Reuse binder clips to organize your cables

While reading this article on ways to de-clutter your digital life, I was struck by the alternative use of simple binder clips. (See #1)

blog size issues

I'm aware I'm having size issues with my blog. I will rectify the situation asap. Sorry for the inconvenience.

-The Reuser

PVC in food packaging

I recently found out that the packaging for one of my favorite treats is PVC or polyvinyl chloride. I found this disturbing not only from a standpoint of potential health risks, but also because PVC is hard to recycle (only one recycler I know of touches the stuff) and with the packaging very closely resembling other tubs that are accepted in our program, people would be tempted to include this material in their curbside recycling carts thus ending up as a contaminant in our system.

I decided to write to the company. Here is the email string in its entirety:

From The Reuser to American Licorice Company:

Hello! I wanted to write to tell you I love Red Vines! They're a "dangerous" food for me, because I can never stop eating them, if they're around. However, I was noticing today that the 4 lb. tubs of Red Vines are made out of vinyl plastic. I would like to ask you to reconsider using vinyl to package your product. Please see: http://www.watoxics.org/healthy-families/safe-start-for-kids-1/plastics-101 Have you had any other requests of this nature? I think I will probably not eat Red Vines again until they're packaged in something a bit safer. I've also brought this to the attention of my workmates, as we are all waste reduction educators and vinyl cannot easily be recycled. Thank you for your time and consideration.

From The American Licorice Company to The Reuser:

Thank you for taking the time today to contact the American Licorice Co. and for your concern with our products. For strength in shipping we use plastic vinyl containers. Our consumers find ways to re-use the containers for other purposes. Perhaps, you would feel more comfortable buying our 1 lb bag of Red Vines.

Red Vines 1 lb bags are carried at several national and regional chain stores. Please try Albertsons, Save Mart, Sack’ N Save, CVS, Flash Foods, Costco, Osco/Savon, Krogers, Food Lions, Rite Aid, Longs, Smart & Finals, Safeway, Sam’s Club, Target, Wal-Mart and Walgreen’s. Please visit our website at www.redvines.com to find a store in your area that carries Red Vines brand candy.

If you have difficulty locating your favorite American Licorice products in retail, you can also visit our online candy store, Candy Cabinet (https://www.candycabinet.com) where American Licorice products are sold. You can also call Diversified Distributers at 1-877-453-1638 and tell them which of the American Licorice products you’re interested in. As a token of your love for our products, we will be sending Red Vines to enjoy. Please provide mailing address for delivery.

Cordially,

American Licorice Company

From The Reuser to The American Licorice Company:

Unfortunately, your answer is not very satisfactory. Have you tried other packaging types? If so, what have been the results? Is your company concerned at all with the potential negative effects of vinyl? Do you have a sustainability specialist? If so, can you please forward my email on to him or her? I understand that some of the tubs could be reused, but hopefully not for food items. This also dismisses the potential effects of your vinyl tubs being included in most recycling systems (such as ours) that can't handle them. I've been paying extra attention to the plastic packaging in the stores lately and it seems most of it is PETE. Is there some reason red vines couldn't be packaged in PETE or PP (polypropylene) plastic? I know you mentioned strength in shipping, but if every other plastic type I've seen is PETE, that becomes hard to believe.

From The American Licorice Company to The Reuser:

We do use polypropylene in our packaging. Our Original Red Vines 1lb bags and our 32oz Family Mix bags are packaged in PP. If you are interested, Red Vines 1lb Bags and Family Mix bags are carried at Albertsons, Save Mart, Sack’ N Save, CVS, Flash Foods, Costco, Osco/Savon, Krogers, Food Lions, Rite Aid, Longs, Smart & Finals, Safeway, Sam’s Club, Target, Wal-Mart and Walgreen’s. Please visit our website at www.redvines.com to find a store in your area that carries Red Vines brand candy.

If you have difficulty locating your favorite American Licorice products in retail, you can also visit our online candy store, Candy Cabinet (https://www.candycabinet.com) where American Licorice products are sold. You can also call Diversified Distributers at 1-877-453-1638 and tell them which of the American Licorice products you’re interested in. Once again for your concern

Cordially,

American Licorice Company

From The Reuser to The American Licorice Company:

You continue to ignore my essential question which is whether or not your company is concerned with potential negative effects by continuing to use vinyl in some of your packaging? Please address this essential question. I'm not asking where to find your products, I have no issues with that. I'm also not asking if I can buy your product in other types of plastic, I'm well aware I can. I'm asking about issues with using PVC and whether or not there has been any movement away from packaging in PVC tubs?

While I do appreciate your time taken to answer my questions, I feel you've been a bit willfully ignoring my question.

Sincerely,

The Reuser

That last email was sent on February 24th and I've had no response from them since. Nor have I purchased any products from them since that time.

The picture above was taken at the transfer station, proving that people do in fact believe the plastic is recyclable and mistakenly include it in their recycling carts.

"degradable" plastics

The Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers has put out this position paper about degradable plastics. This may be a highly specialized post, but I find this stuff fascinating. It's worth educating yourself about these types of plastics, especially if you buy disposable plastics.

Greenwashing Spy

Greenwashing a.k.a. green whitewash is the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly*

In a webinar recently, I heard about Greenwashing Spy-a blog all about exposing such acts.

*from wikipedia

Olympics ad graphics reused

This is probably old news to some of you by now, but a company called Mannington will be recycling ad graphics used at the Winter Olympics (about 3 football fields worth) and creating flooring tiles out of them. I first read about this in Waste & Recycling News, but there's lots more articles now.

You could win 10 grand with your recycling idea!

We all know that disposable items, such as coffee cups, are a huge part of our solid waste woes. If you have an idea that you think will help with that, check out the Beta Cup

the betacup's goal: find the best ideas to eliminate paper cup consumption and help bring these ideas to life.

Special thanks to my dear Uncle Dennis for sending me this.

Reusable bag ad

I recently saw this ad reminding people to bring their reusable bags to the store (Fred Meyer) with them. I think it's great that Freddy's (as it's known to locals) is using some of their valuable ad space to promote the use of reusable bags.

Sorry about the poor photo quality. My iPhone hates taking macro shots.

Reuse on parade

Yesterday, we took part in the annual Paddy Hough parade. I tweeted some images of the "plastic bag monster" (who later deemed himself "Bag-zilla") but, I thought I'd write a bit more about what we did, because it was great fun and really turned out quite well.

Here's Bag-zilla in all his glory:
The t-shirt was destined for the thrift store and the plastic bags were pilfered from our plastic bag display* (we need to replace those and get the display back out in the lobby!)

We also had some "support" staff for Bag-zilla. We had two sandwich board people. They had pictures of clogged machinery being hand-cleaned and messages about why we don't want plastic bags in recycling carts. The sandwich boards were made from old recycling signs we don't use anymore and some other materials purchased last year at S.C.R.A.P. We also used velcro, so the messages for the sandwich boards can be changed out to accommodate different events. They are reusable, of course!

It was great fun (especially for me, I just got to sit in the truck and wave to people!) and I heard a lot of comments about people interested in Bag-zilla and what he was all about.

* The plastic bag display reads: "These 400 plastic bags represent the amount used by every man, woman and child each year in America."

And the winner is....

Jenny!

Sorry it's taken me so long to determine and post the winner of the one-year blogiversary contest. It's been hectic lately. This is our busy season, with Earth Day and all the associated events/happenings.

Congratulations, Jenny- I will need your contact info so I can get your adorable little recycle cart out to you!