”A la Carte Green” is about making green choices on a daily basis, in a manner that works for you. It's about trying and choosing greener options "a la carte" because there is no one size fits all solution. Not everyone can walk to work or have solar panels, but we can choose to bring waste-free lunches, or to dry our clothes in the sunshine. You get the picture. Small “A la Carte Green” choices made by each person will have positive impacts. Which green options will you choose?
Forrest Mc Cluer's Computer Virus #1 Floppy (2009)
This is based on a hybrid of T4 Bacteriophge and Adenovirus
I'd like to invite you to experience the creative genius of Forrest Mc Cluer, economist by day and sculptor by night. Forrest's collection of sculptures is comprised of three-dimensional "manipulations of 'found' objects into certain geometric shapes or polyhedra." The shapes that Forrest replicates are found in nature and have fascinated artists and scientists for centuries. His website, http://www.30computers.com/gallery.htm documents his ongoing project to deconstruct 30 discarded personal computers and then create sculptures from all of their constituent parts. By making these 3D shapes with found objects he aims to "mark our moment in time with materials that would otherwise be disposed of and lost forever." A 3D alacartegreen dream!
Earrings made from hard drive spacers
I was introduced to Forrest by a friend of the family when hubby donated several hard drives to his cause. Forrest's up-cycling and creative use of the integral parts of the computers that he is deconstructing, and his detailed use of the parts was intriguing to say the least! It quickly became evident that his passion goes beyond constructing his sculptures; his meticulous research of microbiology and virology, and mastery of mathematics are clear in the polyhedron shapes and viruses that he sculpts http://www.30computers.com/CV_Transformer.htm. Forrest writes that:
"It was the self-assembly or self-replication characteristic of
biological viruses that influenced University of Southern California
doctoral candidate Fred Cohen. He is the person who coined the term "computer virus" to describe a
computer program that can "affect other computer programs by modifying
them in such a way as to include a (possibly evolved) copy of itself." [2], [3].
Forrest's insightful use of computer parts to construct sculptures of biological viruses, which computer viruses mimic is pure genius.
As you can imagine, I was thrilled that the unused hard drives were slated to be up-cycled in such an imaginative, innovative way while simultaneously helping to declutter. Although there was no need to thank us for the donation of the hard drives, Forrest thoughtfully surprised me and the girls with funky earrings made from spacers from the computer hard drives, and a hysterical "digital pirate" ear loop for the boys. I can't wait to see the newest sculpture he creates with the hard drives! If you'd like to see some of Forrest's sculptures up close, check out his work at the upcoming Artomatic Show in Washington, DC on May 18th http://www.artomatic.org/ .
As I mentioned, I'm in de-clutter mode! And that means yet another green project is getting done. The ideas are always flowing, but the energy to accomplish things isn't always equal to the brain activity that comes up with things...
So back in June, I made a gorgeous (imho) quilt for my god-daughter, which was quite green (I'll explain in a minute). There were a bunch of leftover squares from that project, so I decided to get one more green project out of the material, and make a second quilt for a new 2nd cousin. Fast forward...I finally took the time to lay out the pieces to see if I had enough, and lo and behold there are enough pieces so I can just get started sewing!
Enough pieces left from prior project to make green project deux
The front of the quilt is completed
Why do I consider these quilts green? All of the material (except the batting), is recycled from previous projects. 11 years ago my talented mother made a reversible bed spread, curtains, and dust ruffle for Tiger Lily when she shared a room with Rhody (we are talking baby Rhody). At the time we bought enough material for the someday possibility of needed 2 matching reversible bedspreads (when Rhody was out of the crib). As it turns out, we were lucky enough to be able to do an addition on the house, and thankfully Tiger Lily moved out into her own room a LONG time ago. So my Mom returned the unused material, I've been storing it all this time, and have finally put it to good use in the two quilt projects. The coordinating fabric, is also "green" because I got it from Recycling for Rhode Island Education (RRIE) http://www.rrie.org/ (see also http://alacartegreen.blogspot.com/2010/02/recycled-centerpieces-trash-to-treasure.html )
Now if only recycled thread were readily available...
What is upcycling? How is recycling defined? And, aren't upcycling and recycling the same?
Let's start with the more familiar, recycling. Recycling, is also called downcycling, because it involves converting materials and products into new materials of lesser quality. Most recycling converts or extracts useful materials from a product, and results in the creation of a lesser quality product. Plastics are a good example because during the process of recycling, different types of plastics may be mixed together creating a hybrid, which is often a lesser grade material. Similarly, used office paper is not converted into new office paper, but is reused to produce different materials such as paperboard.
