By MJ Deschamps

With fast fashion and quick turnover key commercial ingredients of today’s garment and apparel industry, excess textile production is prompting the sector to gravitate towards more recycling and re-use of materials, to conserve energy, increase sustainability and lower raw material costs.

“Fast fashion and low-quality production results in consumers valuing garments less, and disposing of clothing more often,” says Caroline Bartlett, technical consultant at UK research and consulting firm Oakdene Hollins.

As of 2009, she explains, Britain alone consumed more than 2m tonnes of textiles; around half of which was clothing. About 1.1m tonnes of that ended up in the municipal waste stream with just 500,000 tonnes recovered in some way, either through reuse or recycling.

Looking at the European Union (EU) as a whole, around 14m tonnes of textile waste is currently generated per year, of which just 5m tonnes are recovered, and three-quarters of that reused, according to Bartlett.

In the US, the waste situation is even worse: consumers recycle only 15% of all clothing and textiles, which means that more than 21bn pounds of post-consumer garments that could be recycled, instead wind up in landfills or incinerators, according to the US-based but international Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART).

Recycling textiles instead of disposing of them as waste can make a significant environmental impact, according to British environmental charity Waste Watch. For example, if everyone in the UK bought one reclaimed woollen garment each year, it would save an average of 371m gallons of water, and 480 tonnes of chemical dyestuffs, it argues.

Reclaiming fibres helps to avoid polluting and energy intensive processes that are often needed to make textiles from virgin materials, including savings on energy consumption and water conservation.

According to research by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) it takes an average of 8,500 litres of water to grow one kilo of cotton lint, which is enough to make just one pair of jeans.

“Textile production is very resource intensive, with significant energy, water and chemical requirements,” says Bartlett. “Consumers are buying and disposing of huge volumes of clothing, and…do not see most of the impacts the production of our clothing has.”

Collecting and re-processing
So, with the evident benefits of textile recycling schemes, many companies and organisations are placing great emphasis on second-hand textile collecting and re-processing. Textile banks, for example, are widespread in the UK, contributing to Britain’s high collection and recycling rates.

Social action group the Salvation Army operates 2,000 textile banks in Britain alone, donating clothing to the homeless and selling them in charity shops, with un-wearable items being sold to merchants to be recycled.

Unsold or un-wearable clothing often get sent to Oxfam’s textile recycling plant Wastesaver, in England, where clothes are sold as raw materials to the textile recycling industry. Currently, the facility sorts 80 tonnes of clothing a week into around 100 different grades, depending on garment type, condition, style and fabric – although the service was hit by a fire last year.

In Germany, the SOEX Group is one of the world’s largest shoe and textile recyclers, collecting over 100,000 tonnes of used clothes and shoes a year, with its Wolfen-based plant capable of processing up to 600,000 pounds of clothing a day.

The plant’s sophisticated technology is able to select specific ingredients, such as clothing made only from wool, cotton and acrylic, while a special mixing unit is capable of customising combinations, such as wool and silk blends only, for example.

In the theme of zero waste, if some of the goods are deemed too worn to be resold during the sorting process, they are sent to the plant’s recycling facility where they are turned into new, marketable products such as insulation for the automobile industry.

While wearable textiles can be resold, unwearable ones also have important uses, and can be shredded for fillers in things such as car insulation and furniture padding, while woollen garments, for example, can be sold to specialist firms to make yarn or fabric.

According to SMART, 95% of all clothing and household textiles can actually be recycled or repurposed, with the 5% that does have to be disposed of as rubbish consisting of garments either wet, mildewed or contaminated with oil, paint or another hazardous material.

Steps by high street brands and retailers
So, with textile recycling initiatives and awareness growing, some of the main sources of waste are beginning to make a shift. In 2010, for example, international fast-fashion company H&M recycled 1,600 tonnes of materials to create new garments, and in early 2011 the company also enacted a recycling cycle by transforming remnants from the production of its 2010 collection designed by French fashion house Lanvin into a new ‘Waste Collection’.

Some high street brands and retailers have taken strides forward, such as the UK’s Marks & Spencer, which haa partnered with Oxfam to offer vouchers to customers who take old M&S garments to an Oxfam shop for donation.

And while textile recycling initiatives are, of course, largely beneficial for the environment, Clive Bilby, business development manager at UK textile recycling company Retrograde Ltd says the main driver behind the push towards recycling textiles is financial.

“As demand for raw materials and the cost of transportation increases, the financial incentive to use locally recycled materials has increased,” he explains, adding that he has seen first-hand evidence of textile recycling initiatives growing and expanding rapidly in recent years.

Over the last two years, for example, Retrograde has doubled the size of its operation every 12 months, also increasing the range of materials it can collect and recycle for its clients.

Jackie King, on the other hand, executive director of SMART, thinks consumers are the primary driving force behind recycling clothing and textiles. “As people become more environmentally conscious, they are seeking more and more options for recycling all types of products,” she says.

