how old is that apple core?

One of our favourite sites - Ideal Bite - has a tip on taking a load off our landfills.

Did you know that regular plastic bags not only take ages to decompose, but that they actually PRESERVE what's inside?

Ideal Bite advocates the switch to biodegradable bags, which cost a little more, but are just as strong, and biodegrade in as little as 10 days -- finally allowing those food scraps to decompose!

For all you Canadians, Grassroots sells BioBag kitchen bags on their site, which are certified 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable bags made from corn.

terracycle's goal: eliminate waste

Even if you haven't picked up a bottle of woom poop yet, no doubt you've heard of terracycle.

It all started in 2001 when two Princeton University students set out to change the way people do business. Inspired by a box of worms, these students had a dream: a company could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible.

Co-founders Tom Szaky and Jon Beyer were determined to turn the worm box concept into a real-life, commercially viable process. That summer, they developed prototype equipment and proved their concept was feasible by reprocessing solid waste from dining halls at Princeton University.

The company's flagship product, TerraCycle Plant Food™, is an all-natural, all-organic, 'goof-proof' liquid plant food made from waste (worm poop) and packaged in waste (reused soda bottles)!

Visit their site or read about some cool new products they have in the works - like paper made from elephant poop - from ecopreneurist.com

To China With Plastic

Okay, so it's not exactly a great title for the next James Bond flick, but it does describe what happens to some of our "unrecycleable" plastics after we chuck them into the bluebox.

It recently came out in the wash that a large amount of the plastics collected by municipal recycling programs are wrapped up and sold to Chinese interests rather than being processed right here in North America. To add fuel to the controversy, it also happens that these plastics are sold to China at a loss, leaving taxpayers on the hook for the bulk of the collection and sorting costs. With all the other issues about Chinese products and standards in the news these days it would be natural to jump onto a high horse and proclaim once and for all that China is an irresponsible industrial nation. But don't get that horse out of the barn yet. The deeper you look into this story the more blurry it gets in terms of fault.

Many municiplities simply choose to landfill their mixed plastics - those that have no market for resale in North America - rather than bother to sort them at all. It turns out few markets exists where these plastics can be sold. With homegrown mixed-plastic recycling efforts having so far failed, the choices seem to be landfill it cheaply or sell it to Asia at a loss. Greenpeace condemns the export choice and advocates instead for a domestic recycling program. Politicians and businessmen say it just isn't profitable to recycle mixed plastics in today's marketplace.

It looks to me like an opportunity. Surely someone out there - and I mean North America - has the smarts or courage or plain old good morals (backed by money, of course) to champion a market for our bastard plastics. Or maybe the packagers need to be involved at the front end to ensure less of this stuff hits the curb in the first place. There are solutions in them-there hills of garbage....

It's not all bad news. The vast majority of stuff we attempt to recycle does find a profitable home. But is that enough? No, we can always do better. And wouldn't it feel good to not blame China for our problems....

Read the article for a more in-depth look at this issue:

http://news.therecord.com/article/233153