Photo: Connect:Homes

Written by Matt Hickman, Mother Nature Network

There’s a new modern green prefab company on the scene gearing up to produce sleek, factory-built homes that no doubt possess a couple of deceiving, shipping container-ish traits including, most notably, an easy-to-transport nature and rectangular form.

But when it comes down to it, these modular beauties are anything but shipping container homes. In fact, the folks at just-launched Los Angeles-based Connect:Homes make a concerted effort to distance their product from the retrofitted shipping container home fad, claiming that “[shipping containers] contain a lot of toxic materials, are very difficult to re-purpose, and really aren’t meant for habitation.”

Founded by architects Jared Levy and Gordon Stott, two expats from industry heavyweight Marmol Radziner Prefab, the mission of Connect:Homes is to “deliver modern homes that are affordable, green, and available wherever your are.” The company is placing a big emphasis on that last aspect, widespread availability, as Connect:Homes will be the first prefab company capable of delivering modular homes completely through the standard intermodal network. That is, the homes can be seamlessly delivered to installation sites virtually anywhere via rail, ship or the industry standard, truck, without any hidden costs or logistical headaches.

What’s more, Connect:Homes’ innovative, patent-pending modular system cuts delivery costs by as much as 90 percent, and the homes are 90 percent completed (the industry standard hover around 50 percent) at the company’s Southern California factory prior to shipping, meaning that less time, energy and resources are wasted during the installation process. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems along with exterior and interior finishes and doors and windows are all taken care of, leaving only module-line seaming, utility hookups, and a few other details to be tackled during installation.

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Photo: Connect:Homes

Explains Levy in a press release announcing the launch of Connect:Homes:

“We did not want to be limited by geographic location. There is a growing global demand for affordable green, energy‐efficient homes, but until now there hasn’t been a way to sell homes to national and international markets. Connect:Homes will change that, delivering our homes from factory to doorstep anywhere in the country with the same ease as any other major commodity.”

In terms of geographic location, the lovely renderings released by Connect:Homes prove that the homes look good just about anywhere, from woodland meadows to uber-dramatic hillside perches to suburban lots. The homes themselves will be available in nine different models that range from the 640-square-foot, one-bedroom Connect:2.1 to the Connect:8.4, a 2,560-square-foot abode that spans two levels and includes four bedrooms. In the middle are the Connect:5.2 and Connect:5.3, two- or three-bedroom configurations that measure 1,600 square feet. Prices for the homes start at $145 per square foot/delivered to $165 per square foot/installed.

More: A Prefab Home That’s… Fabulous?

On the green front, all steel-framed Connect:Homes are designed to attain LEED Silver certification out the door, with Gold and Platinum certification — and net-zero energy status — a possibility depending on additional bells and whistles added at the installation site. Standard green features in each home include LED lighting, recycled glass countertops, a high-efficiency water heater, water-conserving fixtures including dual-flush toilets, FSC-certified bamboo flooring, EnergyStar appliances, zero-VOC paints, finishes, and adhesives, a whole-house ventilation system, low-E windows, high levels of insulation, a fully recyclable, heat-deflecting cool roof, exterior wood siding and decking made from FSC-certified cedar, and much more.

Photo: Connect:Homes

Photo: Connect:Homes

Rooftop solar arrays, rainwater catchment systems, a hot water recycling pump, sliding sunscreens, trellises and a few other features are optional upgrades. And, of course, Connect:Homes’ factory building process is a highly efficient, low-waste affair that eliminates the massive amount of construction waste (8,000 pounds!) associated with traditional building by 75 percent. The install process itself is estimated to take less than two months with minimal site disturbance or the need for a massive crane.

Continues Levy:

“Our goal was to give consumers the high quality home that they desired at a price point that they could afford. The conventional building process is inefficient and the prefab industry does not currently deliver on its potential. We knew there must be a better, smarter way to build modern, sustainable homes that people could actually afford.”

Right on. Head on over to the Connect:Homes website for plenty more info, images and a mighty informative breakdown of the process of buying a Connect:Home. And although the company has yet to complete an actual home, a prototype Connect: 2.1 will be on display at Dwell on Design at the LA Convention Center from June 22 – 24. Be sure to check it out if you plan on attending this year. Post-Dwell on Design, the “pop up” home will also be open to the public somewhere in the L.A. area.

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Californians recycled over 16 billion beverage containers last year, including water, soda and juice bottles. Photo: Flickr

California might be the most populous state in the country at nearly 38 million people, but it’s high recycling rates are still staggering.

According to CalRecycle’s Biannual Report of Beverage Container Sales, Returns, Redemption, and Recycling Rates, released last week, Californians recycled over 16 billion beverage containers in 2011.

