Ventelations

VIDEO: How is Carpet Recycled?

by Alexis Petru 01/06/12 --> No Comments

Last year, Americans threw away 3.5 million tons of carpet and rugs, and only 9 percent of this material was recycled, according to the U.S. EPA.

But companies like The Carpet Recyclers are looking to increase the nation’s carpet recycling rate, finding new uses for old carpets and keeping them out of our landfills.

The Southern California-based company recently released a video which offers a behind-the-scenes look at its state-of-the-art recycling facility in La Mirada, Calif.

Since the facility opened its doors in 2009, The Carpet Recyclers have created 100 green collar jobs and recycled over 100 million pounds of carpet. Because carpet is a petroleum-based product, this represents a savings of 10 million gallons of oil, the company says.

What makes The Carpet Recyclers different from other carpet recycling companies? Most recyclers burn or trash the carpet’s backing, which makes up of 80 percent of the carpet, according to The Carpet Recyclers. But their company has developed technology to separate the backing into its component materials for recycling: fibers, polypropylene plastic and limestone filler.

The Carpet Recyclers sell these materials to manufacturers that make a host of new products out of the old carpet: car parts, building materials, park benches, carpet and carpet pads, and high-energy fuel.

Benefitting from a 2011 California law that charges a fee on carpet sold in the state to fund recycling efforts, The Carpet Recyclers say they’re on track to recycle over 60 million pounds of carpet in 2011.

READ: Calif. Slaps Fee on Carpet to Increase Recycling

Homepage image: Wikimedia Commons, by Quadell

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Alexis Petru

Alexis is a contributing reporter for Earth911. You can follow her on Twitter @alexispetru.

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We are all one - YouTube

2011-12-11T06:15:00.001-08:00

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The Plant | Chicago's vertical farm and food business incubator

2011-11-27T20:24:00.001-08:00

via plantchicago.com

Vertical farms in our big city!!!

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SIGN THE PETITION! | Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues

2011-11-20T20:04:00.001-08:00

via savecantonlake.com

Look at this and PLEASE sign this petition. This changes where WE live!!!!

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GMO-GeneticallyModifiedOrganism

2011-11-10T20:26:00.001-08:00

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the Life of a Paper Grocery Coupon

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The Truth About Fracking

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Untitled

2011-10-14T12:20:00.003-07:00

2003 report, every american generated 1.31 tons of garbage a year

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Untitled

2011-10-14T12:20:00.001-07:00

2003 report, every american generated 1.31 tons of garbage a year

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Oliver "Ollie" Howell

2011-10-02T19:12:00.001-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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The Truth About Fracking

2011-10-01T06:54:00.001-07:00

via bluelivingideas.com

FYI if you can you use water out of your faucet to light your grill, that may be a problem.

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Five Ethanol Myths, Busted

2011-10-01T06:47:00.001-07:00

via wired.com

We consume corn in almost every food and beverage around us. Why not use it for good too. Is corn of he best cure for getting away from using fossil fuels?

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Lasagna Fritta

2011-09-27T18:00:00.003-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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Lasagna Fritta

2011-09-27T18:00:00.001-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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Method Debuts New Wave Bottle Made from Plastic Ocean Trash

2011-09-22T08:18:00.001-07:00

via 1800recycling.com

This is a great idea!!

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Study: Nation Wastes Nearly Half Its Food

2011-09-16T18:25:00.001-07:00

via uanews.org

Either we're eating too much or throwing away too much. Let's think about it.

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Just me and the girls enjoying Brinner!!!

2011-09-16T16:55:00.001-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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Stockbox Grocer's Food Desert Solution: The Shipping Container

2011-09-16T15:46:00.001-07:00

via good.is

Great idea. Great for food drops!!!

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Is Recycling for Girly Men? Naaaah …

2011-09-16T10:51:00.001-07:00

via goodmenproject.com

This is a very good point. I never understood why recycling is looked out by some as such a ridiculous move. It just makes sense.

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Back to school - Preschool - 2011

2011-09-06T06:46:00.001-07:00

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VIDEO: What Happens to Plastic Water Bottles?

