Posts Tagged ‘recycling’


San Francisco embraces aggressive recycling law

June 1st, 2010 by chelsea

In San Francisco, trash is the exception — not the rule.

The city approved an aggressive recycling law more than a year ago that required homeowners, business owners and residents to spearate food from trash to improve composting, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Most received the law with kicking and screaming, but the goal of removing compost from landfills and incinerators by 2020 prevailed.

“People are dealing with it just fine,” said the spokseman for the City’s environmental department in the article. “For most people, the green composting bin is just another part of life in San Francisco.”

The amount of scraps collected in April is up 22 percent from that time last year — and more than 63 percent of residents and 75 percent of the city’s restaurants are in compliance.

Things happen when we’re all on board!

 


Photo via sfgate.com




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Orange County business gives old surfboards a second chance

March 30th, 2010 by chelsea

Beat up and broken surfboards get to ride a second tide in a new life with an Orange County business’ surfboard recycling program.

Green Foam Blanks is a San Clemente firm committed to turning old or used polyurethane foam found in surfboards into pavement or new foam blanks for surfboards, according to an article in the Orange County Register. Santley and Steve Cox, founders of Green Foam Blanks, decided to start the business as a part of a green effort to clean up some of the waste inherent in the surfing industry, the article said.

Their first experiment to prove it could work? Creating an asphalt sample with 10 percent recycled surfboard material. Since 2009, they’ve been using this material to produce their Green Foam Boards.

“It just looks like a dirty blank, but it shapes great,” Santley said.

Sounds like a smooth ride.

Photo via greenfoamblanks.blogspot.com/

Photo via ocregister.com

 

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L.A. provides recycling incentive: money

February 25th, 2010 by chelsea

In L.A., recycling is a labor of love — and a profitable pastime.

L.A. RecycleBank is a pilot program to encourage residents to recycle more beer bottles, newspapers, cardboard, etc. The payoff? Points for every filled blue bin, which can add up to as much as $400, according to an article in the L.A. times.

Roughly 65 percent of L.A. residents already live by the three ‘R’s.’ Now the city is is going for “zero waste,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in the article. The program will begin with about 15,000 single-family homes who are eligible.

Being green never paid so well.

Photo via recyclebank.com

Photo via recyclebank.com
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Portland sees half-empty paint cans as half-full.

August 28th, 2009 by chelsea

Portland is stirring things up – setting a new trend for paint recycling.

In Metro’s paint sorting room workers pry open used cans and pour the goo down a similar-colored sink, stirring tints for a more colorful future. Since 1992, Metro has collected leftover paint as part of the hazardous waste program, according to an article in the Oregonian.

Now MetroPaint remixes and sells the latex paint, making up roughly 4 percent of paint sales in Portland since 1999. “The batch to batch consistency is pretty amazing,” said Dearborn, Miller Paint’s CEO. “They may not have the color accuracy we would strive for and deliver, but in certain applications it’s very good.”

In Portland, the three R’s have taken on new meaning: Reduce, Remix and Re-paint.

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