Mantra Scrubs

      Although the Romeo Bullldogs are red and white, they don't turn a blind eye to green practices.

       Romeo High School, thanks to the Students Enriching Romeo through Volunteer Experience (SERVE) program, has achieved the top ranking as a Michigan Green School for 2010-11.
       The Michigan Green Schools Program, which is now in its third academic year, was started by a group of students at Hartland High School. The program allows counties to award the green status to schools that meet between 10 to 20 requirements.
       The minimum is the "green" status by achieving 10 requirements, but schools can aim higher by meeting 15 for "emerald" and the maximum of 20 for "evergreen."
       Kelly Carson, SERVE coordinator, worked on the application on behalf of the school. She said she originally applied for the green status, so she was surprised to find out that the school had achieved the top status of evergreen.
       "I thought I applied for the minimum status because I turned in what I thought was 12 points, but apparently they picked it apart and found enough to give us the highest status," she said.
       A total of 105 schools submitted applications by the March 1 deadline this year, with 101 achieving the official green school status. Of them, 32 earned the emerald status while 36 earned evergreen.
       Each school's achievements were honored during a ceremony held April 11 at the Macomb Intermediate School District. A flag and a patch displaying the school's status were given to the school.
       "The board is pleased to see this program grow each year," said Macomb County Board of Commissioners Chairperson Kathy Vosburg.
       Carson said the initial step in applying was to start a paper recycling program, where a large bin in the parking lot is designated for collecting papers. She said since it began in September the students have enjoyed participating.
       "The SERVE kids have, on an average about every two weeks, been collecting the recycling from around the school and taking it out to the bin," she said.
       The other popular initiative was cleaning the school's courtyard, where students are planting native Michigan plants as a garden project. She said once the weather becomes warmer the project will resume.
       "They were very excited to be able to work in the courtyard," she said. "I was just really surprised how many signed up."
       The solar panel program at the Romeo Engineering and Technology Center was also hilighted in the application.
       "Whatever kinds of projects they do with that program, we're going to be able to use for our green school status," she said.
       Other aspects of the school's application include re-using magazines and newspapers, recycling ink cartridge and cell phones and a visitation from a Cranbrook Institute of Science representative.
       The school even adopted a sea turtle, named "Bimini," as part of a program to help endangered species. Carson said money was deposited in six different cans representing six different species. The one with the most money was the one that was adopted.
       Future projects that are under development include plastic bottle recycling and others that could help produce energy savings.
       "We're off to a good start, but there is so much more we can do," she said. "We have the highest status, but we need to maintain it."
       The plan is to not only keep the high school going with its status, but to have other schools in the district follow the practices and apply for the status, said Carson, so that all students recognize the importance of being green.
       "We encourage (students) to carry the spirit of recycling and energy conservation into their own homes and their futures," she said. "It's definitely something that has to be done."
       Carter Middle School in Warren was named the top school in Macomb County for this year's program.

See story http://www.romeoobserver.com/story.asp?storyid=19479

This entry was posted on May 4, 2011 at 5:27 PM and has received 472 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This entry was posted on May 3, 2011 at 7:25 PM and has received 328 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Baltimore’s Bill Schapiro is a man born to be green.

BALTIMORE, MD,

Apparel – Textile PR News/ — It’s rare today to hear about anyone following in the shoes of their great grandparents to continue the century-old family business. That’s what makes Bill Schapiro a rare and interesting breed. “I am very proud to be a fourth generation Ragman,” says Schapiro. He boasts about the rag or junk business which was an early way of recycling and a means of survival for immigrants like his great grandfather Solomon in 1907 Baltimore. Recycling discarded clothing for industrial uses, helped feed, clothe and shelter the young Schapiro family and others struggling to make ends meet at the turn of the century.

Later, Schapiro’s grandfather, about 20 years old at the time, started collecting junk with a push cart and went on to build a sophisticated recycling business. “This was all before being green became so important and popular,” says Schapiro. Now, he enthusiastically thumbs through log books his grandfather kept 90 years ago and marvels at the detail of the early rag trade. Today, that old rag business exists as modern textile recycling and a multi-million dollar international business for Schapiro’s Baltimore-based company, Whitehouse and Schapiro.

