Spring is a time to take a fresh look at our purchasing and recycling practices. All of us want to be more eco-conscious with our business practices. It's remarkable how a few changes in our business plans and purchasing choices can both help the wider world and benefit our bottom line. The Green Task Force of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce created a checklist to help businesses with their triple bottom line to emphasize sustainability for people, profits and the planet. Businesses are encouraged to contact the chamber for that list.
Spring Greening.
The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation has been teaching people to expand their thinking from the original Reduce, Reuse and Recycle mantra. With funding from the Regional Solid Waste Association (RSWA), we have added Rethink and Refuse to that list of reminders. We tell our classes to put their trash can on a diet and work toward Zero Waste. We all need to Rethink our purchasing practices and Refuse products that are made from toxic substances that fill-up our trash containers and pollute our landfills. As business consumers we need to reject wasteful designs that use up natural resources when safer, recycled components may be available.
Take plastic shopping bags: fewer than 5% of them get recycled, and they are an added expense for your business. You can be one of our local businesses who encourage customers to use their own reusable bags by selling them yourself and offering incentives.
Do you really want to waste the resources of old growth trees vs. recycled paper in making Toilet Paper? According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, if every family replaced only one regular roll of toilet paper with a recycled one, it would save 420,000 trees. Imagine the impact that businesses could make by adopting that small change.
Another evil to watch out for is packaging. How much packaging is really needed? Toilet paper wrapped in paper and sold in a cardboard box is better than the individually plastic wrapped rolls that are bound together in heavy duty plastic wrap. Refuse to accept Styrofoam (plastic #6 polystyrene). There are few recycling facilities for Styrofoam. (Check with http://www.earth911.com for information on how to handle difficult recyclables.) UPS stores take back "peanuts and plastic poppers". A good choice is plant-based peanuts which decompose, and crumpled paper is even better.
The Big Picture
According to the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), despite our best efforts to recycle more, we still throw away as much solid waste as we did in 1990: 40 million tons per year, and approximately seventy-five percent of that is product and packaging waste! Our diversion rates (keeping recyclables out of the landfill) have increased tremendously: 50% to 75% over the last few years. However, diversion rates don't do anything to reduce the generation of and consumption of wasteful products- its generation and consumption have exploded in recent years.
The U-Waste Ban:
California's Universal Waste Ban prohibits an array of residentially generated hazardous products from normal household trash disposal, such as: electronics, paints, pesticides, florescent light tubes, TVs, thermometers, and pharmaceuticals.
The Problem $500 Million and Counting:
That's what Californians spend each year to manage products that have been banned from landfills. And the price tag keeps growing as more toxic and problematic products are banned. The state bans must be enforced by local governments, placing a huge burden on each city's finances, one more reason to be better informed on our purchasing choices and seek alternatives to these toxic and problematic products in the marketplace.
A New Paradigm: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or Product Stewardship.
Presently there is a disconnect between the producers and the End of Life (EOL) of the product they create. They have no responsibility for the costs involved in that product's disposal. Effective waste management can't be an afterthought. It must be a key part of product design, manufacturing, packaging and retailing. It is a benefit to the retailer or producer as they appear "good and green to the public."
Some manufacturers, retailers and local governments in the US have started to implement policies and programs that have EPR components. This is not a new concept. Manufacturers are already doing this in other countries in Canada, Europe and Japan…the same manufacturers who are NOT doing it here, because they don't have to. CPSC also suggests the private sector should design and operate recycling systems for their product waste, but that public policy should require producers to take responsibility for managing their product waste..
Hopefully this article has helped you to Rethink your options, and encouraged you to Refuse excessive packaging, or toxic products. If you would like to learn more, come to our Chamber "Sustainability Committee" meeting Tuesday May 10th at 7:15, 8:30 a.m. at the Chamber and meet chamber members with sustainable business products and services.
Resources:
www.CalPSC.org
www.calrecycle.ca.gov/reducewaste/Business/
www.storyofstuff.com
Sandy Atkinson is the Director of the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, the Secretary of the Sustainability Committee, member of the Carlsbad Community Gardens Collaborative, member of the California Resource and Recovery Association, The San Diego County Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee of the California Integrated Waste Management Boards.
