Posts Tagged ‘Green LIving’


Single Stream Recycling is Here to Stay

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

New 96 Gallon Single Stream Recycling Cart

Recently, the recycling authority serving my hometown of Farmington Hills, MI, the RRRASOC – the Resource, Recovery and Recycling Authority of Southwest Oakland County, went to single stream recycling. Single stream recycling is a system in which all recyclables, including newspaper, cardboard, plastic, aluminum, junk mail, etc., are placed in a single bin or cart for recycling. These recyclables are collected by a single truck and taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to be sorted into various commodity streams for sale to markets, where it is processed into feedstock which can be used in the manufacture of new products. Here is a picture of our new 96 gallon cart, which is 82 gallons larger than our old bin.

Until recently, the predominant form of curbside recycling in the U.S was “dual stream” collection where each material type is kept in a separate bag or bin, and trucks have three or more compartments. The move to single stream recycling is a way to reduce costs. On the collection side, the use of a large roll-cart allows collectors to automate pick-up from inside the truck cab, and single-compartment trucks save labor and transportation costs. (See, Single Stream Uncovered by Clarissa Morawski, Resource Recycling, Feb. 2010). Due to the ease of use and larger bin sizes, cities often see an increase in recycling rates. In areas where single stream recycling is offered, participation is around 95%. Ann Arbor, MI had a 20% increase in recycling tonnage after implementing single stream recycling in 2010. Unfortunately, that 20% increase was 40% short of projections and caused Recycle Ann Arbor to request an increase of over $107,000. Ann Arbor’s single stream recycling system cost over $4.6 million to implement and, based on the overly optimistic projections, was expected to take 7 years to repay the costs.

The real complaint against single stream recycling is an increase in contaminants, causing a decrease in value for the recycled materials and an increase in the amount of previously recycled materials going to landfills. The Blue Heron Paper Company saw the level of contamination go from 3.3% in 1999 to 6.1% in 2005. This caused them to send over 11,000 tons of material to landfills in 2005, up from 5,200 tons in 1999. However, by implementing a consumer education program and investing in new technology at the material recovery facility, the Metro Waste Facility in central Iowa was able to keep contaminant levels to 3%.

Michel E. Hoffman of Wunderlich Securities points out one of the other possible downsides of single stream recycling. He believes that the move to single-stream recycling could have consequences. Hoffman says, “There are a lot of small- and medium-sized companies that will have to think about building single-stream MRFs. Some won’t have access to capital. Those who do have capital may not want to risk it. The alternative would be to sell to a larger competitor. So as single-stream processing matures, it may fuel a new wave of consolidation in the waste industry.”

The recession of 2008 has led to reduced city budgets. This has only sped the adoption of single stream recycling due to its lower costs. With this pressure on government to reduce costs, despite its mixed success, despite increased contaminants and increased consolidation (leading to less competition) it looks like Single Stream recycling is here to stay.


The Many Uses of Rain Barrels

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

We are extremely busy this time of year, between all the green fairs and festivals, plus our workshops. Many weekends are surrendered to the cause of green living, reducing ones carbon footprint by installing a rain barrel.

After visiting California recently I started to realize that based on climate and water usage you may not need a rain barrel. Then I thought, well what would it hurt to have one anyone. And all I could come up with is that it couldn’t. There is almost no reason in my mind as to why you wouldn’t benefit from saving even just one barrel of water when you can save up enough rain. Then this all got me thinking about the many various uses for the extra water. Contrary to the many skeptics, rain barrels can be useful no matter who you are. The water can be used for many different uses, some of them are:

  • Washing your car
  • Washing your hair
  • Watering House Plants
  • Watering Outdoor Plants / Flowers
  • Watering your lawn (using a Rain Barrel Pump)
  • Reduce Stormwater Runoff
  • Promote Rain Gardens and/or Ponds
  • Washing the dog?

