Pet Peeve: Unnecessary Plastic Windows in Pasta Boxes

Today's Pet Peeve is Brought to you by Catelli Pasta!! (And Barilla)

I was consolidating some whole grain wheat pasta to bring to my sister. I can't eat wheat stuff anymore and holding onto wheat pasta is just wishful thinking.

But as I consolidated two boxes of Rotini noodles into one box, I was left with an empty box.

No biggie. Just recycle it. Right? Easy peasy.

Not so much.

You see... I am a conscientious recycler. I am the person who sticks their hand into the opening of an empty tissue box and pulls out the plastic window in the top of the tissue box. They actually come fairly easily. And they do serve a useful purpose, ensuring that only one tissue (usually) comes out of the box at a time.

Because recycling a tissue box with the plastic window just contaminates the recycling stream. Which is not good. And as a conscientious recycler... I just... can't... do... it.

Which brings me to pasta boxes. You see... Catelli has a little clear plastic window in the middle of their pasta box.

For those of us who can't read and who can't determine the type of pasta based on the picture of rotini noodles on the cover. It looks like a pretty small piece of plastic. But in order to get it out of there... you have to tear the box apart and then try to pull the plastic off of the cardboard. But they use a much sturdier glue than the tissue box folks. And for such a small window... Catelli uses a HUGE piece of plastic!

So you grab a corner and you pull and... it tears. leaving you with shreds of plastic to peel off. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to stand in the kitchen muttering swear words as I peel off shards of plastic window material.

So that whole piece of cardboard with over-sized piece of window material goes straight into the garbage. Is this not a waste of cardboard? Waste of energy? Waste of plastic? Waste of time and energy and decision-making power? Why is it on ME to have to tear out this piece of cardboard in order to allow Catelli to have that itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny window in their pasta box???

So, while I was at Superstore the other day, I did an informal survey of pasta boxes... because I had come across a UK article that said Barilla pasta had gotten rid of their pasta box windows!!!

Let's see what we can find on our shelves...

Catelli. Yes, well we know what they do. But my box of whole wheat pasta was several years old so I thought... maybe they have changed? Nope.

President's Choice? Nope... little plastic window.

Catelli again... with a miniscule window into the heart of spaghettini... why?? What purpose does this serve???

And Barilla... from Superstore's online shopping... because the UK version has NO window... but our Canadian version... it has a plastic window. Ugh! 

I am so miffed with Barilla for being so two-faced that I went to their Canadian site's Contact Us Form and sent this message...

Can you explain why Barilla in the UK has gotten rid of the plastic windows in the pasta boxes but Barilla in Canada still has them?

Do you know what is involved in me recycling the empty pasta box?? With a plastic window? Why??? We can read. We can see your very clear pictures of the pasta. Take the eco-lead and get rid of these windows. They serve zero useful purpose. You don't see cereal boxes with plastic windows. Why do pasta companies do this? Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply that won't be a standard "thank you for your comment and we have sent this to our product team." 

Hmph. Back to Superstore... and look what I find. An actual box of spaghetti with NO window!  Amazing. Although this one was down the organic food aisle.

You would think that making boxes without windows would be easier and cheaper for pasta companies. You would think... But I guess they really like having people SEE what's in the box. Strange.

Post Script

I wrote to our city's recycling department to see what they have to say and after 10 days, received a reply. For us... we can leave the plastic windows in the pasta boxes! Yay! Win for us. Not so much a win for some other places. I do wonder though... in the pulping process of pasta boxes... when they fish out the plastic windows as contaminants... where do they go? Landfill?? Sigh.

That ends today's Pet Peeve Rant. Carry on with your normal daily activities.

Eco-Friendly Sipping: The Rise of Cardboard Can Holders over Plastic Rings

Remember the plastic rings of death? Those plastic rings that hold cans of beer or pop? And that never ever decompose? And that are a danger to wildlife? Yes, those...

Well... my favourite local beer has switched to a cardboard carrier! How cool is that?

Call me weird, but I think it's pretty cool. When I got home, I took pics because these are the first ones I've gotten my hands on.

They are certainly better than the plastic rings... at least for wildlife and the environment. Now, this particular beer company wasn't actually using plastic rings to start with. Or maybe they were, years ago, but by the time I found them last year, they were packaging their 6 packs in little cardboard boxes.

Which is pretty good but... uses way more cardboard than the 6-pack ring replacement cardboard holder. 

Now if we could only get the BIG producers to follow suit. Looking at you Labatt's... and Coke... and Pepsi.

Still see tonnes of plastic ring holders in the grocery store aisles. But maybe... just maybe... the smaller producers can lead the way and show the big guys how it's done.

Small steps... they do make a difference.

Eco-Friendly Beauty: Discovering Makeup and Skincare Recycling Solutions

I was leaving Walmart the other day, having bought my jars of pickles (very specific pickles only available at Walmart) and a watch battery. I actually hate shopping at Walmart. I hate the self-checkout area which feels a bit like a bull-ring. I hate the talking tills. The whole thing just... irks me. I just want out of there! As fast as possible.

But as I scampered past the optical department... and almost reached the customer service desk... I stopped dead in my tracks. What the heck was this box?

TerraCycle Cosmetic & SkinCare Recycling Box at Walmart

Make-up recycling???!!! What the heck!? They have recycling for Cosmetics and Skincare products. Whooooaaaaaa... 

Now let me first say that I don't use cosmetics or make-up. But I do use skin-care products like lotions... and lip balm... and deodorant... And it has always irked me that these containers are either very hard to recycle (washing out a lotion bottle?) or impossible (deodorant - too many different plastic types).

There was a QR code on the side of the box... I scanned it and it took me here... It's a TerraCycle project! I know them! They have a system to handle "hard-to-recycle" things... like toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes...

Walmart has partnered with TerraCycle and a few cosmetics companies (L'Oreal being a big one) to take back cosmetic and skincare containers. From ANY brand! Cool! OK... I might need to re-evaluate my opinion of Walmart... a little bit.

So here's a list of things that they take... I'm going to need another bin to collect this stuff at home...

