Green Options

Recycling Bin Tote Set From Norwood

John Simonetta — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:38:36 +0000

This is a guest post by John Simonetta, owner of Proforma Simonetta Freelance, an eco-friendly promotional items consultancy (see proformagreen.com). John’s blogs are designed to keep us up to date on the “greening” of his industry.

Once again Norwood takes a basic idea and makes it a whole lot better. Laminated woven polypropylene bags are not new to the industry. Nor are pre-printed totes. However Norwood took these two basic ideas, added a bit of Velcro, and presto, a brand new product idea is launched that is going to get your brand noticed in a hurry.

To be honest it took me a moment to get this concept. Really this is just a set of three bags, right?

Wrong. What the Recycling Bin Tote Set really accomplishes is a portable recycling station and a very smart promotional idea for any Ecopreneurist targeting office workers, parks, college dorms, any area where people collect in small groups.

Think about it, what does a dorm or office really need to kick start a recycling program? First step is a place to put the materials to be recycled. The three bags in the Recycling Bin Tote Set come pre-printed with the text PAPER (green tote), METAL (orange tote), PLASTIC (blue tote). Easy to understand.

Then - here is the genius - they attach to each other with Velcro on the top outer edge of each tote. And presto you have an instant recycle station, branded with your logo, for any indoor or outdoor space. The PAPER, METAL, PLASTIC text is even in multiple languages for that whole act local, think global ideal, and each tote is pre-printed with a symbol of the recyclable for that bag.

Each tote is a huge 11-3/8″w x 16-1/4″h x 11-1/4″d in size, with a 8″w x 6-1/2″h imprint area on the orange center tote only. Each set can also connect to another set since the Velcro runs the outside of the totes as well, so setting up multiple sets as needed is possible. And of course the fact they connect makes the totes freestanding as well.

Say you are an eco lodge that does picnics on your property, but away from the main building. Set up the picnic and then set out the Recycling Bin Tote Set. So you collect all the recyclables from the picnic, unlatch the Velcro, pick up the individual totes for easy carriage to your main recycling center. Done.

Repeat this idea at the college dorm-room, office meeting room, home, etc. Genius.

At EQP of $10.89 per set, wherever the Recycling Bin Tote Set is setup, there stands your logo as well, telling the crowds who is providing this great on-the-fly service (and yes they also make very nice shopping totes).

If you are an ASI distributor MarkGoldring is the contact to talk to at Norwood about this great idea. If you are interested in the Recycling Bin Tote Set to promote your own business contact your local promotional items vendor or email info@proformagreen.com for information and pricing.

DE bottle refund law: Mend it, don’t end it, say advocates

Dave Dempsey — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:28:14 +0000

A volunteer poses with the bottles and cans collected at a Massachusetts watershed cleanup.

A month after the governor of Delaware proposed dumping the state’s beverage container refund law in favor of a new tax for community recycling, in-state and national environmental groups have come out against the recommendation. Delaware is one of 11 states that has a law providing for beverage container refunds, which are strongly opposed by the beverage industry and some beverage retailers.

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Obsessed with the Magic of Chickens

Rhonda Winter — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:52:01 +0000

I met several lovely chickens yesterday when I was in Oakland, and I am now quite smitten. They are truly engrossing creatures to observe; the animal’s social behavior is very complex, their vocalizations are both soothing and fascinating, to say nothing of the delicious fresh eggs they provide. More and more urban chickens are being raised in cities, as increasing numbers of people are growing their own food and trying to create a more locally-based, sustainable and self-sufficient food supply.

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Recycled Military Jackets from Burning Torch

Susanna Schick — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:00:53 +0000

A fresh new take on the military look is having a very strong moment, as seen on the runways of Paris, Milan, and New York this season. However, Burning Torch has been doing gorgeous recycled military surplus for years now. The white jacket above is made from surplus “snow camo.” It’s from their Spring 2010 collection in stores soon. I think it would look fabulous with the Killspencer bags we featured last month.

Gluten-free Squash Pancakes

Rachel Shulman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:57:41 +0000

I recently stumbled upon a great recipe for Spaghetti Squash Pancakes from Mollie Katzen’s book, The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without. It’s a winner. Although the original recipe calls for spaghetti squash (quite delicious) and gives the option of using all-purpose flour or rice flour, the recipe can accommodate any kind of squash and a variety of gluten-free flours. The topping possibilities are also endless, giving you the option to play with flavor combinations. Happy eating!

