Posts Tagged ‘sustainability’
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
I have written in the past about my views on bottled water and the movement to ban it on several college campuses. Recently, Charles Fishman, an award winning investigative journalist and author of The Big Thirst posted a blog on National Geographic website that while pointing out the numerous problems and environmental impacts of bottled water went on to argue that:
“Banning bottled water doesn’t really teach anyone anything.”
His argument, which makes a lot of sense, is that banning bottled water sales on campus, while allowing the sale of soda and energy drinks is illogical. He points out that these products are 95% to 99% water and that, “It takes 2.5 liters of water to produce every liter of Coke products”.
Fishman points out the negative environmental impacts of bottled water, stating that “It takes a fleet equivalent to 40,000 18-wheelers just to deliver the bottled water Americans buy every week”. However, he questions whether this is any different than the fleets delivering caramel-colored, caffienated water in bottles?
Fishman is no stranger to the negative impacts of bottled water. I highly recommend his 2007 article, Message in a Bottle which explores the bottled water phenomenon in depth. In that article he determines that:
“Buying bottled water is a choice … and given the impact it has, the easy substitutes, and the thoughtless spending involved, it’s fair to ask whether it’s always a good choice.”
In my opinion, that question has been answered over and over. Due to its negative environmental impacts, bottled water is only a good choice where there is not access to safe reliable tap water. On most college campuses in the U.S. safe drinking water is readily available, as are reusable bottles.
USA Today states that according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), 14 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada have campus-wide bans, while another dozen or so have bans that cover a portion of campus. While these bans are a step in the right direction by creating awareness of the negative impacts of bottled water, by not addressing the environmental and health impacts of the remaining beverages, including soda and energy drinks, they fall far short of promoting an overall sustainable college environment.
However, recently the University of Vermont became one of the first universities in the U.S. to not only ban the sale of bottled water but to mandate that one-third of the beverages in its campus vending machines be healthy options. The policy also has the University changing its drinking fountains into bottle refilling stations so that students can use refillable bottles instead of using, and disposing, of plastic water bottles.
Wisebread.com has listed 22 reasons to stop drinking soda – Here are a few of my favorites:
- It may lead to diabetes and heart disease.
- Soda consumption is linked to osteoporosis.
- Drinking cola can increase your risk of kidney stones.
- It can take up to 132 gallons of water to produce a 2-liter bottle of soda.
- Be it glass, aluminum, or plastic, all bottles have their environmental costs.
- Transportation of soda pop requires a lot of fuel.
Sustainability has social, environmental and economic dimensions. Given the health and environmental impacts that soda has, the fact that the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, is the largest soda consumer and accounted for one third of total soda consumption in 1999, suggests that Fishman is correct that only banning water bottles on campus is not enough. To truly address the societal and environmental costs, our colleges and universities should, as did the University of Vermont, require the availability in vending machines, in dorms, food service on campus, healthier alternatives to soda.
Here is a very interesting infographic about why you should not drink bottled water …
Let me know what you think about bottled water and soda issues on campuses around the country, please leave a comment below!
Tags: Bottled Water, Campus, College, Green, sustainability, University, Water
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Charlie Rubin started reconditioning wooden barrels over 100 years ago. Max Rubin started reconditioning steel drums over 60 years ago. Maxi Container has been reconditioning and recycling industrial packaging since 1980. We didn’t know then that we were “green”. We thought that it made sense to reuse an expensive container over and over. Reuse wasn’t a choice made to save resources, it was an economic necessity during the Great Depression and WWII. Even as we became a disposable society, Maxi Container resisted the pressure to sell “one and done” thin steel drums. We often joke that we are in an industry that people do not know exists and, if they do, do not realize how committed to reuse and sustainability we are as a company and an industry.
Imagine my surprise when reading an article at the Smithsonian website about a new concrete that I learned:
- Last year, the world produced 3.6 billion tons of cement—the mineral mixture that solidifies into concrete when added to water, sand and other materials. Globally, the only substance people use more of than concrete, in total volume, is water
- The recipe for making cement calls for heating limestone, which requires fossil fuels.
