Tag Archives: reuse

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle in 2019 | 5 Tips to Start Now!

Happy New Year! With every new year, a New Year’s Resolution or goal follows. According to Psychology Today, the most common New Year’s Resolutions are losing weight, exercising more, or to quit smoking.

These are all amazing resolutions and we hope you succeed in your goals! If you don’t have a goal for the new year but want to make a difference, we suggest to “reduce, reuse, and recycle”! If you don’t know where to start or what to do, don’t worry, we have five easy beginner tips you can use to help out our beloved planet.

1. Reduce plastic bottles and single use coffee cups.

This is one of the easier practices that you can start today and make a difference!

How can you reduce plastic bottles and single use coffee cups?

No more Coke from the vending machine or gas station. Purchase a reusable cup that you can refill with your favorite beverage instead of buying it in a plastic bottle. This can also be done with water! Invest in a reusable water bottle that can save you money and waste.

2. Reduce plastic grocery bags and buy reusable ones!

The average American uses 307 bags a year. That is 100 billion bags thrown away annually in America and 4 trillion bags worldwide.

How can you reduce plastic bag waste?

Instead of using 4-5 grocery bags per grocery store visit, pack reusable bags. Keep them in your car to be sure you don’t forget them when you go shopping! If you do forget your reusable bags at home, ask for paper instead!

Paper bags can be broken down quicker in landfills and are easier to be recycled into things like cardboard.

3. Say no to plastic straws and utensils.

The US uses around 500 million drinking straws a day. That is enough to fill 46,400 school buses every year!

How can you reduce plastic straw usage?

Plastic straws are available everywhere for convenience. One way to reduce plastic straws would be to bring your own cup with a reusable straw whenever possible. If you are going out to eat a restaurant, say no to a plastic straw.

Another way to avoid plastic straws would be to carry your own reusable straw. There are travel size reusable stainless steel straws now!

4. Ride your bike or walk more!

What benefit does riding your bike have?

If your new years resolution is to workout more then you’re in luck! You can exercise riding your bike or walking to your close destinations while reducing air pollution.

5. Reduce your waste by recycling more.

How do you reduce your waste conveniently?

You can reduce your waste without it being inconvenient by simply watching what you are throwing away and asking yourself if it can be recycled. You’d be surprised by how much we throw away that can simply be recycled.

Do you order a lot of packages from amazon? What do you do with the cardboard? Cardboard can be recycled into more cardboard without using new resources. If you switch from plastic grocery bags to paper bags, those can be recycled as well.

Do you ever wonder what the world would be like if everyone recycled? We do! Which is why we offer business to business recycling in the Kansas City Metro area. If this sounds like something your business would be interested in, contact us and we would be happy to help!

The Solution to K-Cups Pollution

According to Market Watch, There are around 121 million households in the U.S., and Keurig has a machine in about 20 million, or 16%, of them. Not only is that a lot of coffee, but it is a lot of single use K-Cups as well. According to The Atlantic, there are enough Keurig K-Cups in landfills to circle the Earth more than 12 times and the number continues to grow.

We’ve all dreaded being the designated coffee maker in the mornings at the office, which is probably why Keurig single serve coffee brewer aka K-Cups have been extremely popular. Everyone loves the smell of fresh brewed coffee in the morning but nobody loves to make it unless it’s convenient.

Why do we love K-Cups?

We live in a fast pace time. Everything is made to be convenient and quick; it only takes 30 seconds to pop in a K-Cup and get Starbucks coffee instantly! How could we ever say no to that?

Coffee gets us up in the morning and even on time to work. You may even need extra coffee in the middle of the day to motivate you to keep hanging on, using a possible 3 K-Cups a day. That is 1,095 K-Cups a day for 1 person. If you’re still holding on to your Keurig for dear life and just can’t let go, we may have the solution to your K-Cup pollution that will keep you and the earth happy. If your office (or even your home) is stocked with an abundance of K-Cups, you may want to invest in one or more of these items for your office. 

1. Grounds to Grow On Program

Keurig Green Mountain’s “Grounds to Grow On” recycling program. They will ship recyclable containers to you with return shipping labels attached, for your office to throw used K-Cups in. You would then ship the K-Cups back to them to be taken apart and recycled (for a fee of course). Technically, K-Cups are considered recyclable once they’ve been taken apart but not while still all together. K-Cups are made of plastic, aluminum and paper that can be separated and recycled individually but in reality, who has time or wants to make time to pull apart their used K-Cup every morning to recycle all of it’s contents?

This would be a fantastic office solution for your K-Cup pollution if your employees/co-workers use over 20 K-Cups a day.

Don’t use that many K-Cups a day? No problem!

2. Recycle-A-Cup!

Solution #2 would be the company “Recycle A Cup“, who has a nifty contraption that separates the aluminum, filter and plastic in one twist. This would be great for at home or small businesses who don’t use as many K-Cups a day but still want to be Green! After pulling apart the cup, you can recycle your plastic and aluminum then compost your coffee. Voila! No more K-Cup waste. If you don’t know where to recycle your plastic but still want to recycle at work, Business Recycling Solutions offers a great B2B recycling program to pick up recyclables in the office, all in one bin!

3. Reusable K-Cups

The most common way to reduce K-Cup pollution is to purchase a reusable K-Cup. All you have to do is empty it and refill it with your favorite coffee. This option would divert plastic and K-Cup waste in the landfills completely.

Recycling doesn’t have to always take a lot of work. With the right resources, everyone could recycle in their home and workplace easily while still maintaining convenience! Let us know in the comments below, if this blog was helpful to you.