What You can Recycle

• lip balm, lip gloss, lip liner and lipstick tubes
• soap dispensers and tubes
• lotion bottles, tubes, dispensers and plastic jars
• non-pressurized shaving foam tubes
• body wash containers
• mascara tubes
• eyeliner pencils and cases
• eyeshadow packaging
• concealer tubes
• foundation packaging and bottles
• powder cases

What You Can't Recycle

• perfume (presumably because it has alcohol - flammable)
• nail polish bottles (same thing... highly flammable)
• nail polish remover bottles (same... extremely flammable)
• pressurized canisters (including aerosol cans) (explosive)
• sharps (including razors) (dangerous)

Excellent news! Kudos to Walmart and... wait a minute... I was doing some background reading and... London Drugs is also doing this. And has been for YEARS!

Well... not quite... yes, London Drugs has been recycling cosmetics for several years but NOT skincare products (like lotion bottles). So the Walmart box is more inclusive...

And to be honest... I've never seen a make-up recycling box at London Drugs. Mind you... I don't really go into the make-up section but I have definitely walked by it at various times. And never, ever has a recycling box (and they are big!) impinged on my radar.

Walmart has a good location for theirs... as you exit the store, where people are most likely to see it. Alright... I am going to have to make up a list (make up... make-up... hahahah!) of recyclable skin care/cosmetic products and pay more attention before I throw a lip balm in the garbage... or a lotion bottle.

Although... I still want to know about deodorant... it is not on the accepted list... but neither is it on the reject list. To recycle it... or not... I think I will add it to the bin and take it along next time

And... I just did a search for deodorant and recycling and came across the Beauty Vixen's blog post... apparently there are a swack of other stores that also do beauty recycling including Hudson's Bay, L'Occitane en Provence, Winners and Holt Renfrew. There appear to be size limitations though on some of them (less than 60 ml, under 2 inches by 2 inches, etc). Although... some even accept shampoo bottles!

Well then... now we know. Any and all beauty and skin care products (minus the flammable stuff) can be recycled via either TerraCycle or Pact (another outfit like TerraCycle). Just look for the boxes... or ask at the front desk...

So... don't toss your lip balm, your lotion bottle or your foundation container. Recycle instead.

Still need to work on the dentist to sponsor a TerracCycle dental products box... will try emailing them again...

More Resources

TerraCycle's page on cosmetic recycling

Recycling Odds and Sods

There are some recycling things that continually perplex me. Do they belong in the recycle bin or not? I've got the main ones down pat but there are always some odds and sods that I dither over. So, I decided to buckle down and figure it out!

Plastic Bottle Caps

When I return by beverage containers to the depot for the deposit money... I always wonder what do with the bottle caps. Leave them on the bottle? Take them off and then what? Garbage? I seem to recall, years ago, that we needed to take the caps. But that's old news. Today, in BC, we can leave the bottle caps on!

Tetra-pak Straws

Same with these - dispose of them, or recycle them? Answer is... recycle them but pushing them down into the container once you're done drinking out of them. Amazing! I would love to see how these all get recycled.

Glass Jar Lids

These have always perplexed me. Again, I seem to recall that they were not recyclable, but that was years ago. I look at them, and I can see that they are a "mixed material" - some metal, some rubber bits. How is that recyclable? Turns out the rubber/plastic bits just get burnt off when the metal is melted down. I hope they have a scrubber that doesn't spew those fumes out into the atmosphere. So... short answer is... yes, you can recycle glass jar lids, at least here in BC, but tossing them into the blue bin.

Glass Mason/Canning Jars

A jar is a jar is a jar, right? Wrong. Apparently canning jars are different from regular jars (pickle, jam, etc). Commercial jars used for packaging are made from a different type of glass than mason or canning jars. So if you have a canning jar with a crack or a nick, and you want to recycle it, you are out of luck. Adding it to the glass recycling stream can contaminate it. A damaged mason jar can just be tossed into the garbage. Unless they are still usable in which case you can take them to thrift stores.

Plastic Cutlery & Other Oddities

In BC, we can now recycle plastic cutlery! I always thought they were too small for the conveyor belt systems, but I guess they've upgraded that. This also includes empty dental floss containers, empty plastic tape dispensers, the pump/spray thingie from spray bottles or pump-action lotion/shampoo bottles.

Aerosol Spray Cans

Spray paint cans (at least in BC) go to the paint section of the depot. But other spray cans (bug dope, hair spray, oven cleaner, etc) can all go in the blue bin AS LONG as they are completely empty. Metal is one of the most valuable materials to recycle so any bit of metal is probably recyclable.

I've said for a few years now that you practically need a PhD to figure out what can be recycled and what goes in the garbage. There are sooooo many things that can be recycled now. The Recycling Council of BC has a Recyclopedia site where you can start typing in the item (e.g. plastic... or glass...) and it will then suggest a list of plastic or glass items. Choose your item, enter your location and it will tell you where you can recycle it.

How to Make Extra Work for Myself through Procrastination

There are some days where I could just kick myself. I see something that I need to do but I don't "feel" like it right now... so I don't do it and then... I end up making a tonne more work for myself. I don't know why I continue to do this... but I do. So I must a little mole hill ahead of me and at some point, it hits a magic threshold and POOF!... it turns into a mountain.

Here's the most recent example... We have an Airbnb in our basement and we ask all of the guests to please put their recycling into the blue box in the carport.

We don't want them to put it in the big blue curbside bin in the driveway because... our recycling system is complicated and most guests have absolutely no idea as to what can be recycled or not. They go by what works in their city or town. And even though we have diagrams on the fridge outlining what can and can not be recycled, inevitably, they make mistakes.

You see, our recycle (and garbage and green) bins get picked up by a huge truck with a big mechanical arm, that picks it up and then empties it into the top of the truck. And as it gets dumped out, a camera scans the items to see if there are "non-recyclable" items - like glass jars and styrofoam and filmy plastic. These are all huge no-no's as they can contaminate an entire load of recycling which then ups the rejection rate at the recycling plant for our city trucks which means that the city gets charged more and... our property taxes go up.

On top of that... you might get an emailed notice from the city saying that you had rejected items in your blue bin and to please do better. So far, we have been clean but... I don't want to start getting notices!

