Recently in Recycling Category

Good grief.

The EPA is concluding a limited study of air and surface samples at four fake-surface fields and playgrounds that use recycled tires -- the same material used under the Obama family's new play set at the White House. 

Although the EPA for years has endorsed recycled-rubber surfaces as a means of decreasing playground injuries, its own scientists now have pointed to research suggesting potential hazards from repeated exposure to bits of shredded tire that can contain carcinogens and other chemicals, according to internal EPA documents.

Not just EPA - there are ADA and ASTM standards for this stuff too.

This bit at Paghat's Garden digs into the whole notion of selling recycling at any cost. "It is just amazing how easily horrific facts can be touted as plusses!" Not saying "don't recycle." Just saying don't do it just because the government says you should or it's good for you or good for the planet. Recycling - Do it for the children... Heh.

Treehugger's Jaymi Heimbuch links a Lunchbreath cartoon poking fun at "the ungreen." The evil-doers are corporations who have adopted green product packaging either to sell products (well, that is what they're in business to do) or to genuinely clean up their act. (On the other hand, this packaging, also at Treehugger, is ok.)

So is Treehugger now in the business of beating up green business? From the comments:

For decades, the environmental movement has been pressuring businesses to be more sustainable, especially in their packaging of products. Finally, corporations are starting to listen, and they're slowly beginning to make changes.

And what do environmentalists do? Do they applaud the change, or celebrate? No. They create snarky cartoons to make fun of businesses progressive steps. How is this helpful at all?

It's articles like this that make it hard for me to identify as an environmentalist.

Indeed. 

Green Christian, Jesus said "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees."

UPDATE: Ad campaigns invite people to church. Are green programs attracting or driving people away? I honestly couldn't tell you. But I do know that good behavior is discouraged by those who say you're never good enough, when God has already said "you're good." Those of you who have studied the life of Christ know what I'm talkin' about here.

AP had an interesting piece over the weekend on electronics recycling at federal prisons, something private industry, state governments, and OSHA don't like:

Barbara Kyle of Electronics TakeBack Coalition in San Francisco said the practice undercuts companies that are more environmentally responsible. Within the last two years, states such as Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington have banned the practice of using prisoner labor to recycle in most cases, she said.

Seems awfully short-sighted. Apparently the program is so popular with inmates there's a waiting list. I also doubt that they're bigger polluters.

EnviroNewsNetwork has a good piece today on D.C.'s proposed plastic bag tax. Highlights:

- Opponents say this unfairly taxes the poor and is racist/classist, but revenue left over from cleaning up the Anacostia river provides free reusable bags for the poor.

- 20% of tax revenue goes to D.C. stores and this has motivated business to participate.

Ireland's PlasTax is presented as a success. Their 20 cent per bag tax has gone up to 33 cents in six years to make up for the loss in tax revenues when bag use dropped by 94% the first year.

Ninety-four percent. That's huge. Apparently Ikea saw a 92% drop when it started taxing bags. If even 90% is the typical bag tax reduction rate, NYC and Washington State should factor that into their revenue calcs. But I doubt they are.

This figure should also make Capitol Hill think twice about over-taxing citizens if they want private industry to thrive. I doubt that will occur to them either.

UPDATE: The Governator's proposed tax to drive Cahleefonia water conservation down 20% runs into a cautious LA City Council:

[David Nahai] said the council's rejection stemmed not from disagreement over a need for mandatory conservation measures but from questions about how the plan would work and whether it amounted to a rate hike rather than a rationing scheme. For procedural reasons, he said, the council had no choice but to disapprove the measure for now in order to buy more time to review the matter.

It's a rate hike to create water rationing. How tough is that to get?

The (compact flourescent) lightbulb clicks on for Grant Draper at My Green Element:

Here in New York, the city council passed a bill in January that requires large stores and retail chains, such as CVS, Duane Reade, Rite-Aid, and Wal-Mart, to recycle plastic bags prominently in their establishments.  Mayor Bloomberg, in his effort to make New York the “greenest city in the U.S.,” also announced plans in November to implement a 5 cent tax on the 2.8 billion plastic bags distributed in the city annually.  He estimates this program has the potential to bring in $84 million in new revenue for the city.

