Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble”¹.

While this famous phrase may conjure up thoughts of witches concocting a potion, it surely doesn’t represent all the Halloween fun we have carving pumpkins, trick or treating, and dressing up for costume parties. This year Americans will spend $1.8 billion dollars on candy, $1.6 billion dollars on decorations, $2.0 billion dollars on costumes, and almost $350 million on greeting cards. After the holiday, tons and tons of candy wrappers, rotting pumpkins, polystyrene and latex masks, glow sticks, inflatable lawn decorations, and even pet costumes will end up in our landfills. As a nation are we under some sort of “throw away” spell?” (more…)

Always recycle your used plastic shopping bags at your local grocer or big box store. Also, let your friends know that research has been long underway to make polyethylene plastic shopping bags biodegradable.

Taking a stroll through your grocery store aisles can be a real plastic film experience. Many vegetables, deli meats, cheeses, and snack foods are wrapped or bagged in this illustrious packaging. Plastic films enable our foods to maintain good shelf life, transport better, and to showcase best. Unfortunately, good, better, best comes with one big negative: tons of this plastic film ends up in our landfills! (more…)

Check to see if your municipality offers curbside pick up for plastic wraps and films. If not, collect your used plastic wraps and films and drop them off at the nearest recycling station which accepts them. When possible, store your foods in reusable containers. Most plastic and glass reusable containers are recyclable. Help keep plastic out of our landfills. -R.G.

Boats everywhere are being pulled out of storage, unwrapped, and set back into the water. Unwrapped? Yes. For those of you who are not boaters, shrink wrap goes way beyond the kitchen- it is used to keep stored boats in good condition. But what happens to all this shrink wrap after it has been used? (more…)

April 22, 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. By attending the 2010 New York City Earth Day event, it was obvious we have come a long way since Earth Day’s beginnings as a protest to raise environmental awareness.

Earth Day NYC 2010

Americans dispose of billions upon billions of paper, plastic, and foam cups. This year over 58 billion paper cups and 25 billion polystyrene foam cups will pass through our hands and end up in landfills. While the United States is still the world’s largest culprit of disposable cup waste, growing nations like China and India are fast catching up. It’s a cup carrying, cup dumping world! (more…)

Recycle your used “Zip Lock” plastic storage bags. Cut-off all hard components (zippers etc.) and collect zipper-less bags in a plastic shopping bag. Recycle the shopping bag and its contents at your local retailer’s plastic bag recycling station. Help keep more LDPE (#4) plastic out of our landfills.

Just Zip It. Zipper-type plastic storage bags have hundreds of uses and are fast becoming the quintessential storage solution for households and businesses. Foods, electronic parts, garden soils, and even crime scene evidence end up packaged in these convenient, storage bags. Although millions of these bags are used daily, recycling used zipper-type plastic bags is not so easy. (more…)

Valentine’s Day is a festival of cards, candy, and flowers. During this holiday, 65% of all US households will exchange greeting cards, 38% will give or receive candy, and 32% will turn to flowers to say, “Will you be my Valentine?” (more…)