Hair recycling

Many of you know that I have been driving towards zero waste for a few years. I have made small incremental changes to my lifestyle and I am now very close to being zero waste. To give you an idea, I have a 13 gallon trash bin and I haven't filled it in six months! I am proud of that. I am going to have a separate post about it when I take the trash out in a couple of weeks.

Recently I found out that hair can be recycled. Since hair is very good in absorbing oil, they use human and pet hair to make blankets which are used during oil spills to remove the contamination.

I found out about it from this video about a month ago. I was away from my town for work but I got inspired to come back and implement it at home. I had pretty long hair and that was the main component of my trash. As I was thinking about this, a minor accident happens...

I go to a restaurant and we sit at the last table. I was sitting with my back to a four feet high wall. When I was wearing my coat, my plait lands in a candle on the wall behind me and it catches on fire. The waitress quickly puts out the fire. The next day, I went to cut my hair. I decided to treat myself by going to an Aveda salon. I asked my hairdresser if she can give my cut hair in a bag for recycling. I thought she will look at me weird but she didn't. In-fact she has heard about this program and the salon had participated in a drive during the Gulf spill cleanup.

I asked her if she can talk to her manager about sending hair on a regular basis to the program and she said she will try. After a month of putting off this project, I finally acted on it. I bought a step trash can, some compostable liners. Added all the hair from the salon and removed as much of the hair from the trash bin. My trash bin is all dry waste - so nothing nasty in there. I compost my food waste.

I have created a box for hair and I am ready to send my first collection for this very important cause. Checkout details at here. Another step closer to zero-waste. BTB, I made the label by sticking a piece of paper to a magnet that I didn't need. Just found out that magnet sheets cannot be recycled. So, I am re-purposing it.

Thanks for reading!

Carbon neutral yummy chocolate

I am writing a blog after a long time. Tonight, I had a bit of this chocolate and I am so inspired to write this short entry. I saw this last week at Spiral diner and I somehow controlled my urge to buy it. When I went to Whole foods, it was at the bottom shelf on sale and I grabbed it without thinking twice. After having this, I am spoilt. I am not going to have any other chocolate.

It says on the cover that its organic, fair trade, small farmer grown and all the good stuff. When I opened it, I was surprised to find the inner foil with this print "This biodegradable packaging is produced with renewable materials made from sustainable harvested wood".

Chocolate is one of the few items that I buy, the packaging of which is not recyclable in residential recycling since most curbside pickup does not accept food foil even if cleaned. So, now that problem is solved with this bar. Now, I can really go near zero waste!

In my love for the package, I forgot to mention that the chocolate is phenomenal! Love it! I am going to keep patronizing this brand until it moves up the shelves in Whole Foods. 

Chinese Lantern festival

I was pretty excited about the Chinese Lantern festival last year. After a couple of visits I realized how bad they are for the air quality.

The lights are entirely powered using huge generators placed around the exhibit.

Generators are usually run with Diesel. Diesel combustion releases NOx, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and particulate matter polluting the atmosphere.

I don't know how efficient those generators but I hate the idea of using generators for recreation. Generators are to be used only for emergency.

World Health Organization says air pollution causes cancer. So, why support events/businesses that are responsible for the pollution?

Three reasons why you should boycott Chinese Lantern festival
1. Save your money
2. Protect your family from harmful gases
3. Protect the planet so that its not too warm for your children to live in

Tribute to my car

I bought my first car about six years back after got my first job. I remember doing research on the cars in the secondhand market with the high miles/gallon. Nissan Sentra seemed like a good compromise with about 30miles/galleon at a lower price than Toyotas or Hondas.

