Tag Archives: waste

5 Versatile Items That Should Be in Your Zero Waste Kitchen

by AngelicaBattagli Posted on June 19, 2019

Sometimes it feels like, no matter what you do, there’s just never enough cabinet or drawer space. Even the largest kitchens seem to be desperate for space to store?all those specialty spatulas, cookie cutters and containers. Ohhh, the containers…

But when you go zero waste, a new priority comes into play: minimalism. While juicers, avocado slicers and bagel guillotines are great at what they do, these “unitasker” devices can easily be replaced by other more versatile kitchen items, saving you both money and coveted storage space.

Minimalism allows for a better lifestyle to take hold – one focused less on consumerism and more on sustainability, less on acquiring things and more on doing things. Sound like your cup of tea? Here are a few items that will get your kitchen into shape for a creative, thrifty, zero waste life.

1.?Mason jars

Few items get more use in my zero waste kitchen than my set of lidded mason jars. They are?used to store leftovers from restaurants, stock pantry goods from the bulk section of our food co-op, shake up a handmade salad dressing and take a glass of iced tea on the road. I’m in love!

2.?Colander

A colander might sound like a strange addition to this little top five list, but it’s actually quite a versatile item! Besides being the perfect tool to thoroughly rinse produce, colanders can be makeshift ice buckets (keeps ice cool and drains off water as it melts), cool cooked ingredients quickly, and even strip herbs.?What else do you think you could do with a colander?

3. Chef’s knife

Every kitchen, zero waste or otherwise, should have a high-quality chef’s knife at its center. Designed to be used in many applications,?you can use a chef’s knife to chop vegetables quickly, strip corn and crush garlic. Really, you just need the one!

4. Muffin tin

This might sound surprising, but our muffin tin gets more use than any of our other baking dishes. We use it to make ice (perfect for those summertime libations!), as a soap mould (we make our own often), to sort odds and ends,?and?as a container in which to freeze herbs. Any other creative ideas for a muffin tin?

5.?Cast iron

Ahh, the cast iron. Always a household favorite, the cast iron pan grounds our kitchen. Ever present on top of the stove – clean and well-seasoned – that cast iron is used at every meal to do everything from saut? veggies to press water out of tofu. But its most special quality? It can go from stovetop to oven!

What are your “big hits” in the kitchen? Which items get the most versatile use?

How to Keep Your Holiday Shopping Zero Waste

by RigoberMinahan Posted on November 30, 2018

It’s no secret that when the holidays come around most Americans go wild, hunting down the best deals, filling their shopping carts with goodies on Black Friday, Cyber Monday (week, really) and on till the New Year.

Now, I’m not here to condemn holiday shopping. It’s fun to give gifts?? and pick up a little something for yourself here and there. But when Americans are responsible for sending $11 billion worth of packing material?straight to the landfill every year, it’s?hard not to see that things have gotten very much out of hand.?And there are serious ramifications, too.

What starts as a cheery assortment of wrapping paper, ribbon and packing peanuts quickly becomes a pile of greenhouse-gas-leaching garbage as it undergoes bacterial composition. Trash like this also releases tonnes?of methane, a greenhouse gas with climate change impact that is more than 25 times?greater than that of carbon dioxide. We can’t go on like this!

It’s hard to set aside holiday traditions. I’m sure many of us have fond memories of waking up to see wrapped gifts glittering under the Christmas tree. But, as it stands today, this routine of?shipping gifts wrapped in plastic, cardboard, zip ties and Styrofoam, only to re-wrap them in non-recyclable paper and ribbon at their destination, is really taking its toll on the environment.

This year, I urge you to consider trying out a new way to celebrate this season?? one that doesn’t leave a trail of garbage in its wake. It’ll be worth it, I promise!

Give a gift that needs no packaging?? an experience!

Purchase a yearlong membership to a local museum, pay the entrance fee for a state park you know they’d enjoy, get concert tickets. There are so many options!

