Posts
If you're a Twin Cities resident living anywhere except Minneapolis, you now must use biodegradable, compostable lawn bags. The once-ubiquitous black plastic bags have been banned for yard waste.
By JOHN EWOLDT, StarTribune.com, April 12, 2010
"Why haven't I heard of this change before?" asked a Hennepin County resident when she called Hennepin County Environmental Services about the switch to compostable bags. John Jaimez, the county's organics recycling specialist, said the change was mentioned frequently last year in newspaper, radio and TV stories as well as online. "I don't have a TV or computer or read the newspaper," she said.
For anyone else sitting on the sidelines, here's the deal. As of Jan. 1, most residents of the seven-county metro area (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties) who bag their yard waste for pickup must use compostable paper or plastic-like bags made from organic material, often corn-based. Only Minneapolis residents are getting a pass on the new requirement -- until Jan. 1, 2013.
Metro procrastinators who bagged leaves after the last pickup in the fall will have to rebag the waste or find other options. Waste haulers are giving no slack to anyone putting out the black plastic bags. Most haulers, such as Allied Waste, are tagging the black bags with a neon-colored note which states that they will no longer be picked up, said Jessica Kliche, marketing coordinator at Allied.
Earlier-than-expected warm weather caught some retailers off guard. The compostable bags have been in short supply at some stores.
In a check of 10 retailers two weeks ago, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart in Bloomington were out of stock. Target, Menards, Home Depot, Costco and several smaller hardware stores had the paper or plastic-like bags in stock.
You might need help finding compostable bags if you're shopping for the first time. Many stores have the paper bags in one location and the plastic-like bags in another. Target, for example, has the traditional black lawn and leaf bags with all other plastic bags but the compostable ones in the seasonal department.
For a partial list of retailers selling the plastic-like bags, go to www.bpiworld.org/minnesota. More than 30 manufacturers make the translucent, compostable bags, said Steve Mojo, executive director of the Biodegradable Products Institute in New York City.
Finding the right bags
How can consumers know they're buying the correct ones?
The new bags are translucent, usually white, green or pink. But don't be misled by packaging or wording.
Several stores were selling bags labeled "100 percent degradable" or "60 percent recycled plastic" in green boxes labeled "Go Green" or "Good Sense." Open the box, however, and the bags contain black or opaque green plastic that is not compostable.
Plastic bags labeled as being biodegradable but not compostable break down into finer plastic particles, but the plastic does not disintegrate into organic matter. Look instead for wording on the box that says "compostable" or "Meets ASTM D6400 standards."
Drawbacks to new bags
Anyone accustomed to bags made of thick, black plastic with drawstrings or flap closures will find the new bags a little, well, basic.
None of the brands I checked had the drawstring or flap closure or even twist ties. At a size of 30 to 33 gallons, they're also smaller than traditional bags, which are usually 39 to 45 gallons.
Sturdiness is a factor, too. The paper versions offer consistent quality, but the plastic-like bags have varying strengths due to the thickness of the material. Some of the boxes weren't labeled for thickness, which is measured in mils (1 to 1.1 thickness is standard). The Bag to Nature brand at Target was the strongest in our tests.
The new bags have some drawbacks. They are designed to disintegrate more quickly, so filling them with damp material and leaving them in the rain isn't a good idea. Decomposition time will depend on condition and the brand.
Finding a good price
They cost more, too. The old plastic 39- to 45-gallon leaf bags cost 17 to 40 cents each. The 30-gallon Kraft paper bags cost as much as 80 cents each. Home Depot and Menards were cheaper at 38 cents each ($1.88 for five). The lowest price I found was at Costco for 32 cents each ($7.99 for 25).
Among the stores where I found compostable, plastic-like bags, each sold a different brand. Prices ranged from 60 to 83 cents per 33-gallon bag. Menards had the lowest price on its BioBag ($5.99 for 10), but Target's Bag to Nature bags were sturdier ($7.96 for 10). If you're bagging sticks and branches, go for sturdier, thicker bags or use two-ply paper.
