#Beach day #clean up day =) #OurOcean2014

 

We told you about clean up #OurOcean2014 a little over a month ago but we figured that while the weather is still so nice out we would remind you that organizing a beach clean up is even easier by visiting this page: https://wastetracking.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/looking-for-a-good-weekend-activity-look-no-further-than-ourocean2014-and-giveback/

There’s information on what to do before and during a beach clean up, and adding #ourocean2014 to your social media posts while organizing this will help your event gain visibility. If you have any questions of want to invite us, please Tweet us @WasteTracking we can also help you spread the word!

 

 

Don’t Recycle That Pizza Box Until You Read This

Oil/grease is one of the worst contaminates in the paper recycling process because paper recycling undergoes a heat process, gets mixed with water and pulverized to paper pulp to make recycled paper. If there is oil in the paper pulp mixture then the paper ends up having spots and holes.

About three years ago we wrote about the fact that many corrugated cardboard pizza boxes are recyclable if and only if they are clean. You can read about the pizza box recycling debate here.

We hope that by spreading the word about this and providing you with some visuals about the seriousness of ruining entire batches of recycling because you didn’t know that oil soaked cardboard shouldn’t be recycled in any amount, we can make people aware of this simple point: it might be better to throw that oily box away.

If you still want to recycle that pizza then there are great ways to go about this:

1. If the top half of the pizza box has no grease on it then feel free to rip that half away from the bottom and recycle the top half!
2. Share this article with others who could learn a thing or two about how recycled paper is made, trust us, they won’t forget the next time they have an oily pizza box!

The Biggest Factor in How Much We Recycle Is…

The number 1 factor that effects whether or not someone will or will not recycle is their knowledge about what can be recycled. Yolonda Wright conducted 200 surveys to see what factors play a key role in determining the likely hood that one will recycle.

Yolonda wrote about UC Berkeley’s first Recycling Summit, 2001 that promoted campus recycling by increasing access to recycling and refuse containers, the campus bought recycled paper and even established a materials exchange.

In addition to one’s knowledge (a distinction was made between general knowledge and “knowledge about what can be recycled), demographics, knowledge of recycling bin location, age, area of study and more factors were considered.

Our blog has a lot of ideas for those who are already motivated to recycle. We also talked about people in correctional facilities that recycle quite a bit thanks to the training that they receive during their positions. For more about sustainable jobs, please click here and Yolonda’s study can be found here.

Do you find this easy or hard to believe? Let us know what you think on Twitter http://twitter.com/wastetracking

Shocked that some cities still need to consider construction recycling

Just read in the news that Burlington, Vt. is currently considering recycling their construction waste…

The good news is that the city is starting the process of making recycling construction waste a requirement for building permits.

Although this was shocking news for us, it does make since that because construction is on the rise in the Berlington, Vt., this is just now being addressed.

Best wishes to the city and their diversion efforts!

 

Source: http://www.mychamplainvalley.com/story/d/story/burlington-considers-construction-recycling/13736/AJ_hUwH6BkmMlficA-2YRw

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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Why You Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water!

This infographic is paperless and shows us why we should stop drinking from plastic water bottles:

Thanks to: http://www.naturalmat.co.uk/for providing this infographic!

Another great Green article from WasteTracking.com

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#CNNbusinessreview on Myerscough’s Green Your Cup

I find this video to be inspiring and genius, I think that recyclable paper cups will be widely adopted soon but I’m curious about if Myerscough’s Green Your Cup has patented “technology” that makes it clear that they are “the only game in town”. Best wishes to them as anyone who can help our environment like this we hope succeeds. 50 billion cups in landfills each year is atrocious but I can imagine that’s how much the world produces. Thanks a million for sharing CNN.

Awesome #recycling #infographic with stats about our environmental impact

This gem just came on the web, besides the awesome graphic design and the fact that this is paperless environmental education this infographic is just jaw-dropping.

Prepare to be amazed:

 

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Basel Convention and Khian Sea #Pollution #History not to be repeated

The Basel Convention is a United Nations treaty that was signed in 1989 to control the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. The treaty helped define hazardous wastes, outlined how hazardous wastes are disposed and set guidelines such as approved facilities by city governments.

 

It’s been said that one event that prompted the Basel Convention was the Khian Sea waste disposal incident from 1986-2000. The Khian Sea cargo ship (which was registered in Liberia) was loaded with 14,355 tons of non-toxic ash from waste incinerations from the US. The story goes that a US company that handled the waste subcontracted a shipment to dump the ash in the Bahamas, however, the Bahamian government turned down the ash and so, for over one year the Khian Sea searched for a place to dump the ash. Many regions of the world refused to accept the ash and since the ash was even refused from the original area in the US from where it was received, in 1988 the crew dumped about 4,000 tons of the waste in Haiti as “topsoil fertilizer” and fled before they could pick up the ash as the Haitian commerce minister ordered. The Khian Sea then moved on to regions such as Morocco, Sri Lanka and Singapore where the captain testified to dumping about 10,000 tons of ash into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

 

Here is an image of the home port of the Khian Sea in Philadelphia:

 

 

(Source: http://www.basel.int/Home/tabid/2202/Default.aspx and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khian_Sea_waste_disposal_incident )

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About Gas #Engines and the #GE #Jenbacher

GE makes gas engines that feed on bio gas produced from a variety of foods and food by-products; and now these GE machines can also process synthetic gas, or syngas from wood. Many gas engines can run on natural gas, landfills gas, sewage gas, biogas, mine gas, coal gas, and syngas (such as the popular- Jenbacher).

In remote towns and villages, these gas engines supply power and they help cities integrate renewable energy into the power grid. The gas engines can also be configured with generators and other GE products to form power plants to supply power. This energy method is commonly used in areas such as Europe. GE has distributed power solutions including: generator sets, cogeneration systems and containers. Distributed Power is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and you can learn more about it here: https://www.ge-distributedpower.com/

A visualization of a Jenbacher can be viewed here:

(Source: http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140407/infographic-field-guide-us-environmental-movement

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#Microorganisms Are Put to Work to Make #Eco-Friendly Bricks

A new type of brick called bioMASON has arrived, and it is actually GROWN not built…by putting microorganisms to work! One of the most energy intensive materials to manufacture is concrete and the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere in this process is also something that could be lessened if bricks could be made in a bio-friendly manner.

bioMASON is a “unique biotechnology start-up manufacturing company with a natural process that will revolutionize the building and construction industry. bioMASON employs natural microorganisms and chemical processes to manufacture biological cement-based masonry building materials”. In addition to the fascinating science behind this is bioMASON’s award for the: Next Generation “the Big Fix” by Metropolis magazine.

The founder, Ginger Krieg Dosier had the idea to grow bricks since she studied coral structure and the process has been refined by bioMASON. A video of Dosier and the product can be viewed here:

 

(Source: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2014/05/20/sponsored-ad-biomason-green-challenge)

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