- When heated, limestone sends carbon dioxide gas wafting into the atmosphere, where it traps heat, contributing to global warming.
- Cement production is responsible for 5 percent of the world’s human-produced carbon dioxide emissions.
- Typically, a cement factory produces nearly a ton of carbon dioxide for every ton of cement.
In steps Nikolaos Vlasopoulos, an environmental engineer at Imperial College in London who worked summers measuring carbon dioxide levels with his uncle at a cement plant in Greece. He has developed a cement that is made with magnesium oxide and magnesium carbonates. These are made by adding carbon dioxide to his mixture. The cement, in some scenarios, is not just carbon neutral—it’s carbon negative. For every ton of Vlasopoulos’ cement produced, one-tenth of a ton of carbon dioxide could be absorbed.
There are several other companies trying to make a better, more eco-friendly, cement. Stanford Professor Brent Constantz along with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla have formed a company called Calera Corp. which has a pilot factory in Moss Landing, CA. Their process harnesses carbon dioxide emitted from a power plant and mixes it with seawater or brine to create carbonates that are used to make cement. Calera says that for every ton of cement they make, they can sequester a half of ton of carbon dioxide.
Both the Calera and Vlasopoulos cement have an interesting characteristic in common. They are both white, while normal cement is gray. This means that you can add color to it and that builders, architects and artists can not only use it to make environmentally friendly buildings, but colorful ones as well.
Some of these new approaches to cement are already in use. On Interstate 35W, just east of Minneapolis, the St. Anthony Falls Bridge carries 10 lanes of traffic on box girders borne by massive arching piers, which are supported, in turn, by footings and deep pilings. The bridge, built to replace one that collapsed in 2007, uses components made from different concrete mixes. The mix used in the wavy sculptures at both ends of the bridge is designed to stay gleaming white by scrubbing stain-causing pollutants from the air.
Just like people don’t realize how sustainable industrial packaging can be, who knew that cement could become a green technology? Have you heard of a surprising green product or technology? We would love to hear from you, please leave your response in the comments below.
Tags: Carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Concrete, eco-friendly, environment, Greece, Green, London, sustainability
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Monday, October 31st, 2011
I am old enough to remember a time when appliances and electronics were expensive, big and lasted a long time. Due to their cost, you fixed things that broke and they did not quickly become obsolete. Every neighborhood had a TV Repair Service or a Handy-man who could fix TV’s, radio’s, phonographs, appliances, vacuum cleaners, etc. A recent AARP article (see, I am old) updated the old 50% rule. In essence, if the repair cost less that 50% of the replacement cost of an item, then repair it.
Sadly, this old rule is at odds with our current digital age and Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore, who described the trend in a 1965 paper. He noted that the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every two years from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965 and predicted that the trend would continue.
I bought my first “personal” computer, a Commodore Vic-20 in 1980. I still have it sitting in our basement. I bought my second PC in 1985, a Tandy 1000. Since then, the number of computers I have bought are t00 numerous to mention. It seems, like Moore predicted, that I would be replacing a computer every few years. Sometimes it is because something went wrong with it, but often, it is just because I need (or want) a newer, more powerful and faster computer. It is even worse with cell phones. I had drawers filed with close to twenty old cell phones. Often they worked fine, but I received a newer phone with better features by re-signing another 2-year contract with my wireless provider.
As mentioned in the My Life Scoop Blog, the United Nations Environmental Program estimates that each year, 20-50 million tons of e-waste is dumped into landfills around the world, ranging from old phones, TVs, microwaves, computers and more – but most of the time it’s not because these gadgets are defunct; they’re being dumped in favor of new releases. They go on to say that most people fail to properly dispose of their unwanted electronics, carelessly trashing them without regard to the hazardous materials they contain, including PCBs, lead and mercury. Many of these chemicals are known to cause cancer, respiratory illness, and reproductive problems, and damage the earth by seeping into the soil and ground water.
My wife finally had enough of this e-waste build up and in no uncertain terms told me to find a home for all these gadgets. Fortunately, we live in Farmington Hills, MI and our local recycling authority, RRRASOC accepts e-waste at its Southfield location. They also accept e-waste at the various Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events that they hold throughout the year.
