Posts Tagged ‘trash’

Clyde gets gassy…

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Cleveland is not the only city in Ohio that is turning to greener technologies to make a difference in their communities.  Clyde, a small town near Sandusky, is looking at joining the ranks of other towns in northwest Ohio to create cleaner and greener energy.  This time, however, they are not turning to solar power like so many of their neighbors.  They are looking at turning trash into energy.  From the News-Messenger website:

The idea is to build a traditional recycling center and an industrial-sized pyrolyzer. The pyrolyzer will take trash and heat it in the absence of oxygen to create pyro-gas, which is similar to natural gas. The pyro-gas will be used to run engines that power turbines to create electricity…

Some advantages of pyrolysis include eliminating future landfill methane by diverting waste and controlling ground and surface water pollution. It also has a closed loop design, which means the gases burn completely during electricity generation. It also discourages pathogens and rodents that would be in a landfill, the company said.

This is similar to the model that is being planned for the Cleveland area.  I am not a fan of landfills, so anything to turn trash into something else makes me happy.  Besides, the facility would increase recycling and turn the current hand sort method into an automated plant.  This builds capacity and makes recycling across the region easier to maintain and support.  It would lower local energy costs for local residents as well.

You go Clyde!

Keep Hazardous Materials out of your local dump!

Friday, August 13th, 2010

If you are a resident of Cuyahoga County then September is the time to clean out that basement or garage.  Mark your calendars for September 25 from 9am to 4 pm, as that is when you can take your hazardous household materials to the county fairgrounds in Berea and have them disposed of properly.  This is for homes, not businesses, and yes, they will check your ID.  So box up the old cans of paint, those tubes of roofing sealant, and those old florescent light bulbs and keep them out of the landfill!

Repair or replace-the $64 question.

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

It has been an interesting summer at home and at the office.  We have had a fair share of mechanical breakdown.  Among the biggies have been my laptop and our washing machine.  First came the laptop.  While I could have sent it out, I found out that it was likely the motherboard that fried and would likely cost me up to $500 to repair.  At the same time, I managed to buy a newer machine, with much more power and memory for just under $450.  Granted it was a floor model, but who cares about that anyhow?  Smartly, I have been backing up my old laptop on a regular basis, so it worked out fine on the data side.  But here I sit with an old laptop.  It is need of repair, but how can I justify the expense, when it becomes more obsolete with every passing day.  I have these fantasies of building a creative art piece suing it and other LED screens from other tech stuff of mine that has died, but let’s face it, it will likely never happen.

With the rise in our business around social media marketing and web design, I had been in need of a new phone.  I bought a great phone that I am in love with, but this kind of consumption generates a lot of e waste.  I generally update every couple of years, so this time I bought a brand new release in the hopes that I would not have to upgrade again in 2 years.  But most consumers are on a regular 1-2 year upgrade cycle, and that is a lot of phones ending up in the waste stream.  They can be recycled, but many are not.  And e-waste is becoming a big issue, as many of the components of computers and cell phones are precious or semi precious metals that are not a renewable resource.  Moreover, the heavy metals in some of these parts will leach into the groundwater when placed in some landfills-where it can contaminate groundwater and make its way to streams, oceans, etc. Technology has a price tag that we rarely think about-disposal.

I bought a front loading washer a few years ago.  Our old one came with the house, but was likely purchased in the 70′s or early 80′s.  It held up well and worked until it died completely from massive systems failure.  Since the dryer was on its last legs as well, I bought a new set-Energy Star compliant and watched a huge reduction in water consumption and energy use of the following couple of years.  Now it is acting up.  I am in a similar position as the computer, in that I bought a new, but retired model, scratch and dent set for a song.  It has worked well, but repair costs are so high that it will likely end up costing more to repair than the machine did itself.  My first attempt at self repair (thanks to Google searches and forums) was unsuccessful.  I will make another attempt, but hate the idea of spending a fortune to repair a machine for what I would spend for a new model that might be even more efficient than mine.  Still, it is a lot of metal, a lot of rubber, a lot of labor that went into making this machine, and I feel like it has not lived its full life potential.

