Credit: Montgomery Cty Division of Solid Waste Services via Flickr

Plastic has been around for over 100 years. It’s become such a staple of our man made environment that we don’t think twice about it. Every day items from our clothing, vehicles, homes, electronics and more  contain plastics. It’s an incredible product that has allowed us to produce a wide range of items. But what was once a revolutionary product promising a bright future has become a blight from an environmental perspective.

Forever plastic takes a look at the history of plastic from it humble origins the incredible range of products we see today. But the real story in the documentary is a close look at the recycling of plastics, and the challenges faced by the recycling industry. Most of us assume that everything we put in our blue boxes gets recycled and we feel better having taken one small step to being green. But as the documentary shows, recycling isn’t always that simple.

Forever Plastic interviews a commodities trader, his job is to find a market for the recycled plastics. If there is no market demand for a particular type of plastic it gets sorted out from the recycled items and often either accumulates in storage or is brought to a landfill. It was shocking to see how little of the recycled items were of no value to his firm as he had no buying market to take certain plastics. Only 1/3 of the plastics in a blue bin were re-usable in the sample shown.

For example the clear plastic egg cartons that are often assumed to be recyclable are in fact not being recycled at all. It turns out there is no market for that particular type of plastic. Which means these containers are simple shipped to a landfill in the end. Even if the manufacturer creates a product with recyclable plastic it may not be recyclable, it depends what recycling processing plants exist in your community and if there is a market for that particular plastic.

To add more confusion to the mix, it turns out what most people think is a recycling symbol on the bottom of plastic packaging does not actually indicate a product is recyclable at all. The triangular arrows present on most packages is called a mobius loop, this symbol is not owned by anyone and it’s application is not regulated in any way. In 1988 the society of the plastics industry decided to incorporate this logo in their resin identification system. The plastics industry added a number inside the arrows, but all this indicates is what resin the plastic is made out of. So when you see this logo on the bottom of a package it doesn’t necessarily guarantee recyclability, it’s actually quite meaningless except for the number inside which indicates the type of plastic it is.  But the plastics industry refuses to change the misunderstood symbol.

The government of Canada has made recommendations to the plastics industry. Namely that the manufacturers clearly label the front of the product with a recycling symbol that indicates a product is truly recyclable. But these are just voluntary guidelines, manufacturers are free to choose if they want to follow the guidelines.

As it turns out recycling isn’t as simple as one might think. It involves many companies, manufactures, markets and different regulations in each municipality. The manufacturers say they have done their due diligence, and point to the recyclers, the recyclers point to the market demand, and the market points back to the governing body.

Forever plastic was a great documentary, it really showed how much work there is to do in Canada before we have a truly green recycling program. So what can consumers do? Recycling is defenitely something that should be continued, but it’s important consumers get involved. Contact your city, town or municipality. Often they have a list of acceptable products on their website or can direct you to the information elsewhere. And most of all get involved let your civic officials know you want better and more thorough recycling in your area.

For more information on Forever Plastic click here

Credit: Aaron Escobar via Flickr

Easy Eco Baby is a local company that sells environmentally friendly baby care products. We receive their newsletter and they have let us know about events taking place around Manitoba for earth day. Why not take in an event and help celebrate earth day!

Brandon Earth Day Celebrations

Celebrations to be held on Sunday April 19 at 12 noon to 5:00 pm with many displays and information handouts. There will be free compost available to individuals and a free draw will be held for a bicycle and Easy Eco Baby Gift Pack.

WHEN:  Sunday April 19th, 2009
Time:  12pm to 5pm
WHERE:  Princess Park
Princess Avenue and 8th Street
Brandon, Manitoba
Visit www.earthday.ca for more info

Earth Day Canada Event at St. Mary’s Road United Church

Come and hear speakers from the University of Manitoba and the Manitoba Geothermal Energy Alliance talk about green cities and geothermal energy. There will also be displays featuring Climate Change Connection, Ten Thousand Villages, MPI, Easy Eco Baby and an E-Waste Depot in the parking lot area.

When:  Wednesday April 22, 2009
Time: 7pm to 10pm
Where:  St. Mary’s Rd United Church 613 St. Mary’s Road
Phone 257-0678 or visit www.earthday.ca for more info

Manitoba Eco-Cafe and Market:

Find earth-friendly products and connect with local environmental groups over fair trade coffee at the Earth Day Eco-Café & Market. Enter your name in our door prize draw to win a fabulous gift basket compliments of Easy Eco Baby.

When:  Sunday, April 26th, 2009
Time:  10:00am to 4:00pm
Where:  Robert A. Steen Community Centre
980 Palmerston Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Visit www.mbearthday.we.bs for more info.