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Either way, what is certain is that textile recycling going forward is vital: “The recycling of goods will become an ever more critical source of raw manufacturing materials as ‘virgin’ raw materials become more-and-more scarce in the future,” King adds.

Spalding Hospital sits on Boston Harbor in Charlestown. (Photo: Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

In an effort to stabalize energy costs hospitals nationwide are investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Host Steve Curwood checks out the innovative design of the new Spaulding hospital with John Messervy Director of Capital and Facilities Planning for Partners’ HealthCare.

Transcript

CURWOOD: Generally the best way to reduce carbon pollution and emissions is to use less energy, and the dividends can add up fast for big buildings. Consider the health care sector, which is almost a fifth of the national economy. Hospitals and clinics are the second most intensive users of energy after the food service industry and contribute roughly 8% of US global warming gas emissions. Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm, says it’s no surprise that hospitals use so much energy.

COHEN: Well, they operate 24/7. They have a lot of electronic equipment and they continue to get more electronic equipment. More MRIs, more robotics… all of these are enormous energy users.

CURWOOD: So, we spend one out of five bucks on health care and it’s one out of say 12 electrons on health care.

COHEN: That’s why focusing on the healthcare sector as the wedge sector in society to lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a really smart strategy. We need to have health care institutions be models for climate preparedness and climate resiliency so that in an extreme weather event maybe the hospital or the clinic is the one place with reliable power to keep medicines refrigerated because they’re using renewable energy.

It may be the one place in times of extreme flooding that has water filtration so that everyone can get clean water. So we need to rethink hospitals as anchors for healthier communities and not just being centers for disease management.

[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS]

CURWOOD: On the shore of Boston Harbor, Partners, one of the nation’s leading health care providers, is incorporating conservation and the strategy of climate resilience in the replacement for its Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

And when Partners Healthcare decided to construct the new Spaulding at harbor side, projected sea level rise was part of their design. John Messervy is director of capital and facilities planning at Partners Healthcare.

[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS CONTINUE]

John Messervy (Photo: Steve Curwood)

MESSERVY: The sea level change is a concern and we responded in a couple of different ways. The ground floor of the building is set approximately 30 inches above the 500 year storm level and that may seem like a low probability of encountering a 500 year storm. In fact we’ve had three 100-year storms in the past couple of decades. So, they are coming.

[WALKING SOUNDS]

CURWOOD: As we walk through the construction site up to the nearly completed 8-story building, a massive cluster of generators and other heavy electrical gear on top in a penthouse is visible all the way from the ground.

MESSERVY: We’ve raised most of our sensitive electrical equipment and phone system and generating equipment up to the penthouse. In the name of providing a resilient environment for the continuance of health care services in the middle of a storm that’s what we ended up doing and I think you’ll see more and more hospitals and other buildings following suit. If you’re on the water front you need to protect electronic equipment and otherwise you’re going to be out of business.

[BACKGROUND CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS CONTINUE]

CURWOOD: Led by Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners Healthcare is the largest network of clinicians and hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. Back in 2008 when energy price hikes blew a 40 million dollar hole in their budget, Partners set a goal of reducing its energy use by 25 percent. They also set about incorporating the latest green building concepts throughout their network and plan to build remote solar farms to help power their system.

[JACK HAMMER]

CURWOOD: The new Spaulding is being built in Charlestown on land reclaimed from an abandoned boat yard not far from Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution, the world’s oldest commissioned warship.

MESSERVY: We’re using a lot of the found materials on site. Granite and old ships’ timbers because this after all was a ship building community here in Charlestown so we found a lot of live-oak timbers that are being used both for site furniture and also refinished and being used inside the building.

[WALKING SOUNDS INTO TRAILER]

MESSERVY: Let’s go into the construction trailer, get hard hats then we can go inside the building.

MESSERVY: (Converses with hard hat distributors)… hello… how are you? Fine. Came to get a couple of hard hats. Is that tight enough for you? Let’s see here – screw the knob on back and you’re all set.

CURWOOD: We step inside the ground floor where workers are putting the finishing touches on a huge atrium that looks out onto a large plaza at the water’s edge.

[HAMMER SOUNDS]

MESSERVY: The design of the new Spalding took into account a lot of opportunities that we were presented with by the site. It’s essentially out at the end of a peninsula in the Charlestown navy yard. It gets a lot of sun. So we’ve designed the building to be quite thin and long so the sun can penetrate deeply into the space and reduce the amount of artificial light that we need.

CURWOOD: Patients can spend a lot of time in a rehabilitation hospital, and natural light with views of nature have been shown to improve the quality of recovery. We take an elevator see some of the almost finished patient rooms.

[ELEVATOR BEEPS, WALKING SOUNDS]

CURWOOD: We’re on the 8th floor of this new hospital you’re building, Spalding. And we’re looking out at Boston Harbor, this is an amazing view. I mean this is prime real estate. Hospital, here?