Recipe for Gluten-free Squash Pancakes (adapted from Mollie Katzen’s The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without):

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Owning the View: Pebble Beach Company

John Ivanko — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:02:30 +0000

I can appreciate Walt Disney World copyrighting their park. After all, they’re largely responsible for just about every inch of it, from the sculpted bushes to human-engineered lakes and waterways. Obviously, it’s well established that biotech companies currently have every right to own and patent new forms of life.

But when I was passing through Pebble Beach on the spectacular Monterey Peninsula of California, a friend mentioned that I could NOT photograph nature should it ever be used for some commercial purpose. In essence, every inch of the natural area, including the coastal ocean frontage, was owned and copyrighted by the Pebble Beach Company — thus my jarring red line through an otherwise brilliant image of nature’s beauty. Thousands of happy-camera-clicking tourists — many of whom make deposits to enter the grounds or eat at the upscale restaurants in the area — end up capturing images of the famous “Lone Cypress” tree. Some of these photos, my guess, will end up on Flickr or in Wikipedia. At that point, anyone can “borrow” them for their own uses, commercial or otherwise. Funny, since the Pebble Beach Company brochure actually proclaims that the Lone Cypress is one of “California’s most familiar landmarks…inspir[ing] countless artists, photographers and sightseers.” Just don’t share them with anyone.

So should a company be able to copyright a view of nature for which it was not directly responsible for planting or otherwise creating?

Perhaps the Pebble Beach Company should consider the California Coastal Commission’s report related to public access for an insight less motivated by greed:

“The California Coast is a place of magnificent vistas and seemingly endless beauty. It seems
to define who we are and what this State is all about. Anyone, no matter who he is and
how much or how little he has, can partake of this beauty. The California coast belongs to
us all. It sustains a remarkable variety and abundance of life. It fires the imagination, inspires
creative expression, and offers sanctuary to body and soul.”

So what’s next, charging us for the air we breathe as we pass by a park or preserve (trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, which we then breathe)?

What ever happened to the idea of sharing the commons? Must everything be reduced to dollars and cents?

Fab Fabrics: Organic Prints from FLUF

Becky Striepe — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:00:02 +0000

Canadian duo Nathalie Butterfield and Terra Kushner launched their fabric line when they were frustrated with the limited selection of sustainable fabrics.

Nathalie talks about how their company evolved:

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Mann is Off the Hook, So Let’s Look at the Real Crime [Video of Mann]

Zachary Shahan — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:47:57 +0000

Michael Mann, the somewhat infamous climate scientist from Penn State, shouldn’t be so infamous after all, we find out yet another time!

“An academic inquiry into the so-called ‘climategate’ email scandal has concluded that a well-known U.S. scientist [Mann] did not directly or indirectly falsify data in his research,” according to Mike De Souza of the National Post.

The investigation made it very clear (as other peer-reviewed analyses have done) that Mann’s “trick,” so horribly taken out of context and demonized by anti-science media and followers, was nothing unscientific, misleading or to be concerned about.

“They were not falsifying data,” said the report. “They were trying to construct an understandable graph for those who were not experts in the field. The so-called ‘trick’ was nothing more than a statistical method used to bring two or more different kinds of data sets together in a legitimate fashion by a technique that has been reviewed by a broad array of peers in the field.”

Furthermore, the report went on to praise Mann for how he dealt with this greatly unfounded skepticism and criticism of his scientific work. “The report praised Dr. Mann for his ‘composure’ and ‘forthright response’ to all questions, finding no evidence that he had attempted to hide or destroy information, emails or data from his research. It also cleared him of allegations of misusing any privileged or confidential information he had access to as an academic scholar.”

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Frigidaire vs. Method et al in the Epic Battle for Clean Dishes

Susanna Schick — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:45:44 +0000

The Culprit:

Frigidaire Ultra-Quiet (but louder than my old Bosch) III

The Contenders:

A selection of readily-available eco dishwasher detergents

Having just moved into a lovely apartment with a brand new high-efficiency, low-water use dishwasher built in, I was really looking forward to just loading it up and letting it sit for 3 days until full, like I always do. This dishwasher is being compared against three others. One is a very cheap baseline model, another is over 10 years old, and the third is a brand new Bosch I used for a few years before moving.

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Ecogear Praises Recycled and Nixes Bamboo

Delia Montgomery — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:08:59 +0000

Ecogear apparels are made from 100% recycled material. The company was founded early 2008 by Robert Hii, who is a 25-year fashion veteran with a passion to create clothing with only slight impacts on our planet.

Robert says it took more than a year to complete their ecowear collections as the most eco-friendly clothing in existence. His team went through lots of different materials and processes to conclude one without a cesspool of chemicals to produce and dispose. Besides the usual organic cotton and hemp, they investigated bamboo.

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