Buy your gifts from eco-conscious companies who ship plastic-free.

More and more companies are catching on to the fact that plastic is not a shipping requirement. Here’s a nice roundup of eco-conscious sellers by our friends over at My Plastic Free Life.

Reuse holiday cards from last year.

Simply cut the decorative front off of any holiday cards you received the year before, then write the recipient’s name on the blank side. Free, cheap and eco-friendly!

Shop local.

It’s so much easier to avoid unnecessary packaging when you can pick the gifts out in person and take them home with you that day. Skip the bag at checkout, refuse the wrapping station and walk between shops if you’re able.

Set up a recycling station at home.

Make it easy to process recyclables by setting up an easy-to-access recycling station at home. Got a cardboard gift tag or paper shopping bag to toss? Pop it in the paper bin.

How do you keep your holiday shopping as low waste as possible?

How to Calm the Need for Stuff When Going Zero Waste

by yofhoefownra Posted on November 5, 2018

The modern American culture in no way encourages minimalism, patience and restraint. Rather, we’ve been conditioned to use wealth and access to get more, more, more, wherever it’s made and whatever the cost to the planet and our health.

This addiction to consumption has led us to a place in which we require garages, attics and storage units to keep our things, are practically drowning in plastics, and have very little understanding of how our shopping habits affect the rest of the globe.

People who’ve committed to going zero waste have to force themselves to break these patterns, practicing self control in an effort to reduce the hold that “stuff” has on our lives. For many of us, this involves shopping locally and in season to help limit excessive?consumption, and committing to only purchasing products that will not end up in the landfill at the end of their lives.

These two actions alone help a great deal. It’s pretty hard to shop online when you won’t let plastic bags into your house. And setting strict criteria for what you purchase and why (for example, a bamboo toothbrush over a plastic one) means you’re a lot less likely to grab up products willy nilly.

But what about shopping for fun? How do you confront that addiction to “stuff” that we talked about earlier? It’s not easy. But it’s worth it. Here are a few ways to soften the blow.

Take a real break from shopping

Set a clear intention to do no unnecessary shopping for an entire month. This means anything beyond necessities like groceries or a much-needed winter coat are off limits.

Whenever you get the urge to go shopping for the fun of it, take a breath and examine your intentions. Why do you want this right now? Is it because you like the “high” that comes with something new and shiny? Is it because you’re struggling with envy or comparison? Start here.

Purge the clutter around you

Once you have established a clear head around shopping and its role in our lives, you might want to take the time to declutter a bit. Random additions to your stash will look silly and stand out if your home is clean and clutter free.

Start with the places you haven’t touched in ages. I’m talking about the craft closet, that one corner in your garage, boxes under the bed. Think about what you see. Have you used this item in the past couple of months? The past year? If not, decide whether it’s a true keepsake or something you’re holding onto for convenience’s sake.

Identify something meaningful to shop for

Still feel like you need a refresh? There’s no harm in adding a new jacket or piece of art to your space, as long as it’s done intentionally and with care. Select something that you’ve wanted for a while, then commit to purchasing nothing until you find the exact perfect thing.

Maybe it’s a new armchair for the living room. Maybe it’s a dutch oven. Maybe it’s a gardening tool or a computer or a painting for your office. Whatever it is, make sure it’s something you’ll use or enjoy for a long time. Then, save up and make it happen.

Fill up with experiences, not things

I might sound like a broken record, but this is so true: memories are so much more precious than things. Rather than filling your heart and space with stuff, look for cool experiences that are worth your money instead.

Sign up for a rock climbing class, book space in a recording studio, take a friend to a concert, save up for that big vacation you’ve wanted to take for years. You’ll feel so much better after a long weekend in the mountains than you would after a spree at Target.