RRRASOC points out that e-waste:
“…is the fastest growing portion of the municipal waste stream. As those products reach the end of their useful life, it is important to remember that many of these products are reusable, recyclable, or pose a concern if not handled properly.”
It is important to use an e-waste recycler that you trust. There are some e-waste recyclers out there that say they recycle the e-waste in an environmentally sustainable manner, but in reality do not. A recent Waste & Recycling News article stated that for the first time criminal charges have been filed against electronic waste recyclers accused of duping customers and sending e-waste abroad to developing countries.
According to the article:
“…the indictment says the company developed a scheme to falsely represent that it would dispose of all e-waste in an environmentally friendly or green manner. The company also said it would recycle the items in the U.S., not overseas… Executive Recycling was the subject of a “60 Minutes” report in 2008 which tracked containers from its facility to Hong Kong.”
Executives for the company could spend up to 20 years in prison, if convicted on the most serious charges. An even better way to get rid of functional e-waste is to donate them. Most schools, charities and places of worship run on very tight budgets. What appears to you as an obsolete computer or printer, may be a step up for them or one of their clients. At this years Plymouth Green Street Fair, unwanted e-waste was donated to raise money for Beaumonts’ Chidren’s Hospital. Another exhibitor collected used cell phones to be turned into prepaid phone cards for US Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to call their families.
Despite these efforts, the e-waste at both my home and office continues to grow. If you have a good suggestion for a way to recycle or donate e-waste, please let us know in the comments.
Related Links:
Tags: cell phones, computers, digital, e-waste, electronic recycling, electronic waste, electronics, ewaste recyclers, pc, PCB's, recyclers, Recycling, Reuse, RRRASOC, sustainability
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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!
FPX - 3
FPX - 5
Maxi Sales Team
Blue fountain
Stage
Rainy days, we were all smiles
Grassroots!
We were busy with lots of people
GLFF movie - 1
Our tent
The big tent
Container Garden display
Doggie - 1
Doggie - 2
Tent setup
Grassroots Green Marketplace!
Very busy streets!
GLFF movie - 3
Our spot
bob
Tags: Armada, Birmingham, Compost, compost tumbler, Composter, Composting, container gardening, earth day, East Lansing, Fair, Ferndale, Ferndale Perennial Sale, Garden, gardening, Grassroots, Great Lakes, Great Lakes Folk Festival, Green, Green Breeze, Green Fairs, Green LIving, home and garden, Live Green, local motion, Metro-Detroit, Michigan, Perennial, Plymouth, rain barrels, Rick Rubin, Rochester, Sierra Club, Sierra Club Great Lakes, St. Clair Shores, sustainability, Water
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Thursday, August 18th, 2011
Living in an apartment and condo does NOT mean you can’t garden. And people, I’m not talking about one or two hanging plants. I am talking about really gardening… fruits, veggies, flowers, and herbs. Right now I have tomatoes, potatoes, onions, corn, jalapeno and cayenne peppers, plus a herb garden and a few flowers for accent, all on my patio. You must be wondering just how I fit all that on my small 5′ x 10′ patio? Well let’s just say, very creatively. By utilizing hanging hooks on stands that fit four pails each, and two half pallets (I sawed one in half basically), I can make a varying array of configurations that are both beautiful and at the same time add a sense of privacy to our patio.
