Green Options

Yokohama is introducing the dB Super E-spec tire, with an improved liner and a compound that uses orange oil and natural rubber to cut petroleum significantly in the manufacturing process.

On the inside, an advanced inner liner is thinner, lighter, and provides better air retention.

On the outside, the new Super Nano-Power Rubber compound blends natural rubber with oil squeezed from waste material from the Japanese orange juice industry to create a tire with a split personality. In straight, steady driving, the compound generates less heat, for a lower rolling resistance, while in active driving—cornering and braking—the material softens for better adhesion to the road surface.

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.

You’re waiting at a red light, your engine idling lightly. You check the crosswalk signal: 20 seconds, you have some time. You turn your classical music up a notch to the perfect volume and you close your eyes, relaxing on your way home from work. But your moment of relaxation is interrupted by the thump thump of bass coming from the car next to you. You look over at the car, the tinted windows keep you from seeing the driver. [...]

My mommy instincts told me playing on shredded tires was not good for my children’s health, but apparently the EPA lacks such intuition.  According to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibilty (PEER), the EPA has admitted it does not know “the extent of childhood exposure from ingestion or inhalation of an array of toxic chemicals found within tires”.

Oregon State University Researcher Kaichang Li is already well-known in the research world for developing a non-toxic, soy-based adhesive to make greener plywood for cabinets, so it’s almost no surprise that his next research discovery is along the same lines.

Turning his attention to the materials commonly used as reinforcing fillers in tires — carbon black and silica — Li has figured out a way to use plant products to substitute for these toxic and energy intensive conventional materials.

Slash-and-burn agriculture may be bad for the environment, but in southeast Asia, the cure may be worse than the disease. Endorsed by multiple governments, at both the local and national levels, as well as numerous business interests, everyone from individual farmers to massive corporations has been replacing the traditional slash-and-burn, more technically known as swidden, method of farming with rubber plantations managed with European techniques. In the last 20 years, over 1.2 million acres of land in China, Thailand, Vietnam, [...]

Are you looking for a community, environmental project for your family?  Keep America Beautiful is launching its 2009 Great American Cleanup today with its campaign “Green Starts Here”.

The Great American Cleanup begins today with a national launch event in Waveland, Miss., which will help  restore a hurricane-ravaged town along the Gulf Coast. It will continue through May 31 with additional national events being held in New York City on Earth Day and Nashville on May 14.

Millions of volunteers will work to rid streets, waterways and public spaces of litter and illegal dumpsites.  Communities will green up parks, schoolyards and other public spaces and hold recycling drives and educational events.

Ecologic Designs’ story starts like this:  “There is always talk about a killer set of waves and dolphins playing in the surf, an epic afternoon rolling across warm red rocks on your bike, or a hike in fresh powder on a full moon snowshoe trek. There is also talk about a beach polluted by sludge or surfing next to trash, trails that all of a sudden become strip malls, or the snow trip sans snow because of global warming.” It’s this kind of understanding that guides Ecologic Design, through their two brands Green Guru Gear and Green Goddess, to craft products and fashions in Boulder, Colorado, that have a positive environmental and social impact, while raising ecological awareness.

Take Green Guru’s Blow Out series bi-fold wallet, for example.  The company uses reclaimed bike inner tubes to create a stylish and waterproof exterior. Every item in their Blow Out series is made from 98% reclaimed and recycled content by weight.  Each wallet features a six card and two bill compartments.  The ultimate in a locally-based enterprise, drawing from a readily available waste stream, Green Guru’s butyl rubber comes from Reclamation Stations within about eighteen miles from there they’re manufactured. Green Guru Pouches, Chalk Bags and Messenger Bags are also made from the upcycled inner tubes.

Since spring of 2007, Ecologic Designs has been an ecopreneurial trailblazer, creating viable and sustainable enterprises by harvesting the waste stream, often referred to as “upcycling”: the practice of recycling or repurposing items destined for the landfill and transforming them into something of further use and value. Upcycling was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.  The butyl rubber, also called vulcanized rubber, is not cost-effective and very difficult to recycle; therefore these inner tubes usually end up in local landfills where they won’t degrade for many years.  Unfortunately, tires and inner tubes account for over 50% of the rubber produced each year.

I suppose it all started with tofu, some three thousand years ago. Logically, soymilk, with its nine essential amino acids quickly followed. Many of us, as infants, were fed soy formula instead of milk. Now you can walk in to just about any major chain restaurant and find a veggie burger, made from soy. But the soy revolution has only really just begun. Soybeans are used to make paints, insulation, adhesives, inks, foam for seat cushions, and biodiesel, of course.

Is there anything that soy cannot do? Perhaps not. Scientists at Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a scientific research agency of the USDA, are experimenting with the use of defatted soy flour, to take the place of traditional petroleum based fillers that increase tensile strength and wear in tires.

A Japanese company has come up with yet another use for old plastic bottles. Earlier this month, Teijin Fibers Ltd. announced that they are now supplying recycled polyester fibers to Toyo Tire & Rubber for use as cords in a new line of automobile tire marketed for use on environmentally conscious passenger cars.

Do you need a cheap, green and useful tool to promote your eco-friendly business idea? Well look no further than the World Famous RETREAD© Jar Openers from Americanna.