February 16th, 2010

Here comes the garbage barge, is a children’s book by Jonah Winter that is an entertaining story that focuses on why it’s good to re-use and recycle.  It tells the story about a tugboat and its barge of garbage that nobody wanted.
Based on a true story,  a barge laden with thousands of tonnes of garbage [...]

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February 12th, 2010

El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU) plans to incorporate purple pipes as part of its upcoming projects. EPWU has been delivering reclaimed water throughout the community since 1963 and is steadily building its network of purple pipes to recycle water for industrial and agricultural purposes.
Now, for $1.24 you can drive up to one of their [...]

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January 18th, 2010

Have you ever been printing something and instead of two pages the printer churns out ten?  Just because of some silly margin or something.  All that good recycled paper gone to waste!
Time to try GreenPrint (www.printgreener.com) which allows you to quickly deselect pictures or extra text before printing, telling you exactly how many pages will [...]

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Vancouver based designer Natalie Purschwitz has started a new challenge for herself – to make everything that she wears for a whole year!  She’s made everything from her underwear to her shoes and in the process she has transformed (recycled) clothing into other garments as she needs them.  Check out her blog and see what [...]

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October 6th, 2009

There are trillions of cigarette butts out there on beaches around the world; tossed or planted by smokers.  95% of cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate. Cellulose acetate fibers are thinner than sewing thread, white, and packed tightly together to create a filter; they can look like cotton.
The problem is cellulose acetate is a [...]

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August 7th, 2009

For your entertainment, I came across this clever ad from Encorp Pacific (Canada) to promote recycling.  Encorp Pacific was established in 1994 and has many Return-It locations around BC that recycle beverage containers.

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August 1st, 2009

No one is currently recycling rare earth metals.   China is the main producer of rare earth metals and magnets. Currently the prices for rare earth metals are low; consequently, there has been no interest in recovering rare earth metals through recycling.  The problem of not recycling rare earths is tied into an economic [...]

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Lots of people have shown interest in recycling hotel soaps, and I received a comment from Paul Till of   Clean The World, a non-profit organization based in Florida.  Living in such a touristy area with a high concentration of hotels, he and Shawn Seipler decided to approach local hotels with a focus on repackaging unused [...]

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Are you wondering how to pack out your veggies and those bulk peas?  It’s hard seeing your tomatoes go rolling down the conveyor belt – it’s food you’re bowling!   Coming to the rescue is the 6 in 1 bag called the moukisac.  Actually, there are smaller netted bags conveniently sized for bulk items all held [...]

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BC is introducing legislation in 2010 that will require all new houses in the province to be built with water reclamation  rough-ins as part of a larger goal to reduce water consumption.  Theses pipes would be purple to make it clear that the water is non-potable.
Water would be “reclaimed” from baths, showers, washing machines and [...]

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