This Eco Tech Will Double the Life of Your Fruits and Veggies

by LucioBland Posted on June 27, 2018

How many untouched bunches of celery have seeped into rot at the back of your fridge? How many expensive pints of strawberries turned moldy almost immediately after you bought them? How many avocados have become unsalvageable because you missed the short window of ripeness?

Food waste is a massive problem. It’s costing our health, our wallets, and our environment.?Americans waste an astonishing?150,000?tons of food every single day (about 1 pound of food per person). The UN estimates that food waste costs $2.6 trillion globally per year, and produce is a major culprit.

That?s where Apeel Sciences comes in.

Fighting Food Waste with Food Waste

Apeel Sciences is a California-based food tech startup with a mission to reduce food waste, and they’ve made some serious headway. They claim to have developed a way to actually double the shelf life of fruits and veggies?even avocados.

According to?CNBC, ?The company’s technology basically works like this: Plant materials that are left behind on the farm (leaves and peels, for instance) are blended, and then lipid molecules are extracted. The resulting powder is then turned into a liquid that is sprayed on produce; fruits and vegetables can also be dipped into the solution.”

Apeel has created an edible, colorless plant-based powder which fortifies produce skin and slows the rate of water loss and oxidation. As a result, it significantly extends the ripening process. Apeel-treated fruits and veggies are?less likely to get mushy in the deep chasms of your fridge, but on a larger scale, this?also means that grocery stores will potentially throw away significantly less rotting produce.

Here’s a video posted by Apeel Sciences showing their produce in action.

Working?with Del Rey Avocado and Eco Farms, Apeel has launched its first slow-ripe avocados at Costco locations nationwide as well as Harps location in the Midwest.

They are also planning to launch?Apeel citrus, with hopes?to expand to other fruits and veggies soon.?In testing, they have successfully extended the life of dozens of plant foods, including:

bananas
berries
citrus fruits
stone fruits
peppers
asparagus

Currently, Apeel’s products are only available to?suppliers and retailers on the production end, but the company hopes to eventually make its product available direct to consumers as well.

Beyond Food Waste

While this is potentially a massive?win for minimizing food waste and saving money on groceries, this technology also has the capacity to improve the diets of those who live in hard-to-reach areas of the country.

People?living in food deserts, where fresh and affordable food is a rarity, tend to be?forced?to rely on highly?processed foods. Apeel’s use in the produce industry?could potentially?make?fresh foods more accessible by extending shelf life.

It’s all about using nature to heal our broken food system.

According the Apeel?s head of marketing Michelle Masek, “Every piece of produce, every fruit, every plant already has a peel. And that peel is already doing what it needs to do to keep the fruit fresh. Instead of making new chemicals in a lab, let’s use the same ingredients that nature gives us time and time again to add a little extra Apeel to produce.”

Related on Care2:

The Problem with Activated Charcoal
A Plant-Based Diet Will Make Your Brain Bigger
Avoid These 4 Phrases to Appear & Feel More Confident

Image via Thinkstock.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

This Eco Tech Will Double the Life of Your Fruits and Veggies

Posted in alo, bigo, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged company, food, Fruit, Peel, rot, sciences, startup, waste | Comments Off

5 Easiest Ways to Get Started With a Zero-Waste Lifestyle

by MadeleiDahl Posted on April 23, 2018

Living completely zero-waste may sound extremely daunting. Even if you don?t consider yourself a huge waste of resources, it?s hard to avoid that looming trash bag that stares at you every few days. And recycling, while a better option, isn?t always the best alternative: According to some reporters? analyses, a lot of what we ?recycle? actually ends up going into landfills.

A lot of this may actually be out of your control; while San Francisco is able to recycle or compost about 80 percent of its trash, only 10 percent of Chicago trash gets recycled. Many buildings either don?t offer recycling services, or find that recycling bins are too contaminated with non-recyclable materials to salvage.

The best way to reduce your impact is to not waste in the first place. If you?re ready to get started with a zero-waste lifestyle, here are five beginner-friendly tips to help you do it.

