Category: Recycling

From all of us at IRN, we hope you’re enjoying a safe, healthy, and fun summer.  Northern New England is at its most beautiful, our hills clothed in fresh green under a bright blue sky, a profusion of flowers and colors in every garden.

IRN’s reuse program continues to expand and to make a difference – for organizations that find themselves with excess furniture across the U.S., and for needy children, families, and communities around the world.  Here’s a quick summary of IRN’s year-to-date results.

From January to June IRN facilitated reuse of nearly 68,000 pieces of furniture.  We worked with 18 K12 schools, 22 colleges and universities, 3 healthcare systems, and 18 corporations, spread across the U.S. in 23 states.  Recipients included 40 different nonprofit organizations serving in 18 U.S. states and 21 countries around the world.  We provided needy schools and communities with  some 10,000 desks, 7,000 tables, 31,000 chairs and other seating, 2,000 beds, 4,000 mattresses, 2,500 dressers and wardrobes, plus file cabinets, storage cabinets, and hundreds of other items.

You can click here for a PDF of this chart:  Project & Destination Map, First Half 2018

But it’s not IRN who’s really responsible for this success.  We’re only the matchmaker.  The real stars of this program are the hundreds of organizations nationwide who have called us because they understand that throwing usable furniture away is the wrong thing to do, when millions of people are so very much in need.  Equally so are the dozens of nonprofit organizations staffed by dedicated, selfless people, many of them volunteers, who have given a big part of their lives to helping less fortunate people and communities.

If you have projects that will yield surplus furniture later this summer and fall – and you want to save some money, have some fun, and do some good in the world – we hope you’ll get in touch.  You can reach us with a click right here.

May and June are IRN’s busiest months.  On Monday, June 4 we kicked off a two-week project at Iowa State, loaded mattresses from Montclair State in New Jersey, and fired up two K-12 projects in Colorado.  By the end of the week we’d handled those and eight more projects:  corporate loadouts in California and Massachusetts, two more K-12 projects in Colorado and Massachusetts, a hospital in Colorado, and three more colleges in Illinois, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Click here for a PDF of this information

In the course of the five days IRN loaded 10,501 pieces including nearly 2,000 student desks and work tables, 4,300 chairs, 700 dressers and wardrobes, 525 bookshelves and storage cabinets, 720 beds, and 1,200 mattresses.

The shipments were provided to eight different charities, and ultimately distributed in 10 different countries in Africa, the Mideast, the Caribbean, and Central America, and to U.S. nonprofits in Colorado, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, and New York.  The large number of shipments to Jamaica were destined for a warehouse from which one of our charitable partners distributes relief and development supplies to countries throughout the Caribbean.

Questions?  Comments?  Use this form to get in touch.

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This isn’t really about Pepsico.  They’re just a nucleus around which to wrap a question, one I think about almost every day:  If a product doesn’t contribute to the sustainability of our species or culture, is there any meaning to making the product “sustainably”?

Oct. 17, 2016 — PepsiCo, Inc. today announced an ambitious global sustainability agenda designed to foster business growth in a way that … creat(es) a healthier relationship between people and food, … contribute(s) to a more sustainable global food system and help(s) make local communities more prosperous.

Here is what Pepsico makes and sells, the “flagship” products that make them “uniquely Pepsico”.

Soft drinks, more than $35Billion a year:  Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Diet Mountain Dew, Mist Twst, Pepsi Zero Sugar.  Other beverages, $15Billion:  Gatorade, Tropicana, Aquafina.  Convenience food, about $25Billion:  Lays, Doritos, Cheetos, Ruffles, Tostitos, Fritos.

Not long ago I attended a talk by Pepsico’s global head of sustainability.  She was an accomplished professional with a huge resume.  She talked about Pepsico’s many environmental initiatives in energy and water use, their efforts to promote recycling, use of lightweight packaging, and more.  She was a knowledgeable and engaging speaker.

But…

Here’s nutrition information for those flagship products:

Sugar, chemical sweeteners, fat, salt, caffeine.  Those are what define Pepsico products.  They are all bad for us.  They contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attack, sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes.  They are all, to a greater or lesser extent, addictive.

Which is to say, with very few exceptions, Pepsico’s contribution to “a healthier relationship between people and food” consists of selling us food and drink that not only do us no good, but are demonstrably bad for us, and are addictive into the bargain.  A huge step we could all take toward “a healthier relationship between people and food” would be never to eat or drink a Pepsico product again.

That fact didn’t come up in the talk I heard.

