January 2023 Bugs Eat Styrofoam
EASY (with some prep), GOOD FOR GROUPS, GOOD FOR CHILDREN AND CLASSROOMS, GOOD FOR HOUSEHOLDS
Materials: Container with lid, wheat germ (edible bedding for the worms), slice of apple or other fruit, Superworms or Mealworms, styrofoam pieces, a pinch of powdered milk is optional.
While styrofoam (polystyrene) has been phased out of a lot of packaging, it is still a pain to recycle, and most of it ends up in landfill or the ocean. Luckily, we don't get a lot of it coming into our house, and take out containers, packing material, meat trays and more can be easily composted at home. Best of all, both the compost and the worms themselves contain NO TOXINS, they are food safe. You can feed the worms to your pets and the compost to your garden. More information about safety and the science behind it is here https://www.popsci.com/mealworms-can-safely-devour-plastics/
1. Poke holes in the lid of your container to give your worms fresh air. Not too big, or they might come out! You can use a quart sized food container, a bucket with a lid, or head to the thrift store to find some used bins. As always, don't buy new plastic for this or any other project. Size your container to the amount of Styrofoam you want them to process at once.
2. Sprinkle a 1-inch layer of the wheat germ or other bedding in the tray and add the powdered milk if you have it to give them food until they start eating the polystyrene, then add styrofoam pieces and a slice of fruit for moisture. Leave plenty of room for the worms.
3. Add your worms! They are sold at pet stores and online. If you find Superworms, buy those, they are more voracious than the Mealworms. You will need at least 50 for a small (25 oz.) container, do not be afraid to order 100 worms. The worms are actually grubs and need to be crowded or they will pupate and become beetles that do not eat styrofoam. The grubs can last for up 18 months but they must stay in physical contact with a mess of other grubs.
4. Watch the progress. They will start making wormholes in about a week and a layer of brown compost will build up. You will see small white bits of styrofoam in the castings, but don't worry because they REEAT their castings and get rid of the remaining plastic.
GO DEEPER: Join or organize a waterway or highway cleanup and handle the haul of styrofoam - AND/OR - contact the businesses that send it to you and ask them to change their packaging.
Activism, sustainable recycling
December 2022 - Send it Back
The official beginning of the North American holiday buying rush is upon us. Everything will arrive entombed in plastic and cardboard, enough that our garbage and recycling bins will be bursting at the seams. Some of us already use eco friendly wrappings, buy sustainable gifts and generally buy less but those little habits won’t counteract all of the packaging everything comes in.
So I’m sending it back. From now until Jan 1, I’m sending every Amazon plastic mailer back to them and want as many people as I can reach to do the same. If you have a steady source of plastic from one company, send it back to them. Dave’s Killer Bread is going to be getting a regular delivery of melted bread bags, with info on why I’m sending it.
Will this affect anything at Amazon, or Costco, or Walmart? If it does, it will be because the scale was impossible to ignore. I’m thinking the head of sustainability would be a good recipient of the barrage. It’s especially galling that they send us garbage then instruct us on how to properly recycle it. Mention that, if you feel like it. Tell her she knows almost none of the plastic they send us will be recycled, they should just say ‘put directly in trash’.
With effective activism, we can market the changes we need to see. Start saving bags to mail back to companies, send them back in their own bag, or melt them into a flat piece and put in the mail as-is, like a post card. Tell them what you want, and that you don’t want this particular pile of trash. Get your people involved - family, neighborhood, church, friends, schools. People are hungry to solve this problem. Share on social. Forward this email. Set up a collection point on your front porch. Make noise, make it your mission to hound retailers into making changes. Make it a holiday tradition.
They send you garbage then expect you to handle it in a way that makes them look good. Send it back.
Take Effective Action
This works. I made a big change with one letter I wrote in 1983. I wrote it on a deconstructed Wright’s Silver Polish box asking them to consider their cardboard waste. A year after I sent it, I got a handwritten note from the third generation owner of the company, thanking me and letting me know about the changes. He also told me he taught marketing at a local university and he taught that letter I wrote on his own box as an effective marketing idea. I saved some trees. The first time I saw the new jars, without the boxes, I was so happy.