Annie Hauck-Lawson, of FoodVoice.net shares a series of composting videos that are a must see.

How did they do it?

Simple, they went the extra mile with recycling, food donation program and organic composting.

The stores now divert all non-contaminated waste from landfills and incinerators. In total, over 95% of all waste products from both stores are recycled, reused or composted — exceeding the 90% threshold commonly recognized as zero waste.

What’s especially cool is that Albertson’s partnered with the City of Santa Barbara to establish one of the first citywide composting programs in the United States, which is a key piece of their waste diversion efforts. As a result of this program the city will compost 4,000,000 lbs. of foodscraps from 120 program participants this year alone. So kudos to each of the participants.

Another key component of the waste diversion program includes donating staple and perishable products that would otherwise go to waste for area food banks. Called the Albertsons Fresh Rescue Program, these two stores donate on average a total of 149,598 lbs. per year of food to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County.

The good news is, they are making progress!

With International Paper and Mississippi River Pulp, LLC, Starbucks has finished a six-week pilot project that for the first timeproved Starbucks used paper cups can be recycled into new paper cups. So this success takes them one step closer.

Starbucks also has another recycling pilot project underway in New York. The company is collecting paper cups at 86 of its Manhattan stores (just how many do they have in Manhattan anyway?) to determine whether they can be recycled into bath tissue and paper towels.

Another recycling project is slated for 2011 in Chicago, which aims to transform the company’s discarded paper cups into napkins for use in its stores.

This past year, Starbucks began front-of-store cup collection in Toronto and Seattle, where its cups can be recycled, and in San Francisco, where its cups can be composted.

Do you know of any other interesting paper recycling initiatives? If you do, let me know!

Waste that can be “roll-packed” includes cardboard, paper, general waste, pallets/crates, steel drums, furniture, metal appliances, PET, metal cans, metal, and landscaping debris.

Since everyone loves to see things get crushed and shredded and blended, we are happy to share a video of the Roll-pak in action.

The Bagster is bought at retail outlets like Home Depot and when full, the user schedules and pays for a pick up with a credit card by phone.

Convenient because there is no dumpster to drop off and left to sit around until you start your project. You just buy the Bagster and open it up when you begin work.

It takes Waste Management’s trucks off the road. Which is a big deal for them in terms of reducing their carbon footprint and reducing fuel costs and extending vehicle lifespans because they are in the transportation business as much as as they are in the waste and recycling business.

Not yet available in every market, we sure hope Bagster catches on and proves itself. Kudos to Waste Management for thinking out of the box!

If you have used a Bagster, I’d love to hear about your experience. Would you please share it with me here?

Mostly leftovers go into the trash and then to a landfill. Some leftovers are donated to soup kitchens (although health regulations and the issue of an employee from eith party getting the food to the non-profit make this tough to pull off). Progressive organizations have turned to composting.

Now there is a whiz-bang technology that promises, “you can throw anything in the machine that you can digest yourself.”

BioHightech debuted the GOHBio 1001 (not sure how to say that) recently. It is a high volume organic waste decomposition system – an anaerobic digestion chamber – an institutional stomach. It looks like a deep freeze.

The GOHBio 1001′s “active ingredient” are microbes which need periodic replenishment. They truly digest the organic matter and the machine spits out water that qualifies to go down an ordinary drain. The remaining waste is dramatically reduced in volume and gets cleaned out every few months.

Cost savings potential for high volume kitchens and cafeterias and manufacturing is significant.

Hello Tim,

I have researched your order, unfortunately at this time we do not provide free shipping for items that are eligible for recycling only. If you would like to send your items please send them to:

Gazelle

61 North Beacon St.

Suite 3000

Boston Ma, 02134

If you would rather not send in your item here is a link to a page on our site that can help you locate a local recycle center so you can responsibly recycle these items.

Thank you,

Nicole

Customer Care

This is just a bit of a snafu don’t you think? No where is this policy mentioned on the site, or in the order fulfillment process. In fact, I was instructed to print up a packing slip and the FAQ says an envelope will arrive shortly.

At a minimum, this policy should be revealed during the order fulfillment process, prior to the step where one prints up the packing slip.

I venture to say that the envelope should be sent anyway in order to “buy a customer.” Everyone knows that customer acquisition is much more costly than repeat business, so Gazelle would do well to suffer a small loss in order to acquire a customer who will experience a smooth process from the get go, gain confidence from the experience and then continue to do (profitable) business with them.

As it is, I’m grumpy with Gazelle, doubtful that I’ll do business with them in the future and I now have to source a local cell phone recycler – after having old junk clutter my desktop for two weeks.

Polysytrene densification is the solution and there are various applications.

Recently I got wind of a seafood processing company that receives frozen fish in polystyrene containers and after processing, ships out fish in other polystyrene containers.

The densifier they bought handles 4,000 pounds of polystyrene weekly, compacting them into 40 pound ingots which are sold to a container company.

Polystyrene densification is a project where the feasibility is driven by sheer volume. I’m glad to see more and more companies tackling it as a part of their sustainability goals!

I was disappointed to see that I wasn’t going to get any cash back for my old cell phones – especially since that’s a big part of Gazelle’s schtick. But, I wouldn’t bear any disposal other cash or time disposal costs.

Time is a biggie. I’ve had a camp stove propane tank in my back seat for weeks and just can’t seem to get to the one place in the County where I can recycle it. The site is nowhere hear my usual haunts and the operating hours are not customer-friendly. But I digress….

I was told a Gazelle box would be shipped to me and dutifully printing off the packing slip. Online, all order fulfillment functions were intuitive and worked smoothly.

That said, it’s now two weeks later, and still no box. So the slip and phones are sitting on my desk waiting. We’ll see if Gazelle ever comes good. Anyone have an experience to share?

Foam densification is a fancy term for compacting polystyrene foam into tiny little blocks. Foam by definition is full of air, so smushing it anyway you can saves a lot of space, which reduces waste disposal pick ups and thus, costs.

For example, Dart Container Corp makes a densifier that can compact a foam mound the size of a Prius into the volume of a five-gallon bucket.

Foam densifiers are great fits for distribution center recycling and food service foam is very common too. The equipment isn’t cheap, so sourcing it requires great care. Leasing is a good option, especially if you are selling the densified foam to an organization who uses it as a raw material.