MESSERVY: Well, you know, it’s an interesting story. We wanted to stay in the city of Boston and there are very few sites available in the city these days. This site was available that the city owned and unfortunately it was contaminated. And once we started digging and testing we found a lot of chemicals that we had to remove so let’s say it was a discounted site and we paid for the cleanup. But it was worth it because it is a spectacular view and the patients and staff are going to find this to be a wonderful location for their work and recuperation.

CURWOOD: So, what are the things you do to cut energy in a hospital system?

MESSERVY: Well, some of them are really pretty dumb. You know, it’s turning off heat and air in rooms that are not occupied at different times of the day. And that is producing a significant savings. I’d say 40% of the savings that we’re realizing are coming from reducing temperature and air changes in unoccupied spaces such as operating rooms in particular.

CURWOOD: So, you’re on your way to a 25% reduction in the carbon footprint in the Partner’s Health Care system. What’s that worth in terms of dollars each year?

MESSERVY: For us it’s worth about 16 million dollars to reduce our energy consumption by 25% and we hope to go further than that as we get more involved in renewables and we hope to continue to drive those costs down at the same time as we implement more cogeneration facilities, combined heat and power facilities across the hospitals that will also realize another 25% or so savings over the power that we’re buying now.

Our return is about 3.7 years on the investments we’re making in conservation so they’re very rapid. As our CFO likes to say where else can I invest my money and realize a 27% return?

CURWOOD: So, you’re saving energy. You’re a health care company. How does this help save lives?

MESSERVY: Well, it saves lives by reducing our carbon emissions. In terms of our energy use and our carbon footprint, because we are such a large energy user we are emitting large amounts of particulates. The impact on the population is through conditions such as asthma, emphysema and other conditions. We are indirectly contributing to 10 million dollars worth of health care costs through our carbon emissions.

CURWOOD: And lost lives.

MESSERVY: And lost lives, that’s right.

[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS]

CURWOOD: John Messervy of Partners Healthcare says construction will continue until the new Spaulding is ready for patients in April of 2013.

[CONSTRUCTION SOUNDS FADE OUT]

CURWOOD: Gary Cohen of Health Care without Harm says sustainable hospitals are a national trend.

COHEN: Hospitals all round the country and around the world are moving towards sustainability as a core business strategy and energy efficiency is one of those core planks. Health Care Without Harm and our membership organization, Practice Green Health, and 12 other hospital systems around the country, have launched a sector-wide initiative called the Healthier Hospital Initiative.

At the moment there are 500 hospitals that are sponsors of this initiative. We’ve been able to recruit another 200 hospitals and our goal is to reach 2,000 hospitals to enroll in the Healthier Hospitals initiative, which would represent one third of all the hospitals in the country. And so we are working with many, many hospitals around the country to have health care lead the movement for a sustainable development within the frame work of their mission to do no harm.

CURWOOD: Gary Cohen of Health Care Without Harm. He says that if you don’t have a clean and green health care facility near you like the new Spaulding, you likely soon will.

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University of Guelph researcher Atsuko Negishi is investigating a novel and unlikely source of natural fibres that may one day lessen our dependence on petroleum: hagfish slime.

The textile industry needs an affordable, sustainable alternative to oil-based polymers, and a recent study shows that hagfish slime protein threads have the potential to be spun and woven into novel biomaterials.

Hagfishes are an ancient group of eel-like, bottom-dwelling animals that have remained relatively unchanged for more than 300 million years. When threatened, hagfishes secrete a gelatinous slime containing mucous and tens of thousands of protein threads. These threads belong to the “intermediate filament” family of proteins, and they have remarkable mechanical properties that rival those of spider silks.

“The way spiders produce their silks is complex, and spiders cannot be farmed to yield high quantities of silk,” said Negishi, a research assistant in the Department of Integrative Biology. “My research explores the potential of making high strength protein-based fibres using hagfish slime thread proteins rather than spider silk proteins.”

Negishi is the lead author on a new paper about producing both fibres and films from the protein component of hagfish slime. Her co-authors are integrative biology professors Douglas Fudge and Todd Gillis, food science professor Loong-Tak Lim, and scientists from McMaster and Dalhousie universities.

“Our previous research showed that the protein threads in hagfish slime have remarkable mechanical properties,” Fudge said. “In this paper, Atsuko has shown that it’s possible to make macroscopic materials using proteins isolated from hagfish slime threads. This work is just the beginning of our efforts to apply what we have learned from animals like hagfishes to the challenge of making high-performance materials from sustainable protein feedstocks.”

The researchers isolated protein threads from hagfish slime and purified them before spinning them into fibres.

Protein concentrations lower than five per cent yielded films that were too fragile to make fibres. Fibres with higher protein concentration showed useful material properties. These fibres could be a first step toward using hagfish slime threads to make high-performance textiles from intermediate filament proteins.

The researchers plan to study spinning of fibres from slime thread proteins to scale up production. They also plan to look at other intermediate filament proteins for new ways to make sustainable materials for medicine and industry.

The study was supported by a grant from the Advanced Foods and Materials Network and an Ontario Early Researcher Award to Fudge.

