Green Options

A surge in the number of mercury-bearing energy-efficient light bulbs in use in Minnesota is expected to overwhelm recycling programs in the next few years and there’s no plan yet on how to recycle more of them.

Fluorescent light bulbs use only one-fourth as much energy per unit of light produced as incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. One CFL bulb contains 5 milligrams of mercury, about one-fifth the amount in a watch battery.

In just five weeks, San Francisco residents will face fines if they fail to separate their food scraps from their aluminum cans.

Oregon this summer became the first state to enact in law a product stewardship law for the collection of leftover consumer paint.  The pilot program, which expires in 2014, involves a consumer fee that a nonprofit organization established by paint producers uses to pay for the collection and proper disposal or reuse of the leftover paint.

I know I’ve been a bit like a dog on a bone about the fact that print is not necessarily the enemy, but I think it’s important. Marketers are being hit like a locomotive with the idea that e-mail and other electronic media are green because they don’t use paper, but there is a lot more to environmental friendliness than cutting tree. Like . . . energy use.

This week, the print industry will gather in Chicago at Print 09 (September 11 - 16), one of its largest annual trade shows. There, the The Print Council will promote a new position paper titled, “Why Print Is Green.”

“Our industry is a leader in recycling, sustainability and pollution control,” says Ben Cooper, executive director of The Print Council. “In fact, we pioneered putting those concepts into widespread practice over the past three decades. But we did so quietly, to the extent that there is a lack of awareness regarding the environmentally responsible nature of print.

“Why Print Is Green” describes ten specific ways in which print is green, from the responsible products used, renewable energy sourced, increased recycling rates, to improved design and delivery methods. The report is intended to demonstrate why print media is the environmentally sound choice for communicating with the audiences they want to reach.

• Among the facts the white paper documents:
• In 2008, more than 57% of paper consumed in the U.S. was recovered for recycling, more than any material.

New advances in lithium-ion batteries are making energy storage more effcient, less expensive, and more ready for a deep plunge into the mass market.  With application far beyond electric cars - think cell phones, laptops, grid storage, power tools, and even lawn mowers - it is only a matter of time before the world is awash in billions of used lithium-ion batteries.

The emerging lithium-ion battery recycling industry has a lot of catching up to do, but at least two companies are rising to meet the challenge of making the technology more sustainable, Toxco Inc in the U.S. and Nippon Mining & Metals Co Ltd in Japan, both of which are developing new recycling processes.

It’s not surprising that Outside Lands, a three-day music festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, wants to bill itself as being “green”. After all, the fest takes place in one of the country’s most beautiful parks. But does the festival, now in it’s second year, succeed in its aspirations of sustainability? Read below to find out.

Magnum D’Or Resources Inc., a rubber recycling company, now owns one of the world’s largest tire landfills in Hudson, Colorado. But they’re not going to just leave it there. Old tires are bad because they breed mosquitoes, and a tire fire will burn for months.

[Creative Commons photo by House of Sims]

Starting October 1st, North Carolinans will no longer be able to dispose of motor oil filters, wooden pallets and plastic bottles in landfills.

2k Manufacturing based in Luton, England has come up with a process that can take any type of plastic - clean, dirty, or defected - and remake it into what they’re calling ‘EcoSheets’.  These EcoSheets are a composite material made to have the same mechanical properties as plywood.  They are the end result of a process called powder impression molding, which takes all forms of plastic and makes it into a fine powder.  The powder is then sandwiched in between two polymer films and is heat treated to form a viable substitute for plywood, a ubiquitous building material.

For some reason, when I think of products that need to ‘go green’, certain types of items tend to top the list.  Cleaning products.  Plastic children’s toys.  Paint and building materials.  Baby supplies.  Food.  Clothing.

Playing cards had not yet entered my mind.

So imagine my amused surprise the other day when, while shopping for a new deck of quality cards for bridge (my husband had even requested a plastic set), I stumbled across Bicycle’s new (launched in 2008) line of Eco Edition Playing Cards.

While there is almost certainly a good level of bandwagon-jumping greenwashing going on here, there is still much good to say about these cards.  According to Bicycle:

Our playing cards are crafted from sustainable forest paper, starch-based laminating glue and vegetable-based printing inks.  This pack of cards is recyclable.

When WalMart finally unveiled their new Sustainability Index, I found the 15 questions a bit underwhelming. Especially, after all the press and fuss (you can download the questions from the WalMart web site).

For example, the first question, “Have you measured your corporate greenhouse gas emissions?” is so simplistic, that a yes answer could mean many things. Scope 1? Scope 2? Have they taken on the challenge of addressing the full supply chain?

GreenBiz.com offers some advice for getting the most out of the questions, if you are a Walmart supplier that is just beginning to think about environmental issues.