Archive for October, 2009

Benjamin Gott Proves Boxed Water is Better

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Benjamin Gott.

Back in late September we wrote a blog featuring Boxed Water is Better, a water company that takes a more environmental approach than your traditional bottled water company. Boxed Water is Better is a company based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan that distributes water in cartons oppose to plastic bottles. The concept derives from the environmental issues that are caused by the overwhelming amount of plastic bottles entering landfills.

We were lucky enough to get in touch with the founder and designer of Boxed Water is Better, Benjamin Gott. He agreed to be a guest on our Recycling for Charities Podcast Radio Show to sit down and answer all of our questions about Boxed Water is Better.
Benjamin Gott

It all started with a simple idea of creating a new bottled water brand. Sounds simple right? Well Gott didn’t want it to be just like every other brand. He wanted one that was kinder to the environment and also gives back at the same time. His solution was instead of packaging water in a plastic bottle he would bring back the old school carton and use that instead. Hence, the name Boxed Water is Better.

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2010 Olympics Will Use Recycle E-Waste for Medals

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver will feature an Olympic medal first. Not only will every single medal handed out at the Olympics be different, but they also will be made of recycled electronic waste or e-waste. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be one of the first to take on a sustainability and conservation initiatives philosophy and correlate it with the games. In part of doing this Vancouver’s metal industry leader, Teck Resources is manufacturing all of the Olympic medals out of recycled metals recovered from old electronics. This is a great for our mother earth, as e-waste continues to be a growing concern for our environment.

Teck Resources is acquiring the metal materials from the smelting of various old electronics. Whether it be from cathode raytube glass, computer parts, or circuit boards each medal will be made up from electrical parts. The process involves the shredding, separating, and heating the electrical parts, then combining the byproducts with metals from other sources. As of now Teck resources is producing more than 1,000 medals for the 2010 games.

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Don’t forget to recycle your own running shoes!

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Back in 1993 Nike introduced their “Reuse-a-Shoe” program which was their effort to keep their shoes out of landfills. It has been over 15 years since this program launched and Nike has recycled more than one and a half million pairs of athletic shoes each year. All of Nike’s brand shoes are recyclable. They used the recycled material in their products of Nike Grind Rubber, Foam and Upper.

For example, Nike Grind Foam is made from the midsoles and then incorporated into basketball and tennis court surfaces. The fabric from the Nike Grind upper is reused as padding for volleyball and indoor basketball courts. Just incase you can’t picture how many shoes that is; it would take about 2,500 pairs to make a basketball or tennis court and over 75,000 to make a running track. Not only do they recycle their shoes into athletic surfaces but they also use them for buttons and accessories on their new Nike items as well.

Nike generously accepts all brands of shoes into their recycle program but they only want running, walking or athletic shoes. They will not accept cleats or shoes with metal on them along with dress shoes, sandals or flip-flops.

If you’re dirty old sneakers are well past their prime, don’t throw them in the trash, the rubber on those soles will be in a landfill for at least 50 years. Look up a Nike-Reuse-a-Shoe drop off location and look at it as giving back to the community. Nike has resurfaces the basketball courts in Boys and Girls clubs and school tracks.

Turn Halloween into HallowGREEN

Monday, October 26th, 2009

I know “green” isn’t exactly the color that you think about when you picture Halloween, but here are a few ideas of how you can be a bit more mindful of the waste and help reuse more items each year.

Instead of letting your kids take plastic bags Trick-Or-Treating, get
them each their own reusable tote. You can even get one and
decorate it for Halloween to use every year! An old pillow case is
great for Trick-Or-Treating.

Reuse and recycle costumes with your friends. Instead of going out
and buying a new costume, save money and resources by getting
creative. Find out what the kids want to be and ask around to see if
anyone you know has it. Don’t forget to look in your closet for some
help!

Host a Halloween party! Didn’t think that would be too “Green”, did ya?
This way, you can provide all of the treats to the kids in your home.
That means that there will be less individually wrapped candy bars
and you can actually monitor what kind of treats everyone is getting.
You can also use items made from recycled materials and try to serve
as much local/organic food as possible.

      • Don’t be one of those parents that follow their kids around in a car as they are Trick- or-Treating. If you are worried about their safety, get out and walk with them.

        Use nature for your decorations. You don’t need to buy plastic and cardboard decorations: Use leaves, branches, pumpkins, hay bales (which can then be used on your garden for the winter) to give your house a pretty fall look. If you do buy plastic Halloween decorations always remember to save them for next year instead of buying new.

      These are just a few ideas of how to keep this fun holiday less wasteful and damaging to the earth. Help by telling your neighbors these tips to make this years Halloween a much more green one!

      Ron Gonen: RecycleBank

      Friday, October 23rd, 2009

      Check out the transcript of RFC’s conversation with Ron Gonen.

      RFC recently interviewed Ron Gonen, Co-Founder and CEO of RecylceBank, to discuss the success of his company and how he and business partner, Patrick Fitzgerald, came up with the idea of rewarding participants for recycling. RecycleBank was recently recognized by the UN for their current environmental efforts across different socio-economic lines.

      Ron Gonen

      “We feel very fortunate to have been recognized for the work that we’re doing regarding the environment,” stated Gonen

      RecyleBank helps divert waste from the landfills, and we also reward people for their positive green actions. The way that works is we sign a long-term contract with a city, every home gets one of our large RecycleBank recycling containers, there’s a chip embedded in the container, we retrofit the city’s trucks with a mechanical arm that picks up the container, reads the chip, identifies the home recycled and how much it recycled. The amount they recycled is translated to a recycle bank point that they can then use to redeem and shop at over 2,000 local, regional and national businesses.

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