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Our friends at Reuse This Bag forwarded this cool inforgraphic, and we want to share it with you. Suitable for framing! Source:Reusable Bags   You didn’t read it here first, but we keep saying it: Recycling is just common sense. Keep those perfectly good resources coming around again and again. Save energy, preserve habitat, keep … Continue reading →

City by the bay reaches 77% landfill diversion rate in 2010. San Francisco’s unofficial new motto, “Not Smug, Just Better,” may have caused a little controversy, but these days, SF has earned a pat on the back.  The city has achieved a whopping 77% landfill diversion rate in the last 3 years. That’s the highest … Continue reading →

Richart Sowa is building something amazing in a lagoon in the bay of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. You can call it an ecological floating paradise, a trashy island or an eco boat. Whatever name you choose there’s one thing that’s true about it: it is going to give new meaning to the term “self sustainable.” Richart … Continue reading →

Company has reduced landfill waste amounts by 30% since 2009. The Kroger Corporation is working hard to prove itself in the sustainability field.  In a recently released corporate sustainability report, the company says it has reduced the amount of trash going from it’s manufacturing plants to landfill by 30% in the last 2 years––that’s equal … Continue reading →

Build your own pop can solar furnace that can bring 175 degree air onto your home on any sunny day! photo © 2009 Al E. | more info (via: Wylio) Usually we want you to bring all your aluminum beer and soda cans to your nearest Greenopolis Recycling Kiosk or PepsiCo Dream Machine. But as … Continue reading →

Retailer receives Green Power Partner of the Year award for consistently high recycling and reuse rate. Kohl’s Corporation, one of the nation’s largest retailers, has been singled out this year by the EPA for its sustainability efforts, and cited as the Green Power Partner of the Year.   The award recognizes businesses with a high … Continue reading →

GM is now in the process of converting all of its plants, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing, to zero waste facilities. General Motors has been working on ways to effectively divert landfill waste from its manufacturing plants for the past 5 years. Now the company has announced that its efforts to eliminate landfill shipments is spreading … Continue reading →

This is the fourth in a series of blogs highlighting the unique waste-reducing reality TV series produced by this earth-friendly Texas city. And then there were three… “It was like we were losing part of our trash family,” said Blue Team member Joe Barnes, referring to the conclusion of Episode 2 of Dare to Go … Continue reading →

Last May Waste Management announced an investment in the Peninsula Compost Company, a commercial composting company that is owned and operated by the Wilmington Organic Recycling Center (WORC). WORC is the largest composting facility in the Eastern United States, serving Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. Right now Waste Management processes about 1.7 million tons of organic … Continue reading →

What if you could take 1 million pounds of waste that was heading towards landfill and repurpose it to grow food? Well, that’s exactly what two recent UC Berkeley graduates are doing with their company Back to the Roots. Founders, Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez started a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm that transforms coffee … Continue reading →

Los Angeles expands recycling program with help from the Carton Council. Finally, if you live in L.A., you can add milk cartons and juice boxes in with your other household recyclables.  Hallelujah!  As someone who lived in L.A. for almost 15 years, I can tell you first hand that this is a big deal. Until … Continue reading →

Editors Note: Another in our series of stories from our content partner Earth911.com Candy Wrappers Plastic-coated candy wrappers have long been a recycling dilemma because of their size, weight and lack of valuable, post-life material. But even though they’re tiny in size, they’re everywhere. In fact, Americans consumed 23.8 pounds of candy per capita in … Continue reading →

Whole Foods is recognizing the Whole Lifecycle of food- by turning their food scraps and spent produce back to soil to grow again. A WFM project in southern CA is taking food scraps, composting and bagging them and selling them as soil amendments to CA residents. A much larger project is underway in partnership with … Continue reading →

New program aims serious message at GenXers using humor, social media. KeepAmerican Beautiful (KAB) has launched a new awareness campaign aimed at teaching younger Americans that “Littering Is Wrong, Too.” The campaign is designed to create a dialogue with younger adults about the problem of litter.  Using the power of social media, as well as … Continue reading →

If you have never heard of the epic film franchise Star Wars then you literally must be from outer space. The films, created by George Lucas, are some of the most successful in movie history, and they have become a pop culture phenomenon for fans around the world. All of the films, from the first … Continue reading →

This is the third in a series of blogs highlighting the unique waste-reducing reality TV series produced by this earth-friendly Texas city. photo © 2010 U.S. Army | more info (via: Wylio) For reality TV shows, their bread and butter moment is at the end of each episode, when mounting tension glues viewers to their … Continue reading →

