The recycling process uses about 5% of the energy it takes to make virgin cans and saves the same amount of air pollution.
Additionally, recycled aluminum is diverted from the waste stream.
Mining for bauxite ore is extremely resource-intensive and mines themselves leech chemicals into the soil and water supply even years after abandoned.
Batteries
They contain heavy metals like mercury, lead, cadmium and nickel. These metals contaminate landfills and find their way into our soil, water and air. And inevitably, our bodies.
Bio diesel is a renewable fuel source. Unlike fossil fuels, bio diesel is made from vegetable oilseed crops grown in America, which replenishes the market annually with renewable feedstock.
Bio diesel can be used alone or mixed in any amount with petroleum diesel fuel. A 20% blend of biodiesel with diesel fuel is called “B20,” a 5% blend is called “B5″ and so on.
Bottled water generally is no cleaner, or safer, or healthier than tap water. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water.
Water mining has devastating effects on ecosystems.
The big beverage companies often take water from municipal or underground sources that local people depend on for drinking water. Plastic bottle production uses energy and emits toxic chemicals.
Transporting the bottled water across hundreds or thousands of miles spews carbon dioxide into the air, complicating our efforts to combat global climate change. And in the end, empty bottles are piling up in landfills.
It’s estimated that food travels 1,500 miles before landing on our plates. Buying locally supports farmers and puts us in touch with seasonality of our food and reduces CO2 emissions.
A greenhouse gas, absorbed by trees and the ocean, but nowhere near the amounts we produce by the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation.
Closed-loop industrial cycle where the production of one item feeds the production of another or gets safely returned to the soil.
A one-way manufacturing model: Make it, use it, throw
it away, and create pollution.
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs compared to an incandescent lamp saves 2000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.
Organic – no pesticides, insecticides
Shade Grown – preserves ecosystems
Fair Trade – farmers get paid a fair wage
Composting
Returns nutrients to the soil, like in nature where nothing is wasted.
Reduces waste in landfills, keeping methane out of the atmosphere.
A perfect example of the cradle-to-cradle model of recycling.
Dry cleaners
Traditional dry cleaners uses perchloroethylene an air pollutant and possible carcinogen
A single gallon of gas produces 20lbs of carbon dioxide. This is why we should never idle in vehicles.
The Forestry Stewardship Council is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 that certifies when wood has been harvested in a sustainable manner.
Incinerators emit varying levels of heavy metals such as vanadium, manganese, chromium, nickel, arsenic, mercury, lead, and cadmium, all of which can be toxic at very minute levels.
It takes approximately 10 gallons of crude oil to make one gallon of jet fuel.
It takes 9,000 gallons for one Boeing 767 from New York to Los Angeles.
Produce CO2 and methane, breach in lining causes leaks into soil and water.
Impacts include pollution of the local environment, contamination of groundwater and/or aquifers by leakage, residual soil contamination during landfill usage, and the off-gassing of methane generated by decaying organic wastes.
The closer to home you can get your food the healthier for you and the environment.
Long hauled food loses vitamins and gains contaminates.
Mass conventional farming depends on fossil fuels, depletes soil and poisons waterways.
GMO’s (Genetically-modified organisms)
Crop plants created for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. These plants have been modified in the laboratory to enhance desired traits such as increased resistance to herbicides, improved nutritional content or resistance to drought.
A controversial science like this can be used in the fight against world hunger, but long-term collateral damage is unknown. For instance, pollen from GMO plants can affect local eco-systems.
A potent greenhouse gas with high global warming potential.
Major worldwide sources of atmospheric methane include wetlands, ruminants such as cows, energy use, rice agriculture, landfills, and burning biomass such as wood.
Occurs when synthetic materials begin to break down. Off- gassing occurs when volatile organic compounds (VOC’s, see below) are emitted from certain solids or liquids and may cause harmful health effects.
A purchase representing a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The very last resort to attain carbon neutrality.
Conventionally grown cotton is one of the most pesticide intensive crops. Approximately 25% of all insecticides and 10% of pesticides are used to grow it. Organic cotton is far and away the better choice.
Paper makes up one-third of our waste as a nation.
Recycling one ton of paper saves almost six tons of CO2 compared to throwing it out.
1 ton of paper bags = 17 trees
Generate five times as much solid waste as plastic.
Heavier and bulkier than plastic, paper bags use more fuel to get it to where it is going.
Over 98% of sprayed insecticides and 95% of herbicides reach a destination other than their target species, including non-target species, air, water, bottom sediments, and food.
1 ton of plastic bags =11 barrels of crude oil
Can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.
Use less of everything (water, electricity, petroleum products, etc.). Reduce your usage and your bills!
Using something once for one use is woefully wasteful.
For example, wash those zip lock bags over and over!
Creative reuse. For example, using theatrical gels to create beautiful pieces of art.
Requires energy, but less than creating a material from new sources.
A petroleum product, the US makes some 3 million tons of it a year, most of which is thrown into landfills.
A practice of sustainability in which waste materials are used to create new products of greater value. This process allows for the reduction of waste and unnecessary material use.
VOC (Volatile Organic Compound)
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of products numbering in the thousands. Examples include: paints and lacquers, paint strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, graphics and craft materials including glues and adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions, etc.