NY TIMES Recycling Market Plummets - more reasons to reuse!

November 27, 2008, 7:26 am

Recycling Market Plummets

By Kate Galbraith

Exports of paper from the Port of Long Beach in California have come to a screeching halt. China has an oversupply of the stuff, because Americans aren’t ordering the products made from it. (Photo: Jaime Rector for The New York Times)

As millions of Americans toss their wine bottles, plastic containers and newspapers into recycling bins this long Thanksgiving weekend, they may be blissfully unaware of a big problem: recyclers are running out of money.

Prices for recycled materials like plastics, paper and metals have plunged in the last two months, endangering some programs.

In Oregon, haulers of mixed recyclables once collected $40 to $50 a ton from the plant. Now the situation is reversed, and sometimes the haulers must actually pay the plant to accept their wares, according to The Oregonian. In Denver, a local TV station reports that the city could take a $100,000 hit from the drop in prices. Seattle has also been hurt.

The Oregonian reports:

Most categories of recycled plastic, paper, newspaper and cardboard have also seen steep price declines as domestic and overseas demand plunged.

The price for bales of mixed paper has fallen by 90 percent since September, according to Official Board Markets, the paper industry’s pricing bible. Prices for plastic bags and other plastic “film” have dropped by two-thirds in less than a month.

Waste Management, one of the biggest recycling processors in the country, has also been hurt by the recycling slowdown. In its third-quarter results, released a month ago, the chief executive, David Steiner, said, “We currently estimate that our recycling line of business could negatively impact earnings per share by as much as $0.03 in the fourth quarter.”

cork wedges

Move over Birkenstocks! Here comes pre-cycled cork soled wedges with paper wine bag tops.

for this prototype I used 3m FoamFast – a spray foam – to secure the corks and High Solid Gel – a Golden gel medium – to glue the paper together.

cork

Cork hails from the bark of the Cork Oak tree, Quercus Suber. Produced extensively in Portugal and Spain. Once the trees are about 25 years old the cork is stripped from the trunks every 9 years. The trees live for about 200 years.

cork is:
biodegradable, natural, and renewable
fire resistant
provides insulation
expandable and impermeable insuring excellent bottle stopping qualities
Dom Perignon, a French Benedictine monk, is rumored to be the first to use cork in a bottle of Champagne [1668]. Before cork, it had been a common practice to close bottles with a piece of wood wrapped in hemp previously dipped in olive oil.

highly reuse-able
Some sites in the USA offer wine cork recycling. Whole Foods in Northern California has a drop off station. Wine corks are granulated and turned into products such as pin boards, tile, engine gaskets, hockey balls, safety mats, and boat decks. Recently, wine cork has even been used in rocket technology. Even cork dust can be used for fuel and cork residue can be used to make other cork products.

Bathing Suits Made of Cork
Source: Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Nov, 1939

You're invited to our science fair on Monday 12/8, 5-8pm! Our Contemporary Issues class will be showcasing our visualization and world saving projects. Don't miss it!

form studio tutu

For Form Studio this semester with Martin Veninsky I went through quite a process documented by the Grad Studio B&W printer. Since my theme became the movement of shape in space, I decided my printout pre-cycle project would best be showcased as a tutu.

This project stared by randomly picking a streamer and a ruler which at the end of the term morphed into my exploration of a line with endpoints bending in space. This began my exploration into the forth dimension that I am working with today.

At 10¢ per printout this dress is probably worth $3.70 in materials.

materials: form studio printouts, sewing machine, tape, stapler

origami grocer

local grocer makes his own bags from recycled paper!

paper packaging

Packaging is the single largest category of paper use at 41% of all paper used.

About 35% of municipal solid waste (before recycling) by weight is paper and paper products.

Internationally, about half of all recovered paper comes from converting losses (pre-consumer recycling), such as shavings and unsold periodicals; approximately one third comes from household or post-consumer waste.

The average per capita paper use in the USA in 2001 was 700 pounds (318 kg). The average per capita paper use worldwide was 110 pounds (50 kg).

Overall, recycling paper uses about 60% less energy than making paper from new materials.

Today, over half of the material used to make paper is recovered waste. Paper products are the largest component of municipal solid waste, making up more than 40% of the composition of landfills. In 2006, a record 53.4% of the paper used in the U.S. (or 53.5 million tons) was recovered for recycling.

camera holder

This handy camera holder is made from a bubble wrap mailing package and red duct tape.
The bubble wrap is already 10% recycled so, that means that it is now 110% recycled!

how to make your own:
1. Cut bubble wrap to size of object. This is a lot like wrapping a present. Make sure you have enough around the edges to provide a seam. I think 1 inch is good.

2. Wrap the bottom and tape. Fold the two sides in and then the opposing sides and secure with duct tape. Also, tape the side seam. Hardware stores usually have a nice variety of duct tape colors.

