Repurposing Chips and Candy Bags Into Speakers Posted on October 29th, 2009
A company called TerraCycle in New Jersey is turning candy and chips bags, such as Cheetos, Mars, Doritos, etc., into speaker boxes for portable music players.
TerraCycle is a waste collection company in NJ and recycles much of what it collects. Some of what is not easily recycled can be Upcycled,” and this is one example of many of the products the company makes. They make speakers, backpacks, pencil cases, and over a hundred products using repurposed garbage.
Founded by Tom Szaky, TerraCycle sells their wares online, in venues like Radio Shack, etc. The speakers, for instance, plug into any 3.5mm audio plug and don’t need any batteries.
That’s pretty cool.
Know Your Plastics Posted on October 16th, 2009
Did you know that there are seven classifications of plastic, as classified by the EPA? Do you know what those plastics are or how to tell what kind your container is made of? Well, lucky for you, I’m here to help.
The Environmental Protection Agency is charged with doing things that, theoretically, protect the environment. Like all government institutions, they are generally inept at their jobs. This is because, like nearly all government agencies, half of the EPA’s work force knows what they’re doing and the other half is upper management. Lucky for us, the half that knows what they’re doing are the ones who made these classifications for plastic.
These little label symbols will appear on all plastic items made since the mid-90s. They are the universal “recycle” symbol (three arrows, pointing one to the next) with a number in the middle and sometimes an alpha label (letters) underneath. Let’s have a look.
PETE – Number 1 - This is PETE or PET, which stands for polyethylene terephthalate. No, I will not pronounce it for you. This is usually found as the resin used for the plastic in salad dressing (the squeezable kind), soda bottles, bottled water, and so forth. This type of plastic can absorb bacteria and flavoring, so it’s generally a bad idea to re-use it. When recycled, it’s usually shredded to make carpet and furniture or melted down to make new containers.
HDPE – Number 2 - This is HDPE or high-density polyethylene. Say it twice, then pinch your tongue. This is used in a lot of infinitely re-usable containers like milk jugs, shampoo bottles, yogurt tubs, etc. It’s considered almost completely inert. When recycled, it is usually melted down and remade into heavier bottles, that white fencing you see, and even Bic pens (HDPE can be made into PVC).
V – Number 3 - V (or PVC, aka polyvinyl) is not for Vendetta, so chill out. A lot of oils, clear packaging, and other solid, but see-through containers are made out of this. So is sewer plumbing, tarps, and such. This is thought to contain phalates that can interfere with hormones, so it’s a good idea to avoid them. These are usually recycled into paneling, mudflaps, and stuff like that.
LDPE – Number 4 - LDPE means low-density polyethylene, which you can probably chant repeatedly while rubbing your belly and patting your head. The bags you get at the grocery store with your shopping, bread and tortilla bags, and even your carpet and clothing probably have this in them. There are no known problems with this stuff and it’s usually recycled into things like fake lumber, trash bags, and even envelopes.
RECYCLE, SUCKA!
PP – Number 5 - PP is polypropylene, though I think it would be more suited to be number one on the list. If you don’t get that joke, you’re a Commie. This is the stuff they more often use in newer squeezable bottles like ketchup, mustard, and your medicines. It’s considered inert and is most often recycled into ice scrapers, rakes, and other heavy/hard-plastic items that require durability.
PS – Number 6 - PS is polystyrene, I love you. Everyone knows what this stuff is. Dumping this made McDonald’s “green” and your favorite egg cartons evil. This stuff is friggin everywhere and won’t go away. It leaches, of all things, sytrene into foods, which is carcinogenic, so maybe McD’s was right. This is usually recycled into foam packaging and shipping peanuts, insulation, and stuff like that. Truckers know that it melts in diesel fuel and actually increases octane too.
OTHER – Number 7 - Other is, of course, the height of description and clarity of purpose. This is everything that isn’t one of the other six like those 3 and 5-gallon Culligan jugs, nylon, and is the primary source of the dreaded BPA (bisphenol A), which makes you fat and gives you heart attacks. This is usually recycled into Al Gore dolls and Kim Jong Il’s hair. Specialty items like that.
So there you have it. The seven classifications for plastic. For the curious, there are currently production-level technologies for replacing types 1, 2, and 4 with bio-based alternatives to replace the petroleum normally used. I’m not aware of any testing to find out if they are chemically safer, however.
The Ultimate Re-Usable Grocery Bags: 4ever Bags Posted on September 22nd, 2009
At the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Far this past weekend, we stopped at a booth run by Rodney Cyr who represents 4ever Bags. We weren’t sure what these were, but while at the booth next to him looking at natural baby products, I’d overheard the sales pitch and conversation he’d had with a couple of ladies and got interested.
Looking at the products, I was amazed at the simple idea that was definitely a winner in many ways.
The idea is plain: take the same kind of light and extremely durable and strong triple-thick poly-nylon, the bags are in threes collected on a carrying handle made of a large caribiner clip with a soft coating on the upper handle. The bags are capable of carrying pretty heavy loads without trouble and the clip makes it easy to group them for easy carrying.
Getting to know them better, while talking, I learned that the bags are made from 40% recycled materials–the most they could use without compromising the longevity and strength of the bags. The carbiners are also from recycled materials and are capable of bearing 150 pounds of weight. The bags are triple-stitched and have no bottom seam, which ads to their strength and carrying capacity.
Other cool features include the built-in bag pouches each bag has, making it store easily (just roughly fold it and stuff it into its own pouch). This also makes it so that if you take all three to the store in your pocket (the carrying handle and three bags in their pouches easily fit into a cargo or jacket pocket) and you only need to get the bag(s) you’ll need out of their pouches for easy carrying back home or even around the store while you shop.
We bought a set of these (I now wish I’d bought 2 or 3) and instantly found use for it to put all of the vegetables (mostly squash) we’d bought from a farmer’s booth earlier. This made carrying much easier. By the time we’d left the fair, my little carrying case (with all of the brochures and copied information from vendors I wanted to check out and write about for various websites) was in another bag along with more stuff we’d acquired. The single handle supporting both bags made it really easy to carry.
The bags come off the handle, of course, for single use if you’d like. We used one just last night to clear out our green tomatoes and what’s left of the cucumber crop from our garden as last night was our first killing frost here in Wyoming. The bag was STUFFED and did just fine.
These bags are very lightweight, water resistant, machine washable, and can carry about sixty pounds each regularly. They come with a “forever” warranty, so if you don’t abuse them, you can always return them for a replacement. We have the normal nylon grocery bags you can buy or get from businesses as a promotion and while those are great, they have nothing on these 4ever Bags.
The poly-nylon is water repellent and bacteria-resistant, non-toxic, non-corrosive, and non-allergenic too. They’re made locally in Greenwood Village, Colorado and 4ever Bags are part of The Environmental Coalition.
Totally awesome!
Plus, I found these just in time to help do our part to participate in this Saturday’s (September 26) Ban the Bag event, a world-wide movement to ban plastic shopping bags. Go here for more information on how you can participate.
Send Your Light Bulbs to Washington Posted on July 26th, 2009
In a true, grassroots, and fundamental way, this campaign aims to protest the federal government’s forcing us to use compact fluorescent lights (CFL). A federal law will ban the sale of traditional incandescent bulbs by 2012, effectively eliminating them from American use.
While I don’t love the old, inefficient, more-heat-than-light incandescents, I also don’t like government telling me what to do. Especially when the alternative they’re promoting (CFL) has some serious drawbacks of its own.
Although breaking a CFL in your home doesn’t necessarily mean everyone who lives there will die from mercury poisoning, it’s still a worry. Any mercury is bad and a house full of it, thanks to bulbs, smoke detectors, thermostats, and more (that all contain it), can’t be healthy. Sending these items to the landfill is, often, technically illegal too.
Further, the law will effectively ban new technologies that could be safer, cheaper, and better alternatives as well, such as the laser breakthrough I talked about in a post not too long ago.
So a grassroots campaign called Send Your Light Bulbs to Washington (click to visit the site) has started to encourage people to pack up their used CFLs and send them to your Congress-critter (Senate, House, or both) with a note explaining to them that you aren’t sure how the convoluted disposal rules work, so you’re just entrusting them to do it for you.
This is a GREAT idea and I think it could get legs quickly. Our own, unscientific experience in our house has been that CFL bulbs last twice as long as incandescents (at most). For more information on the new law and related issues, you can also read this great repost from John Stossel’s blog at this link.
Dumpster Diving – the Dumpster Pool Posted on July 25th, 2009
Some extremely creative people in New York saw a music video from a band in Georgia (the Pylons). In that video was a dumpster filled with water to make a swimming pool. So these three creative dudes started thinking…
Jocko Weyland, David Belt, and Alix Feinkind decided to repurpose some old trash recepticles (dumpsters) into swimming pools for the enjoyment of people in their neighborhood. They got three dumpsters (the large ones for construction sites), sealed the seams, put a pool liner in, and a layer of sand.
Viola! Swimming pools!
Some work with some decking, a couple of pool accessories, some floaties, and a lot of water later, it’s a public pool.
The whole project took only 12 days to complete, start to finish, and the pool officially opened on July 4th. The pools are tarped every night so someone doesn’t walk by and mistake them for a real dumpster and throw something in.
Pretty cool!
