Household Curbside Recycling- TRA$H is CA$H

One super-easy and often overlooked eco-bright spot is household curbside recycling.  Recycling is almost a yawner today, yet diverting items from the landfill and then selling them as recycled raw materials makes a big difference to the environment and also to you and your city’s financial bottom-line. 

Baltimore region offers one of the country’s best recycling programs

Picked up once per week, our area’s single-stream recycling program accepts over 50 to 75%* of household trash.  The newer single-stream concept gives homeowners the convenience of tossing all recycling types together; no more sorting.  Added to that convenience, the recycling list grew. ALL plastics coded #1 through #7 (except styrofoam), foil & pie pans, milk cartons, empty aerosol cans & big rigid plastics are now recyclable. What’s left? Mostly plastic packaging, food scraps and dirty paper.  It can’t get any easier, unless a house elf does it for you.

Where does my recycling go once the truck leaves my curb?

Once a week, the recycling truck drives your co-mingled recycling to a huge recycling facility in Elkridge, Maryland run by Waste Management, Inc.  Truck loads of recyclables are then sorted mechanically by type, baled and then sold on the world market as a new raw material for future uses. Plastic is eventually melted into pellets to make new drink bottles and plastic bags, paper gets mashed into pulp for corrugated boxes and aluminum cans become new cans very soon. 

How well does Baltimore recycle?

Truthfully, not so well. We earn about a C-. Only 15% of household trash is recycled, of the potential 50% to 75%.  

Does recycling matter? I heard recyclables get trashed anyway!

Urban legends are hard to slay, so here are some figures. 

Every ton of recyclables trashed, not recycled, costs your municipality at least $50 per ton to landfill or incinerator and roughly $25 in lost recycling revenue. What that means is our collective decision to toss recyclables directly increases the disposal cost each county or city has to spend to dump our waste, increasing your tax bill. When recycling rates are high, the savings and income offsets your trash collection costs, thus reducing your municipality disposal costs which are paid by taxpayer dollars. It is absolutely a false notion that recyclables are dumped or burned; cans, steel and paper are just too valuable in today’s world.

If my tra$h is ca$h, aren’t we dumping lots of money?

It’s a wonder recycling isn’t mandatory with the amount of cash that’s literally trashed.

Here’s just one county’s example:

Baltimore County has a top-notch recycling program. Baltimore County offers everything from electronic recycling, yard waste composting and haz-mat drop-off. Of the County’s 400,000 tons of residential trash in 2010, roughly 200,000 tons could have been recycled; about half to be conservative. Baltimore County residents single-stream recycled 47,000 tons tossing about 150,000 tons into their landfill or the waster-to-energy facility.

Back-of-the-envelope math reveals that Baltimore County residents increased their disposal costs by a whopping $8 million. According to Baltimore County recycling director Charlie Reighart, “Baltimore County has the opportunity to really maximize recycling and save serious money.”

Why can’t I use plastic bags to bag my recyclables?

The number #1 question asked!

Plastic bags jam the sorter machines. Check out this amazing video to see first-hand the mechanical sorting machines that separate the different types of recycling. Plastic bags must be manually pulled out of the sorter conveyor belts adding to the processing costs. 

If I recycle only one item, which one should it be?

Never, ever, ever toss an aluminum can. Aluminum is the diamond of recycling, selling on the post-recycling market for $2,000 per ton. Aluminum cans never break down in recycling; a can can be recycled in perpetuity. Manufacturing aluminum is very toxic and uses millions of subsidized electricity kilowatts.

Does recycling reduce my carbon dioxide footprint (CO2)?

The average home in Maryland generates 40,000 pounds of CO2. Maximize just your recycling and you can decrease your green house gas CO2 by 4,000 pounds.

What on earth does 4,000 CO2 pounds mean?

Recycling at the max is the same as downsizing from a Suburban SUV which emits 13,000 pounds** of CO2 per year to a Honda Accord which spits out 9,000 pounds a year!

Are there any health and environmental issues from landfills?