Throwing out anything that has not lived up to its potential seems somehow like eating veal or buying eggs that are not cage free.  Everything that we buy has an embodied energy that cannot be replaced.  It takes energy to harvest material, whether it is mined metals or the grown cotton of your shirt.  It takes energy to turn those raw materials into parts or spin that cotton into threads.   It takes energy to transport the raw goods to the  factories where more energy is spent to turn it into the final product.  That final product uses more energy to be transported to a store, where a retailer spend energy to display and sell it.  By the time it gets into your home, it may have made it enough miles to circle the globe and used uncounted amounts of coal fired electricity and petroleum products.  Everything you buy should be used and last, or it can just be counted as one more way we are wasting energy.

We live in a VERY disposable society.  It is cheaper to replace than to repair in many instances.  We build things not to last, but to be cheap-a move that allows more people to throw away more stuff and produce more trash.  At least most companies are now on board with recycling or refurbishing your old appliances.  Or there are plenty of places that can make use of things that need to be repaired.  We produce machines so rapidly and so cheaply, that it becomes nearly impossible to make a living repairing machines and make a living wage.  I repaired a television once and it cost me $200.  When it broke down again, I had to give up-it was 10 years old and a new television of a similar size was less than $300.  You can do the math.

It used to be that you bought an appliance and it was yours for life.  Televisions and stereos were supposed to be owned so long, they were designed to be pieces of furniture.  Though filled with toxic chemicals and coolants that sometimes had to be refilled, refrigerators made in the fifties often still work today-albeit inefficiently.  Same with cars-a well maintained car from the 50′s and 60′s could run for several hundred thousand miles.  It would be repaired and dents pulled, and metal painted and re chromed.  Many of todays cars have replaced large amounts of metal with fiberglass and plastics.  One accident and a car could easily be totaled.  When I was a teen, several of my friends owned cars that had been totaled and brought back to life-not likely to be seen in many modern models.

Before you are so eager to buy that new appliance, or techno gadget, remember to consider how much use you can still get out of it.

Reduce, reduce, reduce 10 steps toward zero.

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

In case you didn’t know, GLDC has expanding its branding and online social media services.  This week has added a series of new clients, and we have been busy around the office trying to get some of the work cleared out before the holiday weekend.  St the same time, I have been having multiple discussions surrounding reducing one’s waste.  It seemed like a great time to offer up a “classic” blog post that I published a while ago.

Zero waste. It sounds impossible. One problem that we encountered when addressing setting up the new office, was trash pickup. We found that as a commercial site, we couldn’t get Cleveland trash pickup. We didn’t really want a giant ugly dumpster on the property that would end up being much more than we needed. The solution: a zero waste office. It remains to be seen if it can really be done or not. We are already working on it for our home. Today is trash day, and for the second week in a row, we don’t have a bag of garbage to put out. But can that sort of curb on trash be translated to an office setting? That remains to be seen. In the meantime, here are 10 steps that everyone can try to work toward a zero waste life.