The recycling rate stayed basically flat from the year before, but the California recycling program recovers one-fifth of all beverage containers that are recycled in the U.S. annually, Susan Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, tells Resource Recycling.

California’s recycling program made about $300 million last year recovering recyclable scrap – a much needed economic boost to a state that just reported a $16 billion deficit.

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In the first half of the year, the state’s overall recycling rate was 86 percent. The second half of the year saw a drop in recycling to 79 percent. The year end drop, CalRecycle says, is a trend they see annually. That brings 2011’s overall recycling rate to 82 percent.

For a detailed rundown of California’s 2011 recycling rates by container type, view the full report. (PDF)

Related: San Fran Turns Transit Tickets into Trees

Photo: Shutterstock

13 billion pounds of paper towels are used in the U.S. every year. If all Americans used one less paper towel a day, 571,230,000 pounds of paper would be spared over the course of the year. One man has a simple strategy to make it happen.

Joe Smith, former District Attorney for Oregon’s Umatilla County and former chair of the Oregon Democratic Party, unleashed these statistics during March’s TEDxConcordiaUPortland event in one of the most straight-forward TEDx talks we’ve ever stumbled upon.

The problems with paper towels are many-fold: they don’t contain significant amounts of fiber for recycling and when they’re dirty or wet, they degrade even further and become non-recyclable. And paper towels soaked in oils, pet or baby waste or other harmful substances should be steered clear of the compost pile.

We’ve come across quite a few paper towel alternatives before – simple terrycloth rags, fancy snapping towel sets and, not to be forgotten, the old wipe-your-hands-on-your-pants trick – but Smith’s strategy is devilishly simple and comes in handy in workplace and other public restrooms.

Fair warning: You’ll most likely never dry your hands again without thinking of this video:

Bridgestone plans to repurpose one old tire for every Bridgestone tire sold in the U.S. Photo: Flickr

You’ve seen the pictures and headlines: Tire dumps go up in flames, releasing toxic chemicals into the air while creating an environmental and aesthetic eyesore.

Bridgestone has seen the problem play out again and again, and that’s why they’re in the process of doing something about it. On Earth Day, the tire manufacturer introduced its newest plan to keep tires out of dumps, even after they’ve blown out or worn down.

The “One Team, One Planet” program will put one tired old tire to reuse for every tire purchased in the U.S. Recovered tires will be turned into new tires, shredded for athletic surfaces and roads and used as added fuel for power plants.

But they aren’t only collecting old tires if another was sold. Partnering with Portland-based River Network, an organization dedicated to protecting rivers and watersheds, Bridgestone allows the public to create its own community clean-up events. To organize a free event in one’s community, interested parties can visit the “One Team, One Planet” clean-up page to request Bridgestone’s presence.

The program is the first of several moves by Bridgestone to reduce its environmental impact. The company has made a pledge to reduce its CO2 emissions by 25 percent before 2020 and has contributed to biodiversity protection by taking special care of Bridgestone-owned land. The manufacturer says its environmental mission is “to help ensure a healthy environment for current and future generations.”

Want to learn how to recycle your tires without buying a new one? Visit Earth911′s Recycling Directory to find a tire recycling solution near you.

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Photo: TrashOut

Illegal dumping is a growing problem in the U.S. and abroad. It’s difficult for agencies to keep up with the new dump sites that continue to pop up daily, but now any person with a smartphone can help.

The TrashOut app was developed like the Foursquare of waste reduction. Users can earn badges for reporting illegal dumping sites, taking pictures of waste, confirming dumping sites and cleaning up waste.

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The app was developed in Slovakia, where over 130 illegal dumps were reported within the first two months of the app launch, according to the site.

TrashOut recently expanded to the Czech Republic and Croatia, and the company plans to expand worldwide. In the United States, the app is available as a free download for iPhone. The Android version is still in development.

The TrashOut app and website feature a Trash Map that shows nearby illegal dumping sites. Slovakia now has 375 reported dumping sites, most of which include user-submitted photos of waste. Dumping sites in the U.S. are still being compiled and verified and aren’t yet shown on the site’s map.

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The site compiles its reports in the statistics column with a breakdown of illegal dumps by type. The leading European dump types are household, plastic, and glass.

By raising awareness of illegal dumping activities, TrashOut plans to assist with global waste reduction.

Here is a video from TrashOut explaining how the app works:

Organic waste is collected at Waste Management's Okeechobee Organics Recycling Facility from 42 Publix grocery stores in South Florida. Photo: Waste Management

This week is International Composting Awareness Week, and it’s the perfect time to reflect on how everyone – from families to major corporations – is taking composting more seriously. According to the EPA, North Americans generate more than 80 million tons of organic waste (food, yard and wood waste) each year, or one third of the total waste stream. And in the United States, approximately a third of municipal solid waste is organic.