Basic Composting

The first step to getting started with your zero-waste lifestyle is to practice basic composting. Composting really isn?t as difficult as it sounds. All you need to do is set up a bin in your backyard filled with soil. Sprinkle some grass, weeds, tree bark, leaves and branches in it, and mix it well. Add a little water to make it moist.

Now, as the week goes on, place items such as food scraps, paper towels (check to make sure your brand is compostable), egg cartons and other organic materials into the bin. Mix the soil regularly and keep it moist, continuing to add additional green and brown plants (again, grass and branches) into the mixture. At the end of a week or two, either have a composting service pick it up or use it to fertilize your garden. Or, just scatter it around the yard ? it?s just soil!

Shopping in Bulk

Next, commit to shopping in bulk. No, we?re not talking about Costco here. We?re talking about buying items that are often packaged in plastic, such as nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and candies, from bulk containers at your local Whole Foods or health foods store.

Things like popcorn, lentils, rice, flour, almonds, chocolates and quinoa are often staples items you can buy in bulk. Fill up a glass container in the store rather than using a plastic bag to transport your goods to your home.

Eliminate Packaging

It may seem harmless, but shopping online creates a huge uptick in wasted resources. Even ?sustainably packaged? products require using cardboard and plastic for recycling ? and as we?ve discussed, that?s not always a great option. Unless you can?t find the item you need in a local store, pick things up in person.

Eat In Rather than Taking Away

To-go containers are a huge drain on resources. Going out to eat regularly isn?t necessarily a bad thing (you?re unlikely to buy food you won?t eat that ends up going to waste!) but eat in the restaurant rather than taking away. And bring your own containers for leftovers!

Reusable Shopping and Home Goods Bags

Finally, use a reusable shopping bag every time you go to the store. But take it a step further: Ditch the produce bags in favor or reusable alternatives, or forget about them altogether. Your apple has traveled many miles and interacted with countless hands along the way; it?s unlikely that putting it in a plastic bag now is going to make it any ?cleaner!?

3 Ways a Zero Waste Lifestyle Improves Your Health
How Going Zero Waste Made Me a Better Person
3 Ways Minimalism Will Improve Your Life

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Excerpt from –

5 Easiest Ways to Get Started With a Zero-Waste Lifestyle

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10 Crazy Facts About Holiday Waste

by CleoTbh54677 Posted on December 16, 2016

The sustainability-minded junk removal service,Junk King, created an infographic detailing the embarrassing excess of waste we Americans conjure up over the holidays. We are terrible! Although really it comes as little surprise to anyone who has ever watched footage of the national bloodsport of competitive shopping known as Black Friday.

We love the holiday junk and all its trappings and wrappings. How much? Well put it this way: Between Thanksgiving and January 1, we gift the landfills with an additional one million tons of waste per week. (Note: I don’t normally condone making nouns into verbs, as in gifting, but find it oddly soothing when describing something that rankles me so.)

Anyway, back to the facts, graphic-style:

Credit: Junk King

Junk King also came up with these tips to help combat the waste many of which you may have heard before (some things can’t be mentioned enough):

Wrap creatively:Wrapping paper and gift bags arent the only way to wrap presents. Try using a different material that you already have around your house. Newspaper, sheet music, and old maps are fun choices and are much more unique than commercial wrapping paper. You could also use scarves, t-shirts, or other fabric to wrap gifts. That way, the wrapping could be a gift as well!

Buy a potted tree:Every year, nearly 33 million live trees are sold across North America. Considering how much paper that we waste, saving a tree is the least that we can do. Buy a potted tree this year instead of cutting one down. This way, after the holidays are over and its time to take down the decorations, you can plant the tree in your own backyard.

Regift:Around 35% of Americans have an unopened or unused gift collecting dust somewhere. Instead of taking up valuable space or throwing it away, find it a new home. If you dont know of anyone who would like the gift, take it to a donation center. During the holidays, there are plenty of organizations collecting gifts for those who are less fortunate.

