Posts Tagged ‘Environment’

Arizona Recycles Thanksgiving Grease

Friday, November 19th, 2010

You can recycle political signs or turn recycled tires into a gym floor AND you can recycle your leftovers after Thanksgiving. At least the grease.

This is the sixth year of Grease Recycling Day where you can show thanks for your planet by taking action. I wish more cities had this program (such as the city I live in).

You know all the leftover grease from the deep fried turkey? Now you know what to do with it. It’s being held the day after Thanksgiving.

Cities like you properly dispose of used cooking grease. Best of all it can be recycled into something quite useful — a clean-burning substitute for diesel fuel.

Otherwise it’s not good for your home. “Ordinary kitchen cooking grease build up can clog sewer pipes, reduce sewage flow and act as a magnet for other debris,” said Laura Hagen Fairbanks of the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department.

There the grease can build-up and clog the sewer. This stat almost makes me lose my appetite but there’s a lot of grease that needs recycling. Last year they collected over 2,500 pounds of used cooking oil!

It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving to be thankful for this city’s efforts to go green. Used cooking oil can be recycled year-round. If you’re in Arizona, you can get locations and times at www.grecycle.com

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Airlines Go Green

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Did you the recent USAToday story about how airlines are going green? First, this shocking stat from the story: “the 30 largest airports in the country create “enough waste to equal the trash produced by cities the size of Miami or Minneapolis.”

Airports and airlines are doing more today – not only to save the earth – but to save money.

Best Green Airports
Portland International and Seattle-Tacoma International airports are strong with recycling. You know how you cannot take liquids past security? They have pouring stations so you can pour out your drink, then refill it on the other side rather than buying new.

The Seattle airport gives food that isn’t sold to local food banks. They also compost. They also encourage airlines to recycle with bins and systems to make it easy. Then they reward those who use them.

Another way they have been responsible? In 2008, Vancouver International Airport recycled or re-used 99% of it construction waste. Detroit Metropolitan Airport collects spent aircraft de-icing fluid – up to a million gallons a year. They reuse a substance in the fluid. We talked last week about how Delta recycled their seat covers.

Another trend is rather than tossing donate seating or outdated equipment they donate them to local schools or nonprofits who can use them.

There’s so much to recycle – and so much innovation you’ll be inspired – and hopefully your airport is doing their part. Sometimes all that’s needed is to ask.

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Hotel Chain Recycles Soap – Sends to 3rd World Countries

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

This is a simple recycling idea that I hope to see at more hotels. The New York Palace Hotel is a luxury hotel with fancy soap for each guest. But if you’ve been at hotels very often you’re aware of how much soap gets thrown away or stays in a closet somewhere. Now the hotel is doing something with that soap – it’s recycling.

The New York Palace has partnered with and Clean the World to implement the program. It will help people in third world countries where the soap will be sent. The soap will be sanitized and then given to homeless shelters and impoverished people around the world.

Clean the World estimates that the hotel will provide over 25,000 bars of soap monthly to underprivileged people in desperate need of soap, while simultaneously diverting 28 tons of landfill waste and recycling over four tons of plastic each year.

You can get involved. Donate soap and shampoo to: http://www.cleantheworld.org/contribute.asp or find out about becoming a Recycling Partner: http://www.cleantheworld.org/partners.asp

Think of the impact we could have on the world through this simple act – not only abroad but in our own country.

Save the trees with rubber mulch recycled tire surfacing.

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Upside of a Down Economy? Less Trash

Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Picture of a Caterpillar 826C landfill compact...
Image via Wikipedia

The weak economy may have one upside: Less trash going into a landfill. Sedgwick County in Kansas says that people are  throwing away 11% less trash. That’s compared to 3 years ago, just about the time when the economy tanked.

People are not recycling more, they are buying less to begin with. That means less trash to throw away in packaging. Back then people threw away about 5.4 pounds of trash per person a day and now that is down to 4.76 pounds of trash. That’s still pretty high!

What do people throw away most? Businesses throw away cardboard; residents throw away grass clippings (which are easy to recycle – hopefully your city has a green recycling plan for yard waste).

Anatomy of trash

Here’s what people throw away most

  • paper 29.2 percent,
  • yard waste 17.1 percent,
  • plastic 14.3 percent,
  • food waste 9.8 percent,
  • construction and demolition materials 8 percent,
  • textiles/rubber/leather, 6 percent;
  • metal 3.4 percent,
  • glass 2.7 percent,
  • other, 9.5 percent

What struck me about this list is how much is unnecessary. Not only can we easily compost, recycle and reduce but we can do much more recycling. Rubber mulch and other products made from recycled material keeps trash out of the landfill. Not only that, but when you buy recycled products, it’s investing in our future.

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Happy Arbor Day! Plant a Tree to Celebrate

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
April explains right tree planting
Image by PflugerPfotos via Flickr

We want to remind you that April 30th is Arbor Day. What is Arbor Day about? It’s about the trees! Many communities are planting trees, helping people care for trees and educating people about the value of trees. There’s good reason too.

Here are some of the many environmental benefits of trees

  • Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen for cleaner air.
  • In one year, an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon as is produced by a car driven up to 8700 miles.
  • Trees provide shade and shelter, reducing yearly heating and cooling costs by $2.1 billion.
  • Trees lower air temperature by evaporating water in their leaves.
  • The average tree in metropolitan area survives only about 8 years! That means we must replant and replenish.
  • A tree does not reach its most productive stage of carbon storage for about 10 years.
  • Trees cut down noise pollution by acting as sound barriers.
  • Tree roots stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.
  • Trees improve water quality by slowing and filtering rain water as well as protecting aquifers and watersheds.
  • The death of one 70-year old tree would return over three tons of carbon to the atmosphere.
  • The amount of oxygen produced by an acre of trees per year equals the amount consumed by 18 people annually. One tree produces nearly 260 pounds of oxygen each year.
  • One acre of trees removes up to 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
  • Shade trees can make buildings up to 20 degrees cooler in the summer.
  • Trees lower air temperature by evaporating water in their leaves.

We advocate using recycled rubber mulch rather than sacrificing trees for wood chips on our playgrounds and in landscaping. We hope you’ll respect, care for and plant trees in your community this Arbor Day.

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