I have several stories with this car.
Remember driving much about speed limit around airbase in Tucson
Remember calling my car a frog after I jump over a hump on the road
Remember telling sorry to it when I put the brake suddenly
Remember the first accident I had. I rode over a rock while taking in the beauty of Echo canyon, Az
Remember how disgusted I was to see vomit on the passenger door one morning
Remember getting my first and only speeding ticket
Remember getting my first and only parking ticket
Remember the time when I broke off the passenger mirror when I was hurrying up to go to a party
Remember the reckless party night when I drove home drunk
Remember getting pulled over by a cop when I didn't have a drink
Remember the days when used to go to car wash
Remember the days when I used to go to dealer
Remember the time when I used to have car freshner
Remember the day I got my first furniture from Ikea
Remember the first dent in my front bumper
Remember the first dent in my back bumper. Finally I learnt to park
Remember my parents' first US visit when I showed them many places in Az
Remember the time when a guy threw his drink at me and the half down window blocked it

The list is endless. The car served me well and I will miss it a lot! I will miss that bumper space for my activist stickers...

I hardly drove it for the last three years and whenever I drove it, I felt guilty about my carbon emissions. I have sold it now. So, one less thing to worry about. I might eventually get an electric car. For now, I am enjoying the guilt-free life.

Chile: Cigarette Butts Recycled into Clothes

I saw this video and I wanted to save and share with my blog followers. Enjoy this short inspiring video

First petition

I am happy to announce that I have authored my first ever petition. It took me a while to grow up to this level. Many of you know that I have been moving towards a zero-waste lifestyle. I had a contention and many people pointed out what is the use of me taking a radical stand, that its not practical and it has no impact. While I was brushing away these critical remarks, I couldn't deny the fact that leading a sustainable lifestyle is not enough. But, it helped me see how to make an impact.

Few years ago, I read about styrofoam and started avoiding it completely. When I eat in a restaurant and I am not able to finish eating, I will ask if their to-go box is styrofoam and decide weather to take the food home or not. Many a times, I feel like having Indian fast-food, I would take my own containers for snacks and chai. I have tried talking to several business owners about not using styrofoam. They usually say, "This is the cheapest option and I am a poor businessman". That's when I realized it has to be a policy level change.

During Climate Ride, I mentioned this to my buddy, Marla Marcum. She mentioned that one city in New England was able to get an ordinance to ban use of styrofoam food containers. She gave me the idea that such ordinance needs to be passed city-city, state-state before it becomes a federal law.

I have taken the first step in approach by creating this petition. Please take a moment to sign it. I am open to constructive criticism on the structure of the petition summary.
Thanks for your support!

What's Terracycle?

Terracycle has become my new favorite word. What is it? Its a company based in New Jersey which upcycles/ recycles hard-to-recycle substances.

Upcycling is a process of converting items into useful products without changing the structure of the item. Its essentially reusing. They try to upscale waste and if they can't, then they will recycle them. How are they able to recycle materials that traditional recycling programs cannot. Find out about their novel process here.

They have several different collection programs for items that we normally throw in trash bin. Have you wondered what to do with your toothbrush when you want to discard it? How about chips bags? How about energy bar wrappers? your child's food pouches?

And its free! You just have to signup online. You can download shipping labels for each of the brigades, collect and ship. The best part is, they will donate money to your chosen non-profit organization. Say, you join snack bag brigade; for each snack bag you send, they will donate $0.02 to your charity.

I stopped eating chips three years back since they come in bad packaging. Thanks to Terracycle, I can enjoy a bag of chips once in a while. I work for a company with 10000 employees. There are about 2000-5000 employees in my building. I tried talking them into collecting the chips bags. Company's facility department is looking into implementing it. Meanwhile, I have started collecting chips bags impatient to wait for action. I use coffee cartons as collection boxes. I have setup 9 such boxes in three wings of the building I work in. I keep expanding everyday.

I have been collecting for a month now. It gives me a great sense of satisfaction. Yesterday, I picked up 20 bags from these boxes. My co-workers are very co-operative. They press the bags down and bunch them together. Thank you Terracycle and thankyou fellow TIers for supporting this effort!