It looks like Phoenix Recycling can, again, accept cardboard.

Effective immediately, WE CAN TAKE CARDBOARD (shipping boxes, cereal boxes, pizza boxes, etc). Our collection crews have devised a way to keep the cardboard separate. Please keep cardboard separate from mixed paper - flattened next to or under your bin.”

But GLASS is still a no-no:

The Recycling Foundation of Baton Rouge can no longer market all they take in. We need any help you can offer in finding markets for what amounts to clean, heavy sand. It makes an excellent dustless road pack, if you have a shell road on your property or business and want to test it out, let us know. We are watching for research results in Florida for use as a wetlands and beach stabilizer. The real problem is that most large buyers are very far away and there is a glut in most markets. Many Municipal programs do not accept glass. We are working on finding markets and resuming glass collection.”

Glass terrariums, homemade jam jars, piggy banks, or, you know, landfill. Just some suggestions for Phoenix Recycling subscribers — your glass jars aren’t going anywhere.

A little more than a week after it announced its new cardboard policy, Phoenix announced it will no longer collect glass — effective immediately.

David McDonough sent the following email to subscribers: 

We regret to announce that effective immediately, we can no longer recycle glass. The material we take is based on what the Recycling Foundation of Baton Rouge can process and sell. If they don’t have markets for a certain item, they cannot accept it with the expectation that it will be recycled.  When we announced the changes to the cardboard policy, I opted for a brief announcement and ended up with a flood of emails and questions. The explanation below is much more detailed for that reason. We apologize for these changes and rest assured we are working to find ways to accept glass and cardboard as soon as possible.  One thing to note is that many Municipal programs do not accept cardboard or glass. We have been fortunate, to-date and are always working to take as much as possible.

Phoenix will continue to collect plastics, metal containers, mixed paper and newspaper, so don’t expect a rate decrease.

As for glass, you’re out of luck — nobody in the city accepts glass. The Green Project accepts cardboard and other recyclables, but not glass. Not even citywide recycling collections accept glass. The next citywide recycling drop off event is Sat., Nov. 22 at the Joseph S. Yenni Building (1221 Elmwood Park Blvd., Jefferson) and the Jefferson Parish General Government Building (200 Derbigny St., Gretna) from 9 a.m. to noon. Check the Jefferson Parish website or call 731-4612 for a list of accepted materials.

• Now that the hoopla has settled, we take a look at Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s campaign promises to rebuild the Gulf Coast, and make a suggestion or two of our own (8/29 Commission, please, Mr. President-Elect)….

• Clancy DuBos takes his annual look at Da Winnas and Da Loozas left in the dust of this year’s election cycle….

• Alex Woodward gets all green and sustainable, checking out the new BuildSmart initiative from the Alliance for Affordable Energy….

• Kara Nelson finds some cool (and affordable) holiday gifts to save you from the big-box stores and the consumer hell that is Black Friday….

• Bryan Davis and Will Coviello scope out some of the queerer offerings at this year’s Reel Identities Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Film Festival, which kicks off Nov. 14….

• …and Noah Bonaparte Pais takes us inside the weird, wonderful, fanciful, fringe-iful world of the New Orleans Fringe Festival, which begins on the 13th.

We’re festival-crazy in southeast Louisiana. See you at today’s Mirliton Festival at Markey Park in the Bywater.

Still on the fence about going green?  Chew on this:  Matt Peterson, president and CEO of Global Green, warns that New Orleans will be the first city in the nation to be lost to global warming if sea levels rise.   Peterson’s group, Global Green, is the one working with Brad Pitt and the Home Depot Foundation on the  super green Holy Cross Project in the Ninth Ward.

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There are tons of steps you can take to make the world safer and cooler for future generations.  One great step you can take is toward the eco-friendly wines in your local wine shop.

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It is impossible for a winery to reduce its carbon emissions to zero,  since releasing carbon dioxide is part of the fermentation process to make wine.  Wine is made by yeast converting the sugar in grape juice into alcohol, and carbon dioxide is the byproduct.  Beyond that, however, wineries can work to limit their other carbon byproducts and can alternate energy sources such as solar and wind power and can source local products and labor.

Read the rest of this entry »

Newsflash to Phoenix Recycling subscribers: start digging through your recyclables and pull out the cardboard. David McDonough of Phoenix sent the following in an email to subscribers:

Effective immediately, we can no longer accept cardboard with mixed paper on residential routes.One of the first signs of economic hardship in the recycling industry is tightening paper markets and falling commodity prices. The mill that buys our paper is now saying they cannot take any type of cardboard in our mixed paper. There is much more material than there is demand right now, so they can be picky. In better markets, they take what they can get — in worse markets, they tell us what they will take. We are trying to find other options so we can start taking cardboard with mixed paper again, as soon as possible.We apologize for the inconvenience and will work to correct this as soon as possible. 

Stephen O’Connor, director of business development at Phoenix, explains that with a lack of resources to sort through cardboard and mixed paper (as well as plastic and glass), cutting out cardboard is their only solution if consumers don’t want to see higher rates.

