keep us safe and regulations watch that the trash we bury doesn't contaminate the soil or water around us. We also know that no system is ever 100% failsafe. Based on that.. we have tried to find ways to encourage residents and businesses to recycle more and waste or trash less. Obviously recycling is the option that we most often suggest. Reduction in both consumption and waste is another key component of the three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycling.. just in case you need a refresher). Although most people understand t...

I am environmentally/recycling minded. I know that recycling creates true results and the opposite has it's own very real (negative) consequences as well. Yet, I was still dumbfounded by this statistic provided by Busch Systems. First the fact that our current recycling rate is 34.5% is craziness, and the results of pushing that rate up to 75% is phenomenal. I know that we are all capable and it's really not that hard. We challenge you, start small, recycle something today that you never had before. Walk a few extra steps to the recycling bin, drop your household collection of groceries bags off at the grocery store (don't keep them and then get fed up and throw them away). Your very simple choices have a very real impact; one bottles, one can, one bag at a time, we (YOU) can be the change.

I've often explained that being kind to our planet goes much  further than recycling but also following through and buying recycled. We all must commit to supporting companies that have the correct environmental outlook and avoid those who do not. We need to make choices that are not only beneficial to us but also to our planet and generations to come. Navigating through greenwashing does make finding true answers exceedingly difficult but with a little practice it becomes easier to read between the lines. Two of our family favorites are GUD (made by Burts Bees) and our absolute favorite is Original Sprout.Both are healthy natural choices without all the extra "stuff", both work very well and smell amazing, and both are contained inside of bottles made from recycled content. I am by no means suggesting you run out and buy these particular products (unless you want to) but am suggesting that you evaluate what you are buying; what it's made from/of, the product packag...