Tag: trash

America's Effort, Global Impact, Individual Change

Editable and Package Free Water Bottles!

Taylor Houghton

Editable and Package Free Water Bottles… Say what??

Are you thirsty but trying to reduce your use of plastic? Look no further. Scientists have come up with a package free and editable way to drink water. “‘Ooho’ by Skipping Rocks Lab is an edible water bottle created out of 100% biodegradable brown algae that is an environmental-friendly alternative to plastic bottles.” They are also developing colored ones or ones that have taste to them!

Image result for edible water bottle

How you drink it: 

It is a very simple process. All you have to do is peel the film/skin around the edible water and pop it in your mouth.

The editable water bottles are being tested at certain sporting events. It’s something very simple that you can just pick up and go and then just pop it in your mouth. This will help us eliminate plastic water bottles for good! They will be coming to the market soon! Keep your eyes pealed for them! I am very interested in trying one of these. My only concern is having them pop in my backpack or something. Because it has a skin that you have to peal before you drink it, it makes me think it won’t. I will let you know if I get the chance to try one!

 

Check out this video below! 

Individual Change

Living Waste Free: Guide

Taylor Houghton

Living waste free may seem impossible but it’s not… Trashisfortossers.com gives a great guild to follow:

Image result for living waste free

ESTABLISH YOUR “WHY?”

This is important so you you ever need some motivation too keep going, think of your why! Trashistossers tells us some reasons could be:

Are you a surfer who hates seeing plastic wash up on the beach?

Image result for WHAT IS YOUR WHY

Have you experienced a health scare or issue after using a beauty product containing toxins?

Are you tired of spending $6 on a latte every single day?

Are you fed up with our political leaders not giving a damn about climate change?

Write it on your mirror, tattoo it on your bicep – always come back to you WHY.

Assess Your Waste:

Notice where your making the most waste. Notice what it is and how you can prevent this. Take it one step at a time, baby steps are good and won’t overwhelm you.

PRIORITIZE:

Start changing your everyday ways. Maybe instead of going out or buy coffee from a shop, make your lunch and coffee at home with reusable containers. It can be overwhelming to look at the trash you make but focus on one area at a time, it can be possible!

Replace your items as they run out:Image result for dont throw everything away

You don’t need to go out a buy all your products in zero waste right away. It can be very costly. A good idea is to wait until your products run out then replace them with a zero waste product. Throwing away your product that your not finished using up can be just as wasteful.

RESEARCH HOW TO PROPERLY RECYCLE OLD ITEMS, DONATE, SELL OR UP-CYCLE THEM:

 

 

Don’t just throw away all your old items in the trash. There are ways to property depose of them by recycling,

Image result for recycle and donate

composting, etc. You can find ways to reuse old items, donate them, or give them as a gift. As long as they don’t end up in landfills that is all that matters. If your really struggling what to do with something, look in to the TerraCycle program. They have come up with a solution to recycle just about everything you could think of!

REMEMBER: IT’S A PROCESS!

This is going to take time. It could take up to a year to fully go waste free. Be patient. And don’t give up!

“Everyone’s zero waste journey is different. So never compare yourself to other people. Get inspiration from them, communicate with other zero waste-ers in the process when you have questions or concerns, be supported by other people – not intimidated.”Image result for live waste free dont give up

 

America's Effort, Global Impact, Individual Change

11 Facts about Recycling

Taylor Houghton

On a previous blog post I talked about what can and cannot be recycled. I can across this neat website! They gave such interesting facts about recycling I had to share!! Image result for recycling

11 Facts about Recycling:

  1. The average person generates over 4 pounds of trash every day and about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year.
  2. Americans make more than 200 million tons of garbage each year, enough to fill Busch Stadium from top to bottom twice a day. Next time you’re at a sporting event or tailgate, host a trash-free tailgate using only recyclable materials sign up for Trash-Free Tailgate.
  3. The EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.
  4. We generate 21.5 million tons of food waste each year. If we composted that food, it would reduce the same amount of greenhouse gas as taking 2 million cars off the road.
  5. Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to listen to a full album on your iPod. Recycling 100 cans could light your bedroom for two whole weeks. Sign up for 5 Cans Challenge to save energy and show off your creative side.
  6. The Container Recycling Institute (CRI) estimates that the 36 billion aluminum cans land filled last year had a scrap value of more than $600 million.
  7. Americans throw away about 28 billion bottles and jars every year.
  8. Over 87% of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs.
  9. In 2009, Americans threw away almost 9 million tons of glass. That could fill enough tractor trailers to stretch from NYC to LA (and back!).
  10. In 2010, paper recycling had increased over 89% since 1990.
  11. A glass container can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in as few as 30 days.Image result for recycling the world

Be the change! Recycle! This may be something small that you are doing but it makes a BIG difference!!! Image result for recycling the world

The link is below:

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-recycling

America's Effort, Global Impact

Do other Countries Recycle better than the US?

Taylor Houghton

Recycling in the US had become more and more common as the years come. I don’t remember recycling when I was little. Now, I don’t see a house in my neighborhood that doesn’t recycle. My family even adapted to the system as well. They have now have a indoor recycling bin when before they didn’t. I also remember everyone have different sizes of garbage bins. I may be wrong but I believe it is so the garbage truck can pick up the can easier. Also, at the same time, they also distributed recycle bins. I think that is truly when my family started to recycle and so did the rest of the US.Image result for recycling bins on road

Image result for recyclingTwice as many Americans recycle now, verse 20 years ago. According to IPSOS survey, younger generation’s poor recycling habits compares to 57% of adults of 55 years and older. But… that same survey found that college graduates recycle slightly higher than the average US. I was happy to hear this because college graduates are our future generations. I am soon to be a college graduate and I’d like to think my fellow classmates are taking notice on our environment. I think we are more inform today, then we were in the past. There is hope. I’m glad that recycling has become more prominent in the United States, but thankfully we are not the only country who is. There are actually other countries that recyclable better than us! In fact, the US doesn’t even make the top 10 list.

 

TOP 10 Countries that Recycle

1. Austria is the first country on the list. They have the highest rate out of any other country in the world. 63% of their waste is diverted from

landfills!! They have kept this high rating for the past decade! That’s impressive Austria! Keep it up!

2. Germany comes in a close second with 62% of their waste being diverted from landfills!

3. Taiwan– 60%

4. Cairo– alternate approach

5. Egypt-alternate approach

6. Brazil-alternate approach

7. Singapore– 59%

8. South Korea– 49%

9. United Kingdom– 39%

10. Italy-36%

11. France-35% (Number 11 but very close to Italy).

Now if we look at the United States we only divert 34.3 percent of waste. We as Americans generate about 254 million tons of trash and recycled and composted about 87 million tons of this material. We generate about 4.40 pounds of waste per person per day. Now if you ask me, that’s a lot of waste! On the other hand we recycle and compost about 1.51 pounds of that waste. That’s less than half. We can do better. Image result for recycling in us

Although, America has come a long way from where they started. I believe are efforts have just begun. When my grand-kid’s kids are born, my hope is that the trend continues and the United States strides of recycling continue to increase and our waste in landfill decreases. This will be a positive development! The world is taking notice.

Below are two interesting videos that I found about other countries recycling! Check them out!!! 

Recycling in Norway: Recycling = $$… watch below to find out why! 

 

Sweden is so good at recycling, their taking other people’s trash?? Watch below to find out! 

Sweden recycles

Sweden is so damn good at recycling, it just ran out of trash.

Posted by Mic on Thursday, December 15, 2016