Archive for the 'retail' Category

Los Angeles jumps on the “ban wagon”

Published
by
greenhl
on July 29, 2008
in action, government, recycling, retail and reuse
. 0 Comments

We’ve written about plastic bag bans before such as Seattle’s proposed ban as well as the evils of plastic bags. It now appears the L.A. City Council is also jumping on the plastic “ban wagon”.

Last week, L.A. City Council voted to ban disposable plastic bags by 2010. However, L.A. put a new twist to this ban. The ban would only take effect if California failed to implement a 25 cent bag fee on shoppers who request them. In essence, L.A. is really hoping to effect wider change, not just a ban within its own city limits.

As you can imagine, this is a controversial subject. The plastic bag industry, represented by the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, filed a lawsuit against L.A. County’s plan to reduce plastic bag usage 30 percent by 2010. They argue factories will be closed and jobs will be lost. I don’t disagree with their arguments completely, but there must be a way to use plastic bag fees to help these workers get new training or find new jobs. Sticking to our old ways because it’s comfortable isn’t a great reason to me.

I won’t reiterate the all the various evils of plastic bags, but I think we’re starting to see more support for bans. In fact, I think all disposable bags should have a fee, including paper bags. I don’t see a reason why we aren’t all carrying and utilizing reusable shopping bags. I’m sure a fees and bans will get us there much more quickly.

Walmart going local

Published
by
greenhl
on July 13, 2008
in action, corporate, retail and transportation
. 0 Comments

walmart_produce_employee

A while back, I wrote about Wal-Mart’s efforts to go green, including their efforts to implement green technologies and push their supply chain to go green. I’m happy to report that Wal-Mart is continuing to forge ahead with its efforts.

Over the past two years in the U.S., Walmart has increased the number of local farmers it works with by 50 percent. It expects over $400 million of produce will come from local sources this year, which is defined as purchasing and selling produce in the same state. Before you scoff at the fact that Walmart defines local as the same state and not within some arbitrary 150 mile radius, remember Walmart’s massive scale and the fact that there probably aren’t many farmers who can support supplying a few Walmart stores, let alone a single one. Also, ask yourself how many times you’ve eaten a Florida or California orange or produce grown in another state. Sourcing intrastate is a big step forward, especially since produce travels 1,500 miles on average before reaching consumers’ homes.

Walmart gave peach sourcing as an example. By sourcing peaches from 18 states instead of two, Walmart saves 672,000 miles and 112,000 gallons of fuel, equivalent to approximately $1.4 million in transportation costs. Given grocery accounts for 41 percent of Walmart’s U.S. sales, it’s easy to see how savings like this add up quickly. In addition, by sourcing more produce locally, Walmart is ready to accommodate the already large and growing demand for organic produce.

One of Walmart’s biggest principles is to lower costs so savings can be passed onto customers. It’s no secret a big reason Walmart is going green is that it’s good fiscal policy for them. Walmart saves money through many of its green initiatives, and they’re not afraid to admit it. Walmart may not do everything right, but it’s efforts to go green should be applauded by all of us. The next step I’d love to see Walmart take is to identify how eco-friendly (or not) a product is relative to competing products in the same class.

Best Buy should be ashamed of itself

Published
by
greenhl
on July 10, 2008
in corporate, pollution, recycling, retail and waste
. 1 Comment

worst_best_buy_logo

How many of you shop at Best Buy? When I’ve gone, I’ve been disappointed by their usually high prices and unhelpful staff. That said, I will start going there less than I even do currently.

Best Buy should be ashamed of their recycling program and efforts they speak so proudly of. Best Buy is probably one of the largest retailers of electronics if not the largest. In essence, Best Buy is one of the worst contributors to the tons of electronics thrown into our landfills each year.

Best Buy can mitigate a lot of this buy offering recycling at its stores, but unfortunately, it doesn’t choose to do so. It only offers the recycling of some appliances and home electronics if you purchase something from them AND get it professionally delivered or installed through a service you purchase through them. In essence, they are really trying to up sell additional services and make even more money, while masking this as some type of great recycling program and environmental benefit they are offering.

To Best Buy’s credit, they do offer cell phone, battery, and ink cartridge recycling. However, given Best Buy’s huge contribution to electronic waste in our landfills, they should be ashamed of their paltry efforts. They don’t even offer an on-going free recycling program for old computers, printers, CD / DVD players, fax machines or other common electronics. They do have special weekend events which appear to be one-time events in certain cities. Let’s be realistic though. Recycling should be a year round event, not a one-time marketing and promotional event. In addition, Best Buy doesn’t even accept appliances, microwaves, smoke detectors, or air conditioners during these events. Why even bother having these events, lest its for a corporate dog and pony show? Best Buy definitely pales in comparison to Costco’s efforts, which offers free recycling, complete with free shipping and packaging materials.

If someone knows of a great effort Best Buy is doing to combat this problem, let me know. I couldn’t find it on their website, and I would definitely love to be proven wrong in this case.

T-9 days… and counting

Published
by
JB
on July 2, 2008
in Products, carbon, recycling, retail and waste
. 1 Comment

iphone.jpgJust out of curiosity, are any of you getting the new iphone when it comes out on July 11?  I am, but this is not why I’m writing the post.  Instead, I want to tell you about something cool Apple is doing…with the box.

Apparently, Apple’s iphone will offer packaging made of potato starch, and supplied by PaperFoam.  According to PaperFoam’s website, their packaging is carbon friendly, has low CO2 emissions, and 100% recyclable.

The company that I work for offers boxed software, so I often get pulled into meetings to talk about packaging.  It’s been a struggle for us to find an eco-friendly solution (it costs a lot), so I’m totally digging the fact that there are more and more eco-friendly alternatives out there.

Are plastic bags the new green?

Published
by
greenhl
on June 19, 2008
in Products, action, conservation, global warming, recycling, retail and reuse
. 4 Comments

When someone asks paper or plastic, what’s the right answer? A couple months ago, I wrote about the evils of plastic bags and how many cities, including Seattle and San Francisco, have legislation in place or proposed to ban them. As it turns out, plastic bag bans may not be so great after all.

If plastic bags are banned, retailers will turn to their next best (economical) alternative, which are paper bags. As luck would have it, paper bags not only kill trees (although many are manufactured from recycled paper), but they cost more to transport due to their increase weight to volume ratio, require 40 percent more energy to manufacture, and take 91 percent more energy to recycle (pound for pound) when compared with plastic bags. Paper bags contribute more to global warming than plastic bags. It turns out plastic bag bans and paper bags aren’t so great after all. Boy, this environmental and global warming stuff sure can get complex with these second the third order effects.

Should we just throw up our arms in protest and give up? Of course not! Give up is never an option at TTMYGG. If you don’t know already, the answer to my question above turns out to be neither! What we all should do is carry reusable shopping bags. There are numerous places to buy them, and many only cost a few dollars (or less!). Some supermarkets such as Whole Foods even give you a credit for bringing your own bag, meaning you can recoup the cost of the bag fairly quickly. Trader Joe’s enters customers carrying reusable shopping bags into a monthly lottery to win $50 in free groceries.

If you’re feeling particularly flush with money and want to make a reusable bag fashion statement, don’t worry, there are many options. If you really don’t want to donate this money to a good cause, you can buy designer reusable bags. Castiglioni has a folding nylon bag which retailers for $843, while Stella McCartney has an organic canvas tote for $495. Not to be outdone, Hermes sells its Silky Pop grocery bag for a mere $960, but at least it collapses into a wallet-size pouch. Trader Joe’s bags come in at a whopping $3. Decisions, decisions,…