The runner up on fooling the market for green was a line of cutlery recently launched in the USA by a Canadian company and distributed in Canada for the last eight months labelled ‘compostable’. We found the cutlery ourselves while on a sales call. We sent the cutlery for testing and voila: plastic. Well to be fair it did have a touch of conrstanrch for good measure but it definetely was not compostable.

The winner though was a ‘green’ plastic bag. Yes the bag was green in colour and it was plastic. It was confirmed it was not a joke, just manufacturers think we are that stupid.

Honourable mention was a large grocery store that claims to recycle its plastic bags and turn them into park benches.

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 and come up with our own conclusions. We simply cannot fit that into our schedule. Too prioritize our precious time we want to keep things the way they are.

This question, I feel, is often aimed at coming up with a reason to keep the status quo; to keep on using plastic and polystyrene for disposable foodware until something <em>better</em> comes along. In a moment the GMO issue gives a convenient out to keeping things exactly as they are. As a result certain industries are playing right into the heads of the plastic and polystyrene front to keep that industry alive and to keep change at bay.

Embedded in this question is the assumption that somehow present disposable containers made from plastic and polystyrene have no genetic effect on our natural world.

To put it simply landfills are big toxic holes in the earth which emit oodles of methane. When it comes to warming up the earth and carbon emissions, well methane is worth 21 times the impact of carbon dioxide! Unfortunately we seldom discuss the impact of all these toxic holes spread around the world. It seems no one wants to roll up their sleeves and deal with the mess. I guess it is not as elegant and attractive a project as fancy big energy projects to save the planet.

Imagine ALL the garbage your family and your parents family and their families family ever created going into one place in a hole, in the earth. That is basically how most of the worlds population is handling the waste they get rid of everyday. Even worst some are just dumping it into river systems, lakes and the ocean. Most of us are not really thinking about what to do with all our waste. We are not thinking about what happens to the planet as more and more people put more and more stuff into these holes in the earth. What will happen to the ground water systems underneath? What will happen to the land once we cover up the toxic holes?

Do you really think a product which claims `biodegrades in a landfill` provides a green solution?

A product that is certified as compostable offers communities a chance to change how we manage our `waste`. Composting can be done almost anywhere (Ok Siberia and Antartica present some challenges) could be hard- but I could find a solution for them!). As a result it offers a local resource recovery strategy for any community. Compost turns materials still recognized by Mother Nature as a food source, things like food and products made from plants, into a nutrient rich fertilizer which is entirely natural.

In 1988-89 I was one of those university students espousing the need for recycling. However I imagined that the people who were making all the stuff that was filling up the landfills would buy back all the stuff they made and turn it back into new stuff. So when recycling started I thought for many years that was exactly what was happening. Then came the nice little triangle under all sorts of containers and I thought “Wow we were really successful!”Power to the people.

Then a few years ago, let’s say five, I realized that we were not as smart as we thought we were when everyone lobbied for recycling on behalf of our planet. We never insisted that the companies who make the stuff ending up in the landfills commit to taking back the waste they created . Instead what happened was it became societies waste to take care of. In some places the plastic industry makes a contribution to cover a small portion of the costs of running recycling depots, in other places, recycling depots receiving financing through levy systems. In large part, the recycling depots depend heavily on financing their operation through our taxes. In very few places do manufacturers who make plastic, glass, stytorofam, buy back what they put out in the market. All the waste that comes from the profits their companies generate becomes society’s problem.

Recycling depots are like purgatory or if you prefer a Dr. Seuss reference: ‘the waiting room’.

We diligently pick out our approved ‘recyclables’ in our little communities to ensure we minimize what we send out to a landfill. We carefully put out the blue boxes (or other colours) with a feeling of content that we are joining others in doing our part to save the planet. A wonderful truck comes along and takes our stuff to the local recycling heaven where we believe angels are hard at work magically turning everything we sent in our blue boxes into something wonderful and new right in our communities. Maybe a fairy godmother helps out once in a while and waves a magical wand with a Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo and jovially exclaims: ‘Food container thou shalt become aluminium foil! Bottles thou shalt become carpets. “

(O.K. I know I am mixing up Cinderella, religion and Dr. Seuss. I aiming for mass appeal- kids, gen-x, elderly.)

