Water, soda, juice, milk - they all come in plastic single-use-only bottles, with the majority of them ending up in a landfill rather than a recycling bin. But back in the day (although I am not sure what day, but before my time) they all came in reusable glass bottles that were returned to the manufacturer when you were done with the drink. Wouldn’t it be great if we could go back to those days? Imagine how much trash we could keep out of the ground!

Beverage makers who are looking forward to the future rather backwards to the past should take it upon themselves to invest in glass bottling facilities…I know for a fact that I would definitely choose their product over other ones in plastic bottles. Sure, it would require an initial investment in facilities and the glass bottles themselves, but imagine the return for both their bottom line and the planet’s resources. Glass can be used over and over again between sterilizations, never ending up in the trash or in a recycling bin. Plus, they can be made from old broken glass, so it’s a win-win.

The only downside I see to this would be the shipping costs associated with a heavier end product…but I have to imagine that we can come up with better transportation options before we can come up with a better alternative to glass instead of plastic. Wouldn’t it be great to get your milk or soda in a nice glass bottle that can then be used again and again, instead of just tossing the container in the trash?

Ah, the good ole days…

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EarthTalk is a weekly installment from E/The Environmental Magazine.

Dear EarthTalk: How or where can I recycle clothes that are too old or worn out for Goodwill?

Just because that old shirt you used to love is too threadbare to wear anymore doesn’t mean it has to end up in a landfill. “Consumers don’t understand that there’s a place for their old clothing even if something is missing a button or torn,” says Jana Hawley, a professor of textile and apparel management at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “Ninety-nine percent of used textiles are recyclable.”

Non-profits like Goodwill and the Salvation Army play a crucial role in keeping old clothes out of the waste stream. When they get donations of clothes that are too threadbare to re-sell in one of their shops, they send them to “rag sorters” that specialize in recycling pieces of fabric large and small. Says Hawley, these textile recyclers sell about half the clothing they get back overseas in developing countries, while unusable garments, especially cotton t-shirts, are turned into wiping and polishing clothes used by a variety of industries and sold to consumers. She adds that other textiles are shredded into fibers used to make new products, such as sound-deadening materials for the automotive industry, archival-quality paper, blankets and even plastic fencing.

Outdoor clothing and gear maker Patagonia, which plies a strong environmental mandate in key aspects of its operations (from sourcing of raw materials to managing waste to making grants to environmental nonprofits), in 2005 launched its innovative Common Threads Garment Recycling program. The program was originally begun so customers could return their worn out Capilene long undies for recycling, but has expanded to taking back Patagonia fleece and cotton t-shirts as well as Polartec fleece from other manufacturers. Consumers wanting to unload items that meet the program’s criteria can do so at any Patagonia retail store or by mailing them into the company’s Reno, Nevada service center.

Of course, do-it-yourselfers handy with needle-and-thread or sewing machines can turn their old clothes into new creations such as quilts, handbags and smaller items. The website Expert Village, which claims to have the largest online collection of “how-to” videos, offers a free series called “How to Recycle Old Clothes into New Fashions.” Short step-by-step videos in the series cover such topics as transforming old garments into works of art; sewing patches, buttons and beads onto old clothes; deconstructing a wedding dress; ironing graphics onto old garments, and much more. Another good use for threadbare clothes (as well as sheets and towels) is pet bedding, whether in your own home or donated to a local animal shelter.

According to the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, textiles make up about four percent of the weight and eight percent of the volume of all municipal solid waste in the U.S. The commercial recycling company U’SAgain—which runs private for-profit recycling services in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, Seattle, St. Louis and elsewhere—finds that some 85 percent of the 70 pounds of textiles the average American purchases each year ends up landfilled. That means the typical U.S. city with 50,000 residents has to pay (with local tax dollars) for the handling and disposal of some 3,000 tons of textiles every year. The shame of such waste is that textiles are so easy to recycle or otherwise find new uses for.

CONTACTS: Goodwill, www.goodwill.org; Salvation Army, www.salvationarmy.org; Patagonia, www.patagonia.com; Expert Village, www.expertvillage.com; U’SAgain, www.usagain.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 USA; submit it at EarthTalk; or e-mail us. Read past columns at our archives.

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I wanted to see this documentary on earthships for a while now, so thanks to Sundance for airing it last night. If you missed it, it will be on a few more times this week, and you can watch a clip of it online right here or on YouTube. Good stuff, and thank you Michael Reynolds for your perseverance!

