Nice Jugs Part 2: Green Packaging or Greenwashing
Posted by Matt
We posted a couple weeks ago about some innovative eco-friendly milk jug alternatives that reduce consumer waste. They are available in the UK, but just like the newest cell phones and ridiculous fashion, Americans will have to wait for these options. What we have on this side of the pond is a jug that aims to reduce the waste on the distribution end. They have been on sale in select Sam’s Clubs since November, and these new jugs are touted as eco-friendly right on the label, but are they?
[photo source: NYT]
The public is always a little wary of the claims of the big box retailers, so let’s take a look… The new jugs from Superior Dairy in Ohio were designed to save space and make milk packaging, transport, and storage more efficient primarily by making them rectangular and stackable. The old jugs were not stackable so they required milk crates for transportation. The reusable milk crates took up a considerable amount of space and added extraneous weight to the delivery trucks (3.6 lbs for the old milk crate I keep my shoes in) which is a big deal in the days of high priced gas. These new jugs can be stacked without crates using cardboard inserts between layers and shrink wrap to secure the whole pallet. This new convention, combined with their shape, allows 4.5 gallons of milk to be stored in the amount of space it once took to store 3 gallons. This means the stores can hold more and the trucks have to make fewer trips. This means less gasoline and less labor.
While the old crates were reusable the cardboard and plastic used now are recyclable which allows them to conserve another resource… water. Milk crates get filthy, particularly from birds roosting on or above them, and the companies were required to wash them. They estimate they use 60-70% less water without the crates.
Many people are complaining about the new jugs saying they are hard to pour and easy to spill. Others complain about extraneous packaging used in Costco to bundle two gallons together. A little ironic for a jug that is designed to reduce packaging, although this is a Costco convention, not native to the new milk jug design. Others are simply wary of the new look which many feel is more fitting of a gasoline can. All this crying over spilt milk does not amount to much in the way of sustainability. Just the amount of gas and water that is conserved by this new design is reason enough for me to dismiss these concerns. That being said, as much of an improvement as this is, there are still better options out there for those who are going Green. The best way is buying local and filling your own refillable jug or bottle.
Another intriguing option that we covered earlier is the Milk bags that the Brits are using. I don’t have any data on how efficiently these design fit into the distribution chain, but they are definitely effective in reducing the amount of material heading to the landfill or transfer station. Instead of buying jugs of milk you buy bags which are much less material. In some designs you then put the bag into a reusable jug or in others the bag is the whole container. In any case you end up sending a tiny bag off to be recycled rather than a whole jug. If this method of packaging can be transported as efficiently as the new jugs, this would be a no brainer alternative for the mass distributed milk.
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Posted by doug
Castor says, “You’re never lonely if you got a fluorescent light!” The Recycled Tube Light uses burned out fluorescent bulbs from “architecturally significant buildings” and can either hang, stand alone, or be oriented vertically depending on the model. They are available in lengths of 15 inches to 8 feet long and meld artistic design with purpose. Inside the barrel of bulbs is a working bulb that casts a glow through the structure. Castor Canadensis is a design collective based out of Toronto with a stunning portfolio of projects. We picked out the Tube due to the innovative recycling of old light to new light.
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WorkCycles Industrial Bicycles: Do More With Less
Posted by doug
Doing more with less is the central theme behind the efforts at WorkCycles. Based in Europe, this company hand makes bicycles for individual transportation as well as commercial use. From vendor trikes, industrial kick scooters, commercial transport bikes, and even the two wheeled family mini-van for transporting your kids about WorkCycles does it all. The bicycle is an extremely efficient and eco-friendly mode of transportation, we all know this. However, WorkCycles is expanding the bike’s traditional role to advance the idea that it “is a perfect example of the beautiful minimalism the world should adopt to continue forward.” Along those lines WorkCycles offers products such as the Conference Bike that allows large parties to have fun and sight see while riding a circular designed bike. Their quality is top notch, the cause worthy, and the results beautiful, useful, and fun.
Check out more pics after the break…
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likely terrorist attack in 2009???
Posted by Lockergnome
(CNN) ??? Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-Independent who is a strong supporter of Republican John McCain’s White House bid, suggested Sunday the United States will likely face a terrorist attack in 2009.
What I find most interesting about this is that I’ve been hearing about it for a long time in other-than-mainstream news circles.?? Now I’m seeing a lot of it in mainstream news, including the above-referenced CNN (CIA News Network, so named because they let the CIA plant all sorts of news stories).???? Now we’re hearing this from all sorts of sources.?? I realize certain circles have a lot to gain from ratcheting up the Terror Factor, but the overall volume of this is way over the top.
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Ancient Chinese curse:?? May you live in interesting times.
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ufo? show me the video!!!
Posted by Lockergnome
Mufon sent this fellow a video of an unidentified flying object taken from an airplane.
Here’s a news report from the United Kingdom. Southampton has been the site of a number of UFO reports lately… [both from About.com - Billy's UFO blog]
Then there’s the Chicago O’Hare sighting.?? It was seen by many, both on the ground and in the air. ?? Official information is difficult to come by because airline employees, generally a pretty reliable group, are not exactly encouraged to come forth with information on sightings.?? In the armed forces, you’re supposed to report anything you see, but only crazy people see ufo’s, and you can’t fly if you’re crazy, right?
Let’s take one moment to separate the concept from the mask.?? Ufo has been perverted to mean `flying saucer from other planet that only whackos see.’?? I’m using it in the literal sense. ?? Unidentified (we don’t know what it is) flying (it’s in the air) object (object).
There’s something up there.?? It/they have shown up on radar and visually, as well as infrared.?? It is a fact that governments put a lot of effort into denying that something is going on.?? The US government has gotten rather pushy about it, threatening lives at times.?? The official answer to what happened at Roswell has changed more often than Joan Rivers’ face. ???? There were two or three official government-run debunking/disinformation projects, including Project Blue Book.
Some say it’s a cover for black aircraft (secret black budget programs).?? I have no doubt that a percentage of what’s referred to as ufo is black technology.?? Before we knew what Stealth was, they had to be reported as ufo’s.?? Imagine what people thought when they heard their first sonic boom…
There’s an awful lot of information available out there.?? Check it out.?? Use your judgement.?? Use your BS detector.???? The Disclosure Project takes an interesting angle, different from the rest.?? The fellow at the heart of things, Dr. Steven Greer (an E/R physician), gathered testimony from over four hundred government witnesses to ufo’s and put it on video.???? You can download some of the testimony from the web, specifically the press conference held in 2001, calling for a chance for these people to testify, under oath, before Congress.?? It’s worth a look, just to hear what they’re saying.
Google Stanton Friedman, the father of ufology.?? The man is a nuclear physicist who has applied scientific principles to his search for knowledge on ufo’s.
If you need something more, head over to the Black Vault,?? where you’ll find thousands of scanned pages obtained from the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).?? The guy who runs the site isn’t making this stuff up; it came from various branches of the government itself.
Go over to Google video?? and put in ufo.?? You’ll see all sorts of familiar and non-familiar names and topics.?? It’s interesting to watch some of it.
If you want to hear a pair of skeptical guys have a fair go at this and other paranormal topics, tune in to The Paracast.?? They are not afraid to disagree with their guests.
The Coast to Coast A.M. radio show is syndicated all over the planet. ?? Ufo and paranormal topics net History and Discovery networks huge ratings.?? There’s some interest at very least.
There’s something up there.?? No idea what.
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