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May 19th, 2022

5/19/2022

We garden for a plethora of purposes. You may want to connect with our natural world, build a beautiful yard, produce sustenance, provide habitat for plants and animals, sell native plants to restore degraded habitat, or perhaps see a leafcutter bee buzzing around some bee balm. Whatever the reason, gardening is a wonderful pastime that has been around since our hunter gatherer ancestors started planting crops around 12,000 years ago—gardening is in our DNA.

In many ways today’s gardening practices look quite different from our ancestor’s primitive plots of crops— for one, they did not have access to plastic. According to a 2004 study from Penn State University, plant pots, flats, and cell packs use up to 320 million pounds of plastic per year. This number is likely even higher today because the home gardening industry’s average annual sales revenue has more than doubled since 2004. More sales means nurseries consume even more plastic. According to the USDA, in 2009, 4 billion container/plant units were produced by the container crop industry using a total of 1.66 billion pounds of plastic. This number doesn’t count all the other plastics used in the nursery industry, including the plastic sheets used to cover greenhouses (which often have to be replaced every year), plastic trays and containers, plastic markers used to identify the plants, plastic-coated pesticides and fertilizers, and so much more. It’s no exaggeration to say that in total nurseries and gardeners are using TON of plastic.

Although we will be predominantly focusing on nurseries in this post, home-gardeners interested in reducing their plastic can peruse our plastic alternative graphic below.

Many Asheville business owners have taken a hard look at their waste and come up with creative ways to reduce it. I spoke with Bill Jones, the founder and president of Carolina Native Nursery in Burnsville, about the steps he’s taken to reduce waste and prioritize the environment in his purchasing decisions. Though the plant nursery business has many specialized concerns, Bill’s experience and decision-making process can apply to many types of businesses.

Looking for reuse options was their first strategy, and it helped them successfully reduce a huge portion of the nursery’s plastic waste AND save a ton of money. For example, Carolina Native reuses their cold frame plastic covers, which are designed to be single use. By reusing these sheets for up to 3 years in a row, Carolina Native is not only reducing a huge portion of their plastic waste but saving a gargantuan sum of money. The nursery has 60 cold frames that require coverings. Last year they were able to reuse 40 covers, which cost $120 each. According to Bill, this practice has saved the nursery an estimated $38,000 over the years. If a nursery with 60 greenhouses can reuse their plastic covers for 3 years in a row for 12 years, they’ll spend $28,800 instead of $86,400. Moreover, for 60 greenhouses that are average sized (30ft wide by 96 ft long), a nursery would save approximately 1.3 million square feet of plastic from going to the landfill… that’s a lot of plastic!

The next strategy Bill employed was to seek out plastic alternatives. It got tricky though. Chatting with Bill, I discovered that waste from pots is more complicated than simply always choosing the most sustainable option. Carolina Native uses compostable pots whenever possible, but they don’t work for larger plants because the biodegradable pots don’t last long enough to support long-term growth. Bill noted that compostable pots work well for perennials, smaller plants for selling (which will be quickly planted), and tomatoes. To be clear, compostable pots are a great option for home gardeners who won’t leave those plants in their pots for too long. For larger plants, Carolina Native uses recycled plastic pots. They also sought alternatives for pesticides, which are full of plastics. They introduced predatory mites into their five greenhouses to address the issue of western flower thrips, which are pests that damage and kill plants. Using the mites dramatically reduces the nursery’s need for pesticides. Also, they don’t use perlite or vermiculite, both of which are nonrenewable resources that require mining and release greenhouse gases in their production.

Recycling also plays a big role in their waste reduction strategies. Carolina Native inventoried everything they use in an audit process similar to the waste audit we recommended. This allowed them to map out their full waste footprint and to make decisions about what kinds of waste they could avoid. They recycle and reuse everything possible, including wood pallets and the loads of cardboard that is shipped with the plants. However, reuse and recycling doesn’t work in every situation. Unfortunately they cannot accept donated pots from the community because of the risk of pathogens and the labor costs it would require to sufficiently sanitize the pots.

“We do everything we can within the constraints of our industry,” Bill told me.

Plastic alternatives can be more expensive. For businesses, this may force a strategic choice. However, home gardeners may have more freedom in their budgets to make plastic alternatives a priority. Plus, home gardeners can utilize low-waste retail products or gardening practices that aren’t cost-effective or effective at the scale a business might need.