“Some thought we’d raise our cost, we resisted,” he says. “We went against everyone’s advice (to raise rates) when the price of oil went up.”

O’Connor says the company is grateful S-P Recycling Corp. still accepts their materials despite the setback.

Thanks to Maitri Venkat Ramani for alerting the recycling ’hoods.

New Orleans’ grassroots movement for all things green now has a face — and a home. The Alliance for Affordable Energy opened the doors to its BuildSmart Learning Center last night, providing the New Orleans community with a resource facility to not only learn about the benefits of sustainable development, but see them put to use in a tangible and hands-on facility. For a city constantly evolving in the rebuilding process, why not build on the cutting-edge of sustainable development?

In the unassuming Art Egg Building under the Broad Street overpass, the 2,500 square-foot facility serves homeowners, builders, or anyone who needs advice changing a light bulb. A life-sized shotgun house inside the facility showcases dozens of different practical applications and tips, from the very simple — like replacing your gas water heater with a tankless one, or using nontoxic cleaning supplies — to the latest in solar panels, steel-beam construction, insulation and everything in-between. The cut-away house turns sometimes abstract and difficult changes for the everyday homeowner into realistic (and extremely cost-effective) solutions.

Now that en(t)ergy costs are hitting the pocketbook, the center provides an invaluable resource to help save money while saving the environment. The center provides how-to workshops and an expanding library and resource area with plenty of information for DIY projects.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) also announced New Orleans as one of the 25 cities to receive the DOE’s Solar American Cities Award — $450,000 in federal aid to integrate solar technology into the city. The city will draft a plan to incorporate and expand solar technology, hoping to stimulate the marketplace with a demand for all things solar and create a new job market for sustainable contractors, builders and businesses. 

The center, in turn, hosts a Workforce Training Program for Energy Efficient Building Practices, providing young people an opportunity to learn about and gain hands-on experience for future green jobs.

The following letter included below from the president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacell, urges California voters to support the passing of Proposition 2 on Election Day– and all other voters not in CA to support it anyway ( most of your food probably comes from that region anyhow).

If passed, proposition 2, called a modest proposal by the New York Times for requesting the most basic of humane treatment for animals, would prohibit the confinement of animals in ways that prevent them from being able to stand, sit, lie down, turn around and extend their limbs.

“The fact that such fundamental decencies have to be forced upon factory farming says a lot about its horrors. We urge California voters to pass Proposition 2. We urge every state to enact similar laws,” writes the NY Times. You don’t have to be a vegetarian or a bleeding heart liberal to support this legislation. As the NY Times aptly puts it:

“Americans are becoming increasingly aware of how and where food is raised. With that should come real concern. The mantra of industrial farming has always been efficiency, but efficiency has come to mean a pregnant sow — millions of them — confined in a gestation crate barely 2 feet wide and only as long as she is. It means veal-calves rendered virtually immobile in crates barely large enough to contain their bodies. It means endless rows of laying hens kept in battery cages so small that the birds cannot even stretch their wings.

No philosophy can justify this kind of cruelty, not even the philosophy of cheapness.” Read the rest of this entry to learn more about Proposition 2 from the HSUS. Read the rest of this entry »

It only took more than one hundred years after the birth of industrial agriculture, but Americans are startin’ to get around to that whole “humane” thing.

The same year Louisiana finally bans cockfighting, California voters will decide on Proposition 2, which will essentially “ban the cruel confinement of hens in battery cages, pigs in gestation crates and calves in veal crates” throughout the state, according to the Humane Society.

And in Massachusetts, voters will decide whether to ban greyhound racing.

Something to think about while you’re perusing the Bywater Bark Market and Delgado’s Animal Health Fair this weekend.

Greenpeace has published their latest “Guide to Greener Electronics,” with their most current ratings of technology companies’ use of pollution control, energy conservation, e-waste, recycling and chemical usage. The rankings show quite an interesting and perhaps unexpected outcome, with Apple ranking 13th out of 18 companies in “greenest” technology. Among the greenest manufacturers were Nokia and Samsung.

For the full list: Read the rest of this entry »

This Wednesday October 15th, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm,  Global Green, the American Institute of Architects New Orleans Chapter and the US Green Building Council will host their monthly free panel discussion on “sustainability in the built environment,” for which the October session will discuss “adaptive reuse and renovation in local architecture.” The panel will discuss how architects approach sustainability in preexisting urban environments.

AIA New Orleans will host the session featuring a variety of architects who will provide examples and comment on methods of sustainability in urban locations, with emphasis on New Orleans’ historical architecture.

The panel will be held at the Tulane School of Architecture, Richardson Memorial Hall, Room 204, and will be hosted by Brett Petry,  of AIA, Marcel Wisznia, AIA, principal of Wisznia Associates and Jeffrey Smith, AIA, partner of the firm Holly and Smith Architects.

For information see here.