Corporate Cool #1
Whole Foods + Preserve + Organic Valley + Stonyfield = the Gimme 5 Program
Recycle take-out containers!
There’s a company called Preserve that takes containers made with #5 plastics and re-engineers them for various household products, like bowls, plates, and toothbrushes (there’s a little information about the re-engineering process available on their website, here). #5 plastics are usually not recycled by local recycling programs (they aren’t in Brooklyn where I live), and #5 plastics are most often what yogurt containers and take-out containers are made from. #5 plastics are made from polypropylene, a plastic with a high melting point.
So, Preserve created a new program called Gimme 5, which is supported by yogurt companies (hence Organic Valley and Stonyfield listed above), whereby you can recycle your #5 plastics either by sending them to Preserve directly, or by dropping them at specified Whole Foods locations.
Personally, I have been collecting take-out containers for years… the image above shows only a handful of the containers I have accumulated. It just seems wrong somehow to toss all this reusable plastic in the trash, so I do my best to reuse them for storage; unfortunately, I just don’t have enough to store that would necessitate this number of containers. Thus, the Gimme 5 bins at my local Whole Foods will be my first stop post-holiday! I’ll follow-up this post with any additional information on the availability and accessibility of these Gimme 5 bins.
Corporate Cool #2
MoMA Stone Bags
One of my birthday gifts this year came in this cool MoMA reusable bag, which is made out of stone.
Bag of stone
The MoMA site doesn’t seem to include any information on this specific product, but conveniently, the bottom of the bag itself has a little explanation. The bag is made of TerraSkin, a trademarked product, which is a combination of mineral powder and resin. From what the website says, creation of TerraSkin requires less water than traditional papermaking, and of course it saves trees because no wood pulp is necessary. Additionally, it will degrade back to its component mineral powder if left out in nature for 3-9 months.
RIght now I’m using this bag over and over, so won’t be doing a back yard science test to see how long it would take for this bag to degrade. Given that it’s made of stone, it seems a strong option for lugging heavy items around. Fingers crossed it has a long life of reuse.
