Your Guide To Green

Recycling gives :good things" new life
If you're not recycling, you're throwing it all away. Most everyone is familiar with the prevailing approach to avoiding waste: reduce, reuse, and recycle. But few know how to apply it in everyday life.

We've taken the guesswork out of the three R's, with this cool shopping list of products made from the trash that would normally end up in a landfill.

Green Glass
The old adage is true -- one man's trash is another man's treasure -- at least his glass! That is the idea behind Green Glass, a manufacturer of recycled drinking glasses. Green Glass takes ordinary wine bottles received by recyclers all over North America and transforms them into magnificent glassware.

The tumblers and goblets are crated from a simple metamorphosis that begins by separating the bottle into two components: head (upper portion) and base (lower portion). The head and base surfaces are smoothed and then fire polished. The base becomes a tumbler. The neck is heated and flared, then twisted to form the new foot of the glass. The newly formed goblet and tumbler then travel through a tempering oven to remove all residual stress in the glass. The finished glass is decorated through a process of sandblasting.

Glass Facts:

• A 20% decrease in emissions from glass furnaces and up to 32% reduction in energy usage
• For every ton of recycled glass used, approximately 315 kilos of carbon dioxide and 1.2 tons of raw materials are saved and not used.

Find out more: www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Glass.htm

Sugarcane Plates
Paper plates, Styrofoam cups, and other disposables are guzzling our resources and glutting our landfills. Despite these huge drawbacks, people continue to purchase them in the pursuit of convenience.

Here's a sweet idea. Why not use a product that is good for the environment and convenient? Sugarcane plates are just the solution!

Sugarcane plates are made from 100% bagasse-sugarcane fibers that are left after the juice is extracted from the plant. They are disposable, compostable and biodegradable. True to the sustainable movement, sugarcane is a readily renewable resource and the plates, as opposed to traditional paper goods, actually reduce the emission of harmful atmospheric pollutants that are normally released when sugarcane pulp is burned.

Bagasse plates are soak-proof and though they have no plastic or wax lining, they are perfectly suitable for hot or cold food. You can buy these plates bleached or unbleached and, of course, unbleached, natural plates are better for the environment. Bleached plates are chlorinated and contain dioxins--harmful, organic pollutants that do not break down and accumulate in our bodies and in the food-stream.

Paper Power:

• A ton of paper from recycled material conserves about 7,000 gallons of water, 17-31 trees, 60 pounds of air pollutants and 4,000 KWh of electricity
• Milling paper from recycled paper uses 20% less energy than it does to make paper from fresh lumber

Find out more: www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/recycling/solidwaste/paperandglass