And so... we ask the guests to put their recyclables into the blue box in the carport. I then sort through that and place items in the appropriate bins. Some people are very optimistic as to what can get recycled... like price tags made out of cardstock. No... really too small. Anyhow, the system works for us. And for things like glass, styrofoam and filmy plastic, I bundle that up with ours and then take it to the local recycling depot. Because while they can't go into the truck... they can go into designated bins at the depot. Like I said... complicated.

Anyhow... there I am last week, and I see that the blue box in the carport is getting full and I think... I really need to sort through that... but I didn't "feel" like it. I'll do it "tomorrow". Yeah. Right. And that evening, I'm sitting in my office, with it's window overlooking the driveway and I hear cans and glass bottles hitting the bottom of a plastic bin. Noooooo.....!!!! Yesssssss... I see our current guest standing by the blue bin dumping the indoor recycling bin AND the blue box into the curbside blue bin. Nooooo... 

I guess they had more recycling in the suite and the blue box was too full for them and they... decided to just dump it all. I utter several suitable swear words. Now... I've got a bigger problem on my hands. The curbside blue bin is deep, like 3.5 feet deep and getting stuff out of there is a hassle. and it's all in a big schmoz and... bummer.

So... on a Sunday afternoon, when the guests were out... I spent a good 20 minutes rummaging through the bin, dumping stuff out on the driveway and pulling out all sorts of non-recyclables... glass jars, filmy and crispy plastic overwrap, styrofoam trays and an inordinate amount of Tim Horton's cups. While the cups are recyclable in the curbside bin, they need to be washed otherwise they contaminate the paper stuff in the bin. Same with the little yogurt containers and the margarine container and... on it goes.

Now, I would have had to pull all of those things out of the carport blue box when I sorted that... which is maybe why I procrastinated on sorting it then. Because we took all that stuff inside and ended up washing it. A lot of people would have just tossed it into the garbage bin but... we are somehow eco-nerds and sooo... we washed a good 2 dozen Timmies cups and various other plastics.

And then my partner came up with a bright idea... we have now put a large, clear, plastic garbage bag into the blue carport box as a liner. If ever the box is close to full but I don't feel like sorting it... I can just yank the bag out, toss it in the backyard and put a new bag into the box.

Hopefully one small step now avoids a much larger step later!

And perhaps I will learn the life lesson that... procrastination does NOT make the task easier or less onerous. In most cases it makes it harder and bigger and more icky! Lesson learned??? Only time will tell!

PS - We came out one morning after the recycling bin had been cleared out on collection day. There were several more unsorted, unwashed items in the bin. I pulled them out and decided to temporarily put them in the carport blue box. We then happily placed all sorts of recycling into the blue bin. And then... yesterday, a Saturday... I found that they had dumped their blue box into the blue bin AGAIN! Even though the blue box wasn't even close to being full. So... all those items that I took out... are back in there again. So much for solving procrastination!

PPS - The latest iteration of my procrastination habit saw me watching weeds grow in the front yard, thinking... "I need to go and stab those out". We are in the thick of summer, so the lawn really doesn't need mowing, the weeds needs removal. I procrastinated for a couple of weeks and when I finally did it... half of the weeds had gone to seed puffs and the job was so much harder and took much longer than if I had done it when they were small! Ugh!

Reusable Mugs for Cheap

Yep. I'm at Starbucks gain. Don't ask me about McDonald's! Today, I rode my bike though, so that's a check-mark in the plus column! And yes, the disposable cup is a definite check in the minus column. Especially since I got a refill on my tea and have now used TWO disposable cups!

Ugh... When I packed my bike backpack this morning, I thought about taking a reusable mug but... it wasn't washed and... well... that was just that little bit of extra energy that I didn't have. Plus... it adds weight to the backpack so I talked myself out of bringing it.

Which isn't the best thing. My bike ride here (plus!) is effectively cancelled in terms of its eco benefit because of my two (and counting) disposable cups. 

Ideally, I'd have a whole slew of reusable mugs/tumblers that I could bring with me to Starbucks. And it's true... we do have several, but at least 2 are stashed in the car as back-up mugs there!! And the rest of them are cheapo plastic ones.

I've been reading a bit about the dangers of plastic and hot things. Were not supposed to microwave food in plastic containers cause the heat releases bad stuff from the plastic. And soooo... when I think of my hot tea in a plastic tumbler/mug... I get the heebie-jeebies now.

Now... there are reusable mugs/tumblers that are metal on the inside. It's just a matter of finding one.

And yes... I could probably buy one at Starbucks... for $$$$ but that's not me. I kept my eyes open at Value Village for weeks and bought a metal-lined tumbler months ago!

It is even a Starbucks one!! It's perfect. A grande size (medium size) with a metal interior. It's even lighter than the plastic ones.

It's just that... it wasn't washed this morning. I need to get better at talking myself into the minimal amount of energy it would take to just rinse out the thing and toss it into my backpack!

And, I do have to admit... I was quite happy when I found this one. It was less than $4 and it cost $25 new! Can't go wrong with that price.

I don't know who buys new mugs at Starbucks but... I thank you for this one!

And... I suppose... I could ask the baristas to give me my tea in a "for here" ceramic mug. I mean... really... the inside of the disposable cups are lined with plastic too (heebie-jeebies!!). Maybe I should try it... I just know from past experience that my hot chocolates would always get cold much faster in the ceramic mugs. But... with the tea and uber hot water that they use... maybe a ceramic mug is actually a benefit!! I will make an effort... I will... seriously.

What to do with Dead Batteries?

What do you do with your dead (or dying) batteries? I'm talking anything from AAA to 9 volt to Lithium-Ion to laptops to watches to car batteries. The average household has 80-100 batteries within its walls. Batteries are everywhere around us. Filled with metals and chemicals, some toxic, some not so much. But what do we do with them at the end of their life? Do they just go in the garbage?

Batteries in the Garbage

In some jurisdictions, batteries are frozen, crushed and then tossed in the landfill. Despite containing valuable metals, it's just not cost-effective to pick most batteries apart for these jurisdictions. At least not yet.