3. Leave one end open for the flap. Extend the flap with tape. The closure is duct tape too. It sticks but doesn't completely adhere to itself so, it is perfect for a resealable tab.

tetra pak folder holder

I made this folder holder from soy milk containers. First, I tried to use glue. Due to the shiny texture, Mod Podge and Gorilla glue failed. So, I decided to use the industrial sewing machine.

tetra pak or aspetic packaging reuse

Aseptic Packaging (Drink boxes, soy-milk containers)

The square boxes used for liquids are called "Aseptics", the most common brand of which is "Tetra Pak". Aseptic packages are made with three materials. Paper comprises 70 percent of the package, polyethylene 24 percent and aluminum 6 percent.

Hydra-pulping is the only way to recycle Aseptics. It is like a huge blender that separates the paper from the plastic and aluminum, so that the high-quality paper fiber is recovered for recycling into other paper products. Sources say the actual hydra-pulping recycling process, unfortunately, is very expensive and awkward, and is therefore only available in a very few places. Because of the difficulties, only an insignificant fraction of aseptic packages are currently recycled. In San Francisco, Sunset Scavenger accepts and recycles Aseptics.

america loves packages!

packaging = 2x's the amount of durable goods waste.

Image from the National Recycling Coalition site.

chores

I spent 3 hours washing my garbage today–sterilizing soy milk containers, plastic bottles, cans, washing out chip bags, and peeling labels off bottles. Glamorous!

reuse vs recycle

Reuse vs recycle

By Green Living Tips | Published 04/22/2007 | home , gadgets , family , energy

Think reuse before recycle The recycling movement has gathered plenty of steam in recent years which is wonderful, there's far less hitting our landfills and resources being reclaimed. However, there is concern building that the recycling wave is allowing us to still be rampant consumers, a throwaway society; and recycling some justification for maintaining this mindset. For instance, those very handy cans of gourmet flavored tuna, great to pack in a lunch box but I can empty the contents with a single mouthful! I can alleviate my guilt somewhat by recycling the can, but in order to get that mouthful of tuna, an awful lot of resources have gone into the packaging - and that's not to mention the added costs in purchasing products in this way. What's more economical and energy efficient is buying a larger can of tuna and spooning out the equivalent amount into a reusable container. It's the same sort of situation with a plethora of other products - cans vs. large bottles of drink, traveller packs of anything - all these handy sizes which cost us more can be recycled; but we forget the amount of energy it takes to do so. While the energy required to recycle the aluminium in a drink can is one twentieth of that to produce the can from raw materials; when you start thinking in terms of billions of cans; it's still a lot of energy consumed. You can buy the equivalent of 5 cans in a plastic PET recyclable bottle and I suspect (I'm not sure on this) that the recycling process would require less energy. In terms of larger items, let's say an old busted washing machine - we can send it to scrap merchants who may strip it of useful components for recycling which is great; but Fred from down the road is handy with washing machines and he may find that it just needs a fuse or some cheap component. Fred may be able to make use of it or resell the item. Reuse extends the life of a product before it has to hit the recycling stage. You may have saved Fred (or someone else) some cash in having to buy a new washer, so there's also a definite feel good aspect to re-use aside from the consumption issue. With the growing number of people understanding that reuse is the first option before recycle, all sorts of groups have started up where you can offer your items for free to others who can make use of them. One such service is The Freecycle Network™ which currently has nearly 3.5 million members globally. If you're in Australia, a great new service is E-Cycled. I've been reading some amazing stories of people who believed *no-one* could make use of their junk, only to find it snapped up when posted to these sorts of sites. Think re-use before thinking recycle :). Michael Bloch Green Living Tips.com

recycling energy savings vs creating from raw materials

Recycling energy savings

By Green Living Tips | Published 12/18/2007 | energy

Recycling, glass, metal, plastic and paper - energy savings If you visit a lot of environmental forums, no doubt you would have come across people claiming that recycling isn't all that effective - that it can take as much energy to recycle materials as it does to extract and produce them in the first place. I don't claim to have any special knowledge or education, but here's some information I researched on the energy savings involved with various common materials from what I believe to be fairly good sources. Energy savings - recycling metals These figures also take into account the sorting and transportation of materials. Aluminium - 95% Copper - 85% Lead - 60% Steel - 62 - 74% Zinc - 60% Data from the British Metal Recycling Association Aside from the energy savings, the more metals that can be recycled, the less (or slower) destruction of the environment from mining. While the recycling process may produce toxic materials; mining certainly does. Energy savings - recycling plastics Post-consumer products may contain as many as 20 different types of plastic material; so one of the biggest challenges is sorting it all. However, according to Dr. Mike Biddle, President of MBA Polymers, recycling plastics uses only roughly 10 percent of the energy that it takes to make a pound of plastic from virgin materials. Again, the savings aren't just in energy - plastics are still mostly made from petrochemicals; i.e. crude oil. Nearly 10 percent of U.S. oil consumption, which equates to approximately 2 million barrels a day - is used to make plastics. Recycling plastics also means saving oil - through the production process and base materials. Energy savings - recycling glass According to Waste Online, for every ton of recycled glass, 1.2 tons of raw materials are not required and after taking into account transport and processing needed to recycle glass, nearly 700 pounds of carbon dioxide is saved per ton of glass melted for the purposes of making bottles and jars. The Glass Packaging Institute states recycled glass uses only two-thirds the energy needed to manufacture glass from raw materials Recycled glass isn't just used for making more bottles - it can be turned into fiberglass (which is also used in house insulation), and as a component of bricks; requiring less energy to create the bricks and as the product is lighter, less energy is used in transport. Glass can be recycled indefinitely. Energy savings - recycling paper The Department of Energy states that a ton of paper made from recycled fibers conserves 7,000 gallons of water, up to 31 trees, 4,000 KWh of electricity and up to 60 pounds of air pollutants (not including carbon dioxide). Overall, recycling paper uses about 60% less energy than making paper from new materials. In case you've heard that there is a glut of old newspapers around and therefore paper is now often shipped to landfill and burned; that used to be the case in some parts of the world, but through new techniques, products and widespread consumer acceptance, demand has caught up with supply. The recycling trap Here's a trap that many people fall into - because an item can be recycled, they might feel that extra consumption is no longer a bad thing. Recycling is the last of the 3R's i.e. Reduce, Reuse... lastly, Recycle. Reduction of consumption means that less needs to be produced in the first place (and you'll save a stack of cash too). Reusing gives old products new life with little or no energy being used for repurposing, whereas recycling still does require substantial energy. Michael Bloch Green Living Tips.com