1. Cook at home. Home cooking means that you know what goes into your food. You can control portions and deal with the waste. Additionally, take out food comes in containers that are often hard to recycle and often end up in the trash; and even recyclers don’t want that pizza box.
2. Reduce. Buy products that have little or no packaging. Yes, it freaks out the cashier when you set a handful of tomatoes on the blet with no little plastic bag, but they will get over it. If you can, buy in bulk. If large packages don’t fit your lifestyle (how long will it take me to use 25 lbs of sugar?), you can visit bulk departments at the supermarket. Take along your own containers, and you effectively eliminate packaging all together. And don’t forget to bring along your reusable shopping tote and avoid the plastic bags!
3. Recycle. While recycling may not be available curbside, there are plenty of drop off spots. I have heard that you can even drop off Styrofoam at Heinan’s. When you make the effort to go zero waste, you start to see just what can be recycled, and what can’t. This will eventually impact your buying choices-a good thing.
4. Reuse. Why buy Tupperware when those margarine containers are perfectly reusable? I even started washing ziplock backs and reusing them. Yes, my partner laughs at me, but who cares? Before replacing that broken appliance, see if it can be repaired rather than thrown out.
5. Compost. Organic materials compost and make great food for your plants. The garden will be better off, and so will the planet.
6. Take your own cup for coffee. If you buy coffee on the go, add it up. Every coffee or latte usually has a cup, a lid, and often a gripper. Where does it go when you finish? Bring your own mug and reduce all that waste.
7. Skip bottled water. Plastic bottles are bad for the environment. Why recyclable, most are destined for the landfill, so skip them. There is plenty of new research out that says they leach chemicals into the water and lots of bottled water companies are just packaging tap water anyway. Invest in a good steel water bottle if you drink a lot.
8. Buy better stuff. Why many goods may be cheaper, buy products that are sure to last. If you don’t need them anymore, they can be donated. Antiques are around, because we used to value craftsmanship and quality. Buy goods that will last longer than you need them to and donate, reuse or give them away when you no longer need them.
9. Have a garage sale. They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. You will be hugely surprised just how true that is if you have a garage sale. Put a price on something and people want it. You will find that even the stuff that charity shops don’t really want, you can sell at a garage sale for a couple of bucks.
10.Adopt the one in one out rule. We have a strict policy of not adding to our household. For every new item that comes into our home, another goes out. This system is perfect for us. We no longer amass things that we don’t need. If we get a new item of clothing or new coffee mug, then another has to go out. This keeps us getting rid of items while they are still usable and can be donated or shared, instead of waiting for 10 years when those jeans are so out of style that no one will get any more use out of them.

What can you do to reduce your waste?

What are you doing Thursday?

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

For those of you who are wondering what to do to start recycling in your office, here is a great event. I know that one problem many people deal with is just getting started with the whole recycling business. In an office environment, paper and cardboard are the biggest components of the waste stream, and it is easily recycled. Join me at a panel discussion on reducing your waste output, by finding ways to deal with fiber waste:

Below are the details for the event. We have a great panel and a great program to share that will help companies find solutions towards reducing their paper, cardboard and other fiber waste. I hope you can join us as well. If you are interested in volunteering at the event, please let me know. Or, if you have the means and simply want to attend, please click here to register online.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Rethink Fiber Waste: Cardboard, Paper, and More
Thursday, May 13, 2010 8:30 – 11 am
Trinity Commons, 2230 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
A Zero Waste NEO Network Event

Does your organization have a recycling program? Do you still find paper and cardboard in the trash? Join the E4S Zero Waste Network to connect with members of the recycling industry, learn from business leaders who have successfully implemented and maintained a recycling program, and set goals to reduce your own organization`s waste stream.

Featured speakers

• Beau Daane, Business and Recycling Specialist, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District
• John Piotrowski, VP of Operations, Green Recovery Group
• Greg Tilton, Sr. VP of Operations, U.S. Cotton, LLC
• Janet VonGunten, Specifications Sales Representative, xpedx

What is trash and what is garbage? #CIFF

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Today is the third day of the Hospitality Headquarters of the Cleveland International Film Festival.  Overall, our waste production program has exceeded out expectations.  For two days running, we have created only a single bag of real trash each day.  That includes restrooms, food prep, packaging, and service ware.  I really did not expect it go as well as it has.

I have to give my props to the powers that be at the Film Festival for allowing me to persue this endeavor.  Being a garbage policeman has also made me really look at what we use and what we throw away.  Small things make you take notice.  For example, toothpicks used to hold sandwiches are not a terrible thing, but when you take the end and wrap it in non biodegradabel plastic frills, it no longer will break down completely.  You start to notice how we as consumers insist on using more than one disposable plate, no matter the size, strength or material.  We as consumers do not even think twice about using paper cups one after another.  We will nearly always choose a paper cup over a china cup that can be rewashed.  And I have always been astounded by the amount of napkins that are given and taken at any food venue.  THis kind of a situation really makes you take notice of what we use and what we throw away.  You never think twice about a single paper towel, but when you consider the amount that is used over the coarse of a day, and that amount really adds up.

When you really start to think about it, what is trash and what is garbage?  Most of what would have ended up in landfill will be fertilizing raspberries by the end of the summer.  I encourage all of you to think about what YOU throw away and what you call trash.

