Back to Article Index
RECYCLED PRODUCTS TRADE SHOW
by JANE BOGNER
SUNDAY, March 21, 2004

I recently attended the Recycled Products Trade show in Sacramento. Since the passage of AB939 in the early 1990s, Californians have been diverting waste by recycling more and more. Making new aluminum cans from recycled aluminum is simple, however, other materials such as plastic, rubber and building materials are rarely recycled into new products.

I’ll list a few of my favorite discoveries here and put a new Buy Recycled list on our website. For those of you who do not surf the web, we can mail you a copy.

Office Products

Many cities and companies have “buy recycled” policies. Office Depot has a Green Book of environmentally preferable products. They will track your ‘recycled’ purchases and issue reports for your company. Visit your local store or www.bsd.officedeport.com.

Recycled Products Cooperative offers free membership to any public or private business for purchasing recycled paper. They will have an office products store on-line in the fall. Contact www.recycledproducts.org or 800 694-8355.

Boise Cascade showed off their SPLOX - Speed Loading Box. This easy-to-open corrugated box is loaded with 2500 sheets of recycled paper. A handle is built in for easy lifting and there are no ream wrappers to throw away. Contact www.BoiseSPLOX.com.

Green Building

As I wrote in my last column, green building is hot. Simply, it’s building in a sustainable manner. I picked up a nine-page list of green building features incorporated in the Joe Serna Jr. California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters in Sacramento. Items included were recyclable carpet tiles covering access flooring. They also used recycled ceiling tiles, recycled rubber (tire) flooring for the exercise area and recycled fabric in the furniture and cubicle panels.

Alameda County has a Green Building program. Contact www.stopwaste.org or 510 614-1699. Building managers may want to purchase a copy of the Bay Area Facilities Management Guide or Building Owners and Managers Guide. Contact www.commercialbuildingguides.com or 408 975-9300.

Baltix of Minnesota is making office furniture from wheat, sunflower and soy straw. The boards are called “woodstalk.” Other materials incorporated into their furniture include recycled plastic from milk jugs, recycled newsprint, and post industrial scrap aluminum. Contact www.baltix.com or 763-210-0155.

BioBased systems offers soy-based foam insulation with no formaldehyde. Contact www.biobased.net or 8700 803-51879.

One fun item at the show was a booth filled with lamps, baskets, CD racks and small tables made from recycled chopsticks. Contact www.kwytzakraft.com or 916 760-4188.

Greener Earth Marketing featured biodegradable plates and to-go boxes made from sugarcane pulp. Contact: www.sinlessbuying.com or 415 279-3221.

Two companies were featuring recycled Earth Day items. Contact Mitchell Fine at www.directaccessintl.com or 800 811-7383 for T-shirts and tote bags. Weisenbach also offers Earth Day items. Contact www.recycledproducts.com or 800 778-5420. Don’t forget to register on line for Vallejo’s Earth Day at www.VALCORErecycling.org or 645-8258.

OTHER WASTE CONFERENCES

The Rice Straw Products Exposition will be held on August 9 in Sacramento. California has banned the burning of agriculture waste (rice straw, tree prunings) to improve our air quality. This Expo will feature new products including rice fiberboard for green building. Guest speaker is U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. Contact: Jeff Lindberg, Air Resources Board at 916 324-8622 or jlindber@arb.ca.gov.

The Deconstruction and Building Materials Reuse Conferences will be held in Oakland on September 1-3. This conference includes a vendor show and tours. Contact www.decon04.com or 415 972-328.

VALCORE welcomes its newest account group: North Bay Athletic Association. They have a gymnastics program and drink lots of bottled water. They will bring these CRV bottles to VALCORE and encourage their members to donate their CRV containers to their group when they recycle at our site.

VALCORE Recycling Vice President Jane Bogner's "A Sorted Affair" is published every other week in the Times-Herald, Community Outlook Section. For recycling information call Genie Kaggerud, VALCORE Recycling manager at 645-8258 or visit www.VALCORErecycling.org.

Back to Article Index