Food waste recycling is one of the most promising and environmentally beneficial opportunities for reuse. North America generates more than 80 million tons of organic waste each year, including food waste and yard waste.  In the U.S. alone, the EPA estimates that 2/3 of all solid waste is organic waste.  And although nearly 66% of … Continue reading →

Last week PepsiCo Beverages Canada  announced the introduction of the 7UP EcoGreen™ bottle- America’s  first soft drink bottle made from 100 percent recycled PET plastic. 100% recycled PET for carbonated beverages has been a tougher nut to crack because of the pressure on the bottle structure from the carbonation. It has to hold the pressure, … Continue reading →

Company converts 100% of daily onion waste into renewable energy. Everyone knows just how powerful an onion is… just one can bring a strong person to tears.  But Gills Onions, one of the countries largest producer of fresh onions, is harnessing onion power to provide a more sustainable future.  The company now uses all of … Continue reading →

After surviving a car crash that almost killed him, San Diego-based artist Richard Morrison decided to design a surfboard that pushed the boundaries of art. As part of his “Enviro Surf Art Series” he combined two of his loves, surfing and drinking, and created the Beer Can Surfboard. Morrison collected 72 beer cans from a … Continue reading →

  Pilot project lays groundwork for companywide rollout How much of the trash that Waste Management collects is really trash? That question is at the heart of the company’s transformational goal to extract more value from the materials it manages — and it has led to a project called “transfer station mining” that is aimed … Continue reading →

Most of us own tables made from traditional material like wood, metal or plastic. The table is probably nothing fancy, and it does the trick of holding what we want it to hold. But what if you could have a non-traditional table that not only looked cool, but was also made from recycled material? You … Continue reading →

Friend of Greenopolis and sometime blogger on the site Petunia Green Beans has developed a lovely little video on recycling and living lightly on the planet. With music great visuals, a cameo by Tristan and Tyler- probably the cutest twins ever-and star turns by Greenopolis bloggers Live Green Mom and Ecolicious Mama, she covers composting, … Continue reading →

Editor’s note: This is  one in a series of posts from our friends at Earth911.com. If you’re like most Americans, you’ve been able to easily recycle for decades, but access continues to grow and more and more Americans can recycle more and more materials. Last month, a Moore Recycling Associates study detailed American’s access to … Continue reading →

As I write this, I have just left the LOHAS conference in Boulder, CO. I left the event early after really struggling with the sessions. I’m not quite sure why, but one thing has become clear to me: the overly idealistic message and tone of the conversations haven’t changed. It’s still “ Big Is Bad”, … Continue reading →

Chili giant doubled amount of waste not sent to landfills last year. Hormel Foods Corporation recently touted the results of its environmental sustainability projects for 2010, with good reason.  The company beat its own projections by 50%. The company had set a goal of reducing its landfilled waste by 10 percent by fiscal year 2011 … Continue reading →

We are all used to recycling newspapers, aluminum cans, glass and plastic, but there are many less obvious items that are easy to recycle and make a difference. Valvoline has launched NextGen recycled motor oil, so it’s easy for motorists to use motor oil that protects their engine and reuses oil that’s already been drilled … Continue reading →

EcoFinity™ Life Cycle Solution program aims to capture and recycle 70% of needles and syringes hospitals discard each year. Waste Management Healthcare Solutions, and the world’s largest maker of medical sharps, BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), have teamed up to achieve sustainability goals.  Through the ecoFinity Life Cycle Solution program, WM will collect and recycle … Continue reading →

This is the largest Swiss Army knife in the world. It’s made by Wenger, crafters of genuine Swiss Army knives since 1893 and holds the Guinness World Record for “The Most Multifunctional Penknife,” with 87 precision-engineered tools spanning 112 functions. According to the manufacturer, It has seven blades, three types of pliers, three golf tools … Continue reading →

Sherwin-Williams has received an EPA green chemistry award for its paint formulation that contains recycled plastic bottles and produces less air pollution than typical oil-based paints. The new paint combines the performance of alkyd, or oil-based, paints, with acrylic paint’s low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can cause respiratory irritation and damage to … Continue reading →

Company hopes to help suppliers increase amount of sustainable palm oil available around the globe. The Kellogg Company is doing what it can to help produce sustainable palm oil for use in its cereal and snack lines.  The company uses about 0.1% of the total available palm oil each year, but says that the amount … Continue reading →

Trucks are a significant advancement in environmental impact and fuel-cost savings. Don’t get me started with a bag of Frito’s Corn Chips.  Like other Frito-Lay products, I really can’t eat just one.  And now I have an even better reason to eat my favorite crunchy snack.  Frito-Lay’s delivery fleet is going electric! As part of … Continue reading →