This high volume of organic waste can be used as valuable material in lawn and garden supplements – and even renewable energy – through composting. Composting is one more example of how waste can be used as a valuable resource.

This week, we at Waste Management challenge you to get started composting, if you haven’t already. Earth911 offers some great tips for composting in your garden or even in the city. Consider yourself a composting guru? There are always ways to improve your family compost, including composting items you didn’t think were compostable.

According to Forrester research, 41 percent of consumers report an interest in or preference for purchasing from companies they perceive as “sustainable.” Some businesses have made the switch to composting due to this business advantage, and some are even incorporating such “Green” business practices due to customer demand. More and more restaurants, grocery stores and other companies in the food industry are beginning to explore innovations in composting each day.

One company who has launched a composting program, with help from Waste Management, is Whole Foods Market. This grocery store chain captures food and packaging wastes in eight of its Chicago-area stores, converting 80 percent of its waste into soil material for use in landscaping. These Whole Foods stores have recovered and repurposed more than 1,100 tons of food wastes to date, which means that they now divert approximately 90 percent of their waste from landfills.

The food service industry is not the only industry to take notice of composting. In fact, the green retail market, which includes organic composting, has been growing at a rate of 20 percent annually. Many companies, including Garick and Peninsula Compost Company, have emerged to profit from this growth in composting. Here at Waste Management, we’re also building our organic waste recovery facilities and investing in companies like Terrabon and Harvest Power.

Unlike traditional composting companies, Terrabon and Harvest Power are seeking to transform organic waste into renewable energy. This is an exciting new field of waste recovery and renewable energy, and we anticipate we’ll see more similar innovations in the future as companies and individuals continue to make composting a priority.

Eric Myers is director of operations for Waste Management’s Organic Recycling Solutions program.

Collecting compost in cafeterias is a big part of that.

Check Out: How to Make Top-Notch Compost for your Garden.

The school hopped on the green track by bringing aboard student sustainability interns and going trayless in its two major dining facilities in 2008 and 2009, a move that severely cut back on dishwashing needs and saves 135,000 gallons of water a year.

In January 2010, the college expanded its on-campus sustainability program, switching to compostable cups and serving dishes, supporting small-scale composting at the school’s on-campus garden, recycling all used cooking oil to be made into biofuel and diverting all other organic waste to an industrial composting facility in nearby Waverly, Va.

“I believe dining services here generates 105 tons of organic waste very year,” said William & Mary student Aaron Bishop, one of the school’s sustainability interns. “A couple years ago, all that waste was going to the trash can, so that’s been a huge improvement.”

The college saves $3,000 annually by cutting back on trash removal in favor of industrial composting, according to a W&M spokesperson.

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Check out this video from MeadWestvaco, the packaging company that manufactures William & Mary’s compostable food packaging, on how the school manages such an ambitious and comprehensive dining hall program:

Homepage photo: Self-serve salad bar, Shutterstock

San Franciscans can now tape old subway tickets with minimal leftover value to the lid of their recycling cart, and the ticket's remaining value will be donated to local charities. Photo: Alexis Petru, Earth911

It’s a common dilemma for regular subway riders: What do you do with all those leftover tickets with just a few cents of remaining value?

San Francisco residents had a few disposal options for their old tickets from the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART): They could consolidate the tickets’ value only at certain BART stations, or they could donate the unused value to charity by mailing the tickets to nonprofits registered with BART or delivering them to special donation boxes.

But now a new program from San Francisco’s waste and recycling collection company, Recology, is making it more convenient for residents of the “City by the Bay” to put old subway tickets to good use.

As part of the “Turning Tiny Tickets into Trees” initiative, San Franciscans can now tape old tickets to the lid of their recycling carts or hand the tickets to one of Recology’s recycling drivers. All collected BART tickets will be delivered to a community foundation that redeems their value and sends the money to two local nonprofits.

One of the benefiting organizations, Friends of the Urban Forest, plants and cares for trees in San Francisco to promote a green infrastructure in the city’s urban environment.

“Recycling is truly amazing when it can turn unused BART tickets into trees for San Francisco,” said Dan Flanagan, Friends of the Urban Forest’s executive director, in a press release.

The San Francisco Food Bank will also receive donations from the new Recology program to fund their work feeding more than 225,000 people in need annually through local homeless shelters, senior centers and soup kitchens.

“The Food Bank can turn each dollar donated into $6 worth of food. Donations from the tiny tickets can quickly turn into much-needed meals on the family dinner table,” said the Food Bank’s Marketing and Communications Manager Lisa Mizokami, in a press release.