Whether you're gardening to sell native plants, to harvest delicious fresh tomatoes for your spring salad, or to watch your black-eyed Susans flourish, reflecting on your plastic use, reducing your waste, and looking for plastic alternatives can grow your activity into a flourishing eco-friendly endeavor.

By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks

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Weaning off the Work Waste

5/18/2022

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Offices are often bursting with wastes of all kinds. From plastic to paper to food we take our waste with us to work. You may be wondering how to tackle office waste and inspire your colleagues to do the same. Read below to find out how YOU can lead that effort!

Perform a waste audit
Waste audits can give you an idea of what material you are sending to the landfill, and provide you with the necessary information to curb your waste production. According to a recent waste audit at a large government building in Asheville, 67% of the waste could have been diverted to recycling or compost.

How to do it:

Collect all of your waste over a one-week span.
Sort your waste into categories and calculate the weight of each category using the attached form and a kitchen or body-weight scale.
Analyze your data and consider how you can reduce your highest-waste categories.

Then… reduce! Depending on your data, consider how you can address your biggest waste problem. If your office’s largest category of waste is office paper, consider printing double-sided and placing a reminder above the printer that American offices use about 4 million tons of copy paper every year (equivalent to chopping down 100 million trees). A Xerox study found that nearly half of all printed documents are thrown away within 24 hours, and 30% are never picked up from the printer. Whew… we can do better.

If you’re throwing away a lot of food, consider implementing a composting program using a local composting pickup service, such as Compost Now, or driving your compost to our local food scrap drop off location.

There are so many plastic alternatives and innovative avenues to reduce waste!

Consider your shipping and deliveries
According to Oceana, in 2019 Amazon generated 465 million pounds of plastic packaging from their 7 billion packages they sent out. It’s estimated that 22.4 million pounds of that plastic packaging ended up in waterways and marine ecosystems. Those estimates are from just one company and before the Covid-19 pandemic, when e-commerce exploded.

If you receive large quantities of shipping material to your office, there are numerous reduction options to consider.

Ask your distributor to switch to more sustainable packaging and/or use less packaging. Our Mind Your Plastic May business partners have emphasized the power of asking. Your distributors want to keep you happy, so they might surprise you with the accommodations they’re able to provide. If possible, use a local company to avoid excessive shipping packaging. If it’s food items, soap, detergent, etc., you may be able to switch to buying bulk. Try to reuse the packaging you're receiving—perhaps to send out your own packages.

Sourcing office items
If you buy food, coffee, or other beverages for the office, consider buying in bulk and refilling when possible. The same goes for hand soap, dish soap, and other cleaning supplies. Many cleaning supplies are full of plastic so make sure you know what’s in the products you purchase. If you have a cleaning service, ask them to use your zero-plastic supplies.

Toilet paper/paper towels/tissues → Who Gives a Crap (sold locally at West Village Market)

Trash bags→ Earth Hero
Hand soap → Ware, To the Brim Refill, West Village Market, Plaine Products

Dish soap → Ware, To the Brim Refill, West Village Market, Cleancult

All purpose cleaner → Ware, To the Brim Refill, West Village Market, Blue Land, Cleancult

Ink cartridges → Inkpal
Paper (8.5*11) → EcoEnclose

Envelopes (4.1*9.5) → EcoEnclose

Envelopes( 4.4*5.8) → EcoEnclose

Labels → EcoEnclose
Receipt paper →
Packing tape → EcoEnclose

Stickers -->EcoEnclose
Other/office supplies -->Dolphin Blue
Before using Amazon, check local businesses or Etsy for miscellaneous!

Eliminate single-use plastic
Whether it’s for an office party or everyday work, see if you can skip the single-use items. Instead, stock your office kitchen with reusable plates, mugs, cups, cutlery, etc. Make sure you have clean filtered water available so that folks don’t feel like they need to bring in plastic water bottles.

Do you use a Keurig or another single-use pod-based coffee machine? Good news: There are now reusable Keurig cups. Or consider switching to a coffee machine and using a reusable filter. A french press is also a great zero-waste coffee brewing option.

Making coffee at the office can also prevent all the disposable to-go coffee cups that employees might opt for in the place of homemade coffee. You could even offer incentives, such as reusable water bottles or metal straws, to folks who skip the disposable coffee cup and brew it in the office!

