Tag: recycling
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 […]
California legislature passes plastic bag ban
After months—make that years—of rumblings, it’s official: California’s legislature has passed a bill that bans single-use plastic bags throughout the entire state. Individual municipalities throughout the state (and around the country) have already implemented bag bans on single-use plastic bags, but if California governor Jerry Brown signs the bill, it will be the first time […]
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 […]
Tires become sandals in latest recycling trend
One and a half billion tires get discarded every year. We’re having a hard time wrapping our heads around that number. Especially since tires aren’t exactly like bottle caps—they take up serious space. We’re not the only ones who are a little put off by the idea of 1.5 billion tires ending up in landfills […]
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. […]
Collapsible coffee cup solves a trashy problem
The new Smash Cup is smashing up traditional notions of reusable coffee cups. Convenient, lightweight, collapsible—what’s not to like? We know, we know—this is the second coffee cup-related post in two weeks. Think that’s excessive? How’s this for excessive: in America alone, 23 billion paper cups are thrown away each year. Yes, that’s billion with […]
A (seriously) green coffee cup
Let’s start this story with some eye-opening statistics. Starbucks uses four billion coffee cups per year. Of those four billion cups, Starbucks is ony able to recycle 39 percent of them. That’s less than four in ten cups. Why so low? They’re made of paper, right? Well, yes, they are—but paper doesn’t contain liquid very […]
Iowa is turning plastic bags into park benches
You’ve heard of from rags to riches, but what about from bags to benches? Plastic bags are a notorious bane of the environmental landscape, but they’re receiving exciting new life thanks to an innovative program in Iowa. Iowa isn’t typically considered a standout national leader when it comes to recycling. Iowans recycle 1.2 million tons […]
Helsinki recycling center employs robots
In an industrial park near Helsinki Finland, there’s a new recycling center. Like other recycling centers, this one takes in tons of construction and demolition waste and sorts through it to separate wood, metal, and stone. The difference? The sorters are robots. That’s right: robots. It sounds like something straight out of a futuristic sci-fi […]
Recycling in Switzerland is serious business
Switzerland is second only to Germany for recycling rates in the European Union. “We Swiss like it clean and appealing,” said the former director of the Office of Environment and Energy in the Swiss city of Basel. So clean and appealing, in fact, that a resident who dared drop off her recycling on the wrong […]
An update on composting in the big apple
Every year, New York City residents send approximately 3.2 million tons of waste to landfills. That’s well over one-third of a ton of waste for every single man, woman, and child, every year. Transporting and managing that waste also costs the city $300 million dollars per year. If you’re reading this and thinking: “That’s too […]