2011-08-30T11:53:00.001-07:00

via earth911.com

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VIDEO: What Happens to Plastic Water Bottles?

2011-08-30T11:46:00.001-07:00

via earth911.com

How cool to know the afterlife of the plastic bottle

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VIDEO: What Happens to Plastic Water Bottles?

2011-08-30T11:36:00.001-07:00

via earth911.com

It's cool to know where they all go

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Hand drawn - Sofia - 7 yrs old

2011-08-26T19:09:00.001-07:00

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Ama and Papa watching bowling

2011-08-20T18:07:00.001-07:00

Taken at Chili Bowl

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22 Uses for Lemon Peels

2011-08-19T10:31:00.001-07:00

via planetgreen.discovery.com

Throw out your bottles of chemical cleaners, there's a new pro in town!!

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The Truth About Plastic

2011-08-19T10:22:00.001-07:00

via reusethisbag.com

Facts about plastics

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Is U.S. Farm Policy Feeding The Obesity Epidemic?

2011-08-19T08:22:00.001-07:00

via npr.org

It doesn't make since. An extra value meal is more expensive than a healthy home cooked meal?

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All CVS Stores Now Recycle Unwanted Meds

2011-08-19T07:02:00.001-07:00

via earth911.com

Now you don't have to flush them down the toilet!

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Freaky woodland creatures!

2011-08-11T20:37:00.001-07:00

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Sofia Just Wanna Have Fun

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Desperately Seeking Sydney

2011-08-11T20:30:00.001-07:00

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What wind turbines can learn from fish

2011-08-10T07:37:00.001-07:00

Wind turbines are loners. They need to give each other space to be effective. But a new design for wind farms, using a different type of turbines than the giant-fan kind going up all over the place, takes a page from a very social group of animals — schooling fish — to create the same amount of energy with shorter turbines, in a smaller area of land.
These wind farms use vertical-axis turbines, which are often described as looking like egg-beaters. Like an egg beater's blades, the blades of these turbines move around a vertical pole. (More commonly-used turbines are horizontal-axis turbines: Imagine a straight line extending outwards from the middle of the turbine's pinwheel blades to get the picture.)
Vertical-axis turbines are less efficient individually. But they can be placed much closer together than horizontal-axis turbines. If they're placed any which way, that's not an advantage: they'll interfere with each others' operation.
Here's where the schooling fish came in. Schools swim in a pattern that lets each individual fish benefit from the turbulence created by the fish around them. CalTech researchers applied that principle to the design of their wind farm and found that if vertical-axis turbines are placed so that the turbulence that one creates helps propel another one, the farms can be really efficient, creating up to ten times more power than horizontal axis turbines can create within the same footprint.
The vertical-axis turbines are also much shorter -- about 10 meters tall. That means they're less likely to disturb valued vistas and to interfere with migrating birds and bats.

via grist.org

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Double Rainbow

2011-08-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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Best friends

2011-08-05T06:54:00.001-07:00

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Papa and girls looking @ lake

2011-08-05T06:48:00.001-07:00

Taken at Lake Michigan

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Untitled

2011-08-03T20:07:00.001-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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Chelle is helping the cause

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Taken at The Howell House

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Closeup of my first sunflower by Sofia

2011-08-01T16:43:00.001-07:00

Taken at The Howell House

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My first sunflowers

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Taken at The Howell House

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Oh sweetness

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Taken at grecian gardens, chillicothe

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World Energy: Where It Comes From, Where It Goes

2011-07-20T17:01:00.001-07:00

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It all starts from the bottom

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How Healthy is Your Ice Cream?

2011-07-20T11:56:00.001-07:00

via befoodsmart.com

Mmm...icecream...

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Plastic-Bottle Bulbs Shed Some Light on the Situation

2011-07-20T11:09:00.001-07:00

via good.is

What an amazingly simple, but ingenious idea.

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United States Bicycle Route System Project Status

2011-07-08T07:27:00.001-07:00

--> -->

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Nothing better then a bike ride!