Credit: Aaron Escobar via Flickr

Earth Day is on Wednesday, April 22nd, to mark the occasion Investors Group on Waverley is hosting an Earth Day E-Waste Drop Off.  If you have any electronics equipment that you want to dispose of, instead of throwing them in the garbage, please bring them to their office between 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM.  Investors will have a drop off site set up in their front parking lot.  Items accepted are as follows;

• TVs
• Computer monitors
• Desktop computers
• Laptop computers
• VCRs / Stereos
• Phones / Cell Phones
• Scanners / Copiers / Fax Machines
• Microwave Ovens
• Rechargeable batteries

Location:   1345 Waverley Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba   (the corner of McGillivray Blvd. & Waverley Street)
For more details, please call (204) 489-4640.

The public is welcome to use this service, so tell your friends. Please note this is for individuals only, no bulk drop offs will be accepted.

Credit 96dpi via Flickr

Like most Canadians over the years I’ve been told of our abundant freshwater resources, and how we are one of the richest countries when it comes to fresh water resources. Numerous reports have been publishes that put our global fresh water share at varying amounts; 25%, 20% and so on. Either way many people would agree, we have an abundance of fresh water. Or do we?

Upon closer examination it becomes clear that only a fraction of the fresh water we currently have is renewable. Again there are varying stats but I’ve read numbers such as only 7%, 9% etc of our national fresh water supply is renewable. That means most of our fresh water is tied into non renewable resources such as glaciers, icebergs and other resources that are in retreat. Withe the onset of global warming it only speeds up the diminishing nature of these non renewable resources.

Many climate and water experts now believe that water scarcity in many countries will reach a global crisis in the latter part of this century, wich raises the possbility of conflict in certain parts of the world.

The myth of abundant, never ending fresh water seems so tied to our public psyche here in Canada that most of us take it for granted. Perhaps that’s why Canadians are amongst the top consumers of fresh water per capita in the world. In fact Canadians use more than twice the water people in Europe use.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, with simple steps we can reduce our consumption. GoBlue.org is a site created by Unilever canada, it discusses the issues above in detail and gives tips on how you can reduce your water consumption in your home.

Visit GoBlue.org
More stats on Canadian water use in Canada

SOIL: Sasha Kramer (right)

Haiti is the poorest contry in the western hemisphere, it is estimated 80% of it’s population is living in poverty. An already bad situation has been made worse by the desertification of this small carribean country. In 1925, Haiti was lush, with 60% of its original forest covering the lands and mountainous regions. Since then, the population has cut down all but an estimated 2% of its original forest cover, and in the process has destroyed fertile farmland soils.

In a country where many struggle to feed themselves having fertile soil to grow food and crops is essential. A friend has written in about Sasha Kramer and Sarah Brownell two women who run a non-profit grop called SOIL in haiti. Their goal is to raise funds and teach haitiens how to build composting toilets. Composting toilest turn human waste into valuable fertilizer without the use of water or chemicals. And when built properly they omit few odors and can be quite safe.

By providing a natural source of fertilizer this allows SOIL to empower communities and help rebuild their ability to feed themselves and flourish. SOIL is a small non profit and they’re looking for help to continue their work.

Here is a quote from Sasha about their need for funding:

We know that times have been tough everywhere and certainly our organization has felt the pinch with donations dropping in response to the economic crisis.  We currently have enough money to continue to function through the month of April but with our rent coming due in early May and no vehicle we are still struggling to stay afloat. Our network has been so generous in the past and we are so grateful to all of you who have supported us over the past few years…you have made this work a reality and it is such an honor to be part of such a compassionate group of people.

More on composting toilets; in the west we aren’t as familiar with this concept but it has been proven safe and effective, there are experiments with composting toilets in some countries including Europe, Canada and the US. One example is the three-story C.K. Choi Building at the University of British Columbia (Canada), which contains 5 compost chambers with 12 toilets for 300 full-time employees.

Read more about SOIL in Haiti
Visit the SOIL homepage, they are in need of any donations you can spare
More about composting toilets

Free Flow Turbine

When someone says hydro power, most of us think large concrete structures holding back million of gallons of water to generate electricity. But what if there was another way to use a river’s natural currents to produce electricity? Possible without placing large concrete structures within a biosphere and disrupting the natural currents or water mass? Among solar panels, and wind turbines is another technology that has potential to generate power for cities adjacent to moving bodies of water: Free Flow Underwater Turbines.

