Something Exciting This Way Comes

Over the past few years I've developed a great relationship with TerraCycle. The Garbage Moguls were so kind to donate some of their worm poop fertilizer for one of the prizes at my non-toxic home and garden talk at last Friday at GreenFair.

Now they've got something new going on and it's going to be big.

My friends at TerraCycle will be meeting with Pepsi next week about this exciting new project. This collaboration means a great expansion for their projects, room for more people to recycle the bags and earn some money for their favorite organization. (We'd be happy to receive donations for CHI.)

IT’S IN THE BAG: PACKAGING FROM MAJOR SNACK BRANDS GETS A NEW PURPOSE


PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay and TerraCycle Partner to Start Chip Bag Brigades to Upcycle Used Packaging

Plano, TX, April 29, 2009 – Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo, today announced a new partnership with TerraCycle, an upcycling company that will take used packaging from Frito-Lay snack products and turn them into affordable, quality goods. Through this joint program, consumers and local community groups can earn money by collecting the used packaging, and at the same time redirect packaging from landfills.

Over the past few years, the company’s packaging initiatives have made some significant strides. This includes reducing the amount of plastic in packaging by 10% and over the last five years eliminating 12 million pounds of materials used to make the snack bags. This month, the company announced that in 2010 its SunChips brand will be introducing a fully compostable bag made from plant-based renewable material. Marking the company’s latest effort, Frito-Lay will be the first snack food company to fund the collection and upcycling of its used packaging.

“Consumers interact everyday with our company and our brands through packaging,” said Gannon Jones, vice president, portfolio marketing, Frito-Lay North America. “The TerraCycle program builds on our existing efforts to minimize the impact of packaging, while also engaging and rewarding our consumers for being part of the solution.”

The company is asking consumers to form Chip Bag Brigades; for every bag a brigade collects and sends to TerraCycle, Frito-Lay will donate two cents to their charity of choice. Initially, there will be 1,000 collection sites and more are expected to be added during the year. The goal of the program is to engage at least 150,000 people and divert more than 5 million bags from landfills. Consumers can learn more about forming Chip Bag Brigades at www.fritolay.com/terracycle .

The packaging from all the company’s popular brands, such as Lay’s potato chips, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips and Cheetos cheese flavored snacks, will be used to make quality, affordable products such as purses, pencil cases and tote bags, which will be available at major retailers like Wal-Mart by late 2009.

This packaging innovation is in line with the commitment by PepsiCo, Frito-Lay’s parent, to reduce the company's impact on the environment through water, energy and packaging initiatives.

About TerraCycle
In 2001, Tom Szaky, a Princeton University Freshman, founded TerraCycle in hopes of building an eco-capitalist company built on waste. After winning countless business plan contests, Tom dropped out of Princeton to pursue his dream of founding the world’s most environmentally friendly company. Seven years later, TerraCycle’s eco-friendly products have received a myriad of social and environmental accolades and are sold at major retailers like The Home Depot, Target, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods Markets. TerraCycle’s business plan and products made from waste received a Zerofootprint Seal of Approval, won The Home Depot’s Environmental Stewardship Award twice and recently won the 2007 Social Venture Network Innovation Award. Please visit www.terracycle.net to learn more.

Buy TerraCycle products online!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

UPDATE: April 1
First Aid Remedy for your gardening medicine chest- #1 Remedy: First in First Aid for its ability to minimize trauma, bleeding, bruises and swelling after accidents and to relieve soreness, muscleaches, back and joint pain after trauma, workout, exertion, childbirth... Arnica comes first in first aid for its ability to minimize bruising, bleeding, swelling, initial shock and pain following injuries, dental work, surgery, childbirth... Whenever backs are lifting and joints are twisting, Arnica can minimize the swelling, bruising and pain that can aggravate the initial trauma. Even with no obvious sign of injury, Arnica helps ease stiffness, muscular soreness and pain following frights, exercise, overexertion, sprains, lifting, or even a strong cough. A dose before and after a workout can minimize the next day's stiffness and help the muscles heal. A dose after any head injury is highly recommended, but don't put off the ambulance just because it feels better. For its importance in minimizing trauma, Arnica should be in every room, playground, purse, tool box, first aid kit, office, sports arena and automobile. --------------------------------------
UPDATE on Important Legislative Issues

While HR 875 (DeLauro's bill) has been the primary target of oppostion via the blogosphere thus far, close scrutiny reveals that HR 759 is even MORE dangerous to small farmers, but HR 875 is still very dangerous, although its apparently only a placeholder bill. The danger in it is that it removes Food from FDA purview putting it under a new Food Agency separate from FDA, while LEAVING dietary supplements AT FDA (as if they are drugs which is how FDA has always thought of them.
This could turn DSHEA on its head.
Dingell's bill, HR 759 is called the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009 (Introduced in House) http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.759:
Dingell has been our arch enemy for years.
See http://www.ccof.org/pdf/Food_and_Water_Watch_re_HR_875.pdf

Originally posted 3/11/09

I'm getting ready to start my garden up here at about 2700 feet above sea level. I'll be adding new soil to my raised beds and spading in some new peat moss in about another week when this cold snap has finally passed over.

It should be 50 degrees by now, but today it barely made 25. It has just been a weird weather year.

And I won't be gardening with out the handy dandy good green stuff from my buddies in Trenton aka wild west worms or Just Plain TerraCycle.

Don't forget to stock up yourself, you will be amazed at the results!

And I bet you'll never go back to that blue stuff.

On a related note, especially if you have a large property, you can grow specific plants that can be used for fertilizer and other plant and soil amendments. All the information is is my now 10+ year old book, "My Happy Garden". Order it with your $8.00 payment to Creating Health Institute via PayPal, which includes mail delivery in the US. Foreign orders, please contact us.

You can also consider this tip - Grow Your Own Salad

Also for your consideration is this information related to one very good reason for growing your own.

A FOOD CHAIN RELEASE FROM METROFARM.
They tell us it is for our own good, that they are simply trying to help, that we should trust them to do what we cannot do for ourselves. They lead us to ask…

Will House Bill 875 federalize all farms and ranches in the USA?

This Saturday at 9am Pacific, Michael Olson’s Food Chain Radio hosts Pete Kennedy, Acting President of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, for a conversation about the impact HB 875 might have on the nation’s food chain.

Click the blue to listen on your radio, computer or IPOD: Food Chain Radio

Topics include how HB 875 would place every farm and ranch under the direct supervision of a new federal Food Safety Administration (FSA); how the FSA would have the power to access and inspect every farm in the United States, as well as the customer list of each of those farms; and whether the federalization of the entire food chain would make for a safer food supply.