Give sustainably:There are a number of small steps that you can take to make your gift a little bit more environmentally friendly. For example, if youre giving a battery-powered gift, consider gifting a reusable battery charger along with it! If youre giving someone something made from paper, like a journal, try to find one thats made from recycled paper. Buying a handmade gift from a local shop or online store, or even making a gift yourself, can also help reduce waste, as these products are not mass-produced.

Go digital:About 2.6 billion cards are given to people every year. That amounts to just about 50,000 cubic yards of paper — enough to fill a football field 10 stories high! And no matter how sentimental they may be, they usually end up stashed away in a box or thrown away. Instead of paying for overpriced, wasteful cardstock, send an electronic greeting card for free!

Donate your leftovers:Holiday meals are usually big ordeals, and its always better to have too much than too little, but most of the time the leftovers are too much to handle. Instead of wasting perfectly good food, consider bringing your leftovers to a local homeless shelter. There are plenty of people who go hungry during the holidays, and your donation could make a world of difference to someone in need.

Written by Melissa Breyer. This post originally appeared on TreeHugger.

Photo Credit: Jeff Egnaczyk/Flickr

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Originally posted here:

10 Crazy Facts About Holiday Waste

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What the Heck Is Up With California’s Recycling Program?

by BetteKershaw Posted on August 28, 2016

Mother Jones

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Few states have a greener rep than California, and for good reason. The state has a cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions, solar-energy production exceeding that of all other states combined, and, at the behest of Gov. Jerry Brown, it’s now mulling new targets that would slash greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent of 1990 levels by 2030. The state has proved itself a national leader in environmental policy.

All of which makes California’s latest waste and recycling report, issued yearly by state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), so bewildering. It reveals that landfill waste in the state jumped to 33.2 million tons in 2015, a one-year increase of 2 million tons, contributing to last year’s release of 200,000 extra metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Per capita, each Californian now tosses 4.7 pounds of stuff into the landfill.

The state’s rate of recycling also dropped to 47 percent in 2015. That’s the lowest rate since 2010, and the first time since the state began measuring that the number has gone below 50 percent—not the greatest news, given California’s 2020 goal of recycling 75 percent of all consumer waste.

CalRecycle spokesman Mark Oldfield points to a recovering economy as a primary contributor to the setback. Economic growth boosts consumption and construction, which necessarily results in more waste, he says: “All of a sudden people are buying new stuff and getting rid of the old.”

There are other elements at work, too. The low price of oil, combined with other plummeting commodity prices, has largely eliminated financial incentives for companies to use recycled materials. Thanks to cheap crude, points out Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento-based advocacy group, producers are using more petroleum-based plastics than before, and less (easily recycled) aluminum.

A four-year decline in the prices manufacturers are willing to pay for recycled materials has proved deadly for many for-profit recycling centers. In part, that’s because it’s a subsidized business. CalRecycle pays up to half of the centers’ operating expenses, depending on the amount of materials they collect, to encourage recycling centers to accept plastic containers alongside the more lucrative aluminum cans. The deposits consumers pay on beverage containers provide an incentive for individuals and companies that do curbside pickup to bring cans and bottles to the centers (and pocket the deposits). But CalRecycle’s payments to the centers are based on scrap prices over the previous 12 months, with a three-month time lag. Which means, when prices are in decline, the payments come up short, and the centers struggle to stay profitable. Statewide, the bulk recyclers have faced a cumulative shortfall of more than $50 million.

Susan Collins, president of the Container Recycling Institute (CRI), says this has led to a rash of closures. Per her group’s estimates, more than 800 recycling centers have shut down in the past 16 months, unable to compete thanks to the low prices and insufficient subsidies. All told, nearly one-third of California’s recycling centers have gone out of business.

