Save A Blade

 

This eco-friendly gadget is available for sale on Amazon.com, we came across it while looking for places that accept used razor blades. This save a blade shaves down razors so that they are sharp again reducing the amount of expensive, metal crafted razor blades that you’ll use! The product description says that 1 razor blade can be resharpened up to 200 times with the Save A Blade.

We often get asked about recycling used razor blades by our customers and 1 easy piece of advice is that you should check with your regular household garbage hauler to see what their policy on sharps are. Often times, they will ask you to wrap the blade up very well in tape so that people shouldn’t get cut, and that can be tossed in your recycling perhaps inside of an empty can if you have one.

Knowing how to recycle razor blades is important, for more information, please click here.

People Stored Used Razor Blades Behind their Walls?!

Stories about illegal waste are some of our favorites because this is one major reason why Green Halo Systems is so revolutionary. In case you didn’t know that strict recycling and disposal regulations are due in part to issues with environmentally devastating dumping like the two examples provided so far, it has played a huge part in our current waste management system.

Anyways, in simpler times some homes had a slit in their medicine cabinet to…drop their old razor blade in and let it slip behind the wood works. This sounds like something out of an Edgar Allen Poe story but it has been verified.

 

Well…we learn something new everyday.

Please, Tweet us if you like us @GreenHaloUSA

 

Source: http://www.livestrong.com/article/264800-how-to-dispose-of-used-razor-blades/

San Francisco Will Be World’s First Zero-Waste Town by 2020

San Francisco, California achieved a remarkable diversion rate of 80% which is higher than any other U.S. city and they plan to be a zero-waste city by 2020! Talk about an extreme amount of planning, consideration and most importantly a great shift in habits.

Since 2009 the city’s municipal ordinance requires city-wide source separation of all organic materials, that means that urban food waste and composting measures were put into effect. There are also three bins for composting, recycling and lastly their (sometimes smaller) trash cart! Besides requiring San Franciscans to contribute food waste to compost, and the three bins which encourage recycling, the third effective phenomenon that has been seen in San Francisco is a reduction in the amount of convenience items such as plastic bags that shoppers use.

Now, the city has 20% more waste diversion to go to reach their goal of zero waste and our source has a good point that this last bit might be the most challenging. Although San Francisco has the right incentives, technology, habits and laws, there are still more convenience items in their waste steam that will be key in achieving zero waste.

Please, tell us what you think @greenhalousa on Twitter

Our recent blog posts about San Francisco working towards zero waste:

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall–Who’s the Greenest of Them All?
San Francisco Bans Bottled Water on City Property
Cultivate Festival

 

 

Sources: http://bit.ly/UO3Zkg

and

http://bit.ly/1oR5dYq

What is the Fashion Industry Doing to the Environment?

For one thing the dye from blue jeans is being washed away into rivers and oceans.

In addition, rivers and the land that crops are cultivated in are toxic as a result of clothing manufacturing in areas such as China, Bangladesh and India.

People living near these polluted waters must filter their water which we’ve also written about:

1. The most effective way to combat tap water pollution

2. The Production of Bio-products as a Source of Energy and Waste Water Treatment

Blue jeans are probably here to stay and while it’s good that the fashion industry is more eco-friendly than ever, the current levels of pollution are so extreme that indigo blue dye runoff from jean factories can be seen enering the ocean from space.

 

Source: http://www.ecouterre.com/riverblue-is-an-upcoming-documentary-exploring-the-dark-side-of-denim/

Please, connect with us @WasteTracking on Twitter to let us know what you think.

Toledo, Ohio is getting a new sustainable urban park!

The UpTown Green Park is located at 18^th St and Madison Ave., Toledo, Ohio. There are a number of green features such as a grey water system that will be used in the park rain garden. There are also native plants in the park and most of exciting of all, after 3 years of planning and development it’s expected to open in the coming days!

 

Also much anticipated, is the fate of a near-by and vacant building. Planning for it’s future and creating a budget for it’s goals are already underway. The source writes about the potential for it to become a mixed use, residential and commercial building among other things.

 

Source: http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2014/07/14/Construction-of-UpTown-Green-nears-completion.html

 

Another great Green article from Green Halo

Track your recycling at www.greenhalosystems.com

Follow Green Halo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/greenhalousa

New @WholeFoods is super #efficient!

A new Whole Foods opened in Brooklyn, NY and it’s called “Third and 3^rd, Brooklyn” which has an awesome green parking lot. The parking lot roof has a lot of solar arrays, the streetlights are solar powered and wind-powered, and there are electric car charging stations as well

In addition to having one of the most efficient parking lots made so far, this Whole Foods offers:

Bike Repair and Parking: Bikes are beloved by Brooklynites and Whole Foods Market, so we want to support people’s ability to maintain and ride them. This form of alternative transportation contributes to a reduced carbon footprint and a healthier lifestyle.

Knife Sharpening: Knife sharpening services from Scott Jennings of X-Calibur Knife & Scissor Sharpening and Christopher Harth ofNYCutlery and products including knives and specially-made Third & 3^rd cutting boards.

Vinyl Records and Wrecords by Monkey: A vinyl venue featuring music as well as reclaimed vinyl jewelry and accessories fromWrecords by Monkey, a Brooklyn-based design and lifestyle brand

THE ROOF: Serving a variety of local and seasonal menu items from snacks to salads to entrees, including vegan and vegetarian offerings, as well as 16 beers on tap, The Roof, offers indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the Gowanus Canal, surrounding neighborhoods, and the Manhattan skyline. Hours 11 a.m. – 11 p.m.

