Tag: recycling programs
Seattle to enforce mandatory composting
Seattle is known as a pioneer when it comes to sustainability efforts. And yet, they’re having a hard time motivating citizens to compost their household food scraps. Their solution? Give people a choice: keep compostable food scraps out of the garbage, or be hit where it hurts—in the pocket book. Per a brand new policy, […]
What happens to aluminum cans?
For many of us, we can’t get through the day without that 2:00 p.m. shot of caffeine via a can of soda. (Not to mention the 3:00 shot of caffeine. And the 3:30 shot of caffeine…and the 4:00…) Needless to say, those cans add up quickly. It’s fairly commonplace to recycle aluminum cans, but what […]
Denver Arts and Venues commits to composting
It’s official: Composting is the new black. There is a reason we’ve repeatedly written about composting initiatives over the last few months. That’s because the composting movement is rapidly gaining momentum, with more and more people, businesses, and municipalities getting on board. The latest story comes from none other than the mile-high city. Denver’s “Arts […]
Recycling station dispenses food for stray animals
This one is short but awfully sweet. In Istanbul, Turkey, they’re giving new meaning to “puppy love.” The city is home to 14 million people and an astonishing 150,000 stray dogs and cats. They’ve come up with an ingenious way to support the four-legged population while encouraging the two-legged population to make more earth-friendly choices. […]
An app finds a place for leftovers
Your local grocery store isn’t typically out of food at closing time. Your favorite restaurant isn’t typically out of food at the end of the night. That deli around the corner still has sandwiches in the window when it’s time to shut down for the day. So what happens to all that food? It’s not […]
Greek life goes green at UNC Chapel Hill
Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) was the first fraternity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that these Greek life pioneers are also green pioneers. DKE landed a recent feature by Trent Hollandsworth in The Daily Tarheel lauding their recycling efforts. Hollandsworth reports that in the 2013 fall semester, “all […]
For these kindergartners, recycling is child’s play
If you’ve been excusing yourself from recycling because it’s “too hard,” or “too complicated,” prepare to be humbled. The Jerusalem Post just published a story about the recycling habits of kindergartners — yes, kindergartners — in Israel, and those children are putting a lot of us to shame. A decade ago, Israel embarked on a concerted effort […]
New York City will heat homes with biogas made from food scraps
You’ve heard of the “farm to table” trend of eating local food direct from local farmers. Now there’s the “table to furnace” trend. Umm…what? That’s right. New York City, ever the trendsetter, has found a highly-productive and avant garde purpose for leftover food. They’re packing it up by the truckload and sending it to a massive […]
Why Apple is not so green: The truth behind its recycling program
It’s hard for Apple fans to resist buying the next new iPhone. It’s even harder when the company promises to recycle consumers’ old iPhones and pay them its value so they can buy a brand new iPhone. In August, Apple launched its Reuse and Recycling program, which allows iOS users to bring in their old phones, […]
Why Boston’s recycling rates don’t match San Francisco’s
We often don’t think about what happens to our recycling bins after they get hauled away from the curb. In an ideal world, what we put in the bins will end up being re-purposed. In reality, though, recycling rates do not equal waste recycled. The recycling industry employs more than 1 million people, but even […]
Recycle, reuse… reduce your bills
Throw out less, get charged less for garbage collection; it’s a simple idea, something we’ve all thought of, especially on days we put out our one tiny, responsible bag next to the neighbors’ bins overflowing with the castoffs of their more extravagant lives. Recology is San Francisco’s garbage collection provider, and they’ve introduced an innovative, […]