Implement a composting program
One Asheville waste audit, which found that 67% of the building’s waste could have been diverted to recycling or compost, discovered that 52% of the material was compostable. That is a pretty compelling reason to start a composting program!

Asheville makes composting really easy. Sign up for Asheville’s free Food Scraps Drop Off program here. Assign someone each week to bring the compost to Stephen Lee’s Recreation Center. Or try Compost Now, which is a private composting service that picks up your compost.

Recycle
Although we should work to reduce and reuse before we recycle, recycling is a useful tool to divert material from the landfill. Place a recycling bin in every room of your office with a list of items that can be recycled in your county. See the Waste Wizard to find out what can and cannot be recycled in Buncombe County.

For that pesky junk mail: Collect it all and take your name and address off their list!

Organize a Green Club
This is a great way to get folks involved and make sure your “greening” effort is sustained over a long period of time. This group of people (whether it’s 1 person or 50) can lead the implementation of the previously mentioned tips. The Green Club can help bring awareness to the office, celebrate Earth appreciation holidays, such as Earth Day, Composting Awareness week, World Environment Day, Climate Week, and many others. The Green Club could start an onboarding training with employees to get them caring and understanding the importance of plastic and waste reduction.

We’re so excited for your waste reduction journey!
If you need more support, reach out at [email protected] to let us know how we can help.

By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks

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Posana's Taste for Zero Waste: An Interview with Peter Pollay

5/9/2022

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Reducing waste at restaurants isn’t simple or easy, but it has the potential to have a huge impact. All
of the choices a restaurant makes to reduce their plastic and food waste can add up to a big difference for our planet. According to DineGreen, the average restaurant generates 100,000 pounds of garbage per year, 90% of which could be diverted to the compost or recycling. Plastic waste, such as to-go items, bags, straws, cups, plates, and much more, is often a huge part of a restaurant’s waste. For example, 40 billion disposable plastic cutlery are used each year in the United States, enough to wrap the globe more than 139 times.

Prioritizing reusable materials at restaurants is an essential way to reduce plastic waste. For a coffee shop with multitudes of to-go cups or a restaurant with unavoidable to-go items, creating a reusable incentive program [e.g., providing discounts for folks who bring their own mugs, take-out containers, and bags] could decrease plastic usage. Another option is to switch to compostable plastics and implement a composting program. Of course, along with offering compostable plastics, restaurants need to figure out where that material will go. Compostable plastics cannot be recycled and when they’re put in the landfill they emit methane. Instead, compostable plastics must be disposed of at an industrial composting facility. Danny’s Dumpster is a great local composting service option.

Although restaurants can mitigate large amounts of material going to landfills, other factors complicate waste reduction efforts. It's essential to acknowledge these systemic issues so that we can work to address the waste crisis from multiple angles and levels. Manufacturers and government agencies must share the burden that waste creates. Our current economic system does not account for the environmental costs of plastic waste, and our political system favors the plastic industry’s billionaire shareholders. That means wasteful materials are often cheaper and easier to obtain and the people who manufacture them are not obligated to accept full responsibility for where they end up or the damage they do along the way. This makes switching to eco-friendly materials costly and more difficult. To quote Gillie Roberts, the owner of Ware [see her interview here], “Our governments… should be doing so so so much more. In the meantime if we don’t take some level of accountability we can only hold them so accountable.”

In the meantime... restaurants have enormous power in our struggle against the global waste crisis. I spoke with Peter Pollay who is the co-owner of Posana with his wife, Martha Pollay. He took me through Posana’s sustainability journey and what they’re doing now to reduce their plastic waste.

"I know that you might just be one restaurant in one location thinking, 'what am I going to do to change the issues of our world,' but if everyone did their little part it all adds up. Every little bit helps. "

What inspired you and your wife to certify Posana as a green business and adopt sustainable practices?
I was a classically trained chef who moved to Asheville and became a realtor. In 2004 the Asheville board of realtors started a course to provide knowledge for local realtors about buildings that were green built, which was through the local realtors green building association which certified homes. At the time, Asheville constituted 95 percent of the green buildings in the state; it was very forward thinking. I helped that [course] form: through training and working with the home builders association.

Right before my wife and I decided to open our own restaurant, we took a trip to Los Angeles where we dined at a certified green restaurant. This was inspiring. When we opened Posana there was not a single other green certified restaurant in North Carolina.