But this tossing of batteries is very short-sighted. Batteries will corrode and leak toxic elements into the groundwater, things like cadmium, silver, lead, mercury and nickel. This is obviously NOT a good idea - contaminated soil and groundwater is a long-term problem.

Car Batteries

Filled with lead and acid, these batteries need special handling. Your friendly neighbourhood car repair shop may take these free of charge especially if you are buying a new battery from them. Most transfer stations, landfills, and some recycling centres will also take car batteries.

But then what? Do they actually get "recycled" or just deactivated and dumped? Well... it's actually kind of fascinating... You can watch this YouTube video if you're super interested! But basically... they get all crunched up and then stuff gets sifted out...

• 99% of the lead in car batteries is recovered during the smelting process and is recycled or sold as a commodity
• 100% of the sulphuric acid is recovered and either recycled, sold as a commodity or neutralized for disposal.
• Plastics (the housing of the battery) - recycled and sold as a commodity

There is no need to have a garden shed or garage you (or your aged male relative) stockpiles dead car batteries. They are much easier to dispose of nowadays. Same with car tires. No need to dump these out in the bush. That's just wrong.

Recycling Household Batteries

There are scads of places that accept used household batteries, everything from Staples to Home Depot. But what actually happens with the recycled batteries? Is this just a "feel-good" way of tossing them into a landfill?

Nope... more on that later... but for now... here's a list of places that accept old household batteries. And, in case you're wondering... batteries do NOT go into your blue bin. Just don't. You're basically tossing them in the garbage.

So... here in BC... you can recycle household batteries at places like:

• Home Depot
• Home Hardware
• London Drugs
• Staples
• Canadian Tire
• Rona
• Best Buy
• Recycling Depots - where you also bring styrofoam, plastic bags, used paint, etc.

But then what? You dump them in the bin at the recycling depot or at Staples and... where do they go?

Call2Recycle Canada

All of the battery recycling in BC is under the umbrella of Call2Recycle Canada. They are the ones who come and collect the batteries from participating retailers and process them. Want to know where a recycling collection point is for your area? Just type in your postal code on the Call2Recycle site and you'll get a list of places.

So what actually happens to your batteries? Well, they are sent to a recycling centre where they are sorted according to size and type. After that, they are sent to processing centres.

Nickel-based batteries, for example are sent to Sudbury. Depending on the battery type, they are then either melted, or ground into powder. The melting process allows the metals to be extracted. The single-use alkaline batteries are the ones ground into powder allowing the recovery of steel, nickel zinc, manganese and potassium. (Check out this YouTube video if you want to see the process.)

After that... the metals and/or materials are reused in different ways. The Call2Recycle site outlines the whole process and what happens to each type of battery.

I was a bit surprised when I saw that alkaline batteries are recycled into sunscreen and concrete aggregate! What the heck? Turns out the batteries contain zinc... and we all know that zinc goes into sunscreen. Whew.

Take-Away

The bottom line is... all batteries can be recycled. Don't throw any of them into the trash. Take them to a recycling centre/depot where they can be safely processed and converted into other products. No one else is going to do this for us. It's up to us to take that little bit of extra time and extract batteries from used devices (toys, watches, mobile phones, laptops, flashlights, remotes) and recycle them responsibly. We can do this. 

Turning Tissues and Toilet Paper Rolls into Life-Giving Compst

Ever since I realized that I shouldn't be throwing tissues into the toilet, I've been tossing them into the various garbage containers around the house - bathroom, office, kitchen. I know that this is bad. And I feel vaguely guilty every time I toss one away. Should I be moving towards using cloth handkerchiefs?? I don't know about that... I know old men who use those and, well, it just grosses me out a bit when they haul their used handkerchief out of their pocket to wipe their nose again. And let's not even talk about doing this during a time of Covid... ick!

Tossing Tissues

So is there an alternative? I know that I shouldn't be tossing anything other than TP into the toilet but what to do with the tissues? I did a bit of research and tissues are imminently compostable, either in our city green bin (except during Covid) or even in our own garden compost. In fact, the tissues, composed as they are of wood-fibre/paper products, are a very good source of brown matter (carbon-rich) which is needed to balance out all the green matter (nitrogen-rich). This could actually kill two birds with one stone, because we've run out of brown matter for our garden compost (sawdust, straw, fallen leave). Sooo... tossing my kleenex into the garden compost container instead of the garbage bin would tick two boxes at once.

There are of course, a few caveats in order... only toss kleenex into the compost bin if it hasn't been used to wipe up anything icky: no chemical cleaners, no poop (pet or human), no snot from sick people, no cooking oil. Other than that, we can go to town in tossing our used tissues into our garden compost bin.

Except... fore me, it's a convenience issue. With a garbage can in every room that I frequent, it's easy to just toss the used tissues into the nearest bin. So I'm going to have to figure out a system for collecting used tissues in each room, specifically the office and bathroom. In the past, we've sometimes left an empty tissue box out in the living room and stuffed our used tissues into it. When it was full, it got emptied into the container used to gather our green bin stuff. While we don't have any empty tissue boxes on hand, any little box would actually do the trick. So, that's one small step I can take to keep some stuff out of the landfill and help our composting process at the same time.

Paper Towels

I was then wondering about paper towels... can they go into the compost bin too? There is a bit of debate about the bleaching process used to turn the paper pulp from its normal brown colour to that pristine white colour but... apparently, as long as the paper towels are not advertised as having disinfectant  properties or fragrance, they are compostable. Excellent, another potential source of brown matter. Obviously non-bleached, recycled paper towels would be the best. I'm almost wondering if getting those commercial-grade paper towels (the brown ones) might be a better option than an oh-so-puffy Bounty paper towels. Either way, composting paper towels carries the same caveats as the tissues: no chemical cleaners (so no paper towels with Windex on them), no poop, no sick mess and no cooking oil. A paper towel with cooked food residue (including cooking oil) can, however, be tossed into our city green bin which can handle those sorts of things.

Ideally, of course, we'd like to get away from paper towels entirely and just use rags to wipe up messes. It's a convenience thing again, sigh. Maybe I need a sticky note on the paper towel dispenser - "Do you REALLY need to use a paper towel for this mess?" Or maybe, "Could you use a rag instead?" Just as a reminder. 