Landfills are essentially trash tombs. Newer landfills are lined with a plastic liner to decrease toxic leakage, yet our trash stews in landfills and emits a nasty landfill gas (LFG). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been working hard with municipalities, including Baltimore-area landfills, to capture the gas because LFG contains carbon dioxide, methane, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and bad odors that harm our world and people.

For example, carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Methane is troublesome because it traps heat at 20 times the rate of carbon dioxide.  VOCs emissions help create smog and ozone can reduce or damage plant growth and cause respiratory problems in humans. Finally, exposure to hazardous pollutants increase cancer and asthma damage. By burning the LFG, called flaring, or using the LFG as a fuel in engines, methane capture helps reduce the health and air impacts. Also, reducing trash by recycling at the max, is one way to mitigate landfill harms.

* In reality, if you recycle everything possible through single-stream, recycling accounts for closer to 75% of your trash.

** Source: www.terrapass.com assumes 12k miles per year.

For more information, contact:

Laurel Peltier

www.greenlaurel.com

greenlaurel7@comcast.net

Here at Smart Home Services, we believe in bringing an element of sustainability to each and every project that we do.  Kitchen and bathroom remodels are especially great opportunities to green your home, as they are project that most homeowners tackle at least once and are areas of the home where building technology evolves pretty rapidly.  So you might be thinking, “Yeah, I know sustainability is important, but I am just really not into those bamboo floors.”  Fear not!  While environmentally friendly materials are a fantastic, beautiful way to green your home, there are a number of other ways to achieve an efficiency and sustainability while still getting exactly the look you want.  This article will examine a few of those less obvious, but equally important elements of a green remodel.

Donate those old cabinets – Getting rid of your existing kitchen cabinets or bathroom vanity?  If removed carefully, these items can be donated to a non-profit group (here in Baltimore options include the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Second Chance, and The Loading Dock) for re-sale.  Pros: get a tax write off, support a local non-profit, and reduce waste.

Put in efficient lighting –  Replace those old can lights with new, energy efficient LED models.  Pros: a lower electricity bill, getting to show off space-age light bulbs to your friends.

Air seal & insulate – Kitchen and bathroom remodels often offer a great opportunity to air seal and add insulation to your home.  The walls are already opened up and accessible (which is often more than half that battle), allowing insulating upgrades to add very little cost to the overall project. Pros: a more comfortable and energy efficient space.

Install water-saving plumbing – Replacing a sink, shower, or toilet is a great time to upgrade to higher-efficiency fixtures.  Most plumbing manufactures now carry water-efficient product lines, and a good bet is to look for the “EPA Watersense” label.  Pros: a lower water bill and less waste.

Use low-VOC paints – A super easy way to improve indoor air quality in your home is to use low or no-VOC paints.  These paints have little to no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can have potential negative health effects.  Pros: a healthier home and no “new paint” smell – honest!

Choose Energy Star appliances – A no-brainer when it comes to improving efficiency in your home.   When replacing any appliance, always make sure to look for the Energy Star label.  Pros: lower energy and water bills, beautiful shiny new appliances.

Remember the bisphenol-A (BPA) controversy 3 years ago? Baby bottle manufacturers agreed to voluntarily eliminate BPA from infant products because studies claimed that even in low doses, BPA was linked to breast and prostate cancer, reproductive issues and a host of sicknesses. Well, baby bottles are BPA-free, but you’re not!

BPA facts you should know:

Over 93% of Americans have BPA in their bodies.  BPA is a chemical, known to be estrogenic, used since the 1950‘s to line 99% of canned foods – even soda. BPA’s job is admirable, with the chemical’s purpose to eliminate food contamination.  Yet, BPA migrates into canned foods, especially acidic, salty or fatty foods.  BPA is also found in some “see-through” plastic bottles coded #7 on the bottom.

Breast Cancer Fund study finds people reduced BPA by 60%

A recent study by the Breast Cancer Fund proved that people can quickly reduce their BPA levels by avoiding canned foods. In the study, BPA levels dropped 60% in three days when participants ate no canned food, restaurant food or food packaged in plastics.

Why should you care about reducing your BPA exposure?