After all this time that we invested into thinking about eco choices surrounding the restaurant, we believed a third-party certification would help explain our sustainability practices to the public. So we decided to join the green restaurant association. The procedure to get certified is very rigorous. You need to get a certain number of points in six different categories, including having ZERO styrofoam.

"We divert approximately 85 percent of our trash by weight into recycling or composting."

What are your sustainability practices?
Posana has robust recycling and composting programs. We divert approximately 85 percent of our trash by weight into recycling or composting. The highest percentage by weight is compost by far [Posana uses Danny’s dumpsters for compost], then recycling and cardboard, and the smallest percentage is trash— Posana produces two small trash bags everyday.

As far as plastic, Posana’s biggest plastic waste comes from chemical containers [e.g., cleaning supplies] and gallon jugs of food and drink. We try to buy everything in five gallon jugs [bulk] so that we have less plastic packaging; we also ensure that the jugs are recyclable and get to the recycling bin. All of our takeout is given in compostable containers* [Posana uses cornstarch-based bioplastics], including compostable bags. We avoid all plastic water bottles, and for the sparkling water we use recyclable glass bottles of Mountain Valley Spring Water, an Asheville local water distributor. Before water was readily available, we filtered city water and made our own water bottles, which prevented the packaging and shipping required for water bottles coming from non-local businesses.

We also work hard to institute other sustainable methods beyond waste and plastic reduction. We buy as locally as possible in order to avoid the fossil fuels required to transport items and the extra packaging that’s used to ship food far distances [which reduces plastic because plastic is the primary packaging material]. Our seafood is from the east coast and sustainably raised, as well as the majority of our meats— mostly from local farms. We give our cooking
oil to Blue Ridge Biofuels to convert into clean-burning biodiesel. The secondary product of this conversion, liquid glycerine, is made into liquid soap, which we then use at Posana. A few of our other sustainable tricks: the hardwood floors at Posana were made from reclaimed wood from a barn in Haywood county, we use LED bulbs, an electric water heater, and water filtration. If we ever renovate, we try to use someone local to avoid the environmental cost [including loads of plastic packaging] of shipping materials.

Posana doesn't have a ton of food waste, but we have worked with Food Connection in the past, and always make sure to compost.

So what actually ends up in the landfill at Posana?
Certain printed materials, some bubble wrap and shipping peanuts, plastic wrap film which food is often wrapped in, and garbage that people leave.

What have been the hurdles?
The cost of things; we are constantly negotiating with purveyors about prices and increasing sustainability. At some point you just have to make the decision to do the right thing then get comfortable with that.

The legal system does not facilitate plastic and waste reduction efforts. The USDA does not allow farmers and producers to reuse egg flats, cartons, and boxes that have already been used to deliver items; in essence they become single-use containers, which creates a ton of waste. To illustrate this issue: when Posana used to do brunch, we would go through approximately 8 flats (2.5 dozen eggs per flat) of eggs per week. There were about 7 flats in each case so we were going through approximately 224 flats of eggs per month. Posana only did brunch twice per week, so other more breakfast-oriented restaurants may be creating four times that amount of waste. We also get a huge number of boxes everyday: cardboard, wax-covered, and more.

It would be great if this material could somehow be reused. Perhaps if ASAP brought the containers back to the farmers to reuse or if we figured out a system where the containers were not thrown away after one use. Beyond legality, many of these decisions come down to ease and lack of systems in place — delivery workers are already at capacity and to ask them to redeliver boxes and flats would be a further burden on them.

"No matter where you are, ask for your suppliers to have bulk products."

Is it more expensive to run your restaurant sustainably?
This is a hard question because it’s not a yes or no answer. Definitely all of the compostable materials are more expensive. Compostable items are 2.5-3 times more than the cost of Styrofoam. A case of 1,000 compostable cups cost upwards of $110 [a case of 1,000 styrofoam cups costs about $38].

In other ways sustainable practices can cost more up front but save money down the line. The cost of LEDs have come down and Duke Energy now provides rebates to subsidize the cost. [LEDs use 75 percent less energy than incandescent lighting, so they last longer, saving the material and energy, as well as serious cost saving—up to $300 per year.] LEDs don’t heat up the room, so you don’t need to use as much AC, saving fossil fuels and money.