Another benefit of my container garden is the family activity it creates. My fifteen month old daughter grabs my hand and begs to be a part of the gardening experience. I supply her with her own little watering can and a plastic spade shovel to dig in the dirt with me. This is a family garden. It has become a central part of our family life. Whether it is the wife and I relaxing after the baby has gone to sleep, or working together to harvest some basil to make pesto for dinner, it is enjoyable and bring us even closer together. If you live in a apartment or condo and think that gardening is just too much to handle, reconsider. Give it try. We have previously used food grade 5-gallon pails perfect for starting your very own garden. Please email me at joshua@maxicontainer.com for a free consultation. We can design your pails to fit the types of plants you want to grow. We have three styles right now for our 5-gallon pails, they are:
- Traditional planter
- Hanging tomato planter
- Pepper / strawberry planter (Can hold up to 6 plants)
*can easily be made into a self-watering planter
We also have experimented with our 30-gallon plastic barrels, turning one into a strawberry planter. We cut a plastic juice drum in half, attached wheels and handles to make a movable planter perfect for all types of plants. Like I was saying before, the possibilities with container gardening are endless. You only will be limited by your own creativity. So, what are your waiting for? Try it now. Give us a call today and get the low-down on what you’ll need to get started. And please, if you don’t get your container from us just make sure the containers are food-grade. Ask what the previous contents where. If it was something questionable, DO NOT USE IT. If it had food in it before, then its fine. It’s better to ask then to just say “ohhh it’s fine because it was free.” You will be growing and eating food from that container. Plastic absorbs some of its previous contents; there is no way around that, it is in the material’s nature. So any reconditioned or used plastic barrel, is not always safe for growing plants. Hope this information helps get you started container gardening. Here is some photos from our Flickr photoset “Container Gardening”.
Close-up of Stainless Steel container
Planter
Container garden breaks down easily for Winter.
Hot peppers
Pair of Cayenne Peppers
Sage
Flower
Beetles in my Basil!!!
Peppers drying
Hot peppers
Young onions in our barrel planter
Potato plant
The Maxi Container Garden
Self-watering pepper planter
Tomatoes colorful
Cayenne Pepper Louisiana style hot sauce
Raindrops on leafs
Cayenne pepper planter
1st harvest
Cayenne Peppers
Tags: 5-gallon pails, apartment, condo, Container, container gardening, food-grade, gardening, Green, pails, Previously used, sustainability
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Monday, June 27th, 2011
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) plans to update the labels used to differentiate recyclable material in consumer packaging. Recently, I have noticed more and more “green-washing” done by companies who advertise that their product is “recyclable”. Though this statement may be true, often this message confuses the consumer, whom at a glance may think it is made from recycled material. Also, even if a company claims that their product is recyclable, that does not always mean that recycling for that specific material is available in your area. To clear up all the confusion, so we all can see this issue clearly, the SPC has decided to update the labeling system for various recyclable materials into four categories.
These categories include:
- Widely recycled – for materials like glass, cardboard, and PET plastic bottles.
- Limited recycling – for materials that are only recycled in 20% to 60% of the U.S., such as #5 yogurt containers or medicine bottles.
- Not recycled – for materials that are rarely recycled, such as Styrofoam*
- Store drop-off – for the bags and plastic film that are generally collected by retailers for recycling.
*For more information about Styrofoam recycling, please read our article about Dart Container and their Styrofoam recycling initiative by clicking here.
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What does all this mean for you, the consumer? It means simply that the materials you receive all of your favorite products in, and the products themselves will be easier to identify if it is actually recyclable and how to recycle it. Of course, in different areas there are different recycling options available, but now consumers will know more clearly if their product or packaging is recyclable and what steps to take to get it to the right facility to take care of it. It may be as easy as curbside for some of you, or it could be a trip back to the place of purchase. Either way it will be easier to identify recyclable materials.
A limited number of SPC members will be participating in a test run of the project this fall that will run through 2011. SPC hopes that this new labeling system will eventually become universal.
Susan Freinkel, a blogger for Fast Company, wrote about an initiative that is underway to update the numbering systems on plastic containers. Hopefully we will see this system become implemented in the next 2-3 years. This new numbering system should take into account the greater variety of plastics now available in the market. Right now the market is flooded with a broad range of bio-plastics. Only some of these bio-plastics actually are biodegradable. As of now these bio-plastics are mixed into the #7 category along with other non-recyclables.
The recycling world is constantly changing as new materials are introduced into the market. The ability for recyclers to manage the materials they receive is essential to them being successful. The state of the recycling world right now (in particular plastics) is a mess. Bio-plastics along with other materials mislabeled as recyclable, when in actuality they are not recyclable or recycling for such materials is not easily accessible. Overall, the changes the SPC has proposed to help determine how readily available recycling is for specific materials and updating the plastics numbering system for recycling to include bio-plastics, could greatly benefit the recycling world.