Minneapolis gets extra time
Why is Minneapolis off the hook until 2013? The city is considering a program for residents to discard yard and food waste in carts. But it needs extra time to get the carts into place and find an organic recycler that is licensed to accept and handle the waste from 105,000 households, said city spokesman Casper Hill. Currently, there is no such recycler, he said.
Despite all the confusion, Denise Westman of Tonka Bay said she's glad to be helping the environment.
"I think it's a great idea, but I am wondering how the bags will do in the rain," she said.
As for her stash of black plastic bags, Westman plans to use them to haul compost or use them as garbage bags.
"One way or another, they'll still get used," she said.
John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633 or jewoldt@startribune.com. If you spot a deal, share it at www.startribune.com/blogs/dealspotter.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Don't get left holding the wrong leaf bag
Bag bans gain momentum
EarthTalk, smdp.com, April 12, 2010
Dear EarthTalk, How effective have plastic bag bans and restrictions been on reducing plastic litter and other problems associated with their proliferation? And is it really better to use paper bags, which will just lead to more deforestation?
Peter Lindsey, New Canaan, Conn.
Plastic bags, first introduced in the 1950s as a convenient way to store food, have since developed into a global scourge, littering roadsides, clogging sewer drains and landfills and getting ingested by animals and marine life. And in recent years we've discovered how they are so prolific that they now comprise a significant portion of the plastic and other garbage that has collected in huge ocean gyres far from land.
A few countries around the world — Bangladesh, China, India, Australia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Israel, South Africa, Taiwan and Mumbai, among others — have taken stands against plastic bags through taxing their usage or banning them outright. The environmental think tank, Worldwatch Institute, reports that China's decision to ban free plastic bags in 2008 has cut demand by some 40 billion bags, reduced plastic bag usage there by 66 percent, and saved some 1.6 million tons of petroleum.
In March 2007, San Francisco became the first (and is still the only) major U.S. city to implement an across-the-board ban on plastic bags. Large supermarkets and pharmacies there had to ditch plastic shopping bags by early 2008 in favor of paper bags or those made from all-natural biodegradable cornstarch-based plastic. Environmentalists are particularly fond of the latter option for those who don't bring their own grocery bags, as these cornstarch bags offer the biodegradability of paper without the deforestation as well as the convenience of plastic without the damage to ecosystems. San Francisco officials had originally tried to work with retailers on reducing plastic bag use voluntarily. But after a few years of little or no cooperation, they decided to just institute the ban on anything but biodegradable bags. The result has been a 50 percent drop in plastic bag litter on the streets since the ban took effect.
Los Angeles followed suit and its city council voted in 2008 to ban plastic bags beginning in July 2010 — but the ban will only take effect if the state of California doesn't follow through on a statewide plan to impose a fee on shoppers who request plastic bags. City council members in L.A. hope the ban will spur consumers to carry their own reusable bags and thus reduce the amount of plastic washing into the city's storm drains and into the Pacific Ocean. Several other U.S. cities, including New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, have considered outright bans like San Francisco's, but each settled instead on plastic bag recycling programs in the face of pressure from the plastics industry and retail commercial interests.
While increased demand for paper bags in the wake of plastic bag bans could lead to more deforestation, most paper grocery bags in use today are made from recycled content, not virgin wood. Also, an added benefit of paper over petroleum-based plastic is its biodegradability.
Americans go through some 92 billion disposable plastic bags each year, and only five billion paper ones. If the nation banned plastic bags it is likely that paper varieties would only make up a small part of the difference, in light of the proliferation of reusable canvas shopping bags as well as the availability of biodegradable cornstarch plastic.
Want to get down to earth? Submit questions to earthtalk@emagazine.com.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Drive for 'zero waste zones'
Restaurants unite with businesses for greener disposal of garbage.
