Going green isn’t easy. That’s why Viv keeps up with the latest and greatest of eco-friendly products to make things easier. Although we don’t currently offer the product featured below, we thought it could be useful in changing up that conventional cleaning cycle of yours. Check out the Bissell Steam Mop:
Via NPR “Eco-Friendly Inventions”: The Bissell Steam Mop does a great job on all floor types—the thick green mopping pad is well-suited for vinyl, ceramic tile, hardwood, and laminate flooring. It uses water and turns it into superheated steam to clean surfaces. It is capable of removing tough and sticky messes from hard surface floors. It is easy to put together, and even easier to operate.
So, what’s the big deal? At an average price of $79.99, slightly steeper than your common Swiffer Wet Jet, the Bissell Steam Mop offers an eco-friendly, chemical free solution for cleaning up after any mess.
Another Bissell Steam Mop review says: “no waste, nothing going to the landfill, no chemicals to wash down the sink, it’s a super eco-friendly way to clean your floors. The Bissell Steam Mop takes the work out of mopping.”
This may be an investment with a lot of returns for both your office and home!
*Disclaimer: We were not asked by Bissell to promote this product—we found out about it all on our own! Enjoy!
One bad apple can give all the others a bad name. A number of companies and perhaps more have been distributing compostable cutlery or utensils that really fall short of their name. A “compostable” utensil (fork, spoon, knife, or even the magical spork) is one that is made of sustainable materials and does not contain traditional plastic or toxic chemicals. Here is the fancy definition if you really want to know:
“…capable of undergoing biological decomposition in a compost site as part of an available program, such that the plastic is not visually distinguishable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, at a rate consistent with known compostable materials (e.g. cellulose) and leaves no toxic residue.” – American Society for Testing & Materials (ASTM).
UPDATE (8/3/2010): Viv Video | “Biodegradable Packaging vs Compostable Packaging – DON’T get Greenwashed”
We touched on this news in an earlier blog post where Whole Foods acknowledged that their Taterware forks & spoons are not compostable. So here is some more meat to the story. Third-party testing of samples of the following companies’ cutlery has shown that these utensils contain large amounts of plastic and are not compostable:
- Dispozo sample had 96% polystyrene by weight
- EPS Spud Ware sample had 41% polypropylene homopolymer by weight
- TaterWare sample had 73% isotactic polypropylene by weight
- Terra Wave sample had 57% polypropylene block copolymer by weight
Remember how one bad apple can also spoil the whole bunch? So one of these utensils by the brands above gets tossed into a composting bin. Then it ends up in a composting pile, which then becomes fertilizer. Then that organic fertilizer ends up back in the food chain and poly-fill-in-the-blanks (= not-so-edible substances) with it too. Not good.
Here is our recommendation. Stop buying the stuff above. Switch to something actually compostable. And yes, we can help you find products that are actually compostable, actually green, and actually do what they’re supposed to.
(If you’d like more information on the above, please feel free to email us at partners@vivbizclub.com)
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Some Compostable Cutlery... Not Compostable... Boooooounrated0
Bagasse is the fibrous residue remaining after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. Traditionally bagasse has been a waste by-product of the sugarcane production process. More recently is has been used as a fuel source for sugar mills, a fiber for paper production, and as an annually renewable resource in the production of sustainable materials and packaging.
Bagasse Production
Once sugarcane is harvested it is brought to a milling plant where it is crushed – typically with a series of large rollers. These rollers crush the sugarcane stalks and thus extract the juice from the sugarcane. The juice is collected and removed to be processed into sugar. The remaining fibrous stalk (which has been crushed, squeezed, and removed of it’s juice) is bagasse.
UPDATE (8/8/2010): Viv Video | Bagasse Products & Packaging – Why We’re Big Fans of Bagasse
Typically, 10 parts of crushed sugarcane will yield 3 parts of wet bagasse. Once removed, bagasse will be stored (either wet or dry) for one of its three major uses: fuel, paper, or packaging.
Bagasse Applications
Fuel: Many sugar mills will burn the remaining bagasse as fuel to power the mill. Bagasse fuel burn is considered carbon neutral as it releases an amount of CO2 equivalent to the amount consumed by the sugarcane during its growth period.
The negative externalities of burning bagasse are moderate,with the most significant pollutants being particulate matter and ash. Bagasse also burns less sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) than conventional fossil fuels since it contains lower levels of both sulfur and nitrogen.
Paper and Pulp: An estimated 5-10% of all paper is made from agricultural crops (i.e. not from trees) and a one of the most important contributors is bagasse. Bagasse contains a large amout of short fibers called ‘pith’. Around 30% of these fibers are removed from the bagasse prior to pulping. Despite these efforts however a large amount of pith remains. Traditionally, there has been a perception among pulp and paper manufacturers that this remaining pith leads to poor paper production rates when compared to other forms of pulp (e.g., eucalypt pulp). This is not the case however and it has been found that bagasse can be processed just as efficiently as other forms of pulp. Bagasse fibers have been found to be well suited for tissue, corrugating medium board, newsprint, and writing paper.
Because of the short lifecycle and fast growth of sugarcane plant, bagasse is viewed as an annually renewable resource. As such, bagasse paper and products have a significantly smaller environmental footprint relative to traditional paper and packaging products sourced from non-annually renewable resources such as trees (or in the case of packaging, petroleum…e.g., styrofoam).
Packaging: Increasingly bagasse is being manufacturered into packaging and food packaging products such as containers, plates, and bowls. These products can be certified as 100% compostable under ASTM standard D-6868. Bagasse food packaging products are typically heat resistant up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Products are also “soak proof”, but hot items will cause moisture/precipitation to form at the bottom. You’ll notice that many of the products offered by our partner World Centric are made from Bagasse. Bagasse food containers have become particularly popular as more than 100 cities and counties have moved to ban Styrofoam in the US. Bagasse containers in these cities are being used as alternatives to traditional plastic and styrofoam to go containers and disposable food service ware. Bagasse food packaging products typically biodegrade in 1-3 months in a commercial composting facility and 2-4 months in a home composting environment.
Bagasse - Overview & Commercial Packaging Applications of Bagasse4.52
Bagasse is the fibrous residue remaining after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. Traditionally bagasse has been a waste by-product of the sugarcane production process. More recently is has been used as a fuel source for sugar mills, a fiber for paper production, and as an annually renewable resource in the production of sustainable materials and packaging.