It’s also hard to miss the fact that Pepsico’s flagship products are sold in single-serve disposable packages.  I’ve eaten lots of Doritos, and I don’t remember ever having the opportunity to recycle the bag.  Not once.  I’ve gone on my share of road trips, and I don’t remember having the opportunity to recycle a Pepsi bottle or can at a gas station or convenience store.  I appreciate the fact that plastics are lightweight packaging, and that Pepsi’s beverage containers are recyclable where recycling programs exist.  But the most effective way to get plastic bottles and aluminum cans out of the trash and roadside litter and into recycling bins is the bottle bill, and Pepsico is unwavering in its opposition to any and every bottle bill.

That fact didn’t come up in the talk I heard.

How can Pepsico say they want to “help make local communities more prosperous” when their products contribute to serious health problems and huge healthcare costs?  What is Pepsico’s true message when their products are sold in packaging that pollutes the environment, and they oppose the most effective means to change that situation?  What’s the point of promoting their commitment to energy conservation when they’re content to see millions of plastic bottles and bags – pure, highly refined petroleum – dumped onto landfills and roadsides?

These questions didn’t come up in the talk I heard.

Of course, it’s not just Pepsico, not just Mountain Dew and Doritos.  It’s thousands of companies and tens of thousands of products that we eat, drink, and use every day.  Our economic system is based on consumption, and our culture embodies that system through and through.  Sustainability means making thoughtful and informed choices about what we eat, drink, and use to support our daily lives.  Unfortunately, many if not most of those choices would tend to put large, powerful corporations out of business.  They will fight to keep that from happening.  They have to.  They owe that fight to their shareholders.

So they’ll keep pushing products we don’t need, foods that make us sick, “must-have” colors and styles, “new” shades of lipstick and scents of cologne, and they’ll keep working to convince us to buy the latest iPhone and high-def TV.  And they’ll put a gloss of “Sustainability” over them, reducing energy and water use and hyping “zero waste” factories.

But in the end, you can’t be serious about Sustainability if the foundation of your business consists of products that people don’t need or don’t need more of, that make people sick, that are packaged and promoted in ways that damage the environment.  You just can’t.

So yes, reduce energy and water use, reduce factory waste, put up solar panels.  Call it being more efficient.  Call it being economical.  Call it common sense.  Just don’t call it being Sustainable.  Because it’s not.

I wrote this a couple of years ago, and I try to remember to put it up again every year at Mothers Day.  I know that Moms differ in their talents, and their caring, and their concern and involvement, but when Moms get it right, there are no better or more important people in the world.  My Mom – Patty, PWL, Patrishka – got it right.  To Patty and to all good Moms, you’re the best.

I love my Mom, and if you know my Mom you will know why.  She lived on her own until a couple of years ago, but then she gave up her driver’s license and started to get lonely and sad.  So now she lives with me.

But this isn’t a story about my Mom; it’s a story about Moms.

Because now I get to be a Mom to my Mom.  And being a Mom is something else.

Here is what you get to do, if you’re a Mom:

You prepare three meals a day.  You make sure they’re nutritious.  You make sure they’re interesting.  You plan and go shopping.  If you’re not going to be home for a meal, you prepare something ahead, or leave instructions for the daycare lady.

You prepare and serve food in clean pots and dishes, and then they’re dirty.  You wash them, dry them, put them away, take them out and start over.  Over and over and over, day after day after day.

You vacuum.  You dust.  You clean sinks and toilets.  And then someone tracks in some dirt, leaves a soap ring in the bathroom, spills a glass of juice.  And so you start over.  These jobs do not end.  You do them over and over and over.  They are not rewarding.

You wash clothes.  And sheets and pillowcases, and towels and washcloths.  You fold them and put them away.  People get them dirty, so you do it again.  And again.  And again.  You make the doctor’s and dentist’s appointments, and make sure people get there.  You make sure there’s money in the bank, and pay the bills.

You don’t get any sick days.  You can have a miserable cold, or the flu, or a broken leg, but being a Mom doesn’t go away.  Those people who rely on you, they still rely on you, and they are lost without you.  You can have one foot in the grave, but the other will be pushing the vacuum cleaner or going to the store.

You are always on your game.  If someone is down, you find a way to make them laugh.  If someone is sick, you find a way to make them feel better.  If someone needs to talk, you listen.  If someone needs company, you talk.  You don’t get to have a bad day, because someone else is relying on you to make their day good.  You don’t get to show anger, or frustration, or impatience.  You are the rock on which all waves break.

You compromise your career.  You tell your boss, I cannot make that meeting, I don’t have coverage; I cannot make that trip, I can’t be away that long.  You arrive at work later, and you leave earlier.