By Meridith Ford Goldman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dec. 1, 2009
Stop. Wait a minute. Did you just throw out that dryer lint? Think of all those Thanksgiving leftovers that might make your garden grow. Did you know that they — along with a multitude of other garbage such as coffee grounds, tea bags, yard trimmings and that apple core you were just about to throw away — are all compostable?
Steve Simon of Fifth Group Restaurants knows. In a move toward helping Midtown become a “zero waste zone,” he’s leading restaurants such as Ecco, La Tavola Trattoria and South City Kitchen into a new era of composting and recycling.
Industry and the private sector setting an example for saving the planet? Did we hear that right?
“As recently as a year ago,” Simon says, “I was the poster child for what not to do.”
Now, he and other members of the Green Foodservice Alliance (an environmental affiliate of the Georgia Restaurant Association, but working to be its own association) are helping restaurants and businesses work to produce “zero waste.” The goal is to recycle, compost, reuse spent grease for biofuel and donate consumable food to charity.
“I don’t know if the restaurant industry is the largest producer of trash, but it’s certainly a possibility,” Simon says. Ecco, Fifth Group’s flagship restaurant in Midtown specializing in Mediterranean cuisine, no longer dumps waste into the garbage — kitchen workers and servers scrape scraps into a compost heap. Fifth Group restaurants no longer have garbage Dumpsters on their restaurants’ sites.
So did big business suddenly get a conscience?
“I think what’s happened over the last few years is that the collaboration between government, the private sector and trade associations has helped get the kinks out of a very kinked-up system,” says Holly Elmore, the founder and executive director of the alliance. Ten years ago, just getting a trash or recycling hauler to come to your business on a regular schedule was a “nightmare,” according to Simon. Now, entrepreneurs such as Farmer D Organics are actually making money from trash and waste.
The bottom line was a motivating factor. “When businesses in Georgia, particularly Atlanta, started losing conventions because the city and state aren’t perceived as ‘green,’ it got business owners’ attention,” Simon says. “It’s really an ‘oh, by the way, this is the right thing to do’ kind of thing.”
Trash as a moneymaking investment aside, why are composting and recycling so important?
Well, let’s go back to environmental protection 101: landfill use would be tops on the punch list. Producing less waste creates smaller landfills. Composting and recycling properly are the way to start. Methane emissions at landfills are contributing factors to global warming, and Americans, according to the EPA’s Web site, produce 4.4 pounds of garbage per person, per day — a figure that has nearly doubled since 1960. Simon’s research estimates that 80 percent of what’s in our landfills might have value — in other words, it could be recycled for profit.
So what can this urban tale teach the average consumer? First, it’s up to you to “take responsibility and learn,” Elmore says. Don’t expect your overworked local government or municipality to lead the way.
“Know your city’s plan and regulations. The last thing we want is for contamination to occur in single stream recycling [all recyclables in one bin] — one mistake, and the whole bin could end up in the landfill,” Elmore explains.
She recommends using a compost tumbler (available at Farmer D Organics and most Whole Foods Markets) for composting, and stresses the importance of proper disposal of kitchen grease. “Don’t pour your grease down the drain!” Elmore exclaims.
Follow the restaurants’ lead and recycle it by storing it in a plastic container, then finding a source in your area such as Green Grease, Inc., a business in Clarkston that has just begun consumer-based programs for dropping off kitchen oils for recycling. Entrepreneurs Todd Williams and Warren Brawley will provide a plastic recycling bin for your used cooking oils for $7, and arrange when to pick it up based on the amount of oil generated. Or you can drop it off at Green Grease in a plastic container. Either way, it’s better than eventually throwing it in the trash.
“Everytime you buy something,” says Elmore, “you really should be thinking about how you’re eventually going to dispose of it.”
Not all garbage is suitable for consumer composting. Recycling and composting regulations differ. Know your city and county’s regulations. For more information, go to www.georgia.uscity.net
/Recycling_Centers or www.earth911.com or www.gacompost.org. Contact Green Grease at 678-754-4887 or 404-447-2217.