Original article: Coalition to Introduce Reality-Based Recycling Labels
From: SustainableBusiness.com
Tags: Labels, Packaging, Plastic, Recycable, Recycling, Recylable Material, styrofoam, sustainability, Sustainable Packaging Coalition
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Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Earlier this week the Reusable Industrial Packaging Association (RIPA) had their annual Technical Conference in Indianapolis, IN. Maxi Container was well represented with both myself, Richard Rubin, and our Sales Manager, Bob Vannatter in attendance. It was a thoughtful and in depth meeting looking at many issues which affect industrial packaging. RIPA formed a new Product Group to represent companies that manufacturer, collect and recondition Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC). The other Product Groups, Steel Drums, Plastic Drums, Fiber Drums and IBC’s also had numerous agenda items, including air emissions, use of post consumer regrind in making new plastic drums, periodic certification of design types, and many more.
Again many issues dealt with both Maxi’s and RIPA’s core value of sustainability. I am proud to be a active member of an organization whose purpose is to promote the use of reusable packaging and help its members navigate the complex world of regulations regarding the transport and reconditioning of industrial packages in an environmentally sustainable manner.
For example, RIPA as a member of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is helping to draft the International Organization for Standards (ISO) Environmental Packaging Standards. Approximately 30 nations are involved in this project to clarify and harmonize environmental issues related to the production, use, reuse, recycling and recovery of packagings. RIPA chair’s the ANSI committee on “Reuse” and is a member of the ANSI committees on “Optimization” and “Material Recycling”.
With the amount of international commerce it will only be through organisations such as ISO, ANSI, and the Sub-Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods of the United Nations that we can continue to transport the many chemicals, paints, pharmaceuticals necessary in making the many products we enjoy. We cannot compromise our short term safety or the environments long term sustainability in order to enjoy the blessings of our industrialized lifestyle. Here at Maxi we are committed to finding the balance between the two so we, and our children and our children’s children cane enjoy both a high standard of living the our beautiful natural world.
Tags: ANSI, environment, Industrial Packaging, ISO, Maxi Container, Recycling, RIPA, sustainability
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Friday, April 1st, 2011
Maxi Container received an inquiry about a new 30-gallon steel drum and when we found out what it would be used for our interest grew. Steve Quinlan, the Director of Institutional Advancement for Advanced Technology Academy in Dearborn explained that a senior class of students taking the course Sustainable Energy II would build the heater. A Rocket Heater, otherwise called a Rocket Stove or Rocket Mass Heater, combines the air-intake with the fuel-feed slot in an opening terminated by the combustion chamber, which connects to a chimney and also a heat exchanger. Simply put, a rocket stove has a fuel magazine but primarily works like a wood burning stove which uses the exhaust to heat a adobe clay housing. They are simple to build and yield high combustion efficiency, all while channeling the heat into a specific (small) area. The design of stove means it uses half as much fuel as an open fire and can also use smaller diameter wood even twigs. The stove is insulated and raised from the floor which reduces the danger of children burning themselves.Some uses for a a rocket heater are:
- Cooking (mostly third-world countries)
- Space heater
- Water heater
Advanced Tech is one of Michigan’s green schools, (see our article about Michigan’s program for schools to earn different stewardship levels for completing green activities here.) and they are also a charter school.
After working out the details we setup a meeting on Monday March 21 at 1:30 PM where I (Joshua Rubin, Creative Director of Maxi) would drop off the drum and take a look at what is going on over at Advanced Tech.
Maxi wants to encourage other schools to contact us with any “green” projects or initiatives. From recycling in the classroom (see our Oprep article) to energy efficient rocket heaters seen here, we love to help schools. If we want to help reduce the next generations carbon footprint, we have to teach them early on to reduce, reuse, recycle, buy recycled products and safely dispose of their hazardous waste.
Thank you Advanced Tech for choosing Maxi, we wish you the best with your rocket heater project. Looking forward to seeing the pictures of the completed heater.
Sustainable Energy II Class with Joshua Rubin (Creative Director) and their new steel 30-gal drum.
For more information about Advanced Technology Academy and their programs please visit their website or send Steve Quinlan an email.