Let us know what you use your rain barrel for, leave us a comment below or Tweet us @MaxiContainer

***Under no circumstances do we recommend drinking rain water from your rain barrel. You don’t know whats on your roof… but Water Treatment tabs are handy to have and cheap… here’s a few on Amazon.com – keep them around in case of emergency, to turn your rain water into a drinkable source of water.


Johnson upper elementary, rain barrels and compost special guest Speaker

Friday, May 18th, 2012

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Recently I got the opportunity to be a special guest speaker at Johnson upper elementary thanks to Julie Thompson, leader of their PTA. One of my favorite things to do is talk to kids about water conservation, reuse, composting etc. The questions they ask are priceless and I also make sure to ask them a lot of questions too. In my day to day I forget sometimes what it was like in middle school. When your attend school dances and feel awkward and actually I “rebeled” as my parents would say, refusing to join any school teams but rather spend all my hours after (and sometimes during) school skateboarding. I still skateboard and it has given me a perspective that I would not otherwise know. When I arrive at the skatepark you have kids of all ages interacting it’s their park. Like it’s their park… This is our earth and we all have to take care of it. If we don’t teach kids the importance of green living then it will surely die. In a throw away society, water that just magically flows out the tap, soil which you buy at a store are winning. It’s time to change that, and change starts with the kids.


One Cup Coffee at a Time – The Sustainable Way

Friday, March 9th, 2012
Aero Press

The AeroPress

My wife Gail and I are self proclaimed coffee snobs. We like our coffee strong, robust and fresh. We have been buying whole bean coffee and  grinding our own beans since 1978, and have had every kind of coffee brewer, espresso maker and French Press you can imagine. My wife and I are now empty nesters. Our son Joshua is married with a family of his own. Our daughter Michelle is away at college. We no longer need to make a full pot of coffee every morning. But, we are strong believers in sustainability and recycling so we will never ever buy one of the fancy expensive single cup coffee makers that are so popular.

These one cup coffee machine, such as the Keurig and Tassimo, seem to have become ubiquitous. I see their little “k-cups” and coffee pods everywhere. Although expensive, many people have opted for the convenience  offered by these single serving coffee systems. According to the Los Angeles Times, in the 12 months ending in November, nearly 46% of the dollars going toward the purchase of coffee or espresso makers went to single-serve machines. The L.A. times story reports that according to Keurig 13% of all US offices has one of their machines.

The problem with this is that single servings of anything, by definition, have more packaging and create more waste than buying the same product in bulk. In this case, the environmental impact is complicated by the difficulty in recycling the single serving k-cups and pods. Tim Wall at Discovery News points out that the k-cups are made of a plastic shell, lined with a paper filter and topped with aluminum. Individually, the components are recyclable, but put together they can only be trashed. What’s more, the compostable coffee grounds are trapped inside.

So how to make a single or double cup of really good coffee while staying true to our core values? The answer turned out to be a $30 little plastic coffee maker called the AeroPress. I had kept coming across references to it in different blogs but couldn’t find it in any local store. The reviews were simply amazing. As explained by Mike Crimmins in his Daily Shot of Coffee Blog, the Aeropress came from inventor Alan Adler, who is best known for his Aerobie flying ring and similar toys. He took a scientific approach to making coffee and came up with the Aeropress.

The Aeropress is a simple machine. According to Gizmag the AeroPress delivers the smoothest, richest, purest and fastest cup of coffee (under 30 seconds) you’re likely to find.  The AeroPress can make up to four cups of great coffee at a time, much faster than my espresso machine or a single cup system. I have to agree and best of all, the only consumables used are the coffee grounds and the small paper filter, both of which are compostable.

 


Gearing up for Green

Monday, February 6th, 2012


Tis the season!
[enter applause]

We’ll  you may be thinking, “what season” or “aren’t the holiday’s over?”.

Yes! You are correct but the Green Season is just about to begin.

Maxi Container hasn’t just begun a transformation into a green enterprise, we are only embracing our most honored values and traditions and giving back to mother earth by selling our Terra Cotta Rain Barrel Kits. The product itself isn’t new but the attitude and determination as well as honest price and great results make our barrel better. It’s not the fanciest, it’s not the sleekest but it’s the best you will find for $60.

