Breakfast with Common Ground Compost and Blueland

Recently I hosted a fun and informative breakfast with Blueland and Common Ground Compost. I gathered a few of my favorite women to hear more about recycling, composting, and all the ways we as individuals can help the environment. I consider myself very enviromentally savvy. I compost my food scraps. I recycle my soft plastics at Whole Foods. I use Blueland refillable, non toxic cleaners in my home. I carry a glass water bottle everywhere I go. I learned I still I have so far to go!!! Will from Common Ground Compost’s talk was truly eye opening, and inspired me and my guests to do more.

Here were some of my biggest takeaways from Will’s talk:

“Away” Doesn’t Exis

When you throw something away it’s not really “away.” Garbage sits in a landfill for an incredibly long time. Recycling takes a lot of energy and should actually be a last resort. Think of these “5 Rs” Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle

Do Not Put Food in a Landfill. Compost Instead

Food breaks down really slowly in a landfill and releases methane gas which is a Greenhouse Gas much more potent than CO2. In a compost pile food breaks down with oxygen and releases nutrients back into soil.

Don’t Bother with Compostable Plastic Bags

Compostable plastic bags will just end up in landfill! They get sorted out by a machine called “The Tiger” that cannot tell them apart from regular plastic bags. The best option for your food scraps? A paper bag or a nylon one you can rinse out and reuse.

Recycling Plastics

All plastics (hard and soft) need to be clean, dry and free of food residue in order to be recycled. However, when you recycle plastic it can only be used to make a less quality plastic. If you recycle 20 plastic bottles you will only get 19 new plastic bottles. A plastic bottle becomes a plastic bag and so on and so on which is why we have to keep making more plastic. The best option is to eliminate plastic use all together.

Coffee Cups Are Not Recyclable!

I was shocked to hear that coffee cups cannot be recycled due to the lining on the inside of them. A much better option is to carry your own reusable cups like these!

After Will spoke Blueland founder Sarah Paiji Yoo told us all about what compelled her to start Blueland. After Sarah became a mom she was horrified to learn that all the plastic she was throwing away was contaminating our water supply and generating hundreds of microplastics in the water and food she was giving her baby. In her search to reduce her plastic use she found it impossible to find daily household products not packaged in plastic. Sarah founded Blueland because she truly believes we shouldn’t have to sacrifice a clean home for a clean planet. Blueland makes being eco friendly easy with innovative products in reusable packaging that are convenient, effective and affordable.

Sarah demonstrated Blueland’s refillable tablets ( so fun to watch them fizz) for us and even treated one lucky guests to a full set of Blueland’s products. I personally love everything about Blueland and cannot wait until I can clean every part of my home ( dishes? laundry?) their products!

No breakfast would be complete without…breakfast. Once again my guests were treated to a plant based spread by Chef Carlin Greenstein including late summer tomato toasts, plum scones, and an apple, fennel and endive salad. What a wonderful morning it was!