The study is available online.

Contact:
Atsuko Negishi
Department of Integrated Biology
University of Guelph
519-824-4120, Ext. 53985
negishia@uoguelph.ca

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Sims Municipal RecyclingChildren from P.S. 63 in the East Village exploring the Recyclarium’s exhibits on disposal and sorting on Tuesday.

As a state-of-the-art recycling plant rises in Brooklyn, a mobile educational space known as the Recyclariumwill be making the rounds this fall to give young New Yorkers a taste of what’s coming.

The trailer, revealed on Tuesday at P.S. 63 in the East Village, offers exhibits and interactive games that explain the ins and outs of recycling, from disposing of the materials properly to processing what eventually emerges as the recycled product. The city’s schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, was on hand for the affair, which also featured a composting event.

The trailer accommodates 10 to 15 children at a time and takes about 30 minutes to explore.

As for the new recycling plant, officials with Sims Metal Management Municipal Recycling, the company that recycles the city’s metal, glass and plastic, say it will open on the waterfront in Sunset Park and include an education center with classroom space to promote recycling.

The city’s Department of Sanitation is paying the costs of the Recyclarium in the hope of spreading the idea of minimizing trash to children and young adults. Recycling is far less ingrained in New York City than it is in cities like San Francisco or Seattle.

The department also recently created the position of deputy commissioner to help the Bloomberg administration meet its goal of doubling the city’s recycling rate of 15 percent by 2017.

In addition to interactive games, the trailer presents dozens of recycling facts. Among the factoids: New Yorkers throw away 146,200 tons of glass per year. If all of it were recycled into sand, it would be enough to fill 718 sand volleyball courts, one for each elementary school in the city.

Article courtesy of MIREYA NAVARRO with the NYtimes http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/on-the-move-a-recyclarium-for-new-york/?utm_source=Kazi+Media+Group&utm_medium=Kazi+Media+Group

View full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/02/barrington-ri-plastic-bag-ban_n_1732887.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000040

BARRINGTON, R.I. (AP) — Answering the question ‘paper or plastic’ could get a lot easier in one Rhode Island town if local leaders support a call to ban plastic shopping bags.

Hundreds of residents and more than a dozen business owners in Barrington are pushing to scrap the sacks, which they say take up valuable landfill space and litter streets, streams and shorelines. But critics — including an alliance of plastic bag manufacturers — say prohibiting the ubiquitous bags would only reduce consumers’ options while doing nothing to help the environment.

The Barrington Town Council voted on Monday to direct the town’s solicitor to draft a proposed ban. The move follows a recommendation by the town’s Conservation Commission to prohibit plastic shopping bags to encourage shoppers to bring their own reusable bag. Under that recommendation, shoppers could also purchase paper bags for 5 cents each.

“It wouldn’t be a big deal to me,” said Linda Alves, who was shopping for home office supplies Wednesday in Barrington, an affluent town 20 minutes from Providence. Alves opened the trunk of her car and pulled out two reusable bags. “I have so many of these things, who needs the plastic?”

San Francisco was the first U.S. city to ban plastic shopping bags back in 2007. Several cities have followed, including Los Angeles and Seattle. The bags are banned throughout Hawaii. Westport, Conn. is the only New England community with such a ban.

“It’s a matter of changing habits, and that’s not always easy,” said Jonathan Cunitz, a member of Westport’s Representative Town Meeting and an advocate for the ban, which went into effect in 2009. “But people are now more conscious of the environment and we don’t see plastic bags on the street or on our waterfront.”

But an organization founded by plastics manufacturers to fight proposed bans argues that outlawing the bags could threaten more than 30,000 plastic bag manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Donna Dempsey, spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based American Progressive Bag Alliance, said the plastic bag has gotten a bad rap.

Nine out of 10 consumers reuse plastic bags, Dempsey said, and would likely have to buy plastic bags if they’re no longer given out to shoppers. She said plastic bags require less energy to make than paper bags, and take up less space in landfills.

“Bans are not the way to deal with this,” she said. “It singles out an American-made product that is 100 percent recyclable. Recycling is the better way to address plastic bag litter.”

Barrington resident Diane St. Angela said she uses plastic shopping bags to clean up after her two cats.

“I use the plastic bags,” she said. “You shouldn’t litter, but I’m against a ban for practical reasons.”

More than 300 local residents have signed a petition in support of scrapping the plastic bags. The proposal also has the support of groups like Environment Rhode Island.

Fourteen business owners have signed a letter supporting the proposal. One was Holly Smith, owner of Hollies on the Avenue, a gift and home decor store. Smith said her store switched to paper bags a few years ago because they were cheaper and because they looked better.

“I cannot imagine that this would be a problem for small businesses,” she said. Smith predicted the ban could prove to be a boon if local businesses created reusable bags featuring their logo.

Town leaders said they haven’t heard from businesses that oppose the ban.

