Recycle Caps with Aveda

A number of municipalties and trash removal services that offer recycling do not recycle anything above plastics #1 and #2, and rigid plastic caps are typically #5. Living in Chicago, we are fortunate that the City does recycle no.'s 1-5 and 7, however my office does not have the option to recycle becuase it is not served by the City, so we only have paper recycling, it saddens me everyday. A friend and fellow diver sent me this link to Aveda's new campaign to Recycle Caps, which are typically not recycled either properly by most people or not taken by the local recycler. A lot of consumers don't realize that they should seperate their caps from their bottles and such, so that they can be recycled. That whole bottle, in some cases, will end up in the landfill even though you put it in the recycle bin. So collect all of your caps and take them to your nearest Aveda salon, they'll be happy to take them, and then more recycled bottles will make it through the recycling stream.

Aveda's site:

http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp

Understanding the differences between plastics, including what contains the BPA:

http://www.plasticfreebottles.com/pdf/Understanding-Plastic-Codes.pdf

Green Your Dining

I saw this group at the Greenfest and completely forgot until I got my weekly email from Fresh Squeeze today. The Green Restaurant Association is like LEEDS for restaurants! It is a great organization. They have recently expanded to add manufacturer's and distributors. The basic idea behind this organization is for restaurants to sign up and follow a number of steps over a period of time to gain points your first ranking comes at 100 points and the top ranking is 470 points. They have a search engine on the site to find restaurants that are currently listed. Check it out and make your next dining experience a more Green one. They do have for the Diners a certificate you can print out and leave with your bill to help get the word out that you care how green you favorite local spot is.

For the Restaurant: http://www.dinegreen.com/restaurants/

For the Diner: http://www.dinegreen.com/customers/

For the Manufacturer: http://www.dinegreen.com/manufacturers/

For the Distributor: http://www.dinegreen.com/distributors/

Eco-Ink

My husband sent me a link to a forgotten eco-print cartridge company. They refill your used cartridges and sell them or they will sell you your own refill kit. A smart idea and they are much cheaper than the originals. I have used these in my epson for some time now with no problems.

I did notice that there are larger capacity office machines on there, such as a copier/printer/fax machine you'd find in your office. I have not tried these as our office printers are under contract for supplies and maintenance, but if you do try please post here how they work.

http://www.green-ink-and-toner.com/