Schapiro was literally born into recycling. His mother and father met at a recycling conference in 1948. That organization, now called SMART (Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles), is an international association of businesses dedicated to recycling and reusing secondhand clothing and textiles. Increased awareness of the impact of waste on the environment has made the recycling of paper and plastics almost second nature, however, textiles are often thrown away, filling landfills and wasting valuable materials. Schapiro, a former president of SMART, led the association with a passion aimed at changing that thinking. His mantra: “SMART was green before green was smart.” Schapiro and SMART urge everyone to “Donate, Recycle, Don’t Throw Away” when it comes to secondhand clothing and other household textiles.

Donating used clothing to charities like Goodwill and The Salvation Army is a great way to start the process. Those organizations sell the re-usable clothing at their stores, but also raise cash for their programs by selling tons of donated clothing to SMART recyclers who sort and sell it to developing countries. Materials not wearable are recycled for use as industrial wipers or processed for reusable fiber fill. Schapiro does point out that the United States remains the largest user of secondhand clothing. Thousands of thrift stores flourish in this country and around the world fulfilling basic clothing needs and doing a brisk business selling one-of-a-kind vintage fashion items too.

Bill Schapiro has carried on the family business and SMART’s mission to environmentally recycle used textiles. Now he also helps finance and launch new businesses in the rag trade just like his great-grandfather did more than a hundred years ago. “My grandfather would be amazed at how “sexy” our industry has become!”

See story http://www.textileglobal.com/2011/04/a-century-of-recycling-from-survival-to-andquotsexyandquot.html

This entry was posted on May 3, 2011 at 2:40 PM and has received 266 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

By Jonathan Bardelline

ST. PAUL, MN —  Eight healthcare providers, manufacturers and waste handlers will work together to make plastic products in hospitals more recyclable, tackling all stages from design to disposal.

The Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council (HPRC) launched this week to increase how much plastic, from both products and packaging, gets collected and recycled at healthcare facilities.

"When you look at the amount of waste generated in a hospital, plastic represents a very large proportion," said Tod Christenson, director of the HPRC.

The council is made up of recyclers Engineered Plastics and Waste Management; healthcare service provider Cardinal Health; and product makers DuPont, Hospira, Johnson and Johnson, Kimberley Clark, and Becton, Dickinson and Company.

While much of the plastic used at hospitals has a high value, little of it is recycled, Christenson said. "You have things that disable the opportunity to recycle all along the value chain," he said.

Sticking paper labels on plastics or designing products made with different types of plastics hamper recycling. Within facilities, employees need to be made aware of what plastics are recyclable, and there's the need for space to collect, sort and store recyclables until they can be picked up. 

The HPRC's work will focus just on pre-patient contact materials, so it won't be dealing with anything that comes into contact with bodily fluids and would end up in medical waste bags. That still leaves plenty of products, Christenson said, like IV bags, wash basins, bottles and Tyvek wrap.

The council's first three projects will further identify issues that prevent recycling, create a list of product and packaging design guidelines that would help companies create more-recyclable products, and test recycling programs to gather best practices, determine how much plastic is coming out of hospitals and figure out where it's being generated. So far, the group's tests have handled 20,000 pounds of plastic. An even larger issue to tackle is the recycling infrastructure and figuring out how to collect plastic from hispitals nationwide.

This entry was posted on May 2, 2011 at 5:52 PM and has received 474 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

By ALLISON BOURG, Staff Writer

So officials have put together a "recycling 101" forum for tomorrow aimed at companies that want to learn how to be more environmentally friendly and save money while doing so. A group of business people in charge of recycling programs at their companies will share their strategies, along with a team of county leaders.

Panelists include Jim Pittman, deputy director of Anne Arundel County Waste Management Services; Gene Condon, vice president and general manager of Arundel Mills Mall; Dena Jackson, director of Anne Arundel Medical Center's supply chain; Kip Keenan, sector director of environmental, health, safety and fire protection at Northrop Grumman; and Dan LaHart, supervisor of operations at Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

County Executive John R. Leopold, county councilmen John Grasso, R-Glen Burnie, and Chris Trumbauer, D-Annapolis, and Joanna Bache Tobin, chairwoman of the Anne Arundel County Recycling Advisory Committee, will also speak.

While the county tracks residential recycling rates in different parts of the county, officials don't log commercial recycling rates, said Matt Diehl, a spokesman for the county Department of Public Works. So it's hard to get a sense of who's recycling and who isn't.

"To do that, you'd have to know how much trash they generate, and a lot of businesses hire private contractors," Diehl said. "We'd have to require them to report those numbers, and right now we don't require them to. Right now, we're geared at just kind of educating them on how they can improve their recycling by sharing success stories from other businesses."

Leopold said he wants to dispel myths about recycling, particularly the costs involved.