The setbacks are costing the state in additional ways: Recycling typically generates $8 million to $9 million in tax revenues annually and results in at least 3,000 full-time jobs. And income from collecting and redeeming recycled materials helps keep scores of desperate people off public assistance. Cities such as San Francisco have been hit particularly hard by the recycling-center closures; the city now has just six active recycling centers, down from 35, for 900,000 people. The vast majority of the city is now an “unserved zone.”

CalRecycle’s Oldfield preaches patience. “I don’t think we thought it was going to be easy to begin with,” he says of the 2020 goal to recycle 75 percent of all consumer waste. “I don’t think we mind running the risk of criticism if we fall short of a number on a time scale.” He points to AB 939, California’s Integrated Waste Management Act. The 1989 legislation mandated that 50 percent of solid waste be diverted from landfills via recycling, composting, and incineration by 2000. That goal wasn’t achieved until 2006, but it now stands at 63 percent.

As for the 75 percent number, which is not a mandate, CalRecycle is looking at new technologies it hopes will increase recycling rates for construction materials and organic matter, although there is no deadline for these developments.

Mark Murray, executive director at Californians Against Waste, bristles at the notion that the goal needn’t be met on time. Murray was disturbed by the startling dip in the recycling rate, and that the state remains so far from 75 percent: “I don’t want to make excuses in 2016 when there’s still four years to go.”

If the state is serious about reaching its goal, there is plenty of precedent. “We know exactly what needs to happen, it just isn’t happening,” Murray says. In the past, the state has set minimum standards for the amount of recycled content certain goods must contain. Newsprint must be 50 percent post-consumer materials; for glass containers, it’s 35 percent. Such standards also exist in California for electronics and paint.

Regulating plastic packaging the same way could have a big impact, Murray says, and would help reverse this troubling course. Legislation requiring producers to buy recycled content could also help. By Murray’s estimation, packaging accounts for 35 percent of the overall waste stream, and companies need to be called to task for their wasteful packaging. Collins, of the CRI, agrees that the state needs urgent, binding legislation, but given the scale of the closures, she’s worried it’s too late to flip the script quickly: “This is a devastating loss to the recycling infrastructure in California.”

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What the Heck Is Up With California’s Recycling Program?

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A Tantalizing Offering From a Meal Kit Service: The Box

by Myrna Posted on August 3, 2016

The reusable box that FreshRealm created to reduce packaging waste is a selling point of its delivery service — and a product it sells to competitors. Source: A Tantalizing Offering From a Meal Kit Service: The Box ; ; ;

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A Tantalizing Offering From a Meal Kit Service: The Box

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How to Lead a Nearly Zero-Waste Life

by JaymePaschke78 Posted on June 26, 2016

Last winter, a video started circling the internet that covered how a young woman, Lauren Singer (blog here), has been able to decrease her trash output to the point that her two years of garbage can be kept in a single mason jar.

That’s impressive. A little shocking, even. How is that even possible?

Lauren is a part of a growing trenddubbed the Zero Waste movement — a slowly growing practice that empowersparticipants to produce no garbage and ultimately preventit from entering landfills where it may do irreparable harm to theplanet.

Exploring Zero Waste

The philosophy of Zero Waste is two-fold. First, it requires people to find alternatives to their transient, wasteful habits by prioritizingcreativity and longevity. Second, it encourages the practice of minimalism: learning to live with less and ultimately want for less.

This isn’t exactly a new concept. Countless religions and philosophies encourage contentedness and urge us away from the greed that clutters our lives with stuff. Stuff gets in the way of real life and a lot of the time harms the living things around us, earth included.

Ryan and Joshua, founders of The Minimalists (a blog centered on minimalism and secondarily zero waste) say on their website, “Minimalism allows us to focus on what’s important in life — health, relationships, passion, growth and contribution — so we can find happiness fulfillment and freedom.”