Now I like most people have a decent brain. It is sometimes over-loaded but I like to think I am pretty smart. One day I woke up and realized “Hmm…I don’t think that the stuff in the blue box goes to recycling heaven in my own community.” It was like waking up and doubting the existence of God. The mere thought that the stuff I carefully put in my blue box was not re-appearing on the grocery shelves in my neighbourhood grocery store with the fancy triangles, was earth shattering.

With a bit of research I soon discovered: something is only recycled if someone somewhere in the world is willing to buy that product, and tons of it, from recycling depots and then turn it into something else. The next sad truth: that ’someone’, when they found them, was rarely found in the same community as where the recycling took place. Sometimes they were not even in the same country!

So…..

You need to be a savvy shopper when a manufacturer claims you should buy their product because it is ‘recyclable’ or made from ‘recycled materials’. Before you buy it give the manufacturer a call and ask where it is recycled; how much of that exact same product they buy back and if they donèt then who and where is buying it back to turn into something; and lastly how much recycled content is in their product. Many products with ‘recycled content’ have less than 20% that is recycled materials. Their product continues to depend heavily on the continued extraction of petroleum to obtain virgin supplies to make the plastic.

Recycling is a great solution. I was all behind it. In theory it can minimize what we send to a landfill. However after twenty years of practice doing the recycling thing, it is about time we re-evaluate just how successful the plastic industry has been at reducing their waste in relation to the profits they have made at the expense of our planet. The plastic and polystyrene industry has more than fifty years of profiting on this planet and close to twenty of those to clean up its mess through recycling efforts supported in many communities through public taxes.

Now plastics are being made and exported in communities around the world where there is no luxury of a tax base to buffer the expense of a recycling depot. It is no longer acceptable to say that littering is the problem. The problem is in what we make, how we make it, what it is made from and what we can do locally when we are done with our stuff. This emperor needs some new clothes.

Today when I choose to spend more money on an organic apple over a non-organic apple, I do so with the peace of mind that there is a certification process that is verifiable and done by third parties, not the farmers or the shop keeper. As soon as the business community realized they could get more money for an organic apple over a non-organic it was open season to boost your profit margins with claims, whether true or false. To protect the public, the market needed to determine ways to make sure claims were verifiable.

The same can be said about biodegradables. These products offer the market no standard- just a lofty idea of something we think is somehow ‘green’. Not much substance in that. Biodegradables are nothing worthy of an extra dollar unless a manufacturer ponnied up the cash to certified that product as compostable through a reputable, arms length, verifier like BPI in the USA and OK Compost in Europe. In today’s market, where I expect my customers to pay more money and buy my ‘green’ and more ethical products, the onus is on me is to be as ethical as I can be to back up my claims to attract those sales.

It is one thing to see food service companies like Sysco and Unisource flooding the market with so called ‘green’ foodware. I kind of expect them to be totally out to lunch about the need for a compostable standard to protect the environment. They could not distinguish the words degradable plastic, biodegradable and compostable if they tried. And as long as they can avoid the topic, they are happy to keep clocking the ‘green’ sales.

It is quite another thing to see ‘green’ companies presenting themselves as environmental advocates and stewards while selling products that are not certified as compostable by BPI or OK Compost. This is business as usual if not worst as it plays upon the public’s trust that environmental advocates are somehow more ethical. Don’t fall for the smoke and mirrors, advocacy and granola act. There was nothing that happened in the birthing process that made these people more ethical. Ask for transparent and verifiable standards. Don’t even fall for the non-profit act (another new form of business that gets me spinning.)

Today we have entered a savvy era of marketing where we are sold the notion of a do-good business over the bad business. It’s all business as long as you are paying for a product and someone is getting a pay check. Don’t be fooled. If they say they are donating ask how much and to whom. Look to see if they joined an organization like 1% for the Planet to audit their donations and verify their do-good claims. If they say they are green look for the standard they are using to make their green claim and verify where it is ending up at the end of their life-cycle. If they say they are ‘non-profit’ well ask them to provide information on how much lower their salaries are then a small business that would do the same thing. if they say they are carbon neutral ask for an explanation of how they are and what they are doing.