Tags: 30-gal, advanced technology academy, dearborn, energy, Green, green schools, Michigan, rocket heater, rocket stove, schools, Steel Drums, sustainability
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Monday, March 21st, 2011
What started as an internal company project for Columbia Sportswear has now turned into full-blown initiative to involve outside companies and customers. The successful “A Box Life” program started in 2009. Paul Zaengle, vice president of the Portland, Oregon based company said,“ ‘A Box Life’ is designed to keep cardboard boxes in use longer, reduce the impacts of shipping products, and encourage people to engage around the concept of reduce, reuse, recycle in a personal way.”
Currently, over 219,000 boxes have already been reused and more are on their way. “A Box Life” has gained lots of strength recently as sustainability has become a popular move for business looking to stay sharp in the corporate and public eye. Columbia had always offered their customers with the option to receive their order in a used box. Before “A Box Life” was created there was no way to track the reuse of these boxes. By implementing the use of QR (quick response) codes as a means of tracking the boxes, now the boxes life cycle can be recorded. Customers can scan the box with their smartphone and see where it has been, and companies can utilize this to see how many places the boxes have traveled too.
Columbia places a sticker with a QR code and some instructions on the outside of the box. If you are not familiar with QR codes, they are becoming a popular trend internationally as a means of sharing information quickly. Most smartphones are able to read these codes by downloading a barcode scanner application. You can see QR codes in stores such as Best Buy, and you will also find them all over the web. (Including www.maxicontainer.com – located on the “Contact Us” page, as a quick way to get directions to our office/warehouse.) Riding the “Green” trend and capitalizing on the rising popularity of QR codes, smartphones, and sustainability, Columbia implemented a rather successful program in a short period of time.
“By offering the option to our customers to have their purchases shipped in a cardboard box, we hope to show that we can make a difference by helping reduce the need for new boxes, and that companies of all kinds can impact the global demand for new boxes by incorporating reused ones into their shipping program.”
-Paul Zaengle
Vice President of Columbia Sportswear
Though new for many industries, the life cycle of our plastic and steel drums and IBC’s plays a very important part in the Industrial Packaging industry. If it is still good enough to use again, why throw it away? Take for example the plastic drum, our industry has been investigating the life cycle of plastic drums for over forty years now. Recycling one plastic drum is equivalent to recycling 500 plastic beverage bottles, so that is what we do. The reconditioning process reclaims around 50% of plastic drums. There is plenty of useful information about the Reuse, Reconditioning, and Recycling of plastic drums from the Plastic Drum Institute. Another example is Remanufactured IBC’s, if the outer steel cage is good, (especially with high and constantly fluctuating steel prices today) we pop a new inner bottle in it. If its former contents were food-grade, it is washed out and sold for a discounted price. Reuse and Remanufacturing are integral parts of the IBC market. This got me thinking, what if the Reusable Industrial Packaging Industry tried to start a program similar to Columbia’s?
The possibilities are endless with the mixture of technology and progressive and eco-conscious thinking. Together we can collect data by tracking packages and then make adjustments to our business/lifestyle simply by returning or reusing this packaging, all while documenting it’s travels. On a large scale, this data could help us learn just how many new boxes we are saving and also reduce the amount of packaging needed, saving money and the environment. On a small scale, a company could learn valuable things about how their packages are used, reused, or not. Overall, “A Box Life” showcases how thinking green cannot only be profitable but fun, creative, and most of all interactive. Now it is time for other companies and other industries to take note of Columbia’s success with this program and start to track the internal use of their products as well. Maxi is currently investigating a similar program, figuring out the best way to implement the use of QR codes with our products to track the lifecycle and make it easier to identify the differences in drums/totes.
Related Links
Original Article by Chrissy Kadleck, appeared in the Waste and Recycling News Feb. 21, 2011
Tags: A Box life, Box, boxes, Columbia Sportswear, Green, Life Cycle, QR code, Recycle, Reuse, sustainability
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Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Children learn best by doing. If we are to raise a generation of children who care about the environment and who are willing to reduce their carbon footprint, there is no better way than having them practice these activities as part of their daily routine. They can see recycling in action, help make compost from the food waste, learn to buy recycled products. They can incorporate the ideals of reuse and recycling into their daily lives.