This realization that we might have some potentially easy sources of brown matter within our household got me thinking and... I found a few more household sources.

Toilet Paper and Paper Towel Rolls

Here's some unbleached paper products that are perfect for the compost bin! No bleach, no cleaning products, no ink or toner or anything. Just pure paper product. It does help to tear them up a bit before tossing them into the compost bin.

Paperboard and Cardboard

Mmm... these are slightly trickier. There's concern about the glue holding corrugated cardboard together since it contains boron which, while good for the garden, can be detrimental if there's too much. Then there's the ink and dyes used on the paperboard, things like cereal boxes, tissue boxes and such. For us, using the compost  we create for our veggie garden, we're going to assess these on a case by case basis. Some paperboard (e.g. shoe boxes) have very little ink on them... they might make the cut. And, of course, anything that is glossy (like a glossy cardboard box) should not end up in the garden compost, but go to recycling.

Egg Cartons

These are apparently very compostable in a garden compost although... they can harbour traces of salmonella which makes me think they might not be the greatest for a veggie garden. But if it's just for a flower garden, then it's probably good to go.

Brown Paper Bags

We don't get as many brown paper bags as we used to but... they are perfect for the compost as well, which is nice to know.

Office Paper & Newspaper 

On my hunt for brown matter for the compost, I thought of shredded office paper and newspaper. One is good, one not so much. Most newspapers nowadays are made with vegetable-based inks so are perfect for the garden compost bin, as long as they are shredded first. Newspaper inserts (like flyers) are not so good - way too much dye, so we'll keep tossing those in the recycle bin. As for office paper... it's been bleached within an inch of its life usually and the ink toner is most definitely not good for the compost. So that too will continue to be tossed into the recycle bin and/or shredded.

Next Small Step

Sooo... in light of the above, I went around the house, sifting through various garbage bins (not the kitchen one) with gloves on, pulling out various brown matter objects destined for our garden compost bin.

The one other thing to consider is that cardboard and paperboard, tissues, paper towel, etc. don't have any real nutrients, as compared to dead leaves or straw or other natural sources of brown matter. So we likely don't want to go too over the top with synthetic brown matter but... any port in a storm at this point.

("Typical household carbon stuff for compost" by kisforkateatkins is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Compostable Foam Packaging - The Best Thing since Sliced Bread

We ordered a food box from The Very Good Butchers. We've been eyeing their products (all plant-based meats) for a while now and finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

They are a local company (Victoria, BC) who started out selling their products at local farmer's markets, but then demand exploded and... they are now a "thing". They even appeared on Dragon's Den and had the Dragon's vying for their business. You don't see that everyday...

Anyhow... our box arrived... and... it has their trademark picture of a little deceased bean on one side of it. Poor little bean... butchered by these callous men with their knives and hatchets. Sigh... better than a butchered lamb, pig, cow or chicken, I say... but that's just me...

I was a little concerned about the packaging of this box. The contents are apparently packed frozen and then the whole thing is shipped via Purolator. Knowing how fast my frozen berries can thaw if I dally at other shops after getting the groceries... I was a bit concerned about how they planned to keep every thing cold during transport.

I know from our dalliance with GoodFood that there are some strange gel cold packs in white plastic that are used to keep things cold. The gel is apparently flushable down the toilet once it's thawed. I still haven't figured out what that's made out of but... I'll trust the reassurance that it is actually flushable. But... cold packs are only useful if the container is insulated. GoodFood used a bunch of waffle cardboard with a silver reflective liner to keep their boxes cold. Fresh Prep actually sends their stuff in reusable insulated carry-bags (kind of like a soft cat carrier, but without the windows).

I was intrigued to learn what The Very Good Butchers would be using and... was a bit surprised at what I found...

Eh? foam packaging in green plastic? What the heck?? I mean, it worked... with three gel freezer packs, everything was nice and frosty cold but... still... foam packaging!?

Except... as I felt the foam stuff, it didn't feel right. It felt kind of crispy and didn't have the right texture for your typical poly-whatever petroleum-based foam packaging. Which, by the way, is not accepted at recycling depots. I should know, I've tried... polystyrene (styrofoam) is accepted... but none of this other poly-packaging material.

Sooo... I emailed the Good Butchers... sorry, The Very Good Butchers... and asked them about the green plastic foam stuff. They replied within the hour and directed me to the Green Cell Foam site. Qu'est-ce que c'est??

Compostable foam padding? What the heck? Dissolvable in water?? What is this sorcery???!!

But it's true... I cut open the green plastic which is apparently recyclable. I'm not entirely happy that there is still plastic in this mix but after researching the foam stuff, I know why a plastic layer is required.

You see that little skinny piece of foam on top of that pile... well, I held it under the faucet and it dissolved into nothingness. I can see how... if the cold packs get any condensation on them... the whole foam packaging could just dissolve within the box if it wasn't protected by something waterproof.

We are going to put these pieces into our compost bin. Apparently it will dissolve within six months, depending on the moisture content of the compost. In our wet climate, I think they'll be gone within a few weeks.

What are they made of? Well the Green Cell Foam site has a gazillion pictures of corn so... yep, it's made from cornstarch. I'm not sure how they do it (trademark secret likely) but... it's a big leap forward from using petroleum based products which can't be recycled and will still be in our landfills 500 years from now (and beyond). This green cell foam has apparently been around for a few years, and I have to say I'm a bit surprised that I've not come across it before. It's cool though and The Very Good Butchers get a green check-mark from me for using this stuff....

Waste Not, Want Not at Christmas

The average Canadian tosses out 50 kg of garbage during the holiday season. That's 25% more than normal. Which means... we toss out about 12 kg of pure Christmas waste. Which, for those of us who are not quite metricized with weights yet... about 25 lbs of Christmas waste. That's an awful lot of wrapping paper...