I am not saying we all need to turn into angst ridden skeptics. Our planet needs us to stay awake in this world. Even though we are greener, and some of the steps we are taking are good, we need to keep this movement in check, transparent and accountable. We cannot afford to just believe. That type of laissez-faire attitude is exactly what got us in this mess. We simply cannot afford to do business the way it was always done.

To start off it is important to understand what this carbon stuff means.

The term “carbon” is a derivative of carbon dioxide. When humans breath out they release carbon dioxide. It is something that is natural to our ecosystems- when released naturally. Trees usually take in this carbon dioxide and utilize it. So do our soils and bodies of water. Trees convert carbon dioxide and release oxygen which we and other animals breath in to live.

Carbon dioxide levels naturally shift as a result of the interaction of numerous biological processes on the earth. The problem with carbon dioxide is the type. With industrialization came the increased release of man made (not natural) carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases from industries like petroleum extraction and refinement, large agri-business and chemical fertilizers, construction and landfills containing numerous chemicals and plastics. These man made industries are not natural and therefore did/do not have natural ways to offset their impact. Worst industries like pulp and paper, agribusiness and petroleum extraction remove forests, destroy soils and water systems, affecting the natural ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

You do not need to believe global warming theories to conclude that Mother Nature is under stress and needs a serious pink happy pill or we are headed for a major feminine melt-down. So let’s put all those debates aside and just look at carbon footprints and offsets as a simple way of measuring, for the world of business, the negative effect on our planet from doing business.

Imagine a basement in a house. When we add carbon to our world it is like adding water to our basement. The more and more we add, the bigger and bigger the problem. When we are talk about carbon offsets it is similar to figuring out ways to remove the water from the flooded basement, preventing the basement from becoming flooded or even better, building better basements so flooding won’t even be an issue.

When governments begin to measure the carbon impact of man-made industries they can begin to hold companies accountable for their impact on our planet. Governments around the world are looking at how to cap, meaning limit, how much these companies/industries should (if at all) impact our planet. Once they set these limits, companies will be forced to pay fines, to change their impact and/or purchase carbon offsets. Bad companies will be able to offset some (or all) of their impact by purchasing carbon offsets from companies who are doing things which reduce carbon in the world. The success of this model will depend on governments and the market applying pressure on corporations to actually change.

When it comes to a carbon offset, these will be available from companies who are reducing the carbon levels for the planet. Some of these offsets are legitimate while others are total bunk.If you are going to be purchasing carbon offsets do not be fooled by so-called ‘non-profit’ status of an organization. Dissect who has approved their carbon offsets and if the approval body is a legitimate internationally recognized organization for the approval to trade carbon offsets. More and more are popping up jumping on this carbon frenzy.

The key to a company offering a legitimate carbon offset is whatever they are doing to benefit the planet CANNOT be a result of legislation and it should have something called additionality. The purchase of a carbon offsets should ideally help projects and green companies that would otherwise not survive in today’s economy. They do not have government legislation to help drive business to them. They are taking a green business risk. Carbon offsets are legitmitaly helping them stay in business while the market adjusts to bring up the cost of doing business for the ‘bad’ business.

Do your research carefully when you book your next trip on an airline. Will your carbon offset change how the airline itself is impacting the environment? Ask them what they are doing to offset the impact of their planes, other than encouraging you to buy offsets. Inquire about the company or organization they are offering up as a source of carbon offsets. Is it a tree-planting effort? Could these trees have been planted by a pulp and paper mill who cut them down instead? Is there a more worthy green project that could use your money towards their efforts to positively impact the planet by doing business in new ways.

And when someone promotes their product as carbon neutral or cabon positive, dare to ask how it is. We all need to keep asking questions. Let’s not just eat environmentalism up without asking the important questions that will make this movement create lasting change.

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 paper. The fact that these take out products are in contact with people mouths (and millions of bacteria) AND that they are plasticized makes them not recyclable and they cannot be composted.

