Break out the good champagne!

According to Bloomberg, Disney is the latest company to join a growing list of corporations that have decided to stop the use of single-use plastic straws. Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that Seattle became “the first major city in the United States to ban drinking straws,” and Starbucks announced that it would remove single-use plastic straws from its 28,000 stores by 2020. To round out this plastic-free parade, in June BBC News reported that McDonald’s will replace plastic straws with paper ones in all of its UK and Ireland locations, starting in September.

For those of you on the front lines of the single-use plastic straw movement, we hope that these recent moves in corporate America will encourage you to keep fighting the good fight. These huge shifts signify not only that your efforts are having an effect, but that the removal of single-use plastic straws is becoming the new norm in our society. At a time when it feels like so much in the world is going wrong, it is refreshing to learn that some things are going right.

To learn more about plastic pollution and an inspiring global effort to reduce plastic waste, read our blog post from last July, Plastic Waste & The Ocean Cleanup.

Sources:

Golum, Rob, “Disney Joins Cast of Companies Abandoning Plastic Straws,” Bloomberg, 2018.
Wootson, Jr., Cleve R., “Seattle becomes first major U.S. city to ban straws,” The Washington Post, 2018.
“Disney Expands Environmental Commitment by Reducing Plastic Waste,” The Walt Disney Company, 2018.
“McDonald’s to ditch plastic straws,” BBC News, 2018.
“Starbucks to Eliminate Plastic Straws Globally by 2020,” Starbucks, 2018.

Recycle Tips for Summer Trips

It’s easy to be green on the go. Here are three easy vacation tips: First, bring a reusable water bottle, coffee mug, or grocery tote. This cuts down on waste and doubles as a cute fashion statement. Second, when you shop for snacks, buy family-sized rather than individual packages. This saves money and reduces the amount of wrapping that ends up in the trash. Third, designate a shopping bag to be used for recycling throughout your trip. Collect cans, bottles, brochures, and other recyclables. Throw the bag away when you see a recycle bin at the next rest stop, gas station, or vacation destination. These steps are simple and an easy way to teach your kids how to care for their environment.

Reduce Trash Smell

No one likes to come home to a kitchen that smells like trash. Luckily, there are simple home remedies you can use to reduce trash smells after you take out the trash: First, sprinkle the bottom of your trash bin with baking soda. It will absorb offensive odors the same way it does in the refrigerator. If your trash bin is metal, pour the baking soda into a coffee filter and tie it with a rubber band or a piece of tape. This will prevent corrosion. Second, take one or two dryer sheets that you use for laundry and place them at the bottom of your trash bin. This will mask offensive odors and keep your trash bin fresh. Third, daub cotton balls with mint or vanilla extract, place them at the bottom of your bin, and let them sit overnight. This will fill your trash bin with the sweet smell of extract. These DIY tips are simple and will help make your house smell like home.

At the core of what we are and of what we do, you will find Mother Earth. There is no other recognized day that better describes Remyndr’s passion than Earth Day. We believe it is our duty to leave the world better than how we found it. At Remyndr, we stand for recycling, composting and educating, all done in an efficient way. Our app is just the start of it, but our mission is so much greater. Join us today and download the app: iOS/ Android

Earth Day Back Then
Earth Day was born out of the modern environmental movement of 1970, when war was raging in Vietnam and many were opposed to it. According to earthday.org, the idea for a national day to focus on the environment came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realized that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda. Senator Nelson announced the idea for a “national teach-in on the environment” to the national media; persuaded Pete McCloskey, a conservation-minded Republican Congressman, to serve as his co-chair; and recruited Denis Hayes from Harvard as national coordinator. Hayes built a national staff of 85 to promote events across the land. April 22, falling between Spring Break and Final Exams, was selected as the date.”

Earth Day Today
Today the focus has turned toward global warming and a push for clean energy. This green holiday is celebrated around the world by more than 1 billion people. It is a day of action, policy changes and that one alters the human behavior by bringing together opposing political parties, the old and the young and everyone in between— all fighting peacefully for one common good. A good that each of us shares, beautiful Mother Earth.
Join the movement.

Tom Cherry, CEO and Founder of Remyndr

Help preserve the beauty for future generations so they can fall in love too… learn about how to properly recycle by downloading the Remyndr app today. Have a very Happy Valentine’s Day.

Tom Cherry, CEO and Founder of Remyndr

Did you know that every person in the United States creates about 4.5lbs of garbage every day? That is equivalent to 1,643 pounds a year! But where does it all go once you throw it away? Introducing Trash Unwrapped. A blog series dedicated to getting your garbage or recycling questions answered.

So, once your throw your trash away and take out the garbage, now what? Well simply put, it’s in your neighborhood trash man or lady’s hands. From there, your trash typically makes its way to a Transfer Station, or in some cases, an Energy Recovery facility. If taken to a Transfer Station, the trash will be sorted and then re-transferred to its final destination. Sometimes this is a landfill where waste is buried and left to decompose. This process can take hundreds if not thousands of years.