Lauren Singer says something similar, but from the Zero Waste perspective: “I wanted to lessen my impact, so I started my Zero Waste journey. This is when I really decided that I not only needed to claim to love the environment, but actuallylive like I love the environment.” She calls this value-based living.

Taking Steps Toward Zero Waste

Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home, could be considered the one who beganit all for modern audiences. Her 5R Guidelines: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot (in that order) are the foundation of her approach to Zero Waste.She says:

“Refuse what you do not need; reduce what you do need; reuse what you consume; recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse; and rot (compost) the rest.”

Here’s what all of that looks like in practice:

1. Refuse anything that will ultimately end up in the trash. Plastic water bottles? Refuse. Pre-packaged foods? Refuse. Disposable shopping bags? Refuse. Paper towels? Refuse.

2. Cut down on junk mail.Rather than sorting your mail and instantly dumping the rejects into the recycling bin, make an effort to cancel the mail altogether. Just cancel the mailings! It saves everyone in the long run.

3. Use reusable everything, and less of it!Don’t fall prey to the convenience factor. Make it a habit to always bring a reusable shopping bag to the store. Use cloth bags and glass jars for bulk grocery items. Limit your wardrobe to the items you truly adore and that fit you right now.

4. Don’t give in to future-based hoarding.If you have a tendency to purchase and hold onto things for the sake of preparedness, now is the time to cut it out.Can you purchase the item secondhand to prevent waste and manufacturing? Can you borrow it from a friend? Can you donate your old things to someone else in need? Do you remember the last time you used it?

5. Compost (or r0t) excess food bits.Find a large container appropriate for composting, that is aesthetically pleasing and as convenient as possible. Peel fruits and veggies straight into your bin, discard table scrappings and scrap into the bin before loading your dishwasher. It should be odorless and easy to maintain!

Whatsolutions have you found that help you to create less garbage and waste? What in this article really struck home for you? Let us know in the comments!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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How to Lead a Nearly Zero-Waste Life

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Robots And A Recyclables Recovery Revolution

by PriscillaSetser Posted on June 15, 2016

It’s exciting to watch the green economy unfolding all around us. There are many problems to solve and many companies out there solving them. Take, for example, recyclables and a startup named Jodone.

Recyclables, robots and a recovery revolution

What’s Jodone?

Today, a municipal waste worker at a facility typically stands next to a moving conveyor belt, picking out recyclables like glass and plastic by hand. Jodone envisions letting robotics do the dirty work. Image Credit: Jodone (LinkedIn)

This Massachusetts-based company has a patented system of robots and software designed for use in waste recovery facilities – specifically municipal waste, which is some of the toughest to handle. Unlike waste streams like construction waste or medical waste which are confined to a subset of materials, municipal waste handles everything – from packaging to dead animals.

Today, a municipal waste worker at a facility typically stands next to a moving conveyor belt, picking out recyclables like glass and plastic by hand – an unpleasant and dangerous job.

Jodone envisions a day when that worker sits in an office with a tablet while a robot arm stands by the conveyor. Cameras over the conveyor relay images of the waste back to the worker’s tablet. The worker uses a super-simple touch screen to virtually “sort” the recyclable materials into appropriate bins – at a pick rate far higher than what a human can typically do (400 picks per hour vs. 2500 picks per hour for the robot.) According to Michael Rivera, Jodone’s COO, at that rate of speed, the cost per pick drops from about 50 cents/item to about 12 cents/item – a huge reduction.

The worker uses a super-simple touch screen to virtually “sort” the recyclable materials into appropriate bins – at a pick rate far higher than what a human can typically do. Image Credit: Jodone (YouTube)

Benefits: Both the “green” and profitable kind:

It helps mitigate climate change
Better, faster sorting of recyclables from waste reduces the amount of recyclables that are sent to landfills. And that means that landfills can become physically smaller. Indeed, many landfills are increasing the amount of waste they incinerate in order to shrink their physical footprint. There are simply better uses for land than landfills, as exemplified by the epic restoration of the enormous Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island.
Smaller, fewer landfills will also result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) like methane and less leaching of toxic materials like mercury and lead into water ways.

