Last week’s music was an older recording. This week, we bring you a remix of an old Bill Withers’ song, updated by Tupac and B.I.G. We dare you not to dance in your chair!

eCycle’ers go through a lot of running shoes, an amount which may be attributed mainly to CEO Ed Italo, a Master Track athlete, and ranking world sprinter.

Once the running shoes break down, however, they are still valuable, according to Nike Grind, a recycling initiative which has recycled 25,056,779 pairs of shoes since 1990.

Nike Reuse-A-Shoe drop-off locations are found around the world, including all U.S. Nike stores, as well as community recycling centers and other locations.  Once collected, the shoes are transported to one of two facilities, located in Memphis, Tennessee and Meerhout, Belgium. There, they are processed into Nike Grind material.  According to Nike’s “slice-and-grind” technique, each shoe is cut into three slices – rubber outsole, foam midsole and fiber upper. These slices are then fed through grinders and purified.

The resulting high-quality Nike Grind materials are then ready to be put back in the game in various ways:

• Nike Grind Rubber, made from the shoe’s outsole, is used in track surfaces, interlocking gym flooring tiles, playground surfacing, and even new Nike products. It’s also used in trim items like buttons and zipper pulls.
• Nike Grind Foam, made from the shoe’s midsole, is used as a cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts.
• Nike Grind Fiber, made from the shoe’s fabric upper, is used in the creation of cushioning pads for facilities like indoor synthetic courts and wood courts.

You can bring up to 10 pair of athletic shoes (any brand) at a time to any of the drop-off locations.  However, if you would like to host a group shoe drive, please remember:

• Only Nike stores in the U.S. and Vancouver, Canada are able to support shoe drive drop-offs.
• All drives must be approved through Nike’s Community Activist program before you collect.

An old recording, but a very beautiful voice. Enjoy!

In an effort to close the food-service packaging loop,  Seattle restaurant businesses and the City of Seattle have collaborated to make all new restaurant food packaging recycleable or compostable.  As required by a new city ordinance,  customers can now put napkins, paper bags, wooden coffee stir sticks and many types of take-away containers into new in-store compost collection bins. Hot and cold beverage cups and lids will now go into recycling containers instead the trash.

Here’s a summary of Seattle’s requirements for disposable food service packaging:

• All single-use, throwaway food service ware and packaging must be either compostable or recyclable.
• There are exceptions for items pre-packaged off site, such as ketchup packets; for some small items such as plastic cutlery, straws and cocktail straws, small portion cups; and for foil-faced and other insulating laminated papers.
• The regulations apply to all food service businesses from taco trucks and teriyaki shops to national fast-food chains to hospital cafeterias and caterers.  There are no exceptions.
• Fast food outlets, coffee shops and other restaurants using compostable or recyclable food service products must provide collection bins where customers can properly discard these items when finished.
• Food service businesses must ensure that the compostable and recyclable materials discarded on site are collected for appropriate processing.
• Landlords/ managers of food courts are responsible for placing bins for compostable and recyclable materials in public areas, and for ensuring these materials are collected for appropriate processing.
• Landlords/building managers must provide compostable and recyclable materials collection as needed by restaurant tenants.

Seattle is the first market area in North America to require that single-use food service packaging be either compostable or recyclable.  Similar regulations for single-use food service packaging are being tried in San Francisco and are planned in Toronto.

Seattle’s ordinance, which requires all food service businesses to stop throwing away single-use food service ware and packaging, took effect July 1, 2010.  Seattle restaurants will help prevent up to 6,000 tons of food service ware and leftover food from being sent to the landfill every year.

Not a music video, but still a video about music!  Enjoy!

Last week, we blogged about Corona’s Save the Beach initiative.  Clearing trash off the beaches of Europe is a smart and noble activity, but environmental education and understanding  is fundamental to drive change.

Enter German “trash” artist, H.A. Shult.

Shult exposes the degradation of our earth with art installations based on the waste produced by our society.  His famous “trash men” have travelled the world, from Egypt to Spain.  In 2009,  he built a “trash hotel” from waste collected from European beaches.

The “hotel”, while not habitable, provides a correlation between the environmental damage of waste and the real concept that if we do nothing to change our habits, then this garbage will be the future of our vacations.

The “hotel” was unveiled in Rome on June 5, 2010, on World Environment Day.

As summer winds down, here’s a song that will have you dreaming of a vacation in the city… and on the beach!

Unfortunately, the original video is unavailable for embedding, but if you want to see the beautiful images, click here!
Enjoy!

Corona beer wants to save the beaches!

In order to raise awareness about the degradation of Europe’s beaches from trash,  Corona instituted the “Save the Beach” initiative.  Their mission is to help preserve Europe’s endangered beaches, recovering at least one European beach each year.  Beaches are chosen with the help of  Internet users’ votes; in 2009 they saved Capocotta beach (Rome, Italy) with the help of hundreds of jumpsuit-clad volunteers, who scoured the sand from trash.

The trash was corralled and featured empty gas containers, an ironing board, chairs, and even a child-sized plastic desk, as well as the usual debris.

On August 23rd a selection of beaches will be put to a public vote and Corona will set about recovering the winner’s beach in September.

To read more about this initiative, click here:  Save the Beach!

Thriving Ivory “Angels on the Moon”

Enjoy!

Just in time for the last barbecue of the summer, the eco-friendly Green Game offered by TDC Games will entertain your guests while providing some enlightening facts about our environment.

The Green Game plays like a typical board game, but is made from 100% recycled material, soy inks, and wood composite. In addition, the box includes six drink coasters which have been embedded with wildflower seeds. Your guests can use the coasters during your party, then plant them in the garden at the end of the evening!

Sample game cards questions the green factor of baby bottles, celebrity cars, and website design. With 450 questions, you can play until the sun goes down on a lazy summer evening!