Very simply, it works like a wind turbine along the bed of a river, but the blades are moved by a water current instead of by the wind. The turbine blades rotate slowly allowing fish to pass through safely with minimal environmental impact. One of the disadvantages of wind turbines are days when there is no wind or it’s not sufficient to generate power, not so with free flow turbines, since the current runs all day every day there is no period where the turbine is inactive.

Last year Ontario invested 2.2 million into the Cornwall Ontario River Energy project, it’s goal to develop 15MW of power as a demonstration of the feasibility and commercial viability of free flow underwater turbines.

More info on these unique turbines
Information about the C.O.R.E project in Ontario

VBS.tv Video Series

We all know the problems plastics pose, their resource use as a petroleum and chemical product, the leeching of chemicals, and the problem with waste once the product they make up is no longer needed.

However one problem that isn’t as widely know is how everyday products are infiltrating our waterways slowly making their way into our Oceans and collecting in the north pacific. The most widely know of these spots is the North Pacific Gyre, aka the North Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Gyre is a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents in the norther pacific ocean. The area is an oceanic desert , filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and­ s­ailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It’s the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.

VBS.tv has presented a 12 part documentary on the gyre, each episode lasting about 5 minutes give or take. It’s a little slow in the middle and there is some swearing but I think the message is what’s important and in the end they show the average person just what we are putting in our ocean.

Captain Charles Moore has dedicated himself to exposing the gyre and studying it effects. Towards the end he reflects on the gyre and what it says about us as a society, here are his thoughts:

Critical thinking it’s  a faculty that’s in danger in our present day society. We live in the happy consciousness era. We’re the strongest nation on earth (the US), globalization is inevitable, we’ve got more stuff, he who dies with the most toys wins.

I think that’s why I’m so gung-ho on this plastic thing, because it’s a symbol of the wrong direction we’re taking as a society as a whole. What is the promise of society? Descartes said there was such a thing as a social contract. That we give up our individual liberties to the society as a whole because it can liberate us greater than we could do by ourselves. Is that still the case? Are we getting the bang for the buck out of our society and our social institutions that we gave up our anarchistic tendencies for? We’re caught in the trade winds of our time, we can’t succeed from society, but we have to plant the seed of the future in the present.

Warning: this video series uses some coarse language.
Watch the VBS.tv series

More on the north pacific gyre:
Treehugger article on the gyre

Credit: markg6 via Flickr

Turns out the Amazon can not only absorb carbon it can also release large amounts of it as well. In fact it seems droughts can exacerbated this problem. Recent studies have found that a drought which took place in 2005 released large volumes of absorbed carbon back into the atmosphere. If global warming holds true this is bad news since extreme weahter such as droughts are predicted. Add on the fact that large areas are still being burnt for farm land and you have a two pronged problem.

Here are a few quotes from the CBC article:

A study involving nearly 70 scientists has found that the Amazon rainforest is surprisingly sensitive to drought and even a moderate drought can cause it to release massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

To give a sense of just how much carbon has been released

The total impact of the drought, an extra five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, is greater than the annual emissions of Europe and Japan combined.

Read the full article here

SF Landfill Entrance

The city of San Francisco is one of the greenest cities in the US. (More on this coming in future posts.) So it’s not surprising to find that its landfill doesn’t fit the standard stereotype.  They are very careful to sort all incoming waste so that everything which can be recycled is, in addition, they also have strict policies on handling items such as electronics and chemicals.

If it stopped there you might think it wasn’t that impressive, however they have incorporated interpretive centers for visitors, green spaces and even artists in residence into their landfill. Have a look at Treehuggers’ photo gallery for details. It will make you think twice about what a landfill should be, and what role a landfill can play in helping to slow the environmental impact caused by our throw away society.

Visit the gallery on Treehugger.com

Mark Bittman

New York Times food columnist and author Mark Bittman is interviewed in this NPR radio show. In it he discusses his move to a healthier diet and how it impacts not only his health but also the planet.

Mark Bittman found himself at a cross roads, his health was suffering from extra weight and after consulting with his doctor he was told to shift to a more vegetable based diet. At the same time he also became more aware that our meat and process food centric diet was not only unhealthy but that we needed to change our views of food. After reading the UN report “Livestock’s Long Shadow” Mark discovered that 18% of all greenhouse gases are produced by industrial livestock production, therefore almost a fifth of all greenhouse gases are produced by eating meat, Second only to energy production.

With this knowledge he made positive changes that not only helped him loose weight and become healthier but also help reduce his carbon footprint.

Listen to the interview here
Amazon page for Mark’s Cookbook: Food Matters a Guide to Conscious Eating