It helps cities make money through:
Sale of recyclables. Cities have long handled municipal wastes and recycling because they have been a revenue stream in the past. As Jodone CEO Cole Parker says, “By saving perfectly good recyclables from the waste stream, you stop burning money.” Instead, those materials can be sold to companies that use them for new products.
Handling more customers. In addition, when recyclables are removed from the waste stream, more actual trash can be burned by the waste facility. They can take on additional customers. And lest you worry that burning trash creates more GHGs, most of what comes out of those carefully monitored smokestacks is steam, which may be sold to industrial customers for heating and other purposes.

It’s a boon to MRF workers
A marriage of technology and people. Not many kids say, “I want to grow up to sort trash for a living” — but they might once they see Jodone’s system. The system is designed to augment workers — not replace them. Robots do what robots do best — the heavy lifting — while people do what people do best — identifying and handling exceptions.
Safety. The U.S. Department of Labor acknowledges that working at a waste handling facility can be dangerous for many reasons. Jodone’s system enables the removal of workers from that environment to an office environment (even a home office!), and that will reduce lifting injuries, trips, falls, and exposure to toxic fumes.
Fun. The fancy word for this is “gamification.” A key feature of Jodone’s system is a software platform that allows workers to engage in a little “friendly competition” as they sort the material coming in. Should waste facility management wish to incent workers on speed and/or accuracy of their work, they can turn the work into a game, and reward winners with performance pay. Jodone’s system introduces an element of fun into a set of tasks that traditionally have been unpleasant at best and dangerous at worst.

This patent-pending gaming interface allows humans to use their intelligence and problem-solving skills to solve real-world tasks in real-time. Additionally, Jodone decreases liability by removing employees from non-desirable environments. Jodone’s software platform works with industry-standard robots, from multiple providers. With the intelligence provided by humans, the robots can now complete complex tasks at extraordinarily quick speeds. The gaming interface also enables the collection of massive amounts of data. The data collected enables statistical modeling for improved performance, concrete performance data for training, performance rewards, and audits. Jodone’s solution provides practical solutions for seemingly impossible automation tasks. (Jodone LinkedIn)

What’s next

The team at Jodone is currently piloting their system at the Pope/Douglas Waste-to-Energy plant in Minnesota. They are busy calibrating everything from their software to the speed of the conveyor belt so that the facility runs optimally. They are also preparing to train workers on using the tablets.

In addition, because their software includes a database that keeps a history of pictures and picks, the robots actually learn and get better every day. By year end, Jodone will have millions of data points to use to make the robots smarter and their human handlers even more efficient.

Their 5-minute “pitch” video on YouTube is worth a look!

How Jodone exemplifies the green economy

Jodone’s systems support a circular economy, which is fundamental to achieving a sustainable future. What’s neat is that, rather than asking people to make sacrifices, Jodone’s systems ideally will mean more money, more safety and more fun for workers and citizens alike. Jodone also represents the best in innovation, combining everything from “software-as-a-service” to machine learning to gamification.

Now that’s a future to look forward to!

Feature image credit: Photick / Shutterstock

About
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Alison Lueders

Alison Lueders is the Founder and Principal of

Great Green Content

– a green business certified by both Green America and the Green Business Bureau. She offers copywriting and content marketing services to businesses that are “going green.”Convinced that business can play a powerful and positive role in building a greener, more sustainable economy, she launched Great Green Content in 2011.

Latest posts by Alison Lueders (see all)

Robots And A Recyclables Recovery Revolution – June 15, 2016
Get Ready To ‘Spring’ Into Composting – March 25, 2016
Waste Reduction, Recycle Rates And Yard Trimmings – February 26, 2016

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Robots And A Recyclables Recovery Revolution

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