According to dictionary.com, recycling is defined as: 1- to treat or process (used or waste materials) so as to make suitable for reuse: recycling paper to save trees; 2 - to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of: The old factory is being recycled as a theater.
Upcycling, a less familiar and relatively newer term, is not as widely used, but is coming into vogue. The first recorded use of the term "upcycling" was in 1994. Since then, it's been popularized in several books, including Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. In the book, authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart explain that the goal of upcycling is to prevent wasting potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones. This concept results in the reduction of new raw materials used to create new products, and also results in less energy use, and less pollution. Doesn't this remind you of the definitions of recycling? According to Wikipedia, upcycling is "the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value." But who determines if a new material or products has a better quality, or a higher environmental value?
Some argue that in the strictest sense, upcycling is the recycling of a material to produce a fresh supply of the same material. Based on this definition of upcycling, the processing of aluminum cans, glass, and newsprint into new cans, bottles, and newsprint is the closest to a purist upcycling model because the cycle can continue endlessly, and the processes save huge amounts of energy when compared to making products from virgin materials.
I submit that the purist definition of upcycling should be the goal. Wouldn't it be an amazing if humans could figure out how to stop extracting oil to run their cars, and manufacture plastic this and thats? Imagine being able to continually reuse, recycle, or upcycle all the existing plastic that is omnipresent instead of making new plastic from oil? We're not there yet..but with incentives, research, and collaborative, diplomatic efforts between countries worldwide we could be there.
Does it really matter if the definition of recycling, "to alter or adapt for new use without changing the essential form or nature of" is very similar to the purist definition of upcycling, “recycling materials to produce a fresh supply of the same material"?
Perhaps we should just simplify, and quote Benjamin Franklin’s, “Waste not, want not”…Or maybe we should recycle all these definitions, meld them together, and add in a sprinkling of new upcycling verbiage. The new and improved melded definition of upcycling would read:
Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products, or reusing otherwise hard-to-recycle items, into new materials or products of equal or better quality, or a higher environmental value. Purist upcycling results in the recycling of materials to produce a fresh supply of the same material, with little or no degradation of the material (ie. aluminum, newsprint, glass). The goal of all upcycling is to prevent the waste of potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones, the reduction of new raw materials used to create new product, resulting in conservation of energy during production, and the reduction of pollution.
Rebagz stylish upcycled bag
There are plenty of examples of upcycled products and companies working towards providing useful products that have less of an impact on the environment. These companies, and their products can serve as fantastic models for other companies big and small to emulate. Some of my favorite examples are Terracycle, Inc., Rebagz®, Polartec, and Artsy Fartsy.
TerraCycle Inc., an international company that I've written about in the past, turns hard-to-recycle items into eco-friendly products, and reuses items otherwise bound for the landfill such as M&M packages, chip bags, Capri Sun juice pouches, flip-flops, pull-tabs, cookie wrappers, etc. From these unlikely "raw materials", they make useful, products such as totes, pencil cases, kites, purses, and more. It is their ingenious use of hard-to-recycle materials plus ingenuity that has propelled TerraCycle to the forefront of the Upcycling movement.
Rebagz®, created by Marty Stevens-Heebnerline, is another example of how fashionable upcycling can be. Rebagz® unique, chic bags are made from nylon rice sacks, and juice packs, and have been featured in InStyle, More, and Marie Claire magazines, as well as on The Today Show. Rebagz® are redefining fashion one bag at a time, with "Style. Strength. Sustainability". Making upcycling fashion-forward and chic, launches Rebagz® to the top of my wish list, and these bags will definitely be added to my wishlist!
Veteran upcycler Polartec®, has been offering recycled Polartec® Classic fabrics since 1993. Polarfleece®, the #1 selling fleece brand, is a household name where temperatures get chilly. Polartec® continues their quest to reduce their overall footprint, and Polartec, LLC and Unifi have announced a new partnership introducing performance fabrics made with REPREVE 100. The new eco-engineered REPREVE 100 is made from 100% post-consumer waste (clear plastic water bottles). Polartec® is committed to saving energy, reducing their reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, reducing the amount of waste put into landfills, as well as harmful emissions deposited into the atmosphere. Watch a video on their amazing eco-engineering to learn more about their ingenious product, and you'll learn more about why they have catapulted to top of the fleece market.