Michigan Senate Bill 904, signed into law on December 16, 2010 by Governor Jeniffer Granholm, revised the activities that need to be done in order to designate a school as either a Green, Emerald or Evergreen school. These activities include recycling programs, composting food and organic waste, waste free lunches, buying recycled or biodegradable supplies, and buying locally produced food produce. It can also include teaching about alternative energy or using alternative fuels.
A good example of how to teach children that their actions affect the environment can be found at Gill Elementary in Farmington Hills, Michigan. As highlighted in a recent article in the The Oakland Press, the school’s green efforts which include recycling, composting, using less packaging and other waste-reduction efforts, have earned finalist status in the National Geographic Find Your Footprint contest. The Gill Green Team, which is dedicated to making the school more earth-friendly, entered the contest under the direction of fourth grade teacher Christine Wilson and Gina Adams-Levy, Gill parent and Green Team member. The Green Team already recycled plastic and other materials, but lunchtime still generated a lot of waste. To deal with that lunchtime waste the Gill Green Team kicked off Waste-Free Fridays in January 2011, showing skits that gave examples of waste reduction at an all-school assembly. The team also sent notices home to parents, encouraging them to pack waste-free lunches on Fridays. The result, on Fridays the amount of lunch waste goes from six trash bags to four.
Maxi Container believes in helping school’s recycle so much that we have previously donated fiber drums to Osborn Preparatory School in Detroit to help start a Recycling Program with City Year Detroit. We encourage other schools to contact us, whether about our rain barrels and compost tumblers or your school’s recycling initiative. When students put these DIY projects together, watch how they work and understand the importance of building towards a sustainable future. Hopefully we help create a lasting impression on the student, one which says, if we each do something everyday to help promote green living, we help protect and better the world around us while building a more eco-sustainable future for future generations.
Tags: blog, eco-sustainable, Farmington Hills, Gill Elementary, Green, green schools, Michigan, school, schools, Senate Bill 904, students, sustainability
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Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
The Michigan House Committee on Energy & Technology is looking into two bills in committee on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 9am. HB 4265 and HB 4266 seek to return yard waste to landfills for minor energy production purposes. Both bills are sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Horn, sponsor and Rep. Paul Opsommer, co-sponsor. These Bills are a bad idea on many levels.
Michigan banned Yard Waste going to landfills in 1995. As a home owner, the impact of this ban was negligible. Instead of putting my yard waste out with my trash, I had to put it in low cost compostable paper bags availble at most hardware stores, supermarkets and big box stores in my area. In my town of Farmington Hills, MI the yard waste is collected by The Recycling Authority, and is taken to a large-scale compost site where it decomposes and becomes a rich, black humus. According to The Recycling Authority, each year RRRASOC residents generate 80,000 tons of waste. At least 30% of that waste can be composted.
Another good use for yard waste is composting at home. Composting at home reduces our dependence on trucks to haul yard waste to large-scale compost sites. It also provides us with our own source of rich humus to reuse in our gardens. Composting at home reduces the use of expensive petrochemically based fertilizers which find their way into our sewers, lakes and streams. It is less costly to produce than buying fertilizers, mulch or hummus at the local garden center. Also, composting at home is inexpensive and easy and creates a sense of connectedness with our natural world.
Here at Maxi Container we are so excited about the benefits of composting at home that we created our DIY Compost Tumbler Kit. We re-purposed a food grade plastic drum and provide all the parts and information necessary to begin composting at home.
The Michigan Recycling Coalition (of which Maxi is a proud member) is actively opposing these bills. If you live in the great State of Michigan, please call or write your representative and let them know how strongly you oppose these Bills. If you can, attend the next hearing on these Bills on March 1st at 9am, 519 House Office Building, Lansing, MI. Yard Waste can be a valued resource for the home owner. You should not be charged to give it away for free and bury it in a landfill.