Nature Friendly makes my day at the CIFF!

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

home I forget that not everyone thinks like me.  I hang out with so many “greenies” that I am sometimes surprised when someone that I am talking to just doesn’t ‘get it.’  From my experience at the film festival last year, I knew that we would be generating a pretty hefty amount of garbage.  Feeding thousands of plates of snacks and sandwiches, I was determined to find a way to reduce our environmental footprint.  With plenty of negotiations and a few dozen phone calls, I was finally approved to start composting on Tuesday morning.  Unfortunately, the hospitality headquarters opened on Friday morning.  I put our order together, and had it delivered Thursday afternoon.  When it arrived, however, I was disappointed to see a substitution.  My enviro-friendly hot cup with the corn resin sealant on the inside was substituted for a hot cup that had a Styrofoam core.  Not happy.  I then spent the afternoon scouring the city for a hot cup that I could use in the compost.  There were surprisingly few options.  When I did find an option, I couldn’t get it.  Minimum orders, no delivery, no pick ups, were all assorted hold ups.  Enter Nature’s Friendly Products…

I had started with Nature’s Friendly Products, as I knew they had a full line of compostable products.  They have stuff made from stuff like corn and sugar cane.  They will compost in your own garden over a season.  While their office is here, they need several days lead time to get the orders in from their warehouse in Indiana (or Iowa-one of the I states…).  Jeri Leigh talked me through all the catalog and sent me more information than I needed.  I put them on my short list to order from.  When the deadline passed and I still did not know if I would be composting, I started looking at other sources.  When my order came in wrong and I was freaking out, I finally called Nature’s Friendly Products again and nearly cried on them.  A sweet young lady named Tammy calmed me sown with her sweet southern drawl and promised to call em back.  Within ten short minutes, I got a call back.  The customer forms were in the email and a single case of cups had been rounded up and would be waiting for me by 10 am the following morning.  I am sure that she called every rep they had and probably pulled their cups from the employee break room to take care of me.

The following morning after our staff meeting, I jumped in the car and dashed off to Beachwood to pick up my cups.  Within a few minutes of arriving, they were loaded and I was back on the road.  As I sped down the road, driving farther than I have driven in months, I wondered about the emissions and gas usage by this crazy pick up.  As if on cue, the first of several plastic bags floated across the road and hit my windshield with a light smack.  The irony was not lost on me that while I was desperately trying to divert our food service waste from the landfill, the trash from someone else was attacking me.  While I cannot manage to keep others from littering or reducing the trash that they create, I can make sure that the things under my control were as green as possible.  Without the help of Nature’s Friendly Products, I would have had to use a standard hot cup and that might derail all of my plans for composting our waste.  And compost we are!  In a single day, we managed to create a single bag of garbage.  With the hundreds of plates of food that were served, that was quite an accomplishment.

If you are having an event, I highly recommend checking in with Jeri Leigh Siss and her cohorts at Nature’s Friendly Products.  With the help fo them and Rosby Companies, your next event could be zero waste.

The Cleveland International Film Festival gets a little bit greener…

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

I worked for the Cleveland International Film Festival last year.  I am more than willing to admit that I was originally lured in by a desire to see some free movies.  What I didn’t expect was to meet so many cool people.  I thought the CIFF was a simple little arts festival.  You get a bunch of film makers to send you some films and you sell some tickets and voila!  Not so much.  Instead, it takes a year of planning to choose the films and plan the details.  It takes countless hours of designing graphics, organizing staff, cultivating sponsorships, and working out little things to get herds of film lovers to continue to come every year and to make them all happy.  Thousands of tickets are sold every year to some of the greatest films, making the Cleveland International Film Festival one of the premiere arts and culture events in the world.

If you can imagine the challenges in trying to organize and herd thousands of theater goers, hundreds of volunteers and a group of dedicated staff, then you can probably picture the amount of paper that it takes.  Tickets, programs, updates…  it boggles the mind.  Then there is the hospitality headquarters for guests and season pass holders.  Hundreds of people shuffled through the suite last year creating bag after bag of trash.  We did our best to recycle cans and bottles, but that was just a fraction of the trash that was created.  This year, the CIFF got just a little greener.