When I was a kid, my Mom had us save everything! She grew up during the war and learned "waste not, want not" from her parents. At Christmas, we'd take a paring knife and carefully slice under the tape wrapping each gift. No wild tearing of wrapping paper. We would then carefully take off the bow and the name tag (which was taped to one of the bow's tails). We would then fold the wrapping paper carefully and set it aside. Paper went into one brown paper bag. Bows went into another. Ribbons went into another. Name tags into another. All saved for next year. We had the most organized Christmas unwrapping you've ever seen! And we hardly ever had to buy reams and reams of wrapping paper. We would just sort through the old paper from previous years and find a size that worked for the current wrapping project. Eventually, of course, the paper would die but by that point, it gone through at least five, possibly ten Christmases.

Nowadays... things are different... there's only my partner and I and we tend to have different Christmas wrapping systems. My partner is more in the gift bag with tissue paper camp. Whereas I tend to be more in the wrapping paper camp. We do still try to unwrap carefully but... it's not always possible. Although... the gift bags are reused from year to year. And we do try to reuse the tissue paper as well. On top of that, we generally only buy gift bags and rolls of gift wrap from the thrift store and never new. Same with bows and ribbons. It seems like a waste to buy new wrapping paper that will only have a few days of glory before it is torn to shreds and tossed in the trash.

Which got me thinking... what exactly is recyclable when it comes to Christmas waste? The list is shorter than you might think.

Bows

We all have these in our house. We have a whole shoe box full of them. But we never really use them. They don't mail all that well... And for our own presents we tend not to use the bows. They just leave a ripped paper spot where the tape was used to hold them down. And be-bowed presents don't stack all that well.

And they are most definitely not recyclable. Once these bows die (too bedraggled to be reused), they have only one final destination... the garbage.

Instead of a ribbon... maybe put a sprig of cedar or fir on the gift... or a flattish Christmas ornament... All sorts of different ways to spruce up a gift that don't need plastic...

Ribbons

We have another box full of spools of various ribbons. Different colours, sizes, textures. All of them are made from some form of plastic. None of them are recyclable. And if they end up in the recycling stream, they can stop the whole production line when they get tangled around the machinery. Every gotten a string tangled in your vacuum cleaner roller brush? Or around your weed whacker? You know what I mean. Ya gotta stop and spend five or ten minutes trying to untangle that rats's nest. Now scale that up to a recycling facility. Not fun.

Back when I was a kid, we tended to use fabric ribbons, satin or velvet or tule that could be untied and reused over and over again. But fabric ribbons tend to be a bit limp... not like those vibrant plastic curls you get when you pull a ribbon over the edge of a scissor... Those are so much more exciting and sparkly! Not.

We don't really use ribbons anymore except for some mailed presents... but even there... I'm thinking it might be better to ditch the ribbons completely and swap it out for rafia or twine or something equally rustic. Heck, maybe even some satin ribbon from the thrift store! The thing I've noticed is... if we have it in the house, we'll use it. So maybe the trick is to  get rid of it... donate it to the thrift store and swap it out for something more eco-friendly. If you're looking to buy plastic ribbon... don't but it new... go check out the thrift store. Odds are they'll have reams of the stuff.

Wrapping Paper

Not all wrapping paper is paper. Nope, some of it is plasticized and that stuff is most definitely NOT recycable. Here's the no-go list:

• no glitter - none. Not on the paper. Not on the ribbons. Not on the gift cards. As anyone who has used glitter knows... that s*%t gets everywhere!
• no velvet - I thought velvetized paper went out of fashion in the 70s but... apparently not.
• no foil - if you can see vague reflections of yourself in your shiny wrapping paper, odds are it has foil in it or on it. Not recyclable. It's not aluminum foil. It's plastic foil. If you crumple it and it doesn't stay crumpled... it's plastic.
• no holographic material - plastic...
  

Sooo... what's the solution? Plain old gift paper - made out of 100% paper CAN be recycled.

Best place to buy gift wrap... your local thrift store. They usually have rolls and rolls of the stuff and odds are you can find something that fits your theme.

For a few years, my partner and I just bought white wrapping paper and used different colours of ribbons and bows on it. That looked really sharp but... that means using ribbons. Although it would work with fabric ribbons too.

I'm thinking that brown paper tied with string and maybe stencilled with some cool ink stamps would look really nice too. And then a sprig of evergreen with a Christmas ornament or something.

As for us... we are using up our stash of wrapping paper (no glitter, foil, velvet, etc) but I think we are going to be making a pact not to buy anymore wrapping paper. Or ribbons. Or bows.

I know I said up there that actual paper wrapping paper (!) can be recycled but... there are caveats. Winnipeg, for example, says no to wrapping paper because the ink is too intense and it's too hard to get it out. So check with your local municipality...

Oh... and tissue paper can be reycled as well, as long as it is straight-up tissue paper with no extras. No glitter. No sparklies.

If wrapping gifts is your thing, fly at 'er! Just keep the above in mind...

Gift Bags

Most gift bags are plasticized. Even if they look like they're paper... unless you can tear it easily... it likely has a plastic coating either on the inside or outside. Which means most gift bags are NOT recyclable.

A better option is pure paper bags. I was looking online and am starting to see brown paper bags with handles and Christmas decorations. The question then becomes... what are the bag decorations made of? Any glitter... not recyclable. Any velvet? Or anything 3-dimensional? Not recyclable.

I'm also seeing some gift bags that might look like fabric (they aren't like the regular stand up bags but more flowy) but are really foil or some variation of plastic. Not recyclable...

But... gift bags made from real fabric, with real cord (not plastic ribbons) are a definite alternative. If I was a sewer... er... a seamstress... I'd be making gift bags out of fabric from the thrift store. Fabric bags can last forever and are washable and reusable. Just not recyclable...

Gift Cards

We haven't bought new holiday gift cards for years. I just trot down to the thrift store around Christmas time and stock up on different cards. They're usually $0.25 each and I know that my money is going to a good cause.

As for whether or not they are recyclable... some are and some aren't. If you read the no-go list for gift wrap above... it's the same with gift cards. Musical gift card? Not recyclable. Glitter or foil or velvet or three dimensional doo-dads and weird textures? Not recyclable. Although... you likely can tear off the paper half that is recyclable.

