Lasting Legacy & Recycling Plastic

-- Quote of the Day --

“When you are doing what you are meant to do there is this feeling of flow – that you are doing something that is so second nature to you that hours can go by and you don’t even realize it. …The thing that small business owners will always be able to do a thousand times better than larger ones is relationships with customers. …One of the things that happen for everybody is that we try something and feel it failed, but we need to see it as feedback. …We can learn from and adjust our business based on the feedback. …The thing that makes people fail in business is psychological, not knowledge. Knowledge can be found, support can be found. …It is also challenging psychologically to bounce back from something that you really wanted to work and didn’t. …To run a business you really have to understand what part is your part - we can do the footwork, but we can’t control the results. So let me do my footwork and then let go of what happens.”

~ Dec 15, ’09 – Christy Strauch

Today's quote comes from the Passion, Plan, Profit episode of the Conscious Discussions talk radio show that aired on Dec 15, 2009. Check it out, if you like, by clicking on the hyper-linked show title above.

-- Reusable & Recyclable Packaging --

Dave and I have been eating out a lot over the last 6 weeks, or when we do eat at home we've been choosing pre-made options at the grocery store due to time constraints and exhaustion due to the recent family tragedy. Despite the growing trend to use recyclable content or recyclable packaging - we've been seeing a huge increase in our waste generation and most of this is, in fact, packaging. This issue could be completely avoided if service sectors were educated about the environmental options they could choose to use instead of the traditional packaging.

One of the ways we, as consumers, can help reduce this waste is to bring our own "to-go" containers from home for those leftovers at the restaurant rather than asking the server to package it up for you there. However, the downside to this option is that one has to remember to bring an appropriately sized container!

Just recently I was reading an article (from www.thewesgroup.co.uk ) and learned of a UK company - Greenstar WES - that was, apparently, the "first in the world to produce food-grade plastic from waste materials by developing a process that was unique at the time, less costly and that is now being followed by others in the industry." The efforts of this award-winning company has actually increased the variety of plastics that can be recycled in the industry today. They are responsible for utilizing more than 2,000 tonnes of baled plastics every single month in their 40 facilities and employ about 1,450 people.

According to the article: Greenstar's "annual processing capacity of about 25,000 tonnes of plastics will save an estimated 37,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, as well as helping reduce the use of fossil fuels and virgin materials." There is encouraging speculated growth in this industry, and these numbers will increase annually.

Find Dave & Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, information about their radio shows & free resources & articles at www.brummet.ca