With the help of Rosby’s and Forest City, the CIFF will be composting the waste from the Hospitality Headquarters.  When we say composting, we don’t mean just food stuffs.  We will be using products from Eco Green.  These products are made from sugar cane fibers or other material and will all break down in just a few months.  I was surprised to find that these products are carried locally by Northern Haserot.  I am excited to see just how much we can divert from the landfill this year.  This plan does not come without its challenges.  I attend a lot of events every year.  Even “green” event attendees often do not recycle.  I am usually the weird guy who can be found digging through the garbage pulling  bottles and cans out to recycle.  We will be collecting everyone’s trash and separating it ourselves.  I hope that this will also help to raise awareness about our trash generation.  Watch this space to see how it works out…

Because we are lazy…

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

We recycle.  Everything we can.  I even bring recyclables home from my travels to make sure that they get recycled and don’t end up in the landfill.  I have ranted on and on about restaurants and food vendors like Starbucks and Chipotle that sell beverages in containers and do not recycle, so if I dine at one of these places I have to bring a bottle or plastic cup home to make sure it doesn’t end up in a whole in the ground.  Sometimes, however, I forget.  Or worse, sometimes I am just lazy and do not feel like hauling that glass bottle with me for the next couple of hours while I do my grocery shopping or whatever.  But we do better than many, and some people (even my friends-yes, you know who you are) still do not recycle.  I die a little each time I see them toss a can in the trash or that plastic container not even reused once before it heads to the curb.

That is why I am a big advocate of the bottle deposit law.  What is that?  Well, if you live in a state with a deposit, some or all beverages that come in a container have a deposit attached.  That means that when you buy a soda, you pay an extra nickel for the container.  When the container is empty, it can be returned for the five (or in some states ten) cent deposit to be returned to you.  This is not a new idea.  When I was a kid, we used to go bottle hunting.  We would scour the areas around the parks, pool, or that spot where the older kids used to hang out and drink beer on Friday nights.  We would take our dozen bottles, cash them in, and buy ourselves a treat.  I grew up in Kansas, that had a bottle deposit until sometime in the 80′s.  In most of the states on the west coast, it is still a law.  Just look at your can of Coke and you can see the eleven states that offer deposits.  But why should every state have a bottle deposit?  Because we are lazy (and greedy).

Why do we even have this debate at this stage in the game? It seems natural that we should all be recycling, so we do not need a deposit bill, right? Wrong. While those reading this may be avid “greenies” we often forget that we are still in the minority. The only way to get more recycling to be done is by making it easy, mandatory, or profitable. By adding a 5 cent deposit to every container of soda that we sell in the US, most of us would not feel it a bit. Beverage producers would need little to add to their system, as they have all the tools to implement a program in every state, as they do it already in some. Your case of beer or soda would cost you an extra $1.20. But when you return to the store, you return the cans and get your $1.20 back. In places like Oregon, I saw folks at a more difficult stage of their lives surviving by collecting those nickel containers. Parks are cleaner, roadsides have less litter, and recycling is up. Way up according to the Container Recycling Institute.  According to their numbers, states with mandatory deposits have recycling rates hovering around 60%.  On the other hand, states that do not have deposit laws have recycling  rates that only reach about 24%.  That includes progressive states like Washington that recycle well, but still have no bottle deposits.

So with the stroke of a pen, we could increase recycling rates in all states.  Why do we not do it?  Once again, laziness and greed.  Store owners hate bottle deposits as it does add to their operating expenses.  Does that mean stores in Oregon are less profitable than those in Ohio?  No.  The impact on the bottom line of stores is minimal, as they do not have to pay that deposit refund, it comes from the manufacturer.  With the simple addition of automatic bottle counting machines, the work goes back to the consumer in most cases-and consumers are lazy.  Besides, if we had to rely on store owners to do the right thing on their own, I am sure there would be complaints of food expiration dates and mandatory breaks as eating into their profits.  The real opposition comes from big business lobbying.

