Bob	Planet Earth
" Making progress will involve connections and communications between a number of diverse local networks and efforts. The green networks are the... "

	Status:	married
	Age:	57
	Interests:	Executive Director--RE...
	Location:	Planet Earth

Bob 's Blogs

The Plastic Gods Must be Crazy!

08/31/2010 - 2:23pm

I tend to like the bushman’s view and I like to apply it to “disposable” items where possible.

In the movie The Gods Must be Crazy a bushman’s super simple life collides with a coke bottle and is forever changed. To him and his tribal mates the bottle has infinite value. In sharp contrast, that same bottle in our society is considered worthless. It is trash. I tend to like the bushman’s view and I like to apply it to “disposable” items where possible.

As I sit and write this I am looking at a plastic fruit carrier that I have been using for the last month to carry my fruit to work during my bus and walking commute. It is a cherished item that stops nectarine, peach, and apricot juice from making sticky the various pens, papers, business cards and other items that I have kicking around in my briefcase. I am thinking about it, because it almost got recycled today. Not that recycling is bad, but I really felt that I needed to squeeze a few more trips out of this contraption.

Before you ask: What’s with this wacko? You should also know that we have a bag tree in our house where we air and dry our freshly washed plastic sandwich bags before we press them into service again. A bag tree you ask? A bag tree is a section of a tree branch with sufficient side branches to support your assortment of plastic bags. Ours was given to us by a friend in Vermont and if we had kids it would certainly become a family heirloom at some point. Ours has the bark striped off as we are conscious throughout our whole household plastics reuse program to make sure the little beasties that could make us sick are given minimal opportunities to attack. But a bag tree could be anything that holds the bags, even some chopsticks and an old distributor cap.

What brand of plastic boxes and bags do we favor? We really do not have a clue, because we have not purchased any directly for several years. They are all “found” objects that we harvest from the stream of plastic we are forced to purchase during the course of eating. We try and minimize this by taking our own containers to the COOP and farmers’ market but the amount is not absolutely zero yet. And we have discussions at the breakfast counter over which plastic bags and boxes to save for reuse or recycle.

Did I mention that this behavior along with others such as composting and making some purchases based on packaging saves us money? How? Most people on our street get their garbage collected once a week along with their recycling—big rolling containers chockfull of landfill eating mass. We, on the other hand, get our recycling picked up weekly, but our garbage collected every other week. So we pay a lower fee and I am monitoring to see if we might just switch to the even cheaper monthly pickup rate. I know this level of excitement and anticipation is not for everyone, but give it a try and see how it works for you. See if you can make the plastic gods crazy.

Recycling Cyndi Lauper, Anti-freeze, Batteries, Oil, and Paint

08/17/2010 - 6:00am

Franco Folini

During my break between graduation and graduate school I worked as a naturalist at a residential camp for 6th graders. Over a week we taught them many topics and also worked on socialization. The big one was always square-dancing. They hated it and we got tired of pushing them to do something they thought was uncool. So we thought that we would replace the Virginia reel with something a little “cooler.” Our choice was Cyndi Lauper’s She Bop. We thought this would be a treat for them and raise the coolness factor.

Were we wrong! She Bop was a She-flop. Cyndi was singing her heart out and the campers were frozen like deer in the headlights. Looking at the expressions on their faces, you’d thought that we killed someone right in front of them. It was a social experiment we never tried again.

We couldn’t recycle She Bop, but you can recycle ABOP. ABOP stands for Anti-freeze, Batteries, Oil, and Paint. This is stuff we regularly have around the house and in our lives that needs special handling when finished.

Why special handling? Well, anti-freeze is sweet and sugary so critters love to drink it, which is nice except they tend to die afterwards. Batteries have heavy metals and other chemicals that are best when they are in batteries or ore but not so good in our water supplies or soil. Oil has been in the news enough lately- you get the point. And latex and oil paints contain a host of chemicals, including volatile organic compounds or VOCs. This is bad stuff that we need to treat gingerly and not just dump in the drain or trash. Repeat after me: We all live in a watershed and everything we dump or pour eventually ends up in our water or the ocean.

So is this stuff getting recycled? Yes! Anti-freeze can be filtered and refurbished— as good as new. And there are lots of places selling recycled antifreeze in North America. Request it at auto parts stores and get your radiator flushed professional where they can deal with the chemical.

Likewise, there are a plethora of battery types out there from auto and flashlight batteries to hearing aid and watch batteries. I hope that most folks are switching away from single-use batteries and getting on the rechargeable bandwagon, but most batteries can be and are recycled to a certain extent. Here is a helpful battery link.

Oil recycling is happening too, but only about 10 percent ends up being reused with the rest of it being repurposed and burnt in power plants and co-generation facilities. The reason more is not being directly recycled is that folks are not asking for and buying it. We need to make the market for used oil. My own view is that the market would exist if it was marketed more. So if you want to do something about the Gulf oil gusher other than walking, combining trips, and telecommuting, buy some recycled oil and if your local lube shop does not carry it, go someplace else.

Now we come to paint. Recycled paint has been on the market for decades. Some is simply collected and re-blended, which is fine for interior applications, and some paint is re-processed, which means that it is blended with a base-paint and works for both exterior and interior applications. The good news about recycled paint is that it is generally cheaper. I am particularly excited about recycled paint because we will begin selling Metro Paint at the RE Store in Seattle and Bellingham starting this month in addition to all the half-cans and remixed paint we usually sell. (And did I mention that it is cheaper?)

So if you want to RE Bop your ABOP:

1. Get on the recycled antifreeze wagon

2. Switch to rechargeable batteries and dispose of the others properly

3. Say: Recycled oil please; and

4. Visit the RE Store or others who are selling recycled paint for your next purchase and save the Planet while you save money.

5. Then She Bop while you ReBop your ABOP!