Goal For The Green

Perhaps ,you are someone who thinks Global Warming or Climate Change is just a fallacy, aimed at getting us to take notice, and change our habits. Well, you are right it is meant for us to take notice, because it is a real fact. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps you have been looking for simple ways to “go green,” or become more eco-friendly.  Did you know the easiest place to begin you “green” quest is in your kitchen?

Best of all , I love it when a company whose product is in nearly everyone’s kitchen, jumps on the “green” crusade.  Reynolds, the makers of Reynolds Wrap® Foil, now have an economical and versatile version of their foil, made from 100% Recycled Aluminum.

The process of making Aluminium foil from recycled aluminum, is just as clean and safe to use with food, as foil made from new (virgin) aluminum, which is maufactured from the the mineral bauxite.  Until recently, Reynolds had been unable to find a consistant supply of recycled aluminum, that could meet their standards of strength, performance and durability.  That has all changed now.

The 100% recycled version of Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil, is made from post- consumer and post-industrial aluminum.  Post- Consumer Aluminum includes stadium seats, automobile components, cookware, gutters and siding.  Post -Industrial is scraps form industrial cable.

The process of melting down recycled recycled aluminum requires heating the metal to more than 1200 degrees Fahrenheit, burning off any debris in the metal.  Then the molten metal liquid is sent trough a filtration process, then poured and rolled into thin sheets.

Environmentally, there are benefits to buying Reynolds Aluminum Foil Wrap made from 100% recyclable Aluminum.  There is 80% less energy used during the process of turning recycled material into foil, as opposed to the making of foil from new virgin materials.  The use of  manufactured and recycled content, creates the loop of reduce, reuse, and recycle that helps ensure the overall success of recycling.  It also produces fewer emissions, such as greenhouse gases and landfill waste.

The cool thing about aluminum foil, the regular or the recycled version, is that it can be recycled again after use.  Just rinse, crumple and toss in your recycle bin.  You will need to check with your local recycling facility to see if they accept aluminum foil.  Visit www.earth911.com for recycling locations or check with your local municipality.

Be sure and check out these Green Kitchen Facts and some recipes.  Reynolds has done a fine job of bringing you the same durable quality you’ve come to know and trust in Regular, Heavy Duty, or 100% Recycled Aluminum foil.

See where the cutest ladybugs live!

As of today, San Francisco is banning plastic bags, and the Whole Food Markets are requesting their customers to bring their own bags.  The choice will be paper in both places.

When it comes to cost, it is much cheaper to produce a plastic bag over a paper one. The drawback is, plastic is a petroleum product.  However, it only takes approximately .003%of oil per barrell to produce alot of plastic bags.  At least 100,000 birds and marine life die each year because of the plastic that liters our beaches and other public places. This could be one of the reasons for the choice of paper over plastic in the San Francisco area.

Paper bag producton takes one 20 year old tree and four times the energy to produce 700 bags.  In 1999, America cut down 14 million trees to produce 10 billion paper bags, and that was just for that year.  The impact on our forests is mind boggling.  The forests are a major absorber of green house gases.  When we cut them down, and then use clean water and chemicals to produce the pulp to manufacture paper bags, we create more greenhouse gases.  The sad thing is there is not enough forest areas left to absorb the pollutants. It doesn’t stop there, hence, not enough trees to help with run-off from heavy rain.  So, we’ve seen more severe flooding in recent years.

The problem is, while it takes 91% less energy to recycle a pound of plastic, only 1-3% of plastic bags are recycled. Paper on the other hand, is recycled at a rate of 10-15 %  more often, and it is compostable. Plastic is not.

Nothing completely degrades anymore in our modern landfills.  This is because of the lack of water, light, oxygen and other elments that are necessary to complete the degradation process.  The end result is, paper really doesn’t brake down any faster than plastic in a landfill. It also takes up more space than plastic.  The goal should be to keep both of these products from ever reaching a land fill.  The bottom line is, we may all need to get used to BYOB – bring you own bag.

Written in association with plastic disposal experts