Even small cottage industries know how to upcycle creatively, and sell distinctive eco-inspired pieces! Artist and designer, Susi DuPuis, took the saying, "One man's (or woman's) trash, is another man's (or woman's) treasure", and allowed her imagination to soar. She is the brainchild behind the creative jewelry collection called "Artsy Fartsy, recycled plastic jewelry", and her creations are inventive, colorful, and fun. Check out her collection of funky, eye-catching jewelry made from common household plastic containers. If you look closely enough you may even spot a logo or two. Artsy Fartsy's "green bling", often launches conversations about the importance of reusing resources in a new ways, and recycling with a functional element.
From my perspective, no matter how you slice it, shred it, dice it, crush it, or reuse it, both recycling and upcycling, result in the reduction of the use of raw materials, the use of less energy to produce goods, and the prevention of huge amounts of material from an eternity in a landfill entombed in a toxic melting pot. And since that's the ultimate goal, it doesn’t really matter whether we interchange the words recycling and upcycling :)
After replacing my P-touch label cartridge, I looked at the old cartridge which is made of plastic and wondered if it could be recycled like printer cartridges. So I wrote Brother an email to ask. They got back to me right away to let me know that they do have a program to recycle consumables. http://www.brother-usa.com/environment/TonerInkDisposal.aspx
They subscribe to the 5R Concept:
Refuse:Avoid purchase of environmentally burdensome materials whenever possible Reduce:Reduce waste material Reuse:Reuse waste material without processing Reform:Reuse materials in a different form Recycle:Reuse materials as resources
Their program to dispose of toner, ink, and used consumables is very easy. You print out a free prepaid shipping label, and ship back the toner, ink, or P-touch cartridge. According to their site, some of the components are remanufactured, some are reused, and unusable items are processed through WTE (waste to energy).
Well, it's been awhile, but we are still thinking and doing green deeds even though it's summer! We're just back from a trip to the Jersey Shore, we had great weather and fun on the boardwalk, rides, at the waterpark and of course the beach. Too bad we had obnoxious teenage neighbors above us who disturbed our sleep each night at horrible hours! But we didn't let them ruin our fun :)
So while we were on vacay we continued to recycle the items that NJ recycles such as cans, bottles, and glass. However, it just didn't feel right to toss out the cardboard and paper goods, juice boxes that need to go to Terracycle, and aluminum foil from our lunches on the beach...so we brought them home and recycled them here! I drew the line at the compostables though and they did not make the trip home :)
B is for Bottles.... Billions of plastic bottles......
It is estimated that Americans buy about 25 billion single serve plastic water bottles
about 22 billion (about 8 out of 10 water bottles) are NOT recycled
“The United States ranks first among countries in soft drink consumption. The per-capita consumption of soft drinks is in excess of 150 quarts per year, or about three quarts per week.”James A Howenstine M.D. A Physician’s Guide to Natural Health Products That Work http://fooddemocracy.wordpress.com/2007/11/09/chew-on-this-us-soda-consumption (We won't even get going on the health impacts of soda!!!!)
Oil is used to produce plastic; it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to make water bottles for Americans
Plastic does not biodegrade
The water, soda, and juice bottle are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator
Plastic bottles made of PET can be recycled into many useful things including carpet, fleece, bottles, kayaks, school lunch trays, and much more
Only ELEVEN states have bottle bills, but no two are alike
Only THREE states, California, Hawaii and Maine, include plastic water bottles in their laws for deposits on bottles
I would love it if a national "bottle bill" or "producer responsibility bill" were enacted. Shifting costs from the government and taxpayers to consumers and producers is what the country needs; if only lobbyists could be stifled and politicians would do the right thing and put a national bill in place. There would be less litter, less resources used, and energy savings.
The Container Recycling Institute has put together a handy " bottle bill tool kit" to help anyone interested in getting a bottle bill in their state. 39 more states need to take advantage of the tool kit to get a bottle bill in place, and 8 states need to take a look at the tool kit to get water bottles incorporated into their current bottle deposit bills. http://toolkit.bottlebill.org/
B is for bottles....and BILL....it's time we had a National Bottle Bill/Producer Responsibility Bill!!! http://www.bottlebill.org/
and I've shared how some packaging can be recycled and also benefit a charity such as Nature Conservancy, via Terracycle, http://peaceloveplanet.blogspot.com/2010/04/time-has-come.html . When I contacted our local recycling company, and was told that frozen food bags could not be recycled, and many other types of packaging, I didn't want to take "NO" for an answer...so I took it one step further and contacted Ore Ida, which is owned by the Heinz Company (clever since you need ketchup with your french fries!!!) to ask if their packaging was recyclable or not. They did get back to me, and here is an excerpt from their response to me,
"The packaging of the Ore-Ida Potatoes is not recyclable. It is made of composite plastic to allow it to be strong and flexible in the freezer environment.