The American Beverage Association has gone so far as to produce a report.  But this report has issues for me.  First off, I never rust a report that is produced, commissioned, and reported by itself.  Secondly, I do not support their conclusions.  According to the report, money would be better spent to expand community recycling programs than spent on bottle deposit implementation.  While that may be true, ABA member companies would be forced to invest in bottle deposit programs, while there is no way legislation will be passed that will force bottlers to give money to the communities of the country to expand their recycling efforts.  Their report also states that 73% of Americans have curbside recycling and 83% have access to drop off recycling.  I find those numbers hard to believe, but considering the high population numbers in urban centers it could be true.  That being said, it really is slight of hand.  Even in Cleveland we have access to drop off locations and some access to curbside.  Even I find recycling difficult in this town.  So those who are less motivated or who have less time are even less likely to recycle.  But, were there a bottle deposit in place, even my non recycling friends would be likely to start.  Or at the very least, would be likely to put their cans out for the homeless to pick up and return for cash.

The ABA is a lobbying group that represents its members.  They say,“three decades of data and practical experience have undeniably demonstrated that imposing mandatory deposits on beverage containers is a poor way to increase recycling and address solid waste issues.”  Of course mandatory deposits would force their members to implement deposit programs, so not a huge surprise that their findings fell this way.

The truth of the matter is that we sell 200 BILLION beverage containers in the US every year.  Out of these, 130 billion end up in the landfill or are incinerated.  We know what we are doing, yet are too lazy to do anything about it.  That is why I support a national bottle deposit.  In a time when national corporations are doing just fine, but local recycling programs are struggling, I say that we can let Anheuser Busch and Pepsico pay the bill to take some of our waste out of the waste stream.

Pay to throw away?

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

File-VuilnisI wish I had been more diligent in following the agenda for city council meetings. If I had, then I would have known about the meetings in which Cleveland City Council discussed the trash collection fee. It has passed. Starting in 2010, city residents are going to start paying $8 a month to have their garbage picked up. The council did this with much reluctance, but found that the gaps in the 2010 budget needed to be filled, and were it not for this fee, we might lose a firehouse, a few police officers or something else. Since I am never short of opinions, here are my thoughts on this issue:

It is about time. In Portland, where we last lived, we paid over $35 a month per can to have garbage picked up. I was astounded when we moved here that nearly anything unwanted could simply be piled onto the tree lawn. Cleveland should have implemented this fee a long time ago. Paying makes citizens invested in their services, so by making them completely free, they are abused and over used.

Speed up the rollout of the curbside recycling program. This fee should not be thought of as a budget stop gap measure. If Cleveland really wants to make this a Green City on a Blue Lake, it needs to start taking garbage and garbage service seriously as an issue. This money raised needs to be earmarked to cut the costs associated with this department, and the start is by increasing recycling. Charging for garbage collection is great first step, but we also need to decrease the sheer volume of trash in this town. We need to limit what that monthly fee will pick up, and offer limitless recycling. Moving products from the waste stream into the recycling stream can decrease costs. Furthermore, recyclables are a commodity that can add to our city coffers, not draw from them. As long as we look at our waste stream in the same way, we are only putting a bandage on a flat tire.

How much will dumping cost? Unfortunately, Cleveland residents are selfish and poor. We already see people dumping their trash in alleys, empty lots, wherever. This has been going on while garbage service is free. So what is going to happen now that we have to pay for this service. Will the extra money cover the costs of cleaning up the city dump sites that appear? I hope that I am wrong in this area. My hope is that everyone will start taking responsibility for their waste and take it more seriously, but I am leery.

How will this law affect our already cash strapped citizens? It is a small fee. For most of us, $8 a month is small price to pay. That being said, many Cleveland residents can barely pay for food. There is an exception for elderly and disabled, but what about those who are already using food stamps and section 8 housing to stay alive. I worry that unscrupulous landlords are going to raise the rents of those most in trouble right now, in order to pay for the garbage service. Were we living in a city that had a good cross section of incomes, this would be less of an issue. However, it that were the case, we would not be having this budgetary crisis to begin with.

No matter what I have to say, Cleveland is still operating in the black, without raising taxes or firing police officers. Let’s hope that this trend continues, and Mayor Jackson and the City Council deserve Kudos for that! Read the council’s release.