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Zero Packaging Grocery Store to Open in Austin, Texas

2011-07-06T07:40:00.001-07:00

Check out this website I found at stumbleupon.com

This such a great idea. What do you think?

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Here Comes the Sun!!!

2011-07-02T08:58:00.001-07:00

[[posterous-content:ipICbkCnuezJtqgwxqwc]]

This is outside the Children's Science Museum in Normal IL. Pretty cool. It takes paper, plastic and cans and compacts them all! Here comes the the sun!!

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Thanks for your generosity Monsanto!!

2011-07-02T08:33:00.001-07:00

Monsanto is so generous. They donate theyir money to the Children's Museum in Normal, IL to show how corn is grown and processed. What they are also generous doing is, covering our food with extremely harmful chemicals, suing farmers for "stealing their seeds, and controlling a huge part of our food system. Thanks Monsanto!! You're the greatest!

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Solar Powered Sidewalk Trash Compactor

2011-07-02T07:58:00.001-07:00

This is outside the Children's Science Museum in Normal IL

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Reuben Panini

2011-06-15T13:31:00.001-07:00

Taken at Home

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Google, SolarCity, solar: Google creates $280-million solar power fund

2011-06-15T07:46:00.001-07:00

via latimes.com

Maybe Google will come to your town

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My wife @ Zac Brown Band

2011-06-10T19:27:00.001-07:00

Taken at Peoria Civic Center

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Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA | Reporters' Roundtable Podcast - CNET Blogs

2011-06-10T07:49:00.001-07:00

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What Do Your Taxes Pay For?

2011-06-07T08:57:00.001-07:00

Check out this website I found at datavizchallenge.org

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Mmmmaudite - for my Canadian Bros

2011-06-04T17:01:00.001-07:00

Taken at Flinger's Pizza & Pub

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The Chuck Norris

2011-06-04T15:57:00.001-07:00

Taken at Flinger's Pizza & Pub

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Slainte

2011-06-03T19:45:00.001-07:00

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I'm a princess

2011-05-27T17:09:00.001-07:00

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I make this look good

2011-05-24T05:48:00.001-07:00

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My first year playing ball

2011-05-24T05:42:00.001-07:00

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Food

2011-05-18T19:12:00.001-07:00

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ROME

2011-05-13T19:07:00.001-07:00

via ro.me

This from the same guys that gave us the ridiculously cool HTML5driven "Wilderness Downtown". You'll be even more impressed by this one.

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Two Charts Explaining How You Waste Food - Food

2011-05-13T10:23:00.001-07:00

via good.is

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The $300 House: Empowering the Poor

2011-05-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

via 300house.com

Get creative for a good cause.

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Untitled

2011-05-09T11:07:00.001-07:00

GOOD: Watch: Obama's 60 Minutes interview on the Osama bin Laden raid http://su.pr/2ssuxN

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Google Gets Richer: And Other Strange Things That Happen When Oil Prices Rise

2011-05-07T13:29:00.001-07:00

via fastcompany.com

McDonald's may have a way to redeem themselves and continue making everyone obese!!!

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Meet Dr. Weil: My Life With Tea, Part Two - Dr. Andrew Weil