Christmas Trees

Real or fake? That is the enduring question. Basically... either one is not great on the environment. The best option would be to have a real tree in a pot that you then plant in your backyard. If you already have a fake tree, then keep it and make it last for at least 20 years. If you get a new fake tree every few years, you'd be more eco-friendly if you just got a real tree every year. Or... go down to the thrift store, odds are they have a number of fake trees on display... and you can save one from being landfilled. If you are going to get a real tree... make sure you don't drive a long distance to get the tree and/or buy it from a local Christmas tree farm (not one of those Home Depot trees that come via rail from across the country!).

Our fake tree is about 15 years old and still going strong. It's a tall, skinny tree with faux fir, spruce and pine twigs - a very unnatural combination! But it works and we like it. So we'll keep it. If it ever dies... we'll likely go with either a thrift store tree or a local Christmas tree farm one. Or maybe cut our own under the power lines... Oh, and just to be clear, fake Christmas trees are not recyclable, too many different plastics and metals all tangled together...

If you do get a real tree, for goodness sake, dispose of it responsibly. Most municipalities have some form of real Christmas tree recycling options. Bring it to a central collection point and they will be chipped to form mulch.

But here's the thing... tinsel is NOT mulchable. If your tree looks like this (pic at right)... with tinsel tossed willy nilly everywhere... you might want to reconsider your use of tinsel. Because odds are, you won't be able to get every single piece of tinsel off of the tree before you take it to be mulched...

Growing up, we always had tinsel (or lametta) on the tree but it was hung in small bunches on the branch tips, the final touch to decorating the tree. At the end of the Christmas season, we carefully gathered up every bunch of tinsel and placed it in organized bundles in paper towel, to be reused the following year. And the year after that... and the decade after that. I still have our childhood bunches of tinsel (decades later). The stuff lasts forever! Except... we never use it because cats and tinsel do NOT mix... So, the tinsel is going into the thrift store donation box where hopefully someone else will use it... in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.

I'm not even going to touch on Christmas tree decorations. So many of them nowadays are plastic. We have quite a stash of vintage Christmas balls that are made from thin glass... love them.

We don't buy new Christmas tree decorations every year, but just keep reusing what we have. We don't have themed Christmases or any particular colour that we go for. In fact... you don't need a lot to make a cute tree...

We spent one winter on Salt Spring Island at a vacation rental (our five month foray to see if my partner could survive a rainy West Coast winter). We got our tree from under the power lines (a first for my partner), put it in a pail with rocks and decorated it with strings of popcorn and rose hip berries. We scrounged some bits of holly, baby's breath and shreds of arbutus bark. And tucked a few small stuffed animals into the branches.

It was the cutest tree ever and we still remember it, and the whole adventure that went with it, very fondly.

We don't have to buy into the Christmas marketing fiasco... we can choose to go simple and rustic. It's usually cheaper and better for the environment.

Counter-intuitive Padded Envelopes

It's the Christmas season and, like many people, we were madly mailing things off to friends and relatives. Our packaging of choice was padded envelopes. I know I might be a bit of a weirdo but I save padded envelopes whenever we receive one, unless they are completely destroyed in the unpacking! So, several of our padded envelopes where recycled ones - an Amazon Prime envelope and a couple of used golden coloured one (there's a story coming on those). As well, I had a stash of brown padded envelopes which do not use plastic bubble wrap, but some sort of shredded cardboard fluff (recycled material).

I was feeling pretty proud of myself for going relatively eco-friendly in the parcel-shipping department. Except... some of those options are not as good as others... So, here's a question... if you're in Staples (or whatever office supply store you hang out in)... which of these options would you most likely purchase?

Option 1 - Traditional Bubble Pack Envelope

Nice paper exterior with plastic bubble wrap interior. Get them in a multi-pack and save money. Easy pull tab strip and self-sealing. Perfect for mailing things.

Option 2 - Fluff-padded Envelope

These are like the ones I had in my stash. A coarser brown exterior and interior. The padding is sandwiched between the exterior/interior layers and glue is used to hold it all in place (so you don't end up with all the fluff at the bottom and none at the top). The thing is... these tend to be heavier, are thicker and can push up postage costs...

Option 3 - All-Plastic Envelope

Nicely waterproof, this envelope has a plastic exterior with plastic bubble wrap on the inside. Lightweight so you're not paying of a surcharge on envelope weight.

Best Choice?

So, what would you choose? Do we even really give it that much thought? Well, if you chose Option 2, that is likely the best option, as long as the padding is paper based. Many envelopes will now say if/how they are recyclable.

Canada Post bubble mailer

If you chose Option 1 - the paper exterior with the plastic bubble interior then, unfortunately, that is the worst option. It is made up of mixed materials (paper and plastic) and unless you can separate the one from the other... then it all goes in the garbage.

Second best choice, in a weird way, is Option 3 - the fully plastic envelope. Like the ones that Amazon Prime uses... or Canada Post for that matter. Because they are all made up of one material - #5 Plastic in Canada Post's case, they can be recycled with crinkly plastics. At least in our jurisdiction. Other jurisdictions may just have you toss it in the trash as well. But, for us... the all-plastic bubble envelopes can be recycled (pilot project). That is, of course, assuming that the outer shell of the envelope and the interior bubbles are made from the same plastic. If they're not... then into the trash it goes.

I just had a crash course in this because, along with mailing a variety of bubble packages, we've also been receiving several. And I have been shocked to find how many of them are in the Option 1 category. I usually try to save them for future mailings but, in this instance, they were too small or got damaged in the opening. But, for heaven's sake don't buy those golden coloured mixed material envelopes new!

See... this is what we can recycle... all plastic shipping envelopes, bubble wrap and those little air-pocket padding thingies. Cool!

What we can't recycle... those pesky gold coloured envelopes and (still) those 6 pack rings!  Argh...

But we are getting there... Apparently 98% of the plastic that we put into our green bins or return to the recycling depots is recycled right here in BC. That is impressive and I want to make choices which will reduce the amount of plastic but... if I have to use plastic, I want to use stuff that can be recycled or reused or repurposed... I know that there are compostable bubble mailers out there but...as you can see on the Not Accepted pic... those are not accepted for recycling. So, unless I want to put those into our garden or compost bin... I'm not sure that they are the best option for us... I have to come across anyone who has tried to compost them. One outfit said their mailers would decompose in 90 days in a commercial facility and in 180 days in a home compost bin. Hmmm... if ever anyone mails me one of those, I'll be sure to try that out.