Town Council President June Speakman said the details of the proposed ban may change before the council votes on enacting it. A final vote isn’t expected until the fall. But she said she supports the general idea of reducing plastic bag use. “I’m in favor of using fewer plastic bags,” she said.

If Barrington enacts the ban, Environment Rhode Island may encourage state lawmakers to adopt a statewide policy prohibiting plastic shopping bags, according to Channing Jones, a field associate for the group.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to point to Barrington and say this has worked, and that no one is hurting because of it,” he said.

Walmart, Nike, Target, JC Penney, Levi’s and fellow members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition have unveiled the group’s index for measuring the environmental impact of apparel products across the supply chain.

The Higg Index is an indicator-based tool for apparel that allows clothing manufacturers and brands to evaluate material types, products, facilities and processes based on a range of environmental and product design choices.

This 1.0 version of the index was developed for apparel products and measures environmental outcomes in water use and quality; energy and greenhouse gas; waste; and chemicals and toxicity.

Future releases of the index, slated for 2013, will include footwear products and social and labor impact areas, the coalition said. The index eventually will be expanded to include quantitative data and metrics and feature an improved scoring method.

The current version of the Higg Index asks practice-based, qualitative questions to gauge environmental sustainability performance. It’s based on the Eco Index and Nike’s Apparel Environmental Design Tool. However, the Higg Index has been significantly enhanced through the pilot testing period, the coalition said.

The tool includes a Materials Sustainability Index, a cradle-to-gate assessment tool to give designers and the global supply chain information on the environmental sustainability of materials.

A group of 30 manufacturers and retailers launched theSustainable Apparel Coalition last year to improve the environmental and social performance of the apparel and footwear industry, from water consumption and chemical use to waste and embedded energy in products.

Last month, Nike partnered with Random Hacks of Kindness in the Open Challenge for Sustainable Materials, an initiative that asks apparel designers and developers to use sustainable materials listed on the Nike Sustainable Materials Index.

Article by Marc Gunther at Greenbiz.com: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/26/behind-scenes-sustainable-apparel-coalition?utm_source=E-News+from+GreenBiz&utm_campaign=21c7056b94-GreenBuzz-2012-27-07&utm_medium=email

The story of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition begins with a letter designed to get the attention of even a busy CEO. At the top: the logos of Walmart and Patagonia. John Fleming, who was then Walmart’s chief merchandising officer, and Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, signed the letter, which invited chief executives of some of the world’s biggest clothing companies–fierce competitors, ordinarily — to join together to develop an index to measure the environmental impact of their products.

Their pitch, in part, read like this:

Creating a single approach for measuring sustainability in the apparel sector will do much more than accelerate meaningful social and environmental change. Standardization will enable us to maximize sustainability benefits for all buyers without investing in multiple sustainability technologies and certification processes, and ultimately empower consumers to trust claims regarding sustainably sourced apparel.

Finally, as an industry, we will benefit from the unique opportunity to shape policy and create standards for measuring sustainability before government inevitably imposes one.

…The time is right and the need is great for the apparel sector to move forward now, without further delay, in unison, with strong partners like you.

It was a risky proposition. What if it turned out that a competing company had a better sustainability story to tell? Would consumers be given access to the index? NGOs? Regulators? Most big retailers knew that they had very little visibility deep into their supply chains. Did they really want to find out, for example, that a supplier to one of their suppliers, in a factory they had never visited in China or Vietnam, exploited workers or dumped pollution into a nearby river? Any meaningful index would require companies to ask tough questions and, eventually, face demands from others to share what they had learned.

The letter went out on October 1, 2009. Less than three years later, despite those risks, the apparel industry has made major progress towards creating a global sustainability index, the Higg Index, to measure and score products, factories and companies. A first version was released today by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the nonprofit group that developed the index.

Its vision? Nothing less than “an apparel and footwear industry that produces no unnecessary environmental harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities.” The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) hired an executive director, Jason Kibbey, in January, and today it has more than 60 members, representing brands, retailers and suppliers who together account for more than a third of the global apparel and footwear industry.

Consumers won’t see labels with scores attached to their T-shirts, dresses or sports jackets for years, but some companies are already using the tool to measure the energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, chemical use and waste of their factories around the world.

The coalition and the index mean to do more than drive incremental change, Jason Kibbey (below) told me when we spoke last week. “This is about industry transformation so everyone can benefit from reduced risk as well as efficiency,” he said.

How and why did the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and the Higg Index come together so quickly? To find out, I interviewed key players including Kibbey; Rick Ridgeway, the vice president of environmental initiatives at Patagonia and a member of the SAC’s board; Mary Fox, a former Walmart executive, who with Ridgeway got the coaliation going; Michelle Harvey of Environmental Defense Fund, a member of the group’s board; and John Whalen, a principal at BluSkye, a boutique consulting firm that helped guide the process. This story shows what an industry can do when people get together, commit to a goal and set aside as best they can their personal and corporate agendas.

