The Green

Recycling is an industrial process that closely mirrors the processes of nature that purify the air, water and soil on the planet. Nature cannot setup new ways of providing carbon dioxide for plants to fuel photosynthesis with, nature must always rely upon other organisms that breathe out carbon dioxide with every breath. The very concept of recycling is an admission that industrial manufacturing must also obey the laws of nature. At a certain point, there will be no more tin, iron, uranium or other precious materials to mine out of the earth. Instead, a civilization with manufacturing needs will have to turn to waste retrieval to power factories. The plastic bottle that you drink from today may be turned into insulation for a house ten years from now.

Sundance Channel's THE GREEN has tried hard to capture a few iconic examples of people who are invested in the recycling business. We hope you enjoy some of the clips below.


BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET: RECYCLE [www.sundancechannel.com]

Three fantastic businesses exemplify the heart of recycling in a profitable business that promotes a second life for products while reducing the amount of waste in the world. Ken Wells, of the Sonoma Landfill runs a sanitary landfill in Sonoma county that collects up virtually everything that is thrown out. This business actually makes a good amount of money by recycling organic waste and then selling the compost, or fertilizer to the local community.

Ecoist [www.ecoist.com] is the second business featured in this week's episode and they make designer quality products like handbags, wallets, fashion accessories and much more. They employ fair wage workers to make the raw materials for the final products, using recycled materials as their building blocks.

The third business featured is the Capitol Area Corporate Recycling Council (CACRC) [www.cacrc.com]. This business accepts all types of electronic waste, but mostly focuses on discarded computers. They refurbish these computers and sell them for less than one hundred dollars to schools and lower income people who would like to play with computers.

To learn more about the whole BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL PLANET series, check out THE GREEN [www.sundancechannel.com].

If you are interested in finding the physical locations for some of the BIG IDEAS businesses, check out the marker group [www.sundancechannel.com].



ECOISTS: Ron Livingston [www.sundancechannel.com]

Ron Livingston adores solar energy. He thinks that a solution that provides limitless energy for people is one people should support. Perhaps a political leader could propose such a big project and then all people need to do is vote for that leader. Seems simple enough.



ECO BIZ: Hanger Network [www.sundancechannel.com]

Bob Kantor, the founder of Hanger Network [www.hangernetwork.com], came up with a genius business idea that has revolutionized the hangers you get from your dry cleaner. He realized that hangers for clothing costs dry cleaner companies big bucks. He also realized that you could get advertisers to pay for advertisements on hangers. He combined these two facts into one business. Find out more in the video clip below.



BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL IN AMERICA [www.sundancechannel.com]

Take a tour of what it takes to turn coal into electricity. Featuring interviews and scientific analysis of coal mining and coal processing plants, this documentary shows you the final frontier of coal.



Thanks again for joining us on THE GREEN Blog. As usual, please make a comment about this post or if any ideas spring to mind, consider adding your thoughts by creating or commenting on an Eco-mmunity Map Marker.