"If they're throwing away less, that should cost them less," he said.

LaHart headed up the school district's environmental management program for 19 years before taking over as its operations supervisor. He said the district had no recycling program prior to 1989, when a group of students from South River High requested one.

"It started small. Recycling wasn't universal then," LaHart said. "Back then, it was all white office paper, cardboard and aluminum cans. Then things moved along and along."

Now, LaHart estimates the district - with 75,000 students and 12,000 employees - recycles about 346 pounds per person annually. That's a 64 percent increase from two years ago, he said.

And it saves the district a lot of money, because there's no waste disposal fee involved in recycling.

"It's very much cost-avoidant," LaHart said. "You're looking at saving $100,000 to $200,000 per year we're not paying because we recycle."

Jackson said that's something small businesses need to hear.

At AAMC, disposing of medical wastes in resuable containers is saving about $120,000 per year; using remanufactured medical devices is saving the hospital another $480,000, Jackson said.

The hospital recently unveiled its new wing, which is designed in accordance with the U.S. Green Building Council's standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. AAMC is the first LEED-certified hospital in Maryland, Jackson said.

To get that certification, the hospital recycled 93.3 percent of waste during construction. Jackson said the hospital also installed recycled nylon tufted carpet, used recycled scrap metal for the steel in the tower's beams and columns, and used recycled concrete for geopiers and recycled metal for decking.

The roof of the tower is green - more than 16,000 square feet of asphalt was replaced with locally grown plants, which help absorb stormwater runoff and filter pollutants.

"I think a lot of people think (recycling) is costly, but we have been able to show significant savings," Jackson said.

See story http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/bus/2011/04/12-16/Businesses-can-profit-from-recycling-forum.html

This entry was posted on May 2, 2011 at 5:47 PM and has received 1702 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

 By Jon

Microfleece half-zip made using ground coffee.

And a very water-resistant, sustainable cycling soft shell - 98.5% recycled plastic bottles, 1.5% coffee.

Everything's come full circle. Back in the old days, we wore stuff made mostly from natural things like wool and cotton and dead animals. Then things changed, the petro-chemical industry appeared along with artificial fabrics like Nylon and Polyester, essentially, plastics made from oil.

But then a funny thing happened - merino wool came back into fashion, sustainability landed on the outdoors industry agenda, and suddenly we found a world of clothing made from bamboo and coconut husks and, erm, coffee grounds.

Drink It - Wear It?

Yep, that's right, coffee grounds. We know this because the other day a parcel turned up at OM HQ containing a Timberland zip-necked fleece top, an insulated mug thing and a sachet of Starbucks instant coffee. Because I'm a bit thick, I then spent several days wondering why on earth Timberland had sent us coffee and a mug, was it some sort of hint?

Then, eventually, I actually noticed the USB stick on the zip-pull. Doh... five minutes later and the truth dawned thanks to the wonders of the interweb, Timberland has produced a range of clothing from fabrics called S.Café which contain coffee grounds.

Firstly, it solves the thorny issue of what to do with the huge mounds of coffee grounds that otherwise would be cluttering up our world, but also, and this sounds familiar, the fabric with its added used coffee, is claimed to be fast drying, offer UV protection and, thanks to the coffee particles, apparently traps odours and releases them when the garment is washed. Which is nice.

No Fresh Coffee Aroma :-(

The half-zip microfleece in the package may be too small to fit us, but it feels soft and fleecy, though disappointingly, it doesn't smell of fresh coffee - the things that make the aroma are removed - but S.Café fabric's also been used to produce a very sustainable windproof and highly water resistant - up to 10,000mm of coffee - cycling jacket, which is also a recycling jacket (sorry) as it contains 98.5% recycled plastic bottles and 1.5% coffee grounds.

So if you want a jacket made partly from coffee grounds, you know where to get one... Instant coffee though?

More about it all at www.timberlandonline.co.uk

See story http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/gear-blog/my-clothes-are-made-from-coffee-grounds/8106.html

This entry was posted on April 29, 2011 at 4:47 PM and has received 781 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Pesticides in cotton growing, chemical-laden dyes and huge energy consumption make the textile industry a big burden on the environment. But fabric makers, gathered at an industry fair in Paris, are beginning to clean up their act.

See Video http://youtu.be/kcw7sqBGNCQ

This entry was posted on April 25, 2011 at 8:06 PM and has received 325 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

This entry was posted on February 12, 2011 at 1:20 PM and has received 323 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

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