plastic bag lamp shade

This is an easy, beautiful, atmospheric enhancer.

It's best to use CFL's or LED lights so you don't melt the plastic.

1. Cut the handles off your plastic bag and cover the light on any lamp.

2. Turn the light on.

viola!

plastic bag fusing

prepare the bags
1. Cut the handles, bottoms, and one side off plastic bags, so the make one sheet.

2. Stack 6-8 layers of plastic bags depending on thickness. Too few will create burn holes. Too many wont heat evenly.

iron
3. Place 2 sheets of parchment paper on either side of plastic layers. It is best to keep the printed designs on the inside
or the ink will melt everywhere.

4. Set the iron to rayon. When hot, keep the iron moving. You will need to play with the timing to find best results.

5. After you are done with one side flip it over and
repeat on the other side.

before you know it.....

viola! fused plastic.

design problem

I don't have enough garbage! This experiment has really cut back on my purchasing power. Just knowing that I have to keep my waste has changed my spending habits. I have completely reduced. After a month, I barely have collected a kitchen sized trash bag full of recycling!? So, now I am off to the local restaurants to collect their garbage--entering the meta level.

make your very own plastic island

plastic found in birds belly

More than half a pound of plastic was found in the stomach of a fledgling Laysan albatross (nicknamed "Shed Bird"). This bird was stuffed with Plastic lighters, bottle caps, and other plastics that are carelessly tossed often wind up floating on the ocean surface.

plastic islands in the pacific

The very thing that makes plastic items useful to consumers, their durability and stability, also makes them a problem in marine environments. Around 100 million tons of plastic are produced each year of which about 10 percent ends up in the sea. About 20 percent of this is from ships and platforms, the rest from land.

The Plastic Islands in the Pacific are stated as being twice the size of Texas and weighing 7 billions pounds. Some reports call it an enormous soup of plastic debris that has grown rapidly to twice the size of the U.S. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan. An ongoing voyage into the foul soup of garbage has revealed it is composed of two huge vortices one in the eastern Pacific and one in the western Pacific. The vortices are maintained by a confluence of subsurface currents and by regions of high atmospheric pressure above the subtropical Pacific Ocean.

There’s six times as much plastic as biomass, including plankton and jellyfish, in the gyre.
These plastic patches have profound implications for wildlife because birds tend to eat bits of plastic and marine mammals can be strangled by them. Moreover, the plastic can accumulate in areas where currents are forcing nutrients upward - zones of high biological activity. The consequences are deadly to a wide range of species.

50-60 years ago there was no plastic in the sea.

facts

Solid Waste
Every year, the United States generates approximately 230 million tons of "trash"--about 4.6 pounds per person per day. Less than one-quarter of it is recycled; the rest is incinerated or buried in landfills. With a little forethought, we could reuse or recycle more than 70 percent of the landfilled waste, which includes valuable materials such as glass, metal, and paper. This would reduce the demand on virgin sources of these materials and eliminate potentially severe environmental, economic, and public health problems.
http://www.learner.org/interactives/garbage/solidwaste.html

hording

phase one : collection
the garbage is piling up in my house--not the compost, mind you, that is in the back yard--lots of dry paper, plastic, curious containers, and recycle bin bits.
I am hording and will begin the reinventing festivities soon...

psp project : reuse

My Personal Sustainability Project is the art of pre-cycle, reuse, and reinventing of my personal garbage.

The recycling mantra is reduce, reuse, recycle--in that order. I am already very conscious of my intake, reduce my consumption, and compost and recycle as much as possible. This missing link is to reuse. The recycle bin is overflowing and I see potential to reuse and reinvent these materials before they reach the recycle truck.

When I was a small child, I thought that one day all garbage that we used could be traced back to us. There was some kind of coding attached to our use and discard of waste, and at some point we would be confronted with this monstrous pile of the past. I am now attempting to find landfill nirvana--a land where no garbage exists.