I started shopping at my farmers market this summer. I’ve noticed people putting fruits and vegetables directly in their totes, without taking the plastic bags some vendors offer. But how do you keep produce fresh in the fridge without the plastic?

-Raina

Not long ago, I asked myself that same question. I had recently invested in a large set of organic cotton reusable produce bags, and while I was feeling mighty proud of myself each time I ventured out to the market (look how eco-friendly I am! Who needs those wasteful plastic produce bags?), the scene in my fridge a few days later was less than pretty.

Stored in plastic, fruits and vegetables would have normally stayed fresh for at least a week. But left in my new reusable bags, all my beautiful produce fast turned into a wilted, spoiled mess. (Even the “crisper” bin seemed to do just the opposite, no matter what the setting.)

I’ve written before about the enormous environmental implications of wasted food; needless to say, my cloth produce bags were not coming close to offsetting the yearly 34 million tons of food waste to which I was now contributing.

But obviously, there were reasons to avoid the plastic bags, too (wildlife-destroying pollution, needless oil consumption, endocrine-disrupting chemicals). They also didn’t seem necessary: After all, plastic produce bags only came into being in the 1960s; plastic grocery bags, a decade later. There had to be a way to keep my fruits and veggies fresh without them.

Enter Beth Terry. As author of the blog My Plastic-free Life and the recently released book Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too, Terry knows how to keep everything from persimmons to parsnips fresh with nary a plastic bag in sight: She’s lived plastic free (and not just in the produce department) since 2007.

Terry’s storage methods come largely from Ecology Center Farmers’ Markets in Berkeley, CA, which createdthis guide on how to store more than 60 kinds of fruits and vegetables. But being the plastic-free pro that she is, Terry of course had some suggestions to add. With her help, I’ve created a condensed version for you that includes her input, below.

*Note: While the Ecology Center guide occasionally calls for paper products, Terry tries to limit these; she opts for cloth bags or plastic-free reusable containers instead. (“While plastic is truly problematic, all single-use disposable bags and wrappers have an environmental footprint,” she says.) She suggests a variety of different bags and containers on her site.

FRUITS
Apples. Store on a cool counter or shelf for up to two weeks. For longer storage, place in a cardboard box* in the fridge.

Citrus. Store in a cool place with good airflow, never in an airtight container.

Apricots/Nectarines/Peaches. On a cool counter or fridge if fully ripe.

Cherries. Store in an airtight container. Don’t wash until ready to eat; added moisture encourages mold.

Berries. Very fragile; stack in a single layer if possible in a paper bag* or reusable container. Only wash before you plan on eating them.

Dates. Drier dates (like Deglet Noor) are fine stored on the counter in a bowl or the paper bag* they were bought in. Store moist dates (like Medjool) in the refrigerator for longer than a week, either in cloth or a paper bag to minimize moisture (Terry says a glass mason jar also works).

Melons. Store uncut in a cool, dry place, out of the sun up to a couple weeks. Cut melon should be in the fridge; an open container is fine.

VEGETABLES
Always remove any tight bands from your vegetables to allow them to breathe.

Asparagus. Place loosely in a glass or bowl upright with water at room temperature (will keep for a week outside the fridge).

Avocados. Place in a paper bag at room temp. (To speed up ripening, place an apple in the bag.) Terry places hers directly in the fridge; for a cut avocado half, she keeps the pit in and places it in a glass wire bale jar.

Basil. Store in an airtight container/jar loosely packed with a small damp piece of paper* inside, left out on a cool counter.

Broccoli. Store in the fridge: Place in an open container or wrap in a damp towel.

Carrots/Celery/Radishes. Cut off tops to keep fresh longer and place in a closed container with plenty of moisture. Terry stores these immersed in containers of water in the fridge (change water frequently).

Corn. Leave unhusked in an open container if you must, but corn really is best the day it’s picked.

Cucumber. Wrap in a moist towel in the fridge. (Terry likes plain cotton tea towels.) Fine in a cool room if you’re planning on eating them within a day or two.

Garlic/Onion/Potatoes. Store in a cool, dark, place. (For onions, good air circulation is best; don’t stack.)

Greens (Collards, Chard, Kale). Store upright in a glass of water (like a bouquet) on the counter or fridge. Eat these vegetables first, since they lose color quickly.

Lettuce. Keep damp in an airtight container in the fridge. Terry admits that salad greens are difficult to keep fresh; her strategy is to eat these early in the week, though some of her readers have had successvacuum packing in glass.

Spinach. Store loose in an open container in the crisper, cool as soon as possible.

Sweet Peppers. Only wash right before eating; wetness decreases storage time. Store in a cool room to use in a couple of days, in the crisper if longer storage is needed.

Sweet Potatoes. Store in a cool, dark, well‐ventilated place. Never refrigerate.

Tomatoes. Also never refrigerate. Depending on ripeness, tomatoes can stay for up to two weeks on the counter.