Click here to go to original article
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Environmentalists target foam food trays
By Laura Isensee, Reuters, Nov. 24, 2009
LOS ANGELES (Reuters Life!) - Environmentalists and green businesses are targeting foam food trays used to sell vegetables, fruits and meat in grocery stores.
The ubiquitous trays, which are made from polystyrene, have a long shelf life in landfills, much like plastic bags which the green brigade also took aim at in recent years.
"The developers of expanded polystyrene made the perfect material. They brought the costs down. Functionally it works great. There are no complaints ... But it never goes away," said Richard Feldman, chief executive of G4 Packaging.
The Los Angeles-based company makes trays primarily from sugar cane pulp that can be composted in 90 days or recycled.
Some U.S. cities have started to limit the use of foam trays. Portland, Oregon passed a ban in 1989 and last year Seattle, Washington voted to ban foam containers from all businesses serving food.
Seattle will ratchet up its measure next year. Beginning in July grocery stores will have to stop using foam trays for meat packaged on site and all businesses must use food containers that are compostable, as well as recyclable.
"Most plastics have pretty significant environmental impacts and we didn't want them sent to the landfill," said Dick Lilly, the business area manager for waste prevention at Seattle Public Utilities.
Smaller cities in Washington followed Seattle's lead while the Costa Mesa, California-based nonprofit Earth Resource Foundation is pushing for statewide ban in California.
"This plastic problem is as big as global climate change ... It hurts your health, the economy and the environment," the group's executive director Stephanie Barger said.
Feldman believes legislative pressure could help to propel eco-friendly trays into a $100 million market.
His two-year-old company has more than $300,000 in monthly sales. Its deals include supplying trays for zucchini and peppers sold at upscale grocer Trader Joe's. A veteran of the food packaging industry, Feldman has previously worked with fast-food giant McDonald's Corp.
But going green in groceries will cost money -- a major hurdle even when the economy is on an upswing. Trays made from natural materials like sugar cane pulp or bamboo weigh more and cost more than traditional foam trays.
Trays made by G4 Packaging can cost 8 cents each, about double the cost of a traditional container, Feldman said.
"At some point more and more people will say I as a consumer am willing to pay three or four cents more in order to go ahead and see this change," Feldman said.
Click here to go to original article
There's only one winner in green diapers
By Ryan Roff, Tainted Green, Nov. 19, 2009
In the past, a green diaper was a cloth diaper. If a family wanted to be eco-friendly and avoid the harsh realities of a diaper sitting in a landfill for half a millennium, they would have to devote a lifetime (or at least it feels like a lifetime) to redundant cleaning and washing. Now, however, hybrid diapers offer the eco-friendly benefits of a cloth diaper with the convenience of a disposable diaper.
Green diapers have become a hot topic because of the distressing statistics surrounding the disposable diaper industry. According to the Real Diaper Association, 27.4 billion disposable diapers end up in landfills. The EPA estimates that is more than 3.4 million tons of waste.
The $5.7 billion disposable diaper industry continues to grow and with its growth, the amount of carbon emitting waste also continues to grow, but a new segment of the market, green diapers, may actually have an environmentally friendly impact.
Click here to read the full article
Sunday, November 22, 2009
What's on the horizon for eco-friendly products?
By Heidi Thorne, The Business Ledger, Nov. 21, 2009
The eco-friendly product world continues to evolve. Since staying on top of what’s happening in this arena is critical for my business, I thought I’d share with you some of the trends that I see emerging:
Plastics that safely degrade/biodegrade
Since petroleum-based plastics can have life spans that run into millennia, I think we will see a preference for degradable and biodegradable products that don’t add to the billions of tons of waste plastic already in existence.
You might ask why we can’t just recycle all that plastic. The answer is that we can, but the levels of participation in recycling are still very low.
Let’s take plastic bags for example. The Worldwatch Institute reports that each year Americans “throw away” about 100 billion plastic bags; only 0.6 percent is recycled.
Click here to read the full article