How can other restaurants/businesses begin this process?
No matter where you are, ask for your suppliers to have bulk products. Using products wrapped/packaged in bulk prevents all the single-use containers involved with retail-size purchases.

Our purveyor of tea had a lot of packaging and no options for wholesale packaging. We continuously hounded the company asking them every month to please make something more conducive to restaurants and they finally did. This likely was a result of many people calling and asking for this change. It’s great when you have smaller purveyors and can connect with them about these kinds of issues. For example, from Lusty Monk, I started getting one gallon containers of mustard after a while. The retail product comes in small glass jars.

Anything else?
I know that you might just be one restaurant in one location thinking, “what am I going to do to change the issues of our world,” but if everyone did their little part it all adds up. Every little bit helps.

...

Thanks for sharing, Peter. Head over to Posana to enjoy a scrumptious cocktail and see their sustainability in action!

*For any restaurants using compostable to-go items/compostable plastics of any kind: Make sure you are ALSO providing a place where that material can go— compostable plastics must go to an industrial-level composting facility. They cannot be recycled and when they’re put in the landfill they emit methane. Danny’s Dumpster is a great local option!

By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks

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Low Waste Shopping Guide

5/9/2022

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Two of the easiest places to reduce plastics are in your kitchen pantry and in your personal care routine. And that’s why you’re lucky to live in Asheville. We have many stores that offer alternatives to plastic packaging and let you bring your own containers to refill your laundry detergent, shampoo, soap, peanut butter, flour, quinoa, and SO much more.

According to the Bulk is Green Council, the average shopping cart of 10 plastic products refilled over a year keeps 118 pieces of packaging out of the landfill. That means, a family of 4 could eliminate 472 pieces of packaging. If every resident in Buncombe County switched to buying bulk, we could eliminate 3 million pieces of packaging from landing in our landfill. Since packaging accounts for 40 percent of all plastic produced, eliminating some (extra credit: try for all) of your packaging can drastically shrink the pile of plastic waste you create by the end of the year.

Peruse our low waste local shopping guide to find out where you can get bulk food, personal care items, and cleaning supplies. All of these places are BYOC friendly – bring your own container. Personally, I like to reuse glass jars and plastic tubs for bulk food items and cleaning items. I use old shampoo/conditioner bottles for personal care supplies, as well as old yogurt tubs! So the next time you finish up some peanut butter, be sure to hold onto that jar, so you can refill it with some delicious local granola from the French Broad Food Coop!

A few of our refill locations in Asheville and what they specifically offer:

Our MYPM partner Ware provides many bulk personal care items (e.g., lotion/ shampoo/conditioner/soap/toothpaste tablets) and home items (e.g., laundry detergent/dish soap/cleaning spray), as well as some more fun zero plastic products. You can bring your own container or use one of Ware’s free reusable containers.
To The Brim Refill Store also offers bath and body products, as well as cleaning products.
The French Broad Food Co-op and West Village Market offer extensive bulk food options, including grains, nuts, flours, herbs and spices, teas and coffees, freshly ground peanut and almond butter, and more! Other grocery stores, such as Whole Foods and Hopey, also offer many bulk items.

It’s certainly not easy to completely avoid plastic packaging, but shopping in bulk with a reusable container is one of the easiest ways to cut your plastic waste.

Use our shopping guide to keep plastic packaging out of your life and off of our planet!

By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks

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Ware: Plastic and Waste Cognizance

5/4/2022

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Asheville is full of ordinary people meeting tough environmental challenges with creativity.

There is so much to learn from Gillie Roberts, the owner of Ware, a sustainability shop in downtown Asheville. Her shop is a great example of how any business—whether a restaurant, retail shop, real estate office, or brewery— can reduce their waste. Gillie is also full of wisdom on how we can reduce waste in our personal lives and the hurdles that prevent us from moving away from landfill waste.

Watch Gillie’s interview to learn about sustainability, plastic waste reduction, and find out how Ware can help you divert material from the landfill.

This feature is part of our larger 2022 Mind Your Plastic May Campaign; join the Race2Reduce challenge here.

By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks

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May 19th, 2022

Weaning off the Work Waste

Posana's Taste for Zero Waste: An Interview with Peter Pollay

Low Waste Shopping Guide

Ware: Plastic and Waste Cognizance

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