A Tale of Two Toothbrushes

A few months back, we invested in bamboo toothbrushes as a way to reduce our plastic footprint. When the toothbrushes finally arrived,  I had just started using a new plastic toothbrush, a freebie from our dentist. My partner's toothbrush, however, was ready for a change and so she started using a bamboo toothbrush.

Several months later... we are ready to do a comparison. My partner's well-used bamboo toothbrush is on the left and my plastic one is on the right. As you can see... the plastic bristles of the bamboo one are bigger and they have a bit of a contour to them. But they've held up quite well to the wear and tear of twice daily brushings.

When you look full on... you can see that both toothbrushes are quite frayed out, my partner's more so than mine. This could be a brushing habit though. My partner tends to brush for a least two minutes twice a day while I generally only do 30 seconds twice a day. Soooo... the bamboo has more mileage, so to speak. Normally, I wouldn't change out my toothbrush until the three month point... which is what is recommended by dentists and manufacturers. As the bristles get more worn out, they are less effective and more likely to harbour bacteria. For me... this is the two month point in my toothbrush's life sooo... it'll be interesting to see if my bamboo toothbrush looks like my partner's one after two months of use.

The only other difference we noted was that bottom of the bamboo toothbrush had some staining since it sits in a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the toothbrush cups. The handle also looks a bit paler than before. But other than that, it's stood up quite well.

We have both now started using new bamboo toothbrushes... Time will tell how my bamboo toothbrush fares in the future. At least I have something to compare it to! And... at my next dentist appointment, I'm going to ask them point blank about recycling the plastic toothbrushes, dental floss containers, tooth paste tubes etc. I never did get a response to my email to them about the Terra Cycle boxes... And I want to ask them about the possibility of giving away bamboo toothbrushes instead of plastic ones. We'll see what response I get... stay tuned.

To Crush or not to Crush

It's almost time for me to do a recycling depot run. I've got 4 huge bags of assorted cans and bottles ready to go to the depot for a deposit refund. I don't really relish the trip. You see... while some recycling depots have strolled into the 21st century... ours has not. In some depots, you just drive up, hand over your unsorted bags of beverage containers tagged with bar code labels from your online account and... that's it. After they have sorted and counted your offering, the funds accrue in your online account and can then request an e-transfer (min $10) or a cheque (min $50). Sounds super simple and civilized. But our depot isn't there yet... although it has rolled out in some nearby communities as a pilot program. I am waiting patiently...

I've also heard that our provincial ReturnIt system will be introducing reverse-vending machines in some locations which would be awesome! Can you imagine if they were more common... just bring your cans or bottles, pop them into a machine and have it spit out money.

I did a bit of digging and there's one ReturnIt recycling centre in Burnaby which has had a Tomra reverse-vending machine since... 2017 (see pic at right)!! Sigh... be still my beating heart! But we're not there yet either... Our local depot's process is still rather antiquated... here's how it goes...

Drive to the depot and park in the parking lot. Go and get some rolling carts, load them up with cardboard flats (from beer cans or pop cans) and take them back to the truck. Open the back hatch, which conveniently acts as a rain shelter, and dump a bunch of cans and bottles onto one of the rolling carts.

Before Covid, one would load up the carts with all the bags of cans/bottles, take them into the slightly heated depot building and sort on tables but... not during Covid.

Then, strategically arrange the other rolling cart(s) with a series of cardboard flats and begin sorting... beer cans in one flat, pop cans in another, brown beer bottles here... green cider bottles here... clear beer bottles here (than you Corona beer, why do you have to be different?)... wine bottles here... small pop and water bottles here... bigger pop bottles here... tetra packs here. Yes. I need a LOT of cardboard flats... and sometimes two or three rolling carts. Fill up a flat, put it on the bottom of the rolling cart and then start another one.

There are some items though which are sorting resistant... crushed cans and squished plastic bottles. How does one arrange these in nice tidy ranks in the cardboard trays? It's virtually impossible... although I try... I've noticed lately, on my forest strolls to various "hang-out" spots, that a lot of people seem to think it's a good idea to crush their beer cans... either crush them into little biscuits with their feet or just squish them with their hands. While I gather this might be fun as a display of strength... it's an annoyance for the sorting process! And let's not even mention the plastic bottles that get dirty because someone's tossed them out their car window and they've sat in the ditch for weeks. Apparently these are not well-suited for recycling into new food-grade plastics and will get down-cycled into something like plastic chairs.

On top of that... if crushed beer and pop cans end up in a one-stream recycling bin (a bin that has everything including paper, plastic and cans)... they can contaminate the system. A super-flat beer can (that's been driven over) can be sorted as paper... not a good thing. And crushed cans can also fall through the rollers of the conveyor system and gum up the works...

Sooo... for the sake of the environment... the recycling system... and the sorters who bring the cans to the bottle depot... please don't crush your beverage containers! And... I'm not sure what a reverse-vending machine would make of a crushed can either...

Neatly sorted...

All of this sorting of cans and bottles naturally takes time... but finally... I'm done and I very carefully and gingerly pull my rolling carts through the parking lot, over the threshold of the door (bump!) and into the big sorting room.

Thanks to Covid... no one really sorts in here anymore... those days are probably gone forever if the new systems get introduced everywhere.

I then join the line-up of other customers and make sure that all of the beer bottles haven't gone all higgle-dee piggle-dee thanks to the bumping they've endured from the car to this point. And let's not even talk about the smaller plastic bottles which aren't as stable as the heavier glass bottles. It's hopeless to try and keep them marching in ranks of 4 x 6.

But... it all pays off when the attendant scans my cart and very quickly tallies how much I've got of each variety. And... $50 is nothing to sneeze at! I have to say, I am looking forward to the future when the new ReturnIt Express & Go system takes off everywhere... or the reverse-vending machines. Our deposit-return system might not be perfect but it's a darn sight better than jurisdictions which have no system at all.