On the Road - Liquid peanuts plus the Governor

Ah HA! So there is a way to melt packing peanuts. I saw them turning into gelatin Monday at Florida’s annual Recycle Florida Today conference happening this week in St. Petersburg. I admit, there was satisfaction watching the chubby noodles going away, like watching the Wicked Witch of the West disappear from OZ into a puddle. A company called Blue Earth Solutions holds the patent for StyroSolve. The product transforms the expanded polystyrene (EPS) peanuts into a gel called Polygel. The chemistry is still polystyrene which can be sold and reconstructed. It becomes a closed loop system for reusing polystyrene.

I’ve found it boosts motivation when the Governor drops by. Governor Charlie Crist came to rally Florida’s recycling leaders to encourage them as they face a major challenge to recycle 75% of Florida’s solid waste by 2020 as required in the state’s new energy bill he will sign later this month. The room was packed with county, city and private enterprise recycling coordinators all tuned in for advice on how they are to reach that target as funding cuts coincide with ramped up goals.

Toyota’s system for recycling the packaging from new parts during manufacturing, is so thoroughly designed that recycle bins are placed at the precise height and to the right or to the left of where a part is installed on the vehicle.

Rooms-to-Go has made a business out of recycling the packaging cardboard. Interesting that while business is down in furniture, business is pretty good in cardboard recycling.

The day was full of take-aways, but the story of the Governor’s junior high dance was a foretelling. In 1971 Charlie Crist, as the President of Student Council at his junior high school here in St. Petersburg, came up with a project – to influence the City of St. Petersburg to begin a recycling program (this would be the year following the first Earth Day). To raise money, SC held a dance and made $100 that young Charlie Crist delivered to the City Council, seed money for the city’s first four recycling centers. Today Governor Crist delivered the same encouragement; I think recycling coordinators are wishing for the check.