By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on September 26th,2010  I recently visited scenic Colorado. I spent a week hiking the mountains,camping by reservoirs and enjoying the unspoiled beauty of remote locations. Yet something kept making me think of this blog. Not being privy to a refrigerator or even a cooler,we made frequent trips to grocery stores for our daily meals. Something struck me every time I was checking out:“would you like me to put this in a bag?”. It wasn’t a question of “paper or plastic”. I hadn’t thrown my reusable bags on the belt asking them to fill them first. I didn’t even have . . . →Read More:Do you need a bag? By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on September 25th,2010  From time to time a structure is built to illustrate a point about the wastefulness of our society. The building is made of hundred to hundreds of thousands of objects that would be found in our society’s waste stream. Often the objects are part of packaging. Here are a couple recent examples Beer Crate Pavilion Currently located in Brussels,from a distance the building looks like it is constructed of giant yellow Lego blocks. It was constructed in 2008 by Belgian and UK architecture firm SHSH to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Expo 1958. These “Lego”blocks are . . . →Read More:Plastic Structures By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on September 24th,2010 When I first started learning about medical and sustainable plastics I found some of the terminology a little confusing. And I often find that people get mixed up when they use plastic terminology as well. Words that are confusing because they are relatively new to the general public are bioplastics,biomaterials,biodegradable plastics,oxo-degradable plastic,bio-feedstock plastics,resorbable and so on. My blog posts are often full of red spell check underlines because my computer is unsure if I am making up words. I hope to clear up a bit of the terminology used in this blog as well . . . →Read More:Terminology –Biomaterials By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on September 23rd,2010  In order to reduce the waste in our landfills we have to start reusing more in our homes. Aladdin,a reusable container company,has started a challenge for everyday American households to Do the Reuse. I actually found out about the challenge from a frugal living blogger I follow. As part of the Do the Reuse Challenge,9 families will be blogging about their experiences eliminating disposables from their lives. The website is full of statistics about the impact of reuse,both environmental and economical. Seven million barrels of oil are used to produce the disposable bottles Americans go . . . →Read More:Do the Reuse Challenge By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on September 22nd,2010  There are many examples of artists turning other people’s trash into amazing works of art. Some people call this recycling,I would rather call it re-appropriation. The artists call the art “reclaimed object art”. And these pieces of art are sometimes absolutely phenomenal. An artist who has recently caught my attention because of use of reclaimed plastic objects is Japanese-born artist Sayaka Kajita Ganz. Using discarded plastic kitchenware she forms amazing sculptures of horses,leopards,birds,etc. Some of the objects are distinctly tools from the kitchen. Notice the spork ear for the horse in the image . . . →Read More:Trash to Treasure By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 26th,2010 This blog has often presented bioplastics in both it’s positive and negative lights. This is an attempt to help people make their own decisions about what they will be purchasing and to understand some of the outlying issues. I sometimes worry that the negatives are weighed more heavily in people’s minds. But we must remember some important facts. Development of new technologies takes time:Bioplastics in actual packaging applications are relatively in their infancy. They may still have some kinks to work out but scientists and companies are taking steps towards a future when our vehicles have exhausted petroleum . . . →Read More:Why care about immerging bioplastic technologies? By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 25th,2010  I visited one of my college professors yesterday and we had a fantastic conversation about the benefits and flaws of plastics as related to my blog. He brought up an excellent point about the most vilified product in our society,plastic disposable water bottles. Water bottles are extensively distributed in disaster areas. The local water quality in undermined and it’s important to quickly distribute safe water to hundreds,possibly thousands of local victims. The prepackaged water containers are readily available and can be shipped out immediately. Source:Jae C. Hong,AP As for the choice of plastic for . . . →Read More:Plastics in Humanitarian Uses By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 23rd,2010  Consumers increasingly want to be more environmentally conscious. Whether that be by recycling,composting,reducing waste or purchasing products with a more eco-friendly message. One way for consumers to get involved in improving the environment is to purchase products made from recycled materials. While companies may claim to be made of recycled product,there are agencies in place to safeguard the customers. The International Code Council Evaluation Services,ICC ES,has a program to ensure building products meet sustainability requirements. Their S.A.V.E. program,Sustainable Attributes Verification and Evaluation,provides companies with voluntary evaluation of a product’s recycled content. SAVE™, . . . →Read More:Recycled Content in Products By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 22nd,2010  Recently the bioplastics that is most often seen in the press is Poly(lactic) acid,or PLA. It is best known for being made of non-petroleum materials,biodegradable and causing issues with existing waste disposal infrastructure. It is also being used in several bioresorbable medical implants. In fact a lot of people seem to associate bioplastics with a material that degrades in a reasonable period of time either through biodegradation,oxy-degradation or composting. However a bioplastic recently being noticed does not degrade. They are essentially traditional plastics made of renewable feedstock. These plastics are 100% recyclable in mainstream recycling their . . . →Read More:Plastics from Renewable Feedstocks By Miriam Wilcox-Barsalou,on August 21st,2010  I originally posted this blog post on Greenwala on August 12,2010 As I browse environmental websites on the internet,I have often seen statistics that relate to the lack of plastic that makes it into the recycling stream. The Wikipedia Article on plastic recycling (as of August 12,2010) states the following: Plastic recycling rates lag far behind those of other items,such as newspaper (about 80%) and corrugated fiberboard (about 70%). All plastic bottles were recycled at a rate of 24% in 2005. The EPA Common Wastes and Materials reports states the . . . →Read More:Does Recycling Confusion Hurt Plastics? | CreditsBlog design elements by Kate HadfieldUsed as non-profit generating blog TOU |