Which brings me to their next false claim: That paper cups can be shredded and composted!

At best what would happen in a composting situation is microorganisms would eat the cup from the outside and leave the wax IN the compost, thus contaminating the compost with plastic materials that could not be screened out. This would reduce the quality of the compost. This is why conventional paper cups are NOT approved as compostable.

Another little scientific fact: polystyrene (commonly know as Styrofoam) uses less petroleum derivatives (because air is used in the chemical process) than a paper cup the same size covered with petroleum derived wax! The same thing goes for food containers.

NEXT UP: OXO Degradable bags.

In the USA numerous companies faced challenges from the Federal Trade Commission on claims of bags being ‘green’ that biodegrade in a landfill. First off oxo-degrdables bags are made from the exact same type of plastic materials as plastic bags we were buying before. Next they have a chemical additive added to fragment the plastic molecules. Last the bags are going to the landfill. So what is the wonderful green fuzzies here?

Last on the List: Earth Plus Cutlery

I first saw this cultery when I visited St-Francis Xavier University in June 2009. Sodexo, who runs food service at that univeristy and others was sourcing this cutlery from Sysco Canada in an effort to meet the increasing ‘green’ demands of the students. The cutlery had the word compostable right on it, along with the trademark of a Toronto company called Gallimore and the logo from Din Certco- a certifying organization in Europe, that determines whether or not cutlery is in fact compostable.

I was curious as to why the BPI (www.bpiworld.org) did not have this cutlery approved. So TWRS did some further research on the source of the Earth Plus cutlery: Gallimore.

Funny thing about the Gallimore cutlery we obtained in circulation in North America.

We sent Gallimore cutlery and food containers into one of the most reputable testing labs in the USA to verify the claims.

The test results on the ‘compostable’ foodware confirmed such high levels of polypropylene (aka plastic) that there is no way the cutlery being sold in the market by Gallimore would be certified as compostable. See it for yourself here: 09p1201_revised21 .

We also contacted Din Certco. Neither Sysco Canada’s Earth Plus cutlery or Gallimore’s were approved as products to use the Din Certco label by Din Certco.

Sysco recently released a similar cutlery under the Earth Plus name, still baring the Din Certco logo and the word compostable. Stay tuned: we have sent it into the same lab to be tested.

UPDATE: Here are the test results from Sysco cutlery we obtained from St-Francis Xavier University.

This is our creative video response. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5cFU5Vo9TQ . We took most of these pictures ourselves, except for the birds who ate too much plastic in our oceans.

There is no doubt we need to do better than we are doing.

Taking better care of our planet is about choices available to us and using our brains to deal with society where it is at and changing how we impact this planet.

When you look at our impact on this planet, the waste we create; how we are polluting it; the non-renewable resources we are using; the decreasing amount of fresh water; and the impact we are having on all sorts of animal, there is no argument. We need to take better care of this wondrous place for our children’s children.

Please view our video. I hope it leaves you inspired to Bless this Planet and join us in making new choices and supporting new efforts. Visit the various companies and organizations we posted logos on. They have not given us anything for producing this. Who cares what the data says, we have work that needs to be done to clean up our mess. Let’s roll up our sleeves and stop debating numbers.

PASS it on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5cFU5Vo9TQ

It seems like ages ago that we did a sales call (St-FXU Sodexo- June 2009) and blogged about losing sales to a cutlery circulating in North America with the word ‘compostable’ on it and the Din Certco logo for compostable. We tracked down the source of this cutlery to a Toronto company called Gallimore. Understandably we were a bit bent out of shape losing sales to Gallimore and Sysco (who sold Gallimore cutlery to Sodexo) under false pretense. Products marked with the Galligreen logo (and later those marked with the Sysco logo) turned up to have so much plastic that they could not be deemed ‘compostable’ (see certification results in previous blogs). Or worst that Din Certco had no record of certifying either Gallimore or Sysco for using their logo on the products( certificate_holder_compostable_products.html ).