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Recology employee David Nanney came up with the idea for the BART ticket collection program. Photo: Recology

One employee’s good idea

The idea for the new Tiny Tickets program originated with David Nanney, a supervisor at Recology’s San Francisco sorting facility. Despite the existing consolidation and donation options for old BART tickets, Nanney noticed the occasional ticket moving across the sorting lines at the plant.

Made of a thin, lightweight plastic like a credit card, BART tickets were winding up with a mix of other small non-recyclable items at the end of the sorting line.

Looking to find a second life for this material, Nanney proposed that his co-workers watch out for BART tickets on the line and toss them in a special collection box.

In just four months, the facility had collected more than $1,400 in unused ticket value, which was then donated to the San Francisco Food Bank and Friends of the Urban Forest.

Based on the success of this pilot program, Recology decided to expand the initiative to allow residents to easily “recycle” their old BART tickets curbside.

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GE's newest LED incorporates synthetic jet technology to stay cool. Photo: GE

Written by Matt Hickman, Mother Nature Network

Some big ‘n’ bright news from the world of energy-efficient lighting today:

GE has announced the world debut of the 27-watt Energy Smart LED bulb, a dimmable 100-watt replacement bulb that boasts superior energy-sipping lighting technology — 25,000-hour (22.8-year) life span, 1,6000+ lumens, 3000K color temperature — all wrapped up in a neat, tidy, and incandescent-shaped (A19) package.

Developed at GE’s East Cleveland, Ohio, LED lab, the omnidirectional, instant-on bulb was designed in collaboration with GE ecoimagination Challenge winner, Austin-based Nuventix. Given that as a LED bulb’s wattage output grows, so does its need for a larger, more complex cooling chip system. This is where Nuventix, a company that specializes in thermal management for electronics, stepped in. To prevent the bulb from physically growing in size, GE tapped Nuventix’s proprietary SynJet technology that replaces cooling fans with a heat-dissipating oscillating membrane called a synthetic jet.

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Says Steve Briggs, LED honcho at GE Lighting in a press release:

“Our innovation team has tackled a previously insurmountable technical challenge: cooling a 100-watt A-19 shaped replacement LED bulb without making it physically bigger. Each subsystem such as optics, electronics and thermals needed to be designed for miniaturization and cooperative performance. We explored the limits of what’s possible and pushed far beyond industry expectations and competitors’ thinking and product offerings.

Our achievement does more than backfill for the 100-watt incandescent bulb. We now have a clear path to attaining even higher light levels, which will give customers more energy-efficient lighting options in both commercial and residential settings. This product fills a real customer need and further extends GE’s LED lighting leadership.”

The mercury-free GE 27-watt Energy Smart LED will officially be unveiled today, May 9, in Las Vegas at the lighting industry’s big annual trade show hoedown, Lightfair International. It’s expected that the bulb will hit the shelves of North American retailers during the first half of 2013. No set retail price has been established at this point. GE’s game-changing 9-watt Energy Smart LED bulb (A19 40-watt replacement) sells for about $45 a pop so I’m guessing/hoping that this 100-watt replacement will also be in the under $50 range.

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A look at FunkyJunk braided bags, made from cleaned plastic bags found on Cambodian streets. Photo: FunkyJunk

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, especially when that trash is braided into upcycled hats, bags and more.

That’s the idea behind FunkyJunk, a company that turns plastic bags that litter Cambodian streets into wearable works of art. The company employs local community groups to create the “junk,” who are capable of self-managing their own FunkyJunk enterprise.

Related: Tips on Recycling Plastic Bags

“In developing countries, where garbage collection services are minimal and environmental awareness takes second place to basic survival, plastic bags are everywhere: clogging drains, choking animals, and blighting already difficult lives,” the company says on its website. “By creating a self-sustaining enterprise, they use business best practices as a means of improving peoples’ living environment, while helping them to gain a source of income and a sense of self-worth.”

Now, FunkyJunk is looking to expand its reclaimed plastic bag accessories to the U.S. and it needs your help.

Pairing with Hipcycle, an online retailer focused on upcycled products, FunkyJunk recently launched an indiegogo.com campaign to raise $20,000 to launch the eco-friendly line in North America, a massive market to conquer for any retailer.

So far, the campaign has only raised a few hundred dollars toward the cause. Contributors to the cause can earn gifts like 50 percent off merchandise, free products, a trip to Cambodia and more.

The goal is to provide a source of income to the people of Cambodia without the costly upstart expenses of factories, technology and equipment so that the makers of the products see the economic benefits of their work even faster, according to the company.

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