Public recycling, Part II

OK, I have great photos to post from the Garden Writers Association Plant Delights Nursery visit this morning (totally wonderful), and our visit to the JC Raulston Arboretum this afternoon, but I'm inspired by Russ's comments on yesterday's post to make my reply a post for today.

Russ,
I'm glad to hear about your efforts, and I'm going home to try to encourage our community businesses to add recycling to their mix (my small city has curbside recycling, but the commercial waste disposal folks who service the food businesses apparently don't.)

Over 20 years ago, I remember talking to a college class about how aluminum can recycling was energy-efficient, yada, yada. We're kind of slow to get with the program.

And I'll look into the ClearStream Cleartainer, too. Sounds excellent.

Another concern to me is all the paper stuff that we generate at these meetings.

I've got a whole bagful of paper that I didn't ask for, as well as paperboard from various small packaging things that I've consumed (containing the coffee extras in the room, for example). I'd recycle this stuff at home, so why not while traveling? At least at this meeting, I drove, so I'm able to take things home to recycle.

I've brought along my stainless steel coffee cup, too, although I've been glad to see that the convention center is using ceramic cups, etc. And Panera Bread, the caterer for our breakfast this morning, minimized waste with paper packaging of breakfast 'sandwiches' although I think there were plastic plates for the pastries.

But, this evening, the barbeque dinner was on divided plastic plates with plastic water and drink cups. Yuck. The dinner was fine, but why can't we complete the cycle somehow?

Read more...

Public recycling

At home, we recycle everything - cans, bottles, cardboard, paper, glass, and plastic. Anything that's fresh and organic (minus grease, meat, and bones) is composted. So when traveling, and in this case, attending a green industry conference (Garden Writers Association), I'd like to be able to recycle, too. Sometimes my car is like a mobile recycling center, bringing home plastic soda bottles, paper, etc.

To their credit, the Raleigh Convention Center recycles cans, bottles, and plastic, as did the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at a lovely reception this evening. The Convention Center has slots for newspapers, too.

But what about my banana peels and apple cores? And the waste (paper plates, uneaten food, napkins, etc) from our lunch today on the exhibit floor? And all the extra paper stuff and packaging of materials that exhibitors push on us.

Nice to have much of it (thanks especially to North Creek Nurseries and American Beauties for the cool Vernonia 'Iron Butterfly,' Lonicera sempervirens 'Major Wheeler', and Hibiscus moscheutos 'Torchy'), Renee's Garden, Ferry-Morse, and Baker's Creek for wonderful seeds, but I definitely appreciate the All-America Rose Selections folks that give us our 'press packets' in a small jump drive -- after viewing and potentially using the info, we can reuse it as a portable drive (unlike the throwaway CD's).

And why are all of the plant giveaways packaged in cute plastic bags instead of compostable paper? We did get lots of giveaways in reusable totes, but they're the sort that last for a couple of weeks with anything heavy, not heavy-duty tote bags. I guess I miss the old canvas totes (at least they were biodegradable).

OK, maybe I should be happy with the recycling bins, which are quite impressive, actually, but I'm a cranky environmentalist. I want compost receptables, too!

Read more...