2011-05-05T07:20:00.003-07:00

Green tea is preferred to other beverages because of its subtlety. In order to appreciate it fully, the mind must be quiet and free from distracting thoughts.
~The Venerable Sonhae Sunim
My tea consumption is both formal and informal. Both have their rewards.
On the formal side, I have a bowl of matcha - made from powdered green tea that is the focus of the Japanese tea ceremony - every morning after breakfast. I certainly don't conduct a true tea ceremony every morning, but I take some care to prepare and consume my matcha in accordance with tradition as I have learned it in Japan.
First, I take out a beautiful, traditional hand-thrown tea bowl (chawan). I put the bamboo tea whisk (chasen) into it and pour in some warm water to soften the whisk and warm the bowl. I pour out the water, dry the warmed bowl, and use a bamboo scoop (chashaku) to put three scoops of matcha into the bowl. Then I add about a quarter cup of water warmed to 180 degrees - hot, but not boiling.
Finally I whisk the mixture to achieve what the Japanese call, "the froth of green jade," and to completely disperse the matcha. It does not take me long - perhaps 20 seconds - because I always pre-sift each new container of matcha upon opening to break up any lumps (I then store the matcha in my freezer to preserve freshness). Then I drink it, making audible slurps, as the Japanese do.
Tea does our fancy aid, repress those vapours which the head invade, and keeps that palace of the soul serene.
~Edmund Waller, "Of Tea"
I take the act of drinking matcha seriously - or perhaps I should say, I take the pleasure of drinking matcha seriously.
So when I have my morning matcha, I don't simultaneously read the newspapers, surf the web, or even talk much with guests who may be present. The flavor of good matcha is subtle, nuanced, a harmony of gentle vegetal, floral, fruit and bitter notes that takes undivided attention to fully appreciate. There is a wonderful interplay here, because matcha contains psychoactive compounds - notably, caffeine and L-theanine - that promote calm, focused alertness, precisely the qualities required to appreciate the taste of good tea!
In the taste of a single cup of tea you will eventually discover the truth of all the ten thousand forms in the universe. It is difficult to put this taste into words, or even to catch a hint of it.
~The Venerable Kyongbong Sunim
When I drink green tea throughout the day, it is more informal. I usually have a good quality sencha - the daily, ordinary brewed green tea that is drunk throughout Japan - or gyokuru, a higher quality green tea that is shade-grown to both sweeten the taste and increase the L-theanine content. I also sometimes enjoy genmaicha, a combination of green tea and roasted, puffed brown rice that features a deeper, more earthy flavor. I brew these using loose tea, never bags, as I believe most teabags restrict some of the transfer of flavor and color. I variously use a small basket or a metal "tea ball" to hold the loose leaves. I drink these hot in the winter, and iced in the summer.
But I don't drink green tea exclusively. I have recently been exploring the world of oolong tea, which most Americans know only from the little pots of low-quality stuff offered in Chinese restaurants. Representing an intermediate stage of oxidation between that of green and black teas, oolong has a mystique and culture in China that is as rich as that of green tea in Japan, and the better qualities are delicious. I find many people in this country cling to green tea exclusively because they believe it alone is healthful, but oolong has similar antioxidant properties - explore!
Tea is liquid wisdom.
~Anonymous
I am often asked for specifics regarding the brands and types of the teas that I drink. This can be challenging, as I am by nature an experimenter and seldom stay with one drink - or food, for that matter - indefinitely. For that reason, I suggest exploring and tasting on your own. A particular aid in the quest for a personal favorite tea can be the tastings held periodically at quality-focused tea shops that are springing up in many American cities such as San Francisco's Samovar Tea Lounges.
Having said that, here are some of my favorite brands and types:
Prepared green tea: Ito En of Japan is the largest green tea company in the world, and since 2001 has been selling bottled and canned teas in the U.S. Its products represent excellent quality at a reasonable price. I partnered with Ito En to create "Sencha Shot" and "Oolong Shot," 6.4-ounce cans of unsweetened tea that are easy to take along in lunches or on hikes. (I donate all of my profits from royalties from sales of Ito En products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education and research.)
Bagged tea: Ito En also makes a line of teas that use a unique, flow-through large-mesh bag.
Loose-Leaf sencha, gyokuro, genmaicha and oolong: I recommend sampling the various offerings of Ito En, In Pursuit of Tea and Japanese Green Tea Online.
Matcha: I buy Zuisen No Shiro - the name means "Joyous Spring" - from Matcha and More, in economical 200-gram containers.
For more information for tea neophytes, I recommend, I "How to Get Into Tea" on Samovar's website. For more about matcha, see "Making Matcha Tea" by Kevin Rose, tea aficionado and founder of Digg.com.
Above all, make your tea drinking a happy affair, not another opportunity for stress and worry about "getting it right." Tea is a gentle, forgiving drink, adaptable to Zen monasteries and vending machines alike. Experiment, explore, enjoy!
Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!
~Author Unknown
Read part one of "My Life with Tea" here.