Zucchini. Fine for a few days if left out on a cool counter, even after cut. Wrap in a cloth and refrigerate for longer storage.
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Easy-peasy, right? (Refrigerate snap peas in an open container, by the way.) Do you have other plastic-free methods that work for you? If so, please share them in the comments, below!

This is a guest post from Tom Szaky, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, which provides free waste collection, and then turns that waste into sustainable products. View our previous post about TerraCycle here: http://mantrameds.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/terracycle-outsmart-waste/

Widely quoted estimates suggest that 90% of the ‘stuff’ we buy is discarded within 6 months of purchase. What’s worse is that 10% of this “stuff” ends up going to some type of waste-to-energy facility, while the remaining 90% of America’s waste ends up in a landfill.

With over 360 million Americans and counting producing on average about 4 pounds of waste a day, it is clear that our recycling systems need to be expanded to accept a wider range of materials, and fast. Worse yet, even commonly recyclable packaging formats such as PET and HDPE plastic bottles are only recycled at an estimated (and paltry) 25%.

Chip in for Change

So I challenged my team at TerraCycle with a simple, but monumental question. Can we grow the recycling rate of chip bags to that of municipally recycled plastic bottles? It took 40 years to get to the 25% recycling rate of plastic bottles, but is it possible for a small private company to grow recycling rates to the same level in less than 4 years?For the challenge, TerraCycle launched a new program called “Chip in for Change,” with the ambitious goal of getting a local township here in NJ up to 30% recycling of chip bags within 4 months. This program was launched on July 11, 2012 in Hamilton, New Jersey and will run through October. With success, Hamilton will serve as a pilot for nationwide scale-up opportunities.To start this program, “Chip in for Change” collection boxes have been placed over 200 different locations throughout the township, in an attempt to get residents to recycle at least ten percent of the chip bags they consume. However, if everyone “chips in”, I believe we together can reach a thirty percent recycling rate of chip bags.
AnneCN/CC BY 2.0A growing effort to promote resource conservation, known as “extended producer responsibility,” or EPR, makes the manufacturer of a product responsible for the entire lifecycle of the product and its packaging, including financing the take-back, recycling, or final disposal of the product. The goal of EPR is for companies to design products that are easily reused and/or recycled at the end of a products lifespan.By the end of 2010, EPR laws were enacted in 33 US states for a total of 72 laws, in varying degree, enforcing producer responsibility. Packaging taxes – the coercive arm of EPR efforts – are far more common outside the US, with well established packaging taxes in Canada, Brasil, the UK and all EU countries to name just a few.TerraCycle makes EPR possible by eliminating the idea of waste. Major corporations are becoming more likely to finance the recycling of their previously non-recyclable products and packaging, whether in preparation for looming EPR laws or to quell rising shareholder and consumer demands is irrelevant. Importantly, it is the consumers that are voluntarily engaging in transformative change.TerraCycle is hoping that our Chip in for Change pilot in Hamilton Township, NJ will prove that private enterprise can bring forth higher recycling rates faster than any new laws or taxes. Ideally, with the citizens of Hamilton township, we can demonstrate the importance of and value in EPR as citizens seek to close the loop.

View full article here: http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/how-extended-producer-responsibility-could-revolutionize-recycling.html

https://www.superbetter.com/

Great article from Organic Authority’s Lacy Boggs Renner

http://www.organicauthority.com/health/superbetter-video-game.html

What happens when Jane McGonigal, one of the world’s preeminent alternate reality game designers and experts in game theory, suffers from a traumatic brain injury? Well, she designs a game to get better, of course.  And not just better; Superbetter.

Superbetter is an online, social game designed to help you build up resistance in four categories: mental resistance, emotional resistance, social resistance and physical resistance. And by building yourself up in these areas, McGonigal believes that you can overcome just about anything, from depression to obesity and anxiety to PTSD. In other words, this is few steps beyond playing Angry Birds or Draw Something.

Superbetter is an alternate reality game, which incorporates online and real-world tasks. So, for example, if your quest in the game is to lose weight, you might battle a bad guy after dinner every night—namely, mindless munching in front of the TV. Whenever you defeat your personal bad guys (I’ve nicknamed mine Evil Dr. Chocolate Bar), you can log that on the game website and earn yourself points.

It’s definitely a fun way to think about working towards a goal, but does it actually work? In a word, yes.

In 2009, McGonigal had what seemed at first to be a minor accident, but which quickly morphed into a concussion with serious repercussions. Her brain injury sent her into a bout of deep depression, social isolation and anxiety. When her doctor told her that she might never get better if she didn’t see improvement within a year, she turned her passion for game theory and the psychology of positive emotions into a game for getting better. She became the hero in her own quest, enlisted friends and family members as allies to give her challenges and award her points, identified the bad guys that were her triggers, and made healthy choices that were her power-ups.

Today, she is completely recovered.

