Curious Creature » Recycling

So what does happen to all that stuff you put in the recycle bin?

greenability — Tue, 13 May 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Here is a fantastic journey through the recycling process with the Green Lantern, Brendan I. Koerner, at Slate about just how all that stuff you’re throwing in your recycle bin gets recycled, if it gets recycled at all. I’m not sure that Bill McDonough would agree with the Lantern’s assessment that “Despite its labor-intensive and relatively inefficient nature, plastics recycling still makes long-term sense.” but it is still a great article and food for thought.

Three thoughts instantly come to mind after reading this: buy less, buy smarter, and reuse more of what you do buy.

Whole Foods and Plastic Bags – Bye Bye Plastic

greenability — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:25:00 +0000

Wow. Where have I been? Whole Foods is ditching plastic shopping bags! My last post on this subject received quite a bit of attention (I got a nod in the New York Times…near the bottom). At that time I never would have expected this given their response to me. I’m really glad to hear they’ve come to their senses.

Whole Foods and Plastic Bags – Redux

greenability — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:47:00 +0000

After my post about Whole Foods and the fact that they provide plastic bags as an option at checkout I sent this email to them (here is the contact page):

I’m wondering why you are offering plastic bags as an option at checkout? Given the environmental impact of plastic bags I would think that Whole Foods would remove them from stores as an option. Paper, while not ideal, certainly is a better option than plastics. If you are going to keep offering plastic bags then why aren’t you using the corn-based biodegradable bags instead? Thanks, Jason

A couple of days later I received a very nice reply from Rachael Gruver. Here is the reply in full:

Hello Jason,

Thank you for contacting Whole Foods Market with your concerns. At Whole Foods Market, caring for our communities and our environment is a core value and something we take very seriously. We offer reusable bags for sale in our stores and give at least a five cent bag refund for each bag our shoppers bring back and reuse for their groceries – whether the bag is from Whole Foods Market or not — to encourage our shoppers to bring back bags for reuse.

All of our regions require their front end team members to attend bag training. In our training we not only focus on bagging items securely, but also on bagging in the most environmentally friendly manner. Some examples of bagging tips addressed in training include, packing full bags, asking shoppers whether their household and body care items can be placed in the same bag as their food, asking before double bagging, etc.

We are also looking into sourcing biodegradable bags and bags made from higher post consumer recycled content. Biodegradable shopping bags are generally made from GMO corn. It’s unfortunate that these bags are presented as an environmentally sensitive or sustainable alternative to plastic, as they are generally made with non-organic, genetically engineered corn. In addition, many of the bags available at this time are not sturdy or cost effective. We are confident that with increased consumer awareness and demand, we will be able to purchase bags that are more environmentally friendly and that meet our standards for price and quality.

Thank you for your comments and your commitment to being green.

Best regards,

Rachael

Rachael Gruver | Global Customer Information Specialist | Whole Foods Market | 550 Bowie Street | Austin, Texas 78703

I suppose it comes down to three things:

Cost

Bag Strength

use of non-organic and/or GM corn

I can see how issues one and two would need to be addressed. Point three I am just not sure where I stand. Not having done (and not able to do…at least at the moment) the full “cradle-to-grave” analysis of petroleum-based plastic bags vs. the newer corn-based bags I can’t really agree with their point yet I also can’t really disagree.

In the end however she didn’t answer my initial question which was: why are you offering plastic bags at all? Certainly the most environmentally-friendly option to them (as well as cost-effective) is to not even have plastic bags be available.

Why is Whole Foods offering plastic bags as a checkout option?

greenability — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:17:00 +0000

I do a twice-monthly shopping trip to Whole Foods to pick up the items that I can’t get at any of my local stores (local meaning in my village or the next village over). Given all of the hoopla over plastic bags and Whole Foods being the preeminent natural foods grocer I’m surprised that they haven’t taken a stand on plastic bags and banned them from the store.

“Paper or plastic?” is the question I always get from the checkout person there. At the larger grocery stores in my area I don’t even get that question. They automatically give plastic. If you ask for paper bags they have to pull them out from behind the register and the paper bags don’t even have handles. The local small, upscale chain only gives paper…I don’t event think plastic is an option there.

Now in my mind paper certainly is a better option of the two simply because I think people are more likely to either reuse or recycle them. We reuse the paper and plastic bags we have here. I want to try the cloth bags but they simply won’t be a completely viable option until I can accumulate enough for the weekly shopping.

Back to Whole Foods.

The How Green Are We? webpage on the Whole Foods corporate site doesn’t have any mention of plastic bags. They do give you some money back for reusing bags (Paper or plastic. $0.10 per? I don’t know for sure) but should they be offering plastic at all? I did find this post at The Inoculated Mind that asks why isn’t Whole Foods using the new biodegradable corn-based plastic bags and finds that the answer is that those bags are made from genetically-modified corn. Now, I understand the stance that Whole Foods has about GE crops but in this case which is worse? The GE crop-based bags that biodegrade or the oil-based bags that don’t? (Of course the one question I don’t know the answer to is do these corn-based bags even biodegrade at all in a landfill? “Regular” plastic bags certainly won’t in those conditions).

If Whole Foods isn’t going to offer the plant-based alternative bag then they shouldn’t be offering the oil-based one either. “Paper or plastic?” shouldn’t even be a question being asked at Whole Foods.

Ziploc bags are recyclable

greenability — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 05:45:00 +0000

So I might be the last person on the planet who knows this information but I was really upset that the bags don’t have the recycling logo on them. I went and looked it up on their web site and the bags are code 4 (polyethylene plastic).

On a similar note I also found that most baby bottles are recyclable. The problem? Most of these items are not showing the recycling number. How are people supposed to know to put these items in the recycling bin when its time without any easy to see indicator?

We have been tossing out lots of Ziploc bags in the past because we just didn’t know they could be recycled. I know now but a lot of plastic could have been kept out of the garbage dump had Ziploc put the logo on their damn bags.

Now we just need to figure out a way to reuse the bags more (or better yet not use them at all).