via drweil.com

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My Life With Tea, Part One - Dr. Andrew Weil

2011-05-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.
~Chinese Proverb
I have written about the health benefits of green tea for more than 30 years, and it is possible that in some small way I have helped this wonderful beverage become popular in the United States. I hope so, because today, thousands of scientific studies confirm what the ancient Chinese knew through simple observation - green tea is perhaps the most healthful beverage human beings can consume. Studies either strongly suggest or confirm that the antioxidants in green tea can reduce LDL cholesterol, promote fat burning, reduce the risk of several forms of cancer, and alleviate depression.
But tea is much more than the healthful compounds in it. It is an experience, and for me, a personal story of discovery that continues to this day.
Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.
~T'ien Yiheng
When I was growing up in Philadelphia in the 1940s and 50s, my parents drank coffee exclusively - black and unsweetened. I did not like it (and still don't). The only tea we knew about was the stuff from the supermarket in tea bags. Old and sick people drank hot tea. My parents and I drank iced tea in the summer, much sweetened.
Then, after graduating from high school in 1959, I had a life-changing experience. As part of a remarkable institution known as the International School of America, I traveled around the world in nine months with a group of fellow students. In Japan, I was exposed to sencha - the everyday green tea drunk by all Japanese. More significantly, I experienced matcha, the powdered green tea, as part of a true Japanese tea ceremony. Many Americans have heard of, or even taken part in, this ceremony today, but in 1959, it was virtually unknown to most of the western world. The idea of using a food - tea - as a ceremonial object of focus and meditation fascinated me and made a strong impression.
Later on that same trip, I had a chance to drink tea in other Asian cultures as well as in middle Eastern and European countries, and by the time I returned to the U.S. to attend Harvard College, I was a confirmed tea aficionado and experimenter. In the early 1960s, I recall in particular a period of enthusiasm for lapsong souchong, a Taiwanese tea that is smoked over pinewood fires, imparting a rich, dark color and a complex, satisfying flavor.
If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.
~Japanese Proverb
In the 1970s and 80s, I became concerned about widespread coffee addiction in America. Many of my patients had longstanding disorders - such as chronic stress, insomnia, or gastrointestinal conditions - and had been to dozens of doctors, taken many medications, but found no relief. I was nearly always the only doctor who 1) asked them if they drank coffee, and 2) told them in no uncertain terms to stop drinking it for at least two months to see if the problem resolved.
This simple counsel was amazingly successful. My files are full of accounts of chronic health problems that resolved completely when people stopped drinking coffee. In many cases, these patients became tea drinkers, and found the experience satisfying and healthful.
Also in those decades, I went to Japan many times, and was fascinated by the true depth and richness of the green tea culture there. I became familiar with some of the finest varieties of green tea, and soon began to drink these daily.
I'll discuss what I drink, and why, in part two of "My Life With Tea."

via drweil.com

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Logos Redesigned For What The Company Actually Does

2011-05-05T07:16:00.001-07:00

(Viktor Hertz)

For fun and whimsy, graphic designer Viktor Hertz took a crack at reworking some famous company logos so they more accurately depict what the company is all about. C'mon, let's get real people. YouTube is not about putting "you" on the "tube" — it's the world's largest repository of cat videos! The rest of the satire, more of which can be found here, speaks for itself.

Honest logos [Behance]

More About:

funny,

logos,

branding,

facebook,

youtube,

mcdonald's,

porsche,

viktor hertz

67 Comments

via consumerist.com

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Three Gorgeous iPad Cases Made Of Sustainable Wood

2011-05-05T07:14:00.001-07:00

via treehugger.com

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Three Gorgeous iPad Cases Made Of Sustainable Wood

2011-05-05T07:11:00.001-07:00

via treehugger.com

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Visualizing Iowa's topsoil loss

2011-05-05T07:03:00.001-07:00

via boingboing.net

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50 Things We Can Recycle from A to Z!