Spring Greening.
The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation has been teaching people to expand their thinking from the original Reduce, Reuse and Recycle mantra. With funding from the Regional Solid Waste Association (RSWA), we have added Rethink and Refuse to that list of reminders. We tell our classes to put their trash can on a diet and work toward Zero Waste. We all need to Rethink our purchasing practices and Refuse products that are made from toxic substances that fill-up our trash containers and pollute our landfills. As business consumers we need to reject wasteful designs that use up natural resources when safer, recycled components may be available.
Take plastic shopping bags: fewer than 5% of them get recycled, and they are an added expense for your business. You can be one of our local businesses who encourage customers to use their own reusable bags by selling them yourself and offering incentives.
Do you really want to waste the resources of old growth trees vs. recycled paper in making Toilet Paper? According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, if every family replaced only one regular roll of toilet paper with a recycled one, it would save 420,000 trees. Imagine the impact that businesses could make by adopting that small change.
Another evil to watch out for is packaging. How much packaging is really needed? Toilet paper wrapped in paper and sold in a cardboard box is better than the individually plastic wrapped rolls that are bound together in heavy duty plastic wrap. Refuse to accept Styrofoam (plastic #6 polystyrene). There are few recycling facilities for Styrofoam. (Check with http://www.earth911.com for information on how to handle difficult recyclables.) UPS stores take back "peanuts and plastic poppers". A good choice is plant-based peanuts which decompose, and crumpled paper is even better.
The Big Picture
According to the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), despite our best efforts to recycle more, we still throw away as much solid waste as we did in 1990: 40 million tons per year, and approximately seventy-five percent of that is product and packaging waste! Our diversion rates (keeping recyclables out of the landfill) have increased tremendously: 50% to 75% over the last few years. However, diversion rates don't do anything to reduce the generation of and consumption of wasteful products- its generation and consumption have exploded in recent years.
The U-Waste Ban:
California's Universal Waste Ban prohibits an array of residentially generated hazardous products from normal household trash disposal, such as: electronics, paints, pesticides, florescent light tubes, TVs, thermometers, and pharmaceuticals.
The Problem $500 Million and Counting:
That's what Californians spend each year to manage products that have been banned from landfills. And the price tag keeps growing as more toxic and problematic products are banned. The state bans must be enforced by local governments, placing a huge burden on each city's finances, one more reason to be better informed on our purchasing choices and seek alternatives to these toxic and problematic products in the marketplace.
A New Paradigm: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) or Product Stewardship.
Presently there is a disconnect between the producers and the End of Life (EOL) of the product they create. They have no responsibility for the costs involved in that product's disposal. Effective waste management can't be an afterthought. It must be a key part of product design, manufacturing, packaging and retailing. It is a benefit to the retailer or producer as they appear "good and green to the public."
Some manufacturers, retailers and local governments in the US have started to implement policies and programs that have EPR components. This is not a new concept. Manufacturers are already doing this in other countries in Canada, Europe and Japan…the same manufacturers who are NOT doing it here, because they don't have to. CPSC also suggests the private sector should design and operate recycling systems for their product waste, but that public policy should require producers to take responsibility for managing their product waste..
Hopefully this article has helped you to Rethink your options, and encouraged you to Refuse excessive packaging, or toxic products. If you would like to learn more, come to our Chamber "Sustainability Committee" meeting Tuesday May 10th at 7:15, 8:30 a.m. at the Chamber and meet chamber members with sustainable business products and services.
Resources:
www.CalPSC.org
www.calrecycle.ca.gov/reducewaste/Business/
www.storyofstuff.com
Sandy Atkinson is the Director of the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, the Secretary of the Sustainability Committee, member of the Carlsbad Community Gardens Collaborative, member of the California Resource and Recovery Association, The San Diego County Advisory Committee and Technical Advisory Committee of the California Integrated Waste Management Boards.