But until the consumers demand it, it's easy to just keep doing what you've been doing all along.ĬAREY: Dreisbach's idea comes with renewed interest in reusables. If enough consumers demanded it, then they would figure it out. WAYNE FENTON: I'll just say that there are hurdles to be overcome to be able to make it work. He says ReCirculation has a greater potential to work if it involves local manufacturers only - circulating the reusable goods within the community. Wayne Fenton, Durham's assistant solid waste manager, helped facilitate the project. The containers are put in recycling bins and recovered. Last year, she partnered with the city of Durham Solid Waste Management and Sonoco Recycling for a pilot demonstration. So we think to ourselves, what if durable, reusable packaging could be used again and again?ĬAREY: Dreisbach wants to harness the existing recycling infrastructure to create a new system - a local economy where durable goods circulate endlessly between consumers and companies. Altogether, Dreisbach says they have stopped more than 20,000 disposable containers from ending up in a landfill.ĭREISBACH: GreenToGo - really, it's an experiment in which we demonstrate possibility of a different way of doing things. There are over 800 active users who pay a small membership fee. It will ultimately save them money to do it.ĬAREY: So far, 29 businesses in Durham, including restaurants, schools and product producers, are packaging goods in these reusable containers. And Land says doing away with disposable bags and containers is worth the extra effort. But it's heavy, and it doesn't often get recycled.ĬAREY: From pasta to hand soap, everything in the store is package-free. Land Store's, Land packs goods in reusable glass jars stocked and washed by GreenToGo. They even pick them up by bicycle to keep their carbon footprint low. Like the classic milkman model, GreenToGo will collect, wash, sanitize and redistribute the containers so restaurants can use them repeatedly. Then they simply drop the dirty box into a collection bin. Customers take their meal home in a reusable box. Dreisbach's own project, called GreenToGo, provides durable takeout containers to Durham restaurants. Other zero-waste services have popped up around the country, like Portland's Go Box, or Usefull, a coffee cup collective in Boston. And then we generally throw them away.ĬAREY: So in 2010, she zeroed in on reusing takeout containers. She's made it her personal goal to put an end to single-use packaging, which she calls the take and trash economy.ĭREISBACH: Right now we have sort of the status quo. Some nightcrawler containers made of plastic.ĬAREY: Dreisbach is a self-proclaimed trash junkie. And we've got a couple of - ah, fellow fisher person.ĭREISBACH. These are signs of opportunity.ĬRYSTAL DREISBACH: This is a beautiful one. TERESA CAREY, BYLINE: Crystal Dreisbach rummages through a recycling bin set on the curb by one of her neighbors.ĬAREY: For most people, the items in the bin are just trash - not for Dreisbach. The founder of a nonprofit in North Carolina wants us to reuse all durable packaging - from shoeboxes to yogurt containers. Leiderman does our theme music - but a new word might be added to this litany. Reduce, reuse, recycle, the way we repeat the phrase B.J.
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