Author Archives: K.M. Boylan

K.M. Boylan is the founder of The Waste Reduction Store a social enterprise focused on wholesale distribution of ‘green’ products that are vetted to the highest and most transparent available standards before distribution.

How stupid do they think we are?

As more and more businesses seek to capture the interest of the ‘green’ consumer a thick fog is moving in. This fog risks to cloud the road ahead and we need some serious head lights to catch a few proverbial deers prancing around. A few hilarious deers are prancing around in polka dot tights getting

How “green” is a GMO corn resin for making compostable food containers?

I love this question. Many people ask this one- expecting to stump me. Our world craves a black and white answer, something clear and defined to help us point out what is right and what is wrong on this planet. We crave this because our head hurts when we need to actually think things through

BIODEGRADABLE IN A LANDFILL IS NOT “GREEN’

There is nothing green in a sales pitch “this product will biodegrade in a landfill’. A manufacturer or a sales person feeding you that pitch is either desperate for a sale or does not know very much about the environment and landfills. To put it simply landfills are big toxic holes in the earth which

RECYCLABLE DOES NOT MEAN IT IS RECYCLED

In theory everything is recyclable. I could recycle a building, an airplane, a DVD, a camera…or even my tooth brush. For something recyclable to actually be recycled someone needs to take that something and want to turn it into something new. That is exactly where the problem lies with the recycling concept. In 1988-89 I

Beyond Biodegradable- Time for standards

It would be so simple if we could just trust businesses like we trust our friends and family. If a business says it has a green product, or is a green company, or donates to charities, it would be so much easier if we could just believe them. And we can…if they have verifiable and

What are carbon offsets?

You will hear more and more companies talking about carbon offsets and being carbon neutral. Many airlines now offer their customers the option to ‘offset’ the carbon footprint of their travel. Soon you will see carbon neutral ketchup and pineapples in grocery stores. What do these claims really mean? To start off it is important

How Green is Sysco Canada’s green foodware line?

In my opinion not very green. The Sysco Canada environmental brochure sysco-environmental-brochure-apr7082 is filled with false marketing and false-hoods. First up: Sysco’s claim that their paper cup and paper food containers are an ‘eco-friendly’ alternative to Styrofoam. The wax that covers the paper is made from petroleum derivatives. This wax is intended to plasticize the

The Climate Change Mistake

The Copenhagen Climate Change conference threatens to be derailed. It was a mistake to attempt to build international support for taking better care of our planet by using data. Data can always be manipulated and facts are only facts until they are proven to be wrong. You can bet someone somewhere will try to prove

2010 Olympics and ‘green’ cutlery

When it comes to product sourcing to make sure Canada is as green as possible for 2010 Olympics the world is watching us. I found out just how closely a few months ago. It seems like ages ago that we did a sales call (St-FXU Sodexo- June 2009) and blogged about losing sales to a

Green Challenge: Become an entrepreneur

For a chunk of my life I was one of those complainers pointing the finger at businesses calling them unethical, profit maximizers and lamented on how they caused so many problems for society and the world. I kicked back in my smugness never really appreciating that the regular pay cheque I received (either as a