YUJI RAMEN: Chef Yuji Haraguchi will serve his praised Japanese mazemen dishes with a twist; including Bacon & Egg, Salmon & Cheese, Miso Roasted Vegetables and Spicy Tuna. The takeout venue will be open for lunch and dinner, seven days a week.

JUICE Etc.: a made-to-order juice bar, offering fresh-pressed fruit and veggie juices and smoothies.

Shopping at Whole Foods is a pleasure, if you can make it out to Brooklyn to see this one let us know what it’s like! You can tag this store with #thirdand3rd and don’t forget, we are @GreenHaloUSA on Twitter!

 

(Source: http://wastetracking.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/new-wholefoods-is-super-efficient/ )

Another great Green article from Green Halo

Track your recycling at www.greenhalosystems.com

Follow Green Halo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/greenhalousa

Understanding the #energy #efficiency of products is made more scientific than ever by #FLEXLABS

This is the outside of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s new FLEXLAB

 

FLEXLAB is the world’s first energy use lab that will help builders and manufactures test entire building systems down to the component level on a significant scale.

This lab offers solutions for people who bring products to test out and want to use all of the lab’s equipment to do so, to people who want to bring their product to test out with their own machinery and equipment.

Current projects involve measuring energy usage for the Genentech building, PG&E and more!

The lab has 4 stations (shown in the video above) to accommodate a variety of testing scenarios including:

1. “Test-drive technologies”

2. “Individual circuits and meters”

3. “Lighting and plug-load elements”

4. “On-site training”

5. “Compression testing”

and more.

According to the FLEXLAB, there is a problem that buildings are designed to be energy efficient, but once they are being used they end up using a lot more energy than was planned. A new study even pointed out that energy efficient buildings sometimes use more than twice the energy than was expected based on their design.

Here’s an except from the lab’s website about what they offer:

FLEXLAB is the first test bed in the world that can evaluate the energy efficiency of major building systems, as an integrated system, under real-world conditions. Stakeholders can evaluate energy-efficient building technologies individually or as integrated systems in advance of building projects or retrofits, in order to:

• Optimize integrated systems to maximize energy savings
• Ensure occupant comfort and user-friendliness
• Verify cost-benefit numbers
• Train building operators
• Build confidence in new technologies

 

( Source: http://flexlab.lbl.gov/ )

Another great Green article from Green Halo

Track your recycling at www.greenhalosystems.com

Follow Green Halo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/greenhalousa

The Portland-Montreal Pipe Line: Victory?

The Portland-Montreal Pipe Line (PMPL) carries crude oil between South Portland, Maine and Montreal, Quebec. The PMPL was built in the beginning of World War II to transport the oil shipments to Canada to central Canada. The Portland-Montreal Pipe Line was originally finished in 1941 which could transport oil to Montreal from The USA. Today the Port of Portland is the largest volume oil port on the Eastern Seaboards because of the PMPL.

At the beginning of 2008 the PMPL parties looked into expanding and/or reversing the flow of the PMPL since crude oil reserves are increasing in western Canada. The Athabasca oil sands in Alberta, Canada for one have also been in the news a lot recently because they have bitumen or heavy crude oil. Since the modern method of oil production from heavy crude oil causes devastation to the natural environment and human health, the South Portland, Maine area recently made the decision to keep tar sands out of its port.

The PMPL Corp. says that “the ban won’t hold up in court”.

More from:

http://www.npr.org/sections/environment/

http://www.pmpl.com/

and http://updates.mainetoday.com/updates/021895.html

 

Another great Green article from Green Halo

Track your recycling at www.greenhalosystems.com

Follow Green Halo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/greenhalousa

Inspirational and #Educational #Sustainability Across the U.S.A.

Did you know that Chicago, IL has become the epicenter for LEED-certified buildings?

How about the fact that landscaping designed to conserve water is called Xeriscaping and it’s big in Denver, CO?

Freshkills landfill in New York, NY is a landfill that’s three-times the size of Central Park and it’s being worked on so that it can be turned into a park!

Portland, OR is home to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance whose mission it is to create healthy, sustainable communities by make bicycling safe, convenient and accessible.

 

Source: http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/14/ranking-sustainability-programs-u-s/

and 

http://btaoregon.org/

 

Another great Green article from Green Halo

Track your recycling at www.greenhalosystems.com

Follow Green Halo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/greenhalousa

Renewable #energy must be addressed to receive #building permits for single-family homes in Hawaii

Hawaii has become the first state in the US to mandate the installation of solar water heaters in new single-family home construction. According to an article by Mat McDermott from treehugger, this mandate that requires solar waters to receive a building permit, Act 204, went into effect at the beginning of 2010.

Encouraging renewable energy in Hawaii is supported by the facts that 90% of its energy was imported from outside the island chain in 2008 and oil prices have been high. In regards to the mandate, exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis in forested areas where such a system might be cost-prohibitive or if the dwelling utilizes another form of renewable energy in the building plan.

 

Source: http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/solar-water-heater-mandate-for-new-hawaiian-homes.html

 

Another great Green article from Green Halo

Track your recycling at www.greenhalosystems.com

Follow Green Halo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/greenhalousa