The U.S. is in the process of deciding if BPA is harmful. There are loads of scientific studies linking BPA to health issues and the list isn’t pretty; breast and prostate cancer, miscarriages, ADHD, obesity, heart disease and more. Even the Food & Drug Administration (F.D.A.) flip-flopped. At first, the FDA supported the industry’s claim that BPA is fine in low doses. Now, in addition to it’s own BPA research, the FDA also supports eliminating BPA from children’s bottles and formula.  In the meantime, food manufacturers are slowly looking for alternatives. In Japan, an alternative is already in market.

How to reduce your BPA exposure:

1. Avoid canned foods, especially salty, fatty or acidic like soups, tomatoes & tuna.
2. Do buy frozen veggies or bottled soups and tomatoes.
3. Avoid canned infant formula.
4. Don’t drink from #7 coded “see through” bottles unless bottle labeled “BPA-free”.
5. Do drink from aluminum or stainless steel bottles.
6. Do microwave in glass, not plastic.
7. Remember, restaurants use lots of canned foods.
8. Eat fresh food (yes, it’s hard, but it had to be written!)

It’s Decision Time: Wait for more research or voluntarily reduce your BPA exposure.

Now, it’s your turn to decide. Buy the jarred tomatoes, or wait until the many on-going studies conclusively make the link between human’s health and BPA? Another idea is to consider talking with your doctor, especially if there is family history to consider, if you drink 10 sodas per day, live on canned soup or if you’re considering getting pregnant.

Government Decisions Taking A Role:

From the EPA: “However, results of some recent studies using novel low-dose approaches and examining different endpoints describe subtle effects in laboratory animals at very low concentrations. Some of these low-dose studies are potentially of concern for the environment because the concentration levels identified with effects are similar to some current environmental levels to which sensitive aquatic organisms may be exposed.”

From the FDA: “However, on the basis of results from recent studies using novel approaches to test for subtle effects, both the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and FDA have some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.  In cooperation with the National Toxicology Program, FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research is carrying out in-depth studies to answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about the risks of BPA.”

Additional Research:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19407859

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/ucm064437.htm

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/newscience/2007/2007-1109calafatetal.html#2007richteretal 

For more information, contact:

Laurel Peltier

www.greenlaurel.com

greenlaurel7@comcast.net

ReDeux is a high end consignment shop in the heart of Roland Park. Owners, Jan Braun and Linda Eisenbrandt have been in business for about two and a half years now, and have been making an impression on Baltimore fashionistas, one designer piece at a time. You may be asking… how does this relate to green homes? Well, think about it. Our goal at Smart Homes is to help show marylanders how to lead a SMART LIFE. By RE-using and RE-cycling old clothing, shoes and accessories, you are creating less of a demand for new items to be manufactured, therefore reducing pollution, not to mention, preventing these items from ending up in a landfill somewhere. Community also comes into play, as we support locally owned shops, instead of pollution creating big businesses. By shopping at ReDeux, you are taking initiative to support your community, your planet and your inner shopaholic! They say one woman’s trash (or gently used designer apparel!) is another woman’s treasure, and in this case, Linda and Jan have quite the selection in the treasure chest that is ReDeux. Stop by the shop and discover one of Baltimore’s hidden gems, in addition to many fine holiday gift ideas and hopefully a little something for yourself as well! For more information, visit http://www.redeuxapparel.com/.

Native Plant of the Month: 

Amelanchier or Serviceberry

Amelanchier is a native small tree or large shrub, which is easy to grow in full sun or partial shade.  Prefers acidic soils, but adapts to many types of soils, except consistently wet soils.  Height about 20 to 25 feet with a variable spread.  Perhaps most pleasing in the multi-stem form.  Fall color varies from yellow to orange to red all on the same plant, very effective in fall as the leaves stay on the plant long enough for the fall color to be noticed and appreciated.  Berry like fruit is quickly consumed by birds.  Can be used as a specimen, small patio tree, or in the shrub border.  It is very effective in groups.

CALL US TODAY AT 410 329 1103 TO RECEIVE $500 OFF YOUR BATHROOM REMODELING PROJECT.