2011-04-30T10:12:00.001-07:00

via brighthub.com

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50 Unusual Things We can Recycle from A-Z

2011-04-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

via urbanmining.org

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Google Said Happy Birthday To Me!!!!

2011-04-30T09:06:00.001-07:00

via google.com

Google, you guys are too sweet. Thanks. I so appreciate it!!!

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The School of Life

2011-04-30T07:25:00.001-07:00

via vimeo.com

A different kind of Sunday Sermon.

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Institute For The Future

2011-04-30T07:09:00.001-07:00

IFTF is hiring - check our Jobs page for details
Rod Falcon discusses the future of health care and genetic testing in the New Scientist article, "Career into the future"
The Future of Cities, Information, and Inclusion map is covered in the Fast Company article "The Battle for Control of Smart Cities"
Jake Dunagan is quoted in the Mercury News article "Wikileaks cyberbattles signal rise of new powers"
Click here to read IFTF's Winter Newsletter, which covers upcoming projects and recently released research
Marina Gorbis is interviewed by Minnesota Public Radio for the podcast "Best and Worst Jobs"
Jonathan Weber writes about our latest project in the New York Times article "The Future of California, Ready for Discussion"

BoingBoing covers the release of our map, California Dreaming: Imagining New Futures for the State

David Pescovitz was interviewed by Technooccult.

Mike Liebhold writes "Digital Immersion: Augmenting Places with Stories and Information" for Nieman Reports.

Jake Dunagan and Mike Liebhold are mentioned in the New York Times article "Apple's Biggest News: An Open Standard for Video Calls"

Jane McGonigal is interviewed by Wired.com in "TED 2010: Reality Is Broken, Game Designers Must Fix It"

Read more >>

via iftf.org

I want a job here.

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Jane McGonigal - you found me.

2011-04-30T07:02:00.001-07:00

via janemcgonigal.com

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Home Depot Foundation

2011-04-30T06:58:00.001-07:00

via homedepotfoundation.org

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Your mom was the “Mudflap Girl” - Holy Kaw!

2011-04-30T06:46:00.001-07:00

via holykaw.alltop.com

Ed...your mom is hot!!

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Auditorium

2011-04-29T11:36:00.001-07:00

via playauditorium.com

This is killer online and an app on the Iphone

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David Nichtern: The Ripple Effect of Common Courtesy

2011-04-29T08:24:00.001-07:00

From the Buddhist point of view, there is always a relationship between cause and effect; this notion is expressed in various teachings about karma. As we interact with the world, we plant various seeds that will ripen and grow either right away, soon enough or some time in the future.

If we look at nature, small seeds can have big results; for example, the tiny acorn, given the right causes and conditions, can produce the mighty oak tree. In a similar way, in the world of human interaction, small seeds can sometimes come together to produce large-scale results.

This is why, if we want to create a good world for ourselves and others, attention to detail can sometimes trump having a huge vision. In that attention to detail, if we can lean toward courtesy and consideration for others, there is no doubt that we will begin to generate a more positive overall outcome.

If we manifest grasping, aggression and ignorance in the smallest details of our interaction with others, these energies gather power and strength like an avalanche. If we lace our smallest exchanges with awareness, courtesy, consideration and compassion, we can create a ripple effect with a different outcome.

Sometimes this kind of consideration and attention to detail while relating to others is called common courtesy. Respect and concern for the people around us, as well as using good common sense, are the hallmarks of common courtesy.

Each day in our lives is made up of tiny and discrete moments. Every relationship is made of specific and particular interactions. The whole point of developing mindfulness (as in Buddhist training) is to actually begin to pay attention to those discrete moments and interactions so that they don't all just blur together. I believe that mindfulness laced with consideration for others executed at the smallest scale can actually change the world. Usually we tell people to think bigger, but in this case maybe thinking smaller could be very powerful.

Practicing mindfulness and consideration for others often translates to expressing common courtesy and good manners. We might be surprised to find that everything we want to build up from there -- like compassion, decorum, elegance, well-being, peace, harmony --- has these small gestures as its basis.

That's my thought for the day. What's yours?
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