Recycling News

Returning from a fine 12 day holiday in the DC area ( steamy) and the Berkshires ( cool), Foodie
glanced through a current copy of Ladies Home Journal  on Southwest Airlines. She was already pondering why SW, the profitable and well-run, enlightened airline, was  serving up trans-fat laden snacks, and deciding to email  the CEO. ( On the list!)  And had just read part of a nifty Chicago Trib series about the Oreo cookie--Nabisco is slaving away trying to make an Oreo without trans-fats.
( While reading the piece, Foodie was snacking on a couple Newman's Own faux Oreos, delicious, no trans fats and so wondered why this task was deemed so difficult by Nabisco. )
Anyway---there in the LHJ was a blurb about Biota Water,  a Colorado spring water touting itself as "the world's first bottled water/beverage packaged in a commercially compostable plastic bottle."  It's made from corn starch. NB  Hard to believe it's the world's first--at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic Games in Norway all the athletes' food trays were made from compostable plastic created from potato starch.
And on the same page Foodie espied a ladies' razor whose handle was  made from recycled yogurt cartons.  ( Cannot recall the brand and am trying to find it.)
It's an amazing planet-- some folks try to blow each other up, others create environmentally friendly new products.

Comments

[Macky]

Definately not the first plastic made from cornstarch. I had read in W magazine, 10 years ago, about plastic spoons made of cornstarch (part of a list of chic items). Always remembered it because I've been looking for these spoons eversince! Most environmental inventions have been out there for decades...

[Foodie]

Years ago we spoke with a company creating degradable plastics from potato starch--items such as golf tees, the spoons you mention, and fast food packaging---one stumbling block--it's very tough to make an alternative "foam" cup that doesn't degrade as you are in the act of drinking from it.......
Those trays in Norway degraded in about 6 months.

[Bj]

Yogurt cups turned to razors and toothbrushes. I think you saw an advert for Stoneyfield Farms - darn good yogurt!

http://www.stonyfield.com/SpecialOffers/Recycline.cfm

[Foodie]

Yes, that's it! Thanks, Bi. It is good yogurt, though my heart belongs to Straus Family Creamery full fat (abrosia) yogurt.

[Foodie]

OOps, sorry--think it's Bj. Thank you, Bj.

[Linda]

Since you like recycling so much, have you ever heard of a relatively new group called Freecycle? It's A World wide group of people who get together in their local towns to give their stuff away for free. It ends up with someone who needs it instead of in the landfill. It's based on something Abe Lincoln said. "Think globally, recycle locally." You can check it out at http://www.freecycle.org

[Foodie]

Thanks for the info, Linda--terrific idea. I just had a look at the website. Wonder if unwanted fruitcakes make the rounds after the holidays...

[Linda]

I'm the list owner of OKCFreecycle. OKCFreecycle was the first Freecycle group in Oklahoma. Freecycle keeps a LOT of things out of landscapes. Some of it is even big stuff (A few months ago, someone gave away a moble home, and there have been several cars given away..some of them even running.)

[Cynthia Clampitt]

I love the idea of arranging for stuff going from those who no longer need it to those who do. We do a lot of that through our church, but it is nice to know that there are larger organizations handling this approach to reuse.

And as for the biodegradable plastics, it is important to keep in mind that they only help if you compost them. If you put them in landfill, they stick around just like other plastics. Commercial composting works faster than home composting, but most of the research indicates that most of the new bio-plastics will break down in home composting, too -- they just take longer.

Bit by bit, we all make a difference.

[Felix Staratschek]

Hallo! Kryorecycling is a future technologie. Look to the german pages www.total-recycling.org.