Another option is an Incinerator or Energy Recovery Facility. This is where your garbage is burned into ash and heat—often times to generate energy. For every 10 garbage trucks filled with trash, only one will remain (filled with ash) after going through the burning process. The hot, burning trash heats up pipes overhead filled with water, which then turn into steam. This steam activates generators that give the plant, (and sometimes those nearby, residents or hospitals), energy to use.

The last option is that trash is taken to a recycling center where it will be transferred to a manufacturing plant so materials can be used to make new products. Pretty cool right?

If not properly disposed, waste can end up harming the environment and polluting our air and water. Who wants that? This is why it’s so important that we put our trash into the proper containers.

Here are 10 simple everyday things you can do to lessen your trash build-up:

1. Recycle Glass. Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn’t recycled it can take a million years to decompose.

2. Use one less paper napkin.
 During an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.
3. Use both sides of paper. 
American businesses throw away 21 million tons of paper every year, equal to 175 pounds per office worker. For a quick and easy way to halve this, set your printer’s default option to print double-sided (duplex printing). And when you’re finished with your documents, don’t forget to take them to the recycling bin.
4. Recycle newspaper.
 There are 63 million newspapers printed each day in the U.S. Of these, 44 million, or about 69%, of them will be thrown away. Recycling just the Sunday papers would save more than half a million trees every week.
5. Rethink bottled water.
 Nearly 90% of plastic water bottles are not recycled, instead taking thousands of years to decompose. Buy a reusable container and fill it with tap water, a great choice for the environment, your wallet, and possibly your health. The EPA’s standards for tap water are more stringent than the FDA’s standards for bottled water.
6. Plant a tree.
 It’s good for the air, the land, can shade your house and save on cooling (plant on the west side of your home), and they can also improve the value of your property. Make it meaningful for the whole family and plant a tree every year for each member.
7. Recycle unwanted wire hangers.
 Wire hangers are generally made of steel, which is often not accepted by some recycling programs. So what do you do with them? Most dry cleaners will accept them back to reuse or recycle.
8. Recycle aluminum.
 Twenty recycled aluminum cans can be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one.
9. Reduce junk mail (including paper bank statements). Feel like you need to lose a few pounds? It might be your junk mail that’s weighing you down. The average American receives 40 pounds of junk mail each year, destroying 100 millions trees. There are many services that can help reduce the clutter in your mailbox, saving trees and the precious space on your counter tops.
10. Plastic bags stink. Each year the U.S. uses 84 billion plastic bags, a significant portion of the 500 billion used worldwide. They are not biodegradable, and are making their way into our oceans, and subsequently, the food chain. Stronger, reusable bags are an inexpensive and readily available option.

Do you have any additional suggestions on how to cut down on waste? If so, let us know in the comment section.

Tom Cherry, CEO and Founder of Remyndr

Sources:

50 Ways to Help the Planet

The Lifecycle of Garbage

Watch our short video introduction to remyndr and forgetting your trash or recycle pickup or wondering what items go into recycling will be a thing of the past.

Ah yes, Halloween is in the air, and by now the neighborhood kids are getting ready for a night of candy and costumes. Between all the Halloween parties and getting the kids ready for the night, recycling may very well be the last thing on your mind. Well not to fret, here is a quick guide on how to recycle the top 5 most popular Halloween items:

Pumpkins: Turn it into Compost. By breaking it up into smaller pieces and throwing it into the compost bin, you are helping the environment. Just please note that if paint or plastic objects have been applied, composting is not a good idea. Instead, turn your newly carved pumpkin into a vase by coating the pumpkin in some PVC glue, pouring in some water and bingo! You have a ready-made pumpkin vase that not only makes for a great centerpiece but will last for a while after Halloween as well.

Halloween Decorations: You can spay paint plastic pumpkin buckets and make beautiful planters or centerpieces for Thanksgiving. Some things to keep in mind and avoid for next year include: One-time-use, disposable items that will not last from one Halloween to the next, Non-recyclable plastics, including Styrofoam, Non-biodegradable materials, Wasteful and non-recyclable packaging.

Halloween Costumes: Is your child’s costume something they can re-wear for a fun themed birthday party? If not, try giving it away to a neighbor with younger kids, or donating it to your local Salvation Army charity. Next year, inspire your kids to get crafty with things they can find around the house.

Glass Drinking Bottles: These party starters can go straight in the recycling bin. Or, better yet, reuse them for beautiful home decorations.

Candy Wrappers: If your candy wrappers are made by Mars/Wrigley or Cadbury, then great news! You can mail your wrappers to TerraCycle, where they will be remade into cool products. Even better- TerraCycle will pay for your shipping, and donate 2 cents for each candy wrapper to a charity of your choice. Sign up and either start a new Candy Wrapper Brigade Team or join one in your area. Get your school or community organization involved! And don’t forget to check out the neat items that TerraCycle makes from those candy wrappers.

If your candy wrappers are made by some other company, then your main option to keep those plastic bits out of the trash are to get creative.

Tom Cherry, CEO and Founder of Remyndr