 The on-line magazine, GreenBiz.com, carried an article recently by editor Joel Makower alleging that green marketing by companies is, in effect, dead, and included rebuttals from the heads of two firms that specialize in motivating consumers to make more beneficial choices.  I won’t bother going into their main arguments here (you can read them yourself … Continue reading →

Most of us know about the Texas-sized plastic garbage patch that inhabits the North Pacific Ocean, but did you ever stop to think about how much of that plastic is winding up inside the stomach of helpless animals? A recent article on OceanAid.org reveals that researchers estimated that 35% of fish collected during an expedition … Continue reading →

A century ago, most of what we threw “away” really did go away. Outside of metals and glass, most materials decomposed rapidly or were otherwise integrated into natural systems. However, during the 20th Century, waste streams dramatically changed with the introduction of synthetic materials like plastics that do not readily decompose.  Now,  in the 21st … Continue reading →

Residents will now be able to recycle on-the-go at area 7-Eleven Handee Marts. Convenience just got a little more convenient–at least for those living in the Pittsburgh area.  Now when you stop by a 7-Eleven Handee Mart for a can or bottle of soda, you can also take care of your recycling at a PepsiCo … Continue reading →

Every year millions of tires end up in our local landfills. Tires that aren’t thrown away end up lying on the side of the road and transforming into a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Instead of throwing tires away we can recycle them into something useful. Here are 10 examples of interesting and clever ways to … Continue reading →

Yes, a mango can make a difference…if it’s an organic, fair-trade Francis mango from Haiti, where struggling farmers get support through Whole Foods Market. The Whole Foods Market’s Whole Trade program is helping Haitian farmers recover and prosper in a post-disaster reality.  After the devastating 2010 earthquake, many Haitian farmers have struggled to get their … Continue reading →

Recycling is often associated with places like Whole Foods Markets, people wearing Birkenstocks, and a green lifestyle. But if we really want to help move the needle on recycling, we need to get everybody recycling. That includes not just soccer moms, but NASCAR dads, too. Waste Management want to triple the amount of recycling it … Continue reading →

If you enjoy watching documentaries that change the way you think and feel about art then you should watch “Waste Land.” This 2010 documentary filmed over the course of 3 years shares the touching story of Vik Muniz, a critically acclaimed New York artist, and his work with a handful of garbage pickers from Rio … Continue reading →

A friend of mine, a Xerox engineer, was taking his team on retreat and happened to visit a landfill one day. He saw something there that changed his professional life forever. It was a Xerox container that had once held a photocopier, and now was languishing at the bottom of a landfill, broadcasting the Xerox … Continue reading →

The first 10 people to leave a comment on Greenopolis’s Facebook page on why they care about the oceans will win a free Ocean -Aid sweatshirt or T-shirt.

Why do you care about the oceans?” Tweet your answer to @greenopolis for free points and a chance to win 1,000 points! Join the discussion today.

Floating microscopic litter in ocean gyres has become a food source for small fish.  When larger fish eat the smaller ones, plastic contaminants move up the food chain as well. Research into the effects of ocean gyre plastic is ongoing, but there is a new––and disturbing–– avenue of research being explored.  Small fish, like the … Continue reading →

Provides 40 percent of energy to build Chevrolet Sonic, Buick Verano When production of the fuel-efficient 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano begin this fall, 40 percent of the energy to power the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant where they are built will come from burning landfill gas created nearby, including WM’s Eagle Valley landfill. … Continue reading →

Greenopolis spends the weekend at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in celebration of World’s Oceans Day. They were there to education visitors on plastic pollution, via Leslie Moyer from 5 Gyres as well as launching “Ocean – Aid” pocket guide, a global guide for keeping everyday harmful items out of the oceans. Join the Tweet contest … Continue reading →

A new report, “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Recycling and Composting,” produced by the West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum, an EPA-led partnership of western city, county, state, and tribal governments, identifies the top ten materials in California, Oregon, and Washington with the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if they are … Continue reading →

Whole Foods Market introduces new Eco-Scale™ rating system, to help consumers make healthier––and greener–– cleaning product choices. A recent survey concluded almost 73% of adults believe that household cleaning product labels provide an accurate and detailed list of all ingredients contained in their products.  In reality, there is currently no U.S. government mandate to compel … Continue reading →

Waste Management was featured in a Fast Company  post focusing on turning non recyclable waste into energy. Makes sense. WM is the largest waste collection company in North America. CEO David Steiner estimates that WM handles about 10 billion dollars worth of materials a year. That’s not much less than WM’s total revenues  each year. … Continue reading →

Did you know that in the U.S. alone about 350 slices of pizza are eaten each second? That’s a whole lot of people ordering pizza that comes in a pizza box. What’s bad about these pizza boxes is that most of them take up a large amount of space in your fridge. They also don’t … Continue reading →