But it was particularly embarassing when an Italian company EcoZema, informed us that they were turned down to supply the 2010 Olympics with ‘compostable’ cutlery AND that Gallimore was going to. EcoZema showed us their actually certificate from OK Compost for their cutlery. (ecozema-cutlery-ok-compost)

Our first thought: did Gallimore use the same cutlery we tested to convince the Olympics that their cutlery was compostable? If so that would fly in the face of Canadian Competition Bureau laws. It would be more than just mis-leading.

So, we sent our results to contacts within the Olympics in the fall of 2009. We spoke with CBC. We informed the Composting Council we needed standards in Canada and endorsement of the BPI compostable standard. It was unlikely that the Olympics would change who they were going to get their cutlery from. Perhaps though we could influence the Olympics and Gallimore to ensure that a different cutlery would end up at the Olympics, one that was more like the Ecozema cutlery than the one we tested. Imagine the fiasco if the compost facilities after the Olympics had a bunch of ‘plastic’ cutlery marked compostable ? Not green Canada. No gold medal there. Sometimes you wonder if your efforts have an impact.

Sources tell us that in fact Gallimore did change his cutlery. Just in time for the Olympics.

It’s sad really that a company like Ecozema did not get its cutlery into the 2010 Olympics. They use the Mater-bi resin and did all their due diligence before hand to ensure their compostability claims are verifiable and authentic.

Is this the future of going green? The companies that do due diligence before hand lose the race ? Or maybe they win the marathon…

We recently launched BTP Solutions, www.blessthisplanet.net, to assist businesses in understanding the nuances of being green. It’s a complicated IF you want to do it properly. There are better ways for us to help other businesses, including potential competitors, then this way. Ideally we want all green businesses to go for gold before they start racing. As the famous quote states:

“There are no short cuts to anywhere worth going.” Beverley Sills

CBC Manitoba did a story on this Friday February 26th, 2010. Hopefully more companies claiming to be green will realize our generation is watching green claims carefully. See: CBC NEWS STORY 2010 Olympic Cutlery and Greenwashing

One day I had an epiphany: what if I challenged myself to actually stop relying on the tax pool to cut my cheque and instead create a business ? I further challenged myself to actually attempt to create wealth by building an ethical business that would circulate products and services in a way that truly benefits the planet and causes a significant shift. I was tired of complaining about ‘them’.

It’s easy to complain and get on your high horse when you are a teacher, a professor, an employee, working in a non-profit, on social assistance or employment insurance, or as a activist. There’s no risk. You can critique all you want those profit-making-unethical -’business’ types-ruining-our-planet. It is quite another thing to actually stop taking the regular pay cheque and attempt to change what you were so comfortable complaining about: how business is done.

I think everyone should try and live off of the sweat of their own brow and create their own business at least once in their lifetime. Imagine taking whatever money you have and risking it on an idea and pursuing that idea in the most ethical way possible to generate money for your family and you to live off. Maybe even you can stretch the concept: imagine a few families depend on you continually generating money to feed their families as well. The experience certainly humbles the activist voice.

Small business has always existed in some form or another the world over for ever. If we were not using a form of currency, we were using spices, livestock, services, salt or humans (!) to barter and trade. If Joey was not pulling his weight fishing, the village chief was not going to just led him ride for free. He would be booted out of the village in no time.

Today we live in a culture that endorses chronic complaining. We never learn and appreciate, and we should, how our economy has always relied on the circulation of goods and services from small businesses to feed, clothe and house people. We don’t seem to appreciate the risk so many people, and their families, have taken, to create businesses and subsequently tax bases for our own salaries. Most, believe it or not did it ethically. It’s the only way most businesses could last. Soon enough you will have no business if you are unethical just like Joey won’t have a hut if he is picking his nose when others are catching the fish.

Unfortunately successful businesses eventual grow, sell and go public. Then they are controlled by shareholders who want to maximize their returns. Often these returns are for building up mutual funds for the same people that had the regular pay cheques from the tax base or from the large corporations.

Being an entrepreneur, a green entrepreneur, has been the best experience of my life. I hope I can prove to my sons that business can be done differently and teach them the value of risking to change things rather than complaining with a regular pay cheque in the bank.