This is all well and good from 30,000 feet, but if a city is considering a tax on plastic bags, it really comes down to how this money collected is going to be spent.  For example, money collected by states that have bottle deposit laws typically spent on anti-littering awareness campaigns, but rather directly into the state general fund for a number of unrelated projects. Let’s make sure that if we are going to be adding yet another tax, the monies should go towards solving the problem.

When the Navy recycling program bought things around the base with recycling money, we let sailors know their efforts paid off. I think most folks are happy to do the right thing by recycling. They're even more happy to do it when they see tangible results. So I agree with Grant on that point. 

But what money? ROTFL! You mean, like cigarette taxes paying for health care? Check this out:

When states instead have structural deficits — the inability of current revenue sources to fund the normal year-to-year growth in programs — increased cigarette taxes would add to those deficits. (pp. 3)

What's he talking about? Do the math. 

$.05 charge per bag x 2,800,000,000 trash bags  =  $140,000,000

Right away I'd be asking "hey pal, you only said we're making $84 mil. Where's the other $56,000,000?" Sucker. Bloomberg is telling you it's going to cost New Yorkers fifty-six million bucks a year for NYC's finest (unionized) waste management technicians to recycle plastic bags, watched carefully by plastic bag recycling enforcement officers cruizing your local pharmacies.

Maybe the Big Apple does net $85 mil the first year. What happens when people switch to their own bags? Ba da BING - bag money goes away. All those tourists aren't smart enough to bring their own bags, so maybe the revenue drops to half. Now Grant and his friends are paying $56 million to collect $42 million in taxes, a net loss of $12 million. That's what the "structural deficit" thing is about.

Why doesn't the bag collection cost decrease? Because collection is a sunk cost. You pay it whether you recycle one bag at every store or a hundred.

Remember also that whole point of this tax exercise is to get to zero bags. Plastic bags are eeeeeeevil. They come from oil which increases CO2. They kill wildlife and farm animals. Plastic bags live forever in landfills. And they're unsightly.

What would Jesus do? Tell Bloomberg to use the $56 million he's going to lose trying to make $85 million to give people a nickel a bag. They'll turn them in by droves. Then let companies bid for the right to collect these bags, and turn around and sell them to petrochemical companies who, in turn, would enjoy the lower cost of production for plastic bags.

Best of all, it makes everybody greener, not just New York's bureaucracy.

My sister Holly was involved in representing the grocer's perspective when Seattle imposed its 20 cent bag tax. Wonder what she thinks about all this...

I s'pose that's an understatement. Check this out.

When St. Ursula School in Parkville stepped up its annual recycling contest this year, the students stepped up, too. "It's kind of funny, because I can't keep up with the paper," said Kathy Bivons, the school's environmental coordinator and a sixth-grade teacher. Bivons, who started the school's environmental club a few years ago, estimated that the club collects about 5 tons of paper each year for recycling.

Most of my plastic bags used to get thrown away. Then I read some of the disturbing facts in The World Without Us  about plastics in the ocean. How they break down into tiny particles, surviving for endless time scales, being eaten by millions of animals. Quadrillions of particles. Plastic bags are a big part of this problem. Now I recycle them and often tell the store when I don't really need them. No, I don't have any reusable bags yet. Learn more at PlasticBagRecycling.org and discover there is a demand for your used bags. And the less you use at stores reduces their costs (and yours). -D

Bhuddhist temple built from 1 million beer bottles.

Just imagine if we used beer bottles to build megachurches...

Man, Ed's right - we waste a lot of food. And then we throw away the dishes. We encourage folks at our church to bring their own mug for coffee hour. Every little bit helps.

Speaking of, Shelter Alliance is pitching their cell phone recycling program again. You'd be amazed at the amount of money you can generate for your favorite women's shelter or other charity.

Colleges across the country are participating in RecycleMania, including some Christian institutions of higher learning. More:

RecycleMania is a friendly competition and benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their campus communities. Over a 10-week period, schools report recycling and trash data which are then ranked according to who collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or have the highest recycling rate.

 -D