Tags: Compost, compost tumbler, Composting, Farmington Hills, HB 4265, HB 4266, landfills, Maxi Container, Michigan, Michigan House Committee, Recycling, Rick Rubin, RRASOC, sustainability, The Recycling Authority, Yard Waste
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Monday, February 21st, 2011
On February 17, 2011, Nestle Waters North America announced it had hired a new Director of Sustainability. We wish Michael Washburn well in his new role and in his efforts “To increase recycling rates in the United States.” We applaud Nestle for hiring someone who has worked in the nonprofit sector, and held a senior position at
The Wilderness Society working on public lands advocacy.
Here at Maxi Container, however, we still hold Nestle responsible for two of the most egregious environmental policies and practices of this era.
First, they sell millions of plastic water bottles, consuming inordinate amounts of energy and raw materials to deliver a product that most of us in the U.S. has at our fingertips, potable water.
Second, they are one of the largest companies diverting a precious resource from our home state of Michigan, paying little or nothing for it, and making a large profit by selling it at a ridiculous mark up.
Nestle Waters U.S. brands include, Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deep Park, Ice Mountain, Nestle Pure Life, Ozarka, Poland Spring and Zepherhills. Nestle has had a series of battles in and out of court in both Mecosta and Osceola, MI regarding its plans for its bottling plant to bottle over
720,000 gallons of water pumped from the
Great Lakes Basin and aquifer
per day. Water which is never replaced and has led to drying of wetlands and streams and lowering of lake levels. It has also severly affected nearby homeowners and farmers who depend on the aquifer for their drinking water and irrigation.
In 2009, after
9 years of litigation,
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation reached an out of court settlement with Nestle to reduce Nestle’s pumping to
218 gallons per minute. Over an
8 hour day that is still
104,640 gallons. Over
24 hours, that is
313,920 gallons of water per day taken from our precious Great Lakes and never returned. Add to that the cost of the resources used to bottle and truck that water all over the country and you now have the makings of one of the greatest environmental villains ever!
Tags: Bottled Water, Great Lakes, Great Lakes Basin, Michigan, Nestle, Recycling, sustainability, Sustainability Director, Water
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Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
You do not expect a prestigious school to do something so stupid. Drew University, of Madison, N.J ranked as number 79 of the best Colleges by US News and World Reports, was fined $145,000 by the US EPA for not properly managing hazardous waste in 2007. While only 30 miles from Manhattan, Drew University is set in a wooded 160 acres. Despite this pristine setting, the University haphazardly stored dozens of containers of paint, wood stains, enamels and adhesives in a manner that failed to minimize releases to the environment. The containers were stored outside and on the ground. Some were in close proximity to residential housing and a pond and many containers were open and could have easily spilled their contents or leaked into the ground. The University also failed to properly identify discarded materials such as mercury, sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, formic acid, and nitric acid as hazardous wastes.
Drew University’s problems highlight an important issue. Some of the hazardous materials in question were paint, wood stains, enamels and adhesives. These are items that many of us have around the house or workplace and do not realize are considered hazardous materials. Many other common items, such as window cleaner, radiator fluid, batteries, cleaning supplies and fluorescent light bulbs are also hazardous materials. It is important for all of us, either at home or at work, to learn to recognize hazardous materials and to both store and/or dispose of them properly. This is key to all of our efforts towards sustainability. If you are not sure what items in your home or business are hazardous materials, you can contact either your local recycling authority, your state Environmental Agency or the EPA. Many have educational materials available on their websites.
Drew University could have avoided these problems with one phone call to Maxi Container. We carry a full line of safety cabinets and other facilities management products that are approved for the proper storage of hazardous materials. We also carry a full line of secondary containment products which, if properly used, would have prevented any release into the environment. Maxi also carries numerous lab packing materials, including 20 gallon poly overpacks and vermiculite which would have allowed for disposal of both the maintenance and laboratory hazardous waste in an appropriate manner.
Do not make the same mistake as Drew University. Sustainability includes recognizing hazardous materials both at home and at work and taking steps to manage and dispose of them in an environmentally sustainable manner. Maxi can help! Give us a call toll free 1-800-727-MAXI (6294).
Tags: batteries, EPA, facilities management, hazardous materials, lab packs, poly overpack, safety cabinets, sustainability, vermiculite
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