“Plastic Loose Fill”, otherwise known as packing peanuts March 17, 2008

One of my favorite parts of writing this blog is using the tag surfer. By reading other blogs, not only have I been encouraged by the number of people taking an active role in promoting the care of our environment, but I’ve also learned so much about solutions that are addressing some of the issues that used to seem very troublesome. One of these issues is the problem of what to do with what we commonly call packing peanuts, or peanuts, but what the industry calls Plastic Loose Fill.

Believe it or not, there actually is a Plastic Loose Fill Council, whose mission is to develop, promote and implement the original use and subsequent recovery, reuse and recycling of polystyrene loose fill, or peanuts. The PLFC offers a Peanut Hotline on the website, where you can search for one of the 1500 peanut collection sites in the US.

Since I have been known to bring home boxes of peanuts from my office in order to save them from the landfill, this caught my eye. However, aside from the information about collection sites, something else on the site caught my eye. Keeping in mind that this site was created by major manufacturers of polystyrene loose fill, it was still interesting to read the following “facts”:

• Plastic loose fill can be reused.
• Over 30% of all EPS* loose fill is reused.
• The minimum recycled content in EPS loose fill is 25%.
• Post-consumer recycled-content EPS loose fill is sold throughout the United States.
• There are hundreds of collection sites for EPS loose fill in the US.
• Collection centers report that, on average, 50% of their loose fill needs are met with reusable loose fill donated by consumers.
• EPS loose fill is non-toxic, inert and made without chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
• EPS loose fill is less than 1/4 of 1% of landfill volume.
• EPS loose fill is over 99.6% air.
• It takes 40% to 50% less energy to make EPS loose fill than to make a comparable amount of paper packaging.
• Atmospheric emissions from the production of polystyrene are only 1/2 to 1/3 of those from the production of a comparable amount of paper.
• Waste water volume from polystyrene production is 1/3 of that resulting from producing a comparable amount of paper.

*EPS= expanded polystyrene

It’s been a long time since I took a science class, and this all sounds almost too good to be true. In any case, I’d still not rather put them in a landfill, so whatever I can’t use for my own packaging needs can go to one of the collection centers for reuse. The UPS Store is one of the main supporters of this recycling program.

These peanuts are light as a feather, so there’s no excuse for not recycling them!

Stirring It Up by Gary Hirshberg March 12, 2008

I’ve recently listened to Stirring It Up, by Gary Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farms, on CD. It’s relatively short, but made quite an impression on me and actually made me look differently at my interest in recycling.

Hirshberg makes several interesting points:

• Nature and business are allies, not foes, and Saving the World is Profitable (USA Today)
• There is no such place as “away” as in “throw it away”
• Recycling should be a last resort. Our efforts should be focused on reduced packaging, and sustainable processes to reduce waste and our carbon footprint.
• Human beings have the intelligence and drive to find solutions for our environmental issues, and small efforts, gradually increasing over time, on both an individual and corporate level are worth making.

Hirshberg describes the evolution of green ways of doing business at several companies aside from Stonyfield Farms, including Timberland, Seventh Generation, Honest Tea and Newman’s Own, among others.

Not only is Hirshberg optimistic about the future of the planet, but also about the positive influence that conducting business in an environmentally friendly way will have on company profits, and the psyche of both customers and employees.

Although the estimated global warming gas emissions resulting from the production of the book were offset by an investment in a manure digester at a farm in Pennsylvania, I recommend that you save a tree and get the book or CD from your local library.

A notable package and an interesting coincidence February 17, 2008

I didn’t think I’d run across something I wanted to talk about so soon, or so easily. Only hours after I had started my blog, a colleague at work brought over an example of excess packaging. “Hey, Les, I thought you’d be interested in seeing this!” I guess I have a reputation in the office. “Look at the size of the carton they used to mail this little box.” Sure enough, a little gift box measuring about 3″ square and 3/4″ thick was nestled at the top of a carton measuring 10″x10″x11 1/2″. The box didn’t even contain anything fragile

A friend lent me her camera phone. Tale a look:

Now here’s the interesting part -

Although this arrived on Thursday, I hadn’t written about it yet. Then Friday night I was reading Seth Godin’s blog for the first time in quite a while and a few entries down I found that he had written about a similar experience. Take a look at the entry Profligate. At first I was disappointed, thinking that it looked as if I was almost plagiarizing, but then I realized that it’s actually a very encouraging situation, since it shows an example about how people’s consciousness about packaging is changing. Perhaps I shouldn’t use this one blog entry as an indication that the minds of the masses are being swayed, but I was glad to see it.