A 3D printing company sells trinkets made from plastic bags, such as the ones that typically contain potato chips, that can't normally be recycled.

3D printing is the future of fabrication, but there's one problem: It uses a lot of plastic. Enter 3D Brooklyn, a small studio that uses materials that can't be recycled the old-fashioned way, like potato chip bags, as the raw ingredients for its 3D-printed objects.

   

When Toronto switched over, a few years back, to pay-by-size garbage cans, many green families took the hint and went small. Like really small.  In our household of five, it’s a kind of game we play, minimizing our throw-aways so they fit in the teeny-tiny black bin, picked up every two weeks. Green bins (compost) and blue bins (recycling,) on the other hand, are “free” from the city. Everybody knows that recycling and composting are good, so bring it on, right? We ordered the extra-large Blue Beast on wheels, and two green bins for good measure. A little voice in your Green Mom head starts to worry, though: is this stuff all *really* getting recycled? Sadly, just because you put it in your blue box, that doesn’t make it so. There are municipal workers on the receiving end of our best efforts, whose job it is to clean up our messes — both literally, and figuratively. Waste management staff are paid, with our tax dollars, to pick out all the non-recyclable junk we tried to slip past them because we weren’t sure, so erred on the side of green (or blue.) This drives up the cost of our municipal recycling program, and also bogs down its efficiency and effectiveness. Inappropriate items that slip through the cracks and accidentally enter the recycling stream also lessen the quality of the recycled end-product. This can make a city lose buyers for our stream of recyclables.

Are Bigger Blue Bins Better?

If your extra-large recycling bin is filled to the brim every two weeks, chances are you’re doing it (slightly) wrong. Two ways you might consider upping your Green Game are:

1. 1.      Poke through your bin to see what you recycle most, and try to reduce that packaging on at the grocery store or other point of purchase.
2. 2.      Challenge yourself to be really honest about what *should* be going in your blue box, and post a list beside the bin so everyone in the family knows for sure.

Something happens to you, once you decide to “go green.” When all the major, relatively easy green changes are made (like getting rid of chemical cleaners, and switching to reusable grocery bags) you start to notice the small stuff. Rather than rest on your green laurels, you set new, tougher, greener goals. “What, exactly, does go in the blue bins,” you wonder. Maybe you even do a little internet research. Turns out it’s kind of hard! Here’s a cheat sheet, if you’re in the City of Toronto, to help you understand the “new rules” for some common family items. You can learn more about what happens to the things in your blue bin here. Coffee Pods: I have recently discovered a way to tap into the great TerraCycle coffee pod & squeeze pouch recycling program. A coffee delivery company in the GTA called GoJava.ca will deliver coffee pods (for your Tassimo, Keurig or Nespresso machine) to your door, and pick up your empties to be turned into park benches and playgrounds. The coffee inside gets composted too!

While many view 3D printing as the future of fabrication, the technique uses a lot of plastic. One company, however, is trying to cut down on just how much plastic it uses. The company is called 3D Brooklyn, and it is a small studio that uses materials like potato chip bags, which can't really be recycled in the traditional way. Chip bags are created using a blend of polypropylene and polyethylene, making it very difficult for them to be recycled. 3D Brooklyn gets its chip bags from TerraCycle, a recycling company based in New Jersey. TerraCycle melts down the bags into separate pellets. Those pellets are then used by 3D Brooklyn to make the filament for the 3D printers. 3D Brooklyn doesn't just use that filament for its own projects, however, and also sells the recycled chip bag filament to other companies to use in their own operations. It's really a great way to recycle something that otherwise wouldn't be recyclable. In addition, it is an idea that could really help with the issues that we currently have with recycling, especially considering that there are plenty of materials we currently can't really recycle.

3D printing is the future of fabrication, but there's one problem: It uses a lot of plastic. Enter 3D Brooklyn, a small studio that uses materials that can't be recycled the old-fashioned way, like potato chip bags, as the raw ingredients for its 3D-printed objects.

It’s that time of again, the time to refresh our minds and bodies and promise to make significant, positive changes to our lives going into the New Year. Instead of vowing to floss more or drink less caffeine, walk down a greener path this year with some of these unique ways you can make 2016 the year you commit yourself to the planet.

The holidays are back in full swing, so it’s time to batten down the hatches, shrug off your Thanksgiving food coma, and start thinking about gifts for your friends, family and coworkers. If you’re having trouble deciding what to get, give a gift to both your loved ones and the planet this year by “greening” your gift list at every opportunity. Below are a variety of guilt-free gift ideas and tips that will make the Earth just as happy as the recipient.

Battleford Town Council is looking at new ways to discourage littering after a presentation by a high school student about how litter harms wildlife. "Litter is much more than an eyesore. It presents a real threat to wildlife. Litter not only hurts animals, it can kill them," 16-year-old Natalya Shevchuk told councillors recently. "Some of us treat our world as a huge trash bin," the young advocate told town councillors. One of the most insidious forms of litter is the thousands of cigarette butts that can be found nearly everywhere, said the North Battleford Comprehensive High School International Baccalaureate student, and she wants to see a cigarette butt-recycling project set up in Battleford, her hometown. She recommended a program such as one offered by TerraCycle, an international upcycling and recycling company that repurposes difficult-to-recycle products. The company even pays for the cost of shipping cigarette waste to them for recycling, she said. Councillors expressed an interest and administration will be looking into the program as well as installing signs in public buildings.