The SuperBetter website provides a framework, based in real science, for anyone to follow McGonigal’s strategy to work on their own quests. Although there are some common quests pre-programmed with challenges and bad guys, like losing weight or even working on a positive body image, the program is extremely customizable, making it an amazing free tool for every hero out there looking to slay a few personal demons.

https://www.superbetter.com/

Written by Lacy Boggs Renner

You only need to have food poisoning once to know how incredibly awful it can be—and to become committed to doing everything possible to prevent further foodborne illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that every year, 48 million Americans—nearly one in six—will get sick from a foodborne illness.

We’ve rounded up our six best tips to keep your summer picnics and barbeques safe and healthy. Read about them here: http://www.organicauthority.com/health/tips-to-avoid-food-poisoning.html

View full article here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1xK9Sj/www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/7-tips-to-rewear-clothes-before-washing.html

Image: Magic Madzik

Someone had to ask, right? Is it sustainable or just plain gross to re-wear outfits before washing clothes?

The average American household does some 400 loads of laundry per year, using as much as 40 gallons of water per load, according to the Consumer Energy Center. With fresh water becoming a seriously scarce resource, that’s a huge number to take into consideration, especially when clothes are frequently and unnecessarily washed. In the not-so-olden days just a century ago, it was a given that clothes were going to be worn several times, if not dozens before washing. And even then, they were low-impact hand-washed and air-dried.

The home washing machine drastically changed all that in the 1950s. Suddenly, we could have clean clothes with little effort—a necessity that became a luxury—but in our modern efforts to decrease our consumption of resources and our impact on the environment, it’s important that we choose to develop new habits. We didn’t always look at the bottom of containers to determine whether or not they were recyclable, now it’s a habit for many of us. So is shopping at local farmers markets to support our regional economy and decrease the distance between where our food is grown and our mouths. But what about what we wear? Is just using an environmentally friendly detergent enough? Check this list of tips on re-wearing clothes to decrease your impact on the environment and make your clothes last longer:

View the 7 tips here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1xK9Sj/www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/7-tips-to-rewear-clothes-before-washing.html

Go to the following link or click on the image below to “develop (yet another) iron-clad excuse to drink a cool beer… ‘I’m not just drinking, I’m saving the Earth!’” http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/latest/organic-brewery-0625?click=main_sr

Green power: The fine folks of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. allow anyone visiting their Website to see their on-site power consumption whenever they like. Over 10,000 solar panels and four co-generation fuel cells allow Sierra Nevada to power nearly their entire facility in an eco-friendly way. So feel no guilt, Mr. Thoughtful Drinker—your beverage of choice was made with the awesome power of the sun.

By Dan Shapley

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/declare-independence-47062306

Revolution is sometimes necessary, if never comfortable. Thomas Jefferson  knew this when he and his revolutionary colleagues laid out their grievances  before dissolving the bands that connected them with the King of England. We  celebrate the success of that revolution every year, and for good reason.

This Fourth of July, a couple hundred years later, there’s another revolution  afoot, with the potential to shake up the way America does business, interacts  with other nations and pursues happiness. “Green” is more than a buzzword. It’s  a path forward for a great nation seeking to produce its own energy, shore up  its security and provide sustainable prosperity for its people.

Jefferson didn’t spend a lot of ink on energy policy in the Declaration of  Independence, but a selective reading of his “indictments” against the King  almost sound like a treatise on sustainability. (At least, the whole argument  for untangling ourselves from that rotten King of England is framed as aligning  human behavior with natural law and the “powers of the earth.”)

So, this Fourth of July, start participating in the next revolution, one that  embraces good-old American ingenuity and hard work on the path toward a brighter  future for our great nation.

Read more about how to Declare Your Independence from Oil, Waste, Factory Food, & Suspect Chemicals: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/declare-independence-47062306#ixzz1zUmsAlEd

Click image below or go to following link to view video: http://youtu.be/txCUwSKo1kg

While I’m not an RN yet, I’ve been along side my mom as she’s worked in nursing homes and the home health setting before she passed away at the young age of 39. I have recently started a cna job. As a male, people are often shocked when they find I’m pursuing the nursing field. 

One day after my mother had passed away, I had been by to cut the grass of a 101 year old lady that she helped take care of. My grandmother who took over her care, needed to run to the store, asked me to feed her dinner while she left. The lady was going downhill pretty fast and hadn’t been In her right mind or speaking for weeks. All of a sudden as I’m feeding her, she grabs my hand very tightly and opens her eyes wide, and says “you’re mother would be really proud of you”. These were the only she had spoken in over 6 days. from that day, I’ve knew my calling. 

I believe this song explains my journey and hopefully some of you others can relate to.

Thanks to Allnurses.com for sharing!

Make your own vitamin water. Add fruits instead of sugar for a natural sweetener for your H20. Cut the fruit into paper-thin slices or small chunks. Combine ingredients with water. Refrigerate 4-6 hours and serve over ice. So delicious and very refreshing!

This great idea was brought to you courtesy of Homesteading.

Homesteading – the center for “How To” products on self-reliance, sustainable living, and other related fields.

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By Maggie Fazeli Fard, The Washington Post

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/zoom/html/2018289999.html