Recyclers in California and Hawaii, among other places, might be in for a surprise when they take their cans, bottles and paper to be recycled. A January 2016 news release on KHON2 announced that more than 20 Hawaiian centers had closed. A March 2016 article from Environmental News stated that more than 100 Californian centers […]
While recycling does require drop off locations and industries that are willing to use the materials collected for recycling, it begins at home. Unlike charity, where we are told not to let the right hand know what the left hand is doing, recycling is an area where homeowners and small business proprietors are well advised […]
Is recycling a Band-Aid on Sustainability? I was a high school senior the year of the first Earth Day, in spring of 1970. Let me say, right up front I believe in the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle — just as I believe in the need for the other three R’s – Reading, […]
Cat litter is big business and has a big environmental impact. Cat owners know that keeping their kitty or kitties inside cuts down on a number of problems ranging from minimizing the chance that their special Moggy could wind up under the wheels of a semi to reducing flea infestations and vet bills from interactions […]
Fox News recently published a heart-warming story about a kitten rescued from a conveyor belt in a recycling plant. The worker was sorting materials when he spotted the tiny creature. He quickly rescued the little one. No one is quite sure how the little animal got on the conveyor belt. The theory is that it […]
Pet owners are usually directed to place used litter into plastic bags that are subsequently sent to landfills. One writer advocates a different approach: composting pet waste. Juniper Tarascio, writing for Metro Van Couver’s Zero Waste Challenge says that after being composted for 18 months, the pathogens that occur in cat waste are eliminated. The […]
You can reduce household waste. Running your own household, whether you have a bed/sitting room or a free-standing house can produce a lot of waste material. It comes into your home in a variety of formats: junk mail, fast food containers, produce packaging and even by products of your own handicrafts. No household can continually […]
One of the big disconnects between the ideal of closed-loop economy, where materials are reused and recycled, rather than continually using new materials, is that recycled materials need to have a market. Consumers who choose to purchase materials made from recycled materials sometimes have a hard time finding items. CalRecycle – part of the state […]
Circular economy Is Taking off in the United States. Carrie Majeske, the manager of global sustainability for Ford is quoted as saying it just makes good economic sense in that it is carbon efficient as well as cost effective. Some states, such as California, are adding regulations that further support the effort. Although circular economy […]
There is an old adage that goes, “Waste not, want not.” The Ellen MacArthur Foundation embraces the concept of a circular economy as being both sensible and sustainable – wasting nothing so that the world shall not want. Indeed, it is the ultimate goal of recycling – to reuse materials as many times as possible […]