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EarthTalk is a weekly installment from E/The Environmental Magazine.

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve been hearing a lot about all the recycled materials being turned into handbags and purses. Are these bags actually fashionable?

Eco fashion, especially in the world of bags, purses and carriers, has proven to be an inventive outlet for all kinds of recycled materials. And yes, most of these bags—even those made from such unlikely materials as candy wrappers (by Ecoist) or carpets (CarpetBags)—not only look good, but would probably draw looks of admiration from fellow bag aficionados.

The Canadian website, eco-handbags.ca, carries a large assortment of creatively adapted materials turned to wearable art from green handbag companies. There are bags made from old books, sailboat sails, juice boxes, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, neckties, cigar boxes, skateboards, candy wrappers, chopsticks, soda pop tops and bicycle tire inner tubes. And these don’t look like they’ve been knit together from a trash bin: They are impeccably sewn one-of-a-kind accessories. The juice box cooler bag, handmade by a cooperative in the Philippines for Bazura Bags, is a great all-purpose carry-all, while the sleek Roadster Handbag made of truck tire inner tubes by English Retreads makes for a stylish everyday purse.

Ava DeMarco and her husband Rob Brandegee one day looked at used license plates and saw handbags. The couple had launched their company, Littlearth Productions, in 1993 with a mission to match style with eco-consciousness. At first, license plates were used as ornaments on recycled rubber bags. Then they became the bags themselves, twisted into colorful cylindrical purses. Now Littlearth’s recycled license plate handbags can be found in more than 1,000 retail outlets and in the clutches of everyone from Oprah to Chelsea Clinton. “Everything we make is one of a kind, because all license plates are unique,” says DeMarco. In one year, Littlearth recycled more than 15 tons of rubber and 40,000 license plates.

And why not turn all that old tire rubber into something eminently wearable? The material is completely durable and effective for everything from men’s messenger bags to women’s clutches. “I’ve always been aware of the tire situation,” says Robin Gilson, president and founder of Vulcana, a company that makes bags out of recycled car tires. “They collect water; they are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. I thought: ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could melt car tires down and reshape them?’”

After taking a leave of absence from her job as an attorney in 1995, Gilson tracked down a company that would take recycled car tire crumb and mix it with natural rubber to create a material suitable for stitching into bags. Vulcana launched its product line in 2001. The company takes 30 to 50 percent of its material from recycled car tires. The rest is virgin rubber, mostly from small, family-owned plantations in Malaysia. Some products are hemp-fused, which means the rubber is cured directly onto a hemp fabric.

For animal-lovers the new range of handbags has been especially welcome—whether they’re made from tires, records, hemp or chopsticks, these bags are a great alternative to leather and an easy way to make a fashion statement.

CONTACTS: Bazura Bags, www.bazurabags.com; Eco Handbags, www.eco-handbags.ca; Ecoist, www.ecoist.com; English Retreads, www.englishretreads.com; Littlearth Productions, www.littlearth.com; Vulcana, www.vulcanabags.com.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881 USA; submit it at EarthTalk; or e-mail us. Read past columns at our archives.

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Because we are on vacation this week, I am re-running a few of my favorites, and this one was originally posted in July of 2007. Be back this weekend with pictures from our trip!

I have not opened a phone book in over 3 years. In case the phone company did not realize it, the internet tends to have most information that people need and it is much easier to use than their gigantic yellow book. Rest of the entry here at the original post…

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Got an old cell phone laying around the house? Cannot find a place to donate it? Well, RIPMobile wants it - and is willing to give you credit towards a Terrapass carbon offset for it! Although I am normally one to promote donating used cell phones to places like battered women’s shelters where they program them all to dial 911, Terrapass and RIPMobile present a good opportunity as well:

By recycling your phone you help to protect local water and food supplies from toxins, while making industry less dependent on destructive new mining for metals. You are also getting functional phones into the hands of people in the developing world who need them. Reselling a used cell phone is far more energy efficient than manufacturing a new one. And when you purchase a TerraPass with the proceeds you are fighting climate change to boot! All materials accepted by RIPMobile and not sold for refurbishment or reuse are recycled according to the highest environmental standards.

To see how much your old phone is worth, check out RIPMobile/Terrapass site.

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