We support the use of recyclable materials. Unfortunately, there are currently few acceptable materials available that meet the stringent requirements of food packaging and still fewer systems in place to utilize the end recycled material."
I was happy to hear back from them, yet their materials are not recyclable? Why can't a composite material be recycled, that makes no sense to me. What is in it that can't be recycled? I mean our recycling is plastics 1-7...I hope I can get additional information. I'll keep you posted.
There is sooo much waste involved in packaging, and honestly I think other consumers are annoyed with the excessive packaging as well. Most of the packaging is plastic, and that comes from oil, which is of course a non-renewable resource and our oil dependence is ridiculous as is. I wonder how many pounds per person per year is wasted on packaging...and I'm willing to bet a majority of that packaging is overfilling the landfills and eventually leaching all kinds of toxic nasties into the groundwater and soil.
I will admit that I am anal about recycling the plastic and cardboard bits, but honestly some of the plastic packaging doesn't have a symbol on it, and I put it in the the recycle bin anyway since our recycling company takes plastics 1-7. I've begun making a bit of a pest of myself contacting the company when I'm uncertain about things such as the inner cereal box bags....can I recycle it without clogging up the system? If not, then perhaps my next step will be to contact the cereal companies to tell them my concerns. And why not? In the last month or so, I've researching sustainable packaging and sustainable packaging coalitions. I've also been contacting other companies to let them know if their product has too much unnecessary packaging, and to let them know about alternatives that are less toxic (eco foam), and the benefits of less packaging such as less shipping costs. Who knows, maybe my pet peeve about packaging will somehow make a difference?
Today I inadvertently found something neat while shopping for new shoes for the 4 kids. Darn it their feet keep growing! Well, as it turns out when shopping for shoes, I ended up looking too, and got a new pair that I think may become a favorite :) They are Teva Mush sandals. The black mush is so soft and cushy, it made me wonder if the rubber is recycled like the rubber on some tracks and courts.
What I did find out was that the Teva parent company has some green roots! I figured it out when I noticed an insert in the box (which would be used to hold the shoes up on a rack). At first I thought uggh, how wasteful, but then I read it, and lo and behold, "this hanger is biodegradable"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I though, NO WAY!!!! So then I checked out the shoe box that states that the box is "printed on recycled materials, 100% recyclable, please recycle all packaging" The box also states that the company is also a supporter of Waterkeepers alliance that protects the Earth's waterways (www.waterkeeper.org).
So, I went to the Teva website to learn more, and found that their parent company, Deckers has done quite a nice job of limiting their footprint! AhhhHAHA, they should market themselves about their reduced carbon "footprint". Get it? :) You can check them out at http://www.deckers.com/esc/distribution.aspx Wouldn't it be great if all companies walked in their footsteps?
So it was a beautiful spring day, and the house needed airing after having 2 sick kids last week (thus the biodegradable wipes of yesterday), so I turned off the heat, and flung open the windows!!! Which then made me feel like doing some cleaning out of my own closet as well as some of the kids' stuff. The Rose Bud and Sweet Pea came up with a big pile of stuff they no longer wanted, needed, or used, and we sorted into paper recycling, clothes to be donated, other stuff to be donated, and trash. Surprisingly the trash didn't even fill a small plastic garbage bag (this bag is getting recycled to hold the small amount of trash because I don't buy trash bags!) Well there were two things in the pile that I am unsure of how to dispose of them. The first is a broken pair of flip flops. Since they are made of rubber, I'm pretty sure they can be recycled, so I "blackled" "how to recycle flip flops" I found this link: http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/07/how-to-recycle-your-flip-flops/
The second pair of boots have rubber soles and are in fair condition. One option is:
http://www.soles4souls.org/about/locations You can plug in your zip code and see where the nearest donation location is.
I may also be able to recycle them via Nike. Nike definitely recycles old sneakers, so DON'T throw them in the landfill!! Take a look at their really cool link that explains how each part of the shoe is made into athletic surfaces such as basketball and tennis courts, and track and field surfacing, or even into playground surfacing. http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/
If you are going to be doing some spring cleaning, I hope you will do the sorting process too; recycle what you can either via your recycle bins, or to sources that can use the items; repurpose things (find a new use for the item); or donate to charities in your area. Challenge yourself to have a tiny bit of trash as you spring clean!
So my good "green deed" of the day was to pass along info to my address book about an electronic and appliance recycling event. Strangely, I hadn't seen the info posted anywhere or received any emails about it, but saw it on a large sandwich board when I was dropping the kids off at an afterschool activity. I figured if I was just finding out about it, I'd better spread the good word!