Trying to make your own barrel, that’s cool ask us for advice. We have plenty of barrels of all different colors, shapes, and sizes perfect for rain water collection. Please don’t just use a Rubbermaid garbage can made from low density polyethylene, that will eventually crack and bow when full. Don’t use a barrel you got for free from the car wash or any anonymous source. Get it from the barrel experts over at Maxi. We guarantee you get a previously used food grade barrel each and every time, it’s our profession and we take it to heart.

Preventing storm water runoff is only the begining, soon you will see our Rain Barrels everywhere ($40 shipping anywhere in the U.S.) but that’s not all… we teach  workshops and make our weekends our work and go around Michigan’s best Green events too… lookout for a calendar widget on the sidebar coming soon.

For now I will leave you with this, a slide show of last years all star Maxi “Green Team” at our Rain Barrel events, enjoy!

View all of our photos from last years Green Events here.


Nothing but a Barrel

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

A few years ago, when we set out to get involved in making Rain Barrels and selling other Home and Garden products at Metro-Detroit Green Fairs, we never thought it would turn out so incredibly well. The community involvement with green fairs, charities, school and churches has helped shape our business, continuing over a hundred years of Rubin family involvement in the drum and barrel industry. Now, at Maxi, as the summer comes to a close, so does a chapter of our lives. The Green season is over, there no more events until next Spring/Summer. We all set our sights on the numerous things we have neglected due to the hustle and bustle of the season. We won’t be hibernating this winter, but a part of us will. The Green part.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the events we were involved in (a list is provided at the end of this post). However, certain moments, or days, stand out when looking back from the corner of the autumn and winter seasons. I want to share my favorite “highlights” from this summer with all of you.

Two tents down! Currently, both of our tents need repair. One, we have no idea what happened to, and the other a storm almost swept away! At the St. Clair Shores Green Fair in the Park it was a beautiful day until warnings of a oncoming storm started to spread across the fair (since the Dream Cruise was happening on Woodward Ave. simultaneously, we just checked their twitter feed) Even though the vendors and patrons were advised to leave a little early in hopes of missing the brunt of the storm, we were among the last out of there, and our tent nearly didn’t make it out at all. I went to grab the truck for our final load of Rain Barrels, and when I arrived to our location I find my father (Richard) holding onto a tent that was in shambles. He looked like he was holding onto it for dear life, in high winds and heavy rain. This was a very intense end to a great event.

HOT, HOT, HOT! All of you remember that heat wave in June? Well we can’t forget it. We had three events planned almost simultaneously for that weekend of heat. Friday I spent in Armada while the rest of the Maxi staff was at the Ferndale Live Green Fair. I guess this is one time I lucked out, since at the Lavender Festival in Armada we had a location in the shade and the fair was on grass, not pavement. The staff at the Live Green Fair said it was sweltering hot as the intense sun reflected up from the ground. Also, the way the booths were set up didn’t allow a lot of airflow. On Sunday, I made my way to Ferndale, my father and I did the best we could, but I was definitely suffering during tear down, and was afraid I was going to pass out. My Dad had to stick me in the car with the AC on to get me to stop acting loopy. I am pretty sure I was a second away from heat stroke.

We enjoyed all of the events this year, these two weekends were exceptionally interesting, check out the list below for all of our events this year, and watch out for even more next year! Hope to see you next summer at some of our Green Events!

I tried to remember them all and hopefully, got them all of them here. Click on each to learn more. This list doesn’t include all of the Rain Barrel workshops we have done, just a few of them.

If you know of an event in Metro-Detroit (really anywhere in Michigan) that you would like us to bring our sustainable living setup including Rain Barrels, Composting, and Container Gardening, please let us know. Drop me an email at joshua@maxicontianer.com with the details.

Enjoy this slideshow of photos from our “Green Fairs” Collection of photoset’s on Flickr!

[slickr-flickr tag=”GreenFairs” type=”slideshow” captions=”on” delay=”3″]