Earth Day Every Day

Earth Day Every Day - So Good So You

Happy Earth Day to all! A big day over at So Good So You, we want to take time to recognize and celebrate our amazing planet. As you may already know, everything we do is with the love of the planet in mind.

Our hope is that we can be a source of inspiration and knowledge in terms of doing more good, together. This year, we’ve honed in on a topic that affects every single one of us on a daily basis: waste.

The information out there is often confusing, sometimes misleading, so we hope to share some real data to inform you on composting, recycling, and trash. To simplify things, we’ve broken the three down to the basics.

Composting

There are two main ways to compost: at-home and city-wide. If you have an active garden of any kind, you might consider composting your organic waste (food scraps, natural fibers, plant trimmings) at home in order to use it to nourish your own green space.

If you don’t, most counties have an organic program and will supply you with a green bin to add to your trash and recycling bin collection. Either way, there are plenty of odor-free options available to collect your waste right in your kitchen before bringing it to the next step.

Some things you may not have known you can compost include: shredded newspaper, cotton clothing (cut up), toilet paper rolls, wine corks, and used matches.  

Trash

“Don’t be trashy” is a saying heard around SGSY often, as we always do our best to be mindful about the ‘end-of-life’ result of everything we consume.

Unfortunately, over half of all the waste we generate in the US (yes, even recycling and compost) will end up in the landfill. Because landfills are not designed to break down waste but rather collect it, the stuff tends to sit there—for a very long time.

With time, the bacteria there omits high quantities of methane gas, which is a huge contributor to global warming.   Basically, the only way to do better at disposing of trash is not disposing of it at all.

Instead, make mindful purchase decisions up-front. Try to limit what you consume and ask yourself if you can reuse something before throwing it out. Prevent it from getting to the landfill because most of the time, once it’s there, it’s there for good.

Recycling

The harsh reality of recycling: close to 90% of what goes into “recycling” does not actually get recycled. Instead, what is tossed in the blue bin often ends up in a landfill. Plastic takes a long time to decompose (not-so-fun fact, glass actually takes 100 times longer than plastic!)

With Earth Day this week, we’ve been thinking a lot about how to optimize outcomes within this broken system.  Right now, our best options as humans when using plastic are ones that are either 1) highly reusable, 2) compostable or biodegradable, or 3) those that are made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic.

We’ve been using 100% PCR plastic since day 1, but now, we have something better, the BtrBtl™  (link to BtrBtl page) Encourage your community to take plastic more seriously. Limit the amounts that our system puts into landfills by taking matters into our own hands through conscious consumption.  

In the meantime, ask yourself: Do I need this? Is it reusable? Is it compostable or biodegradable? Where will this end up? How was this made? Know someone who could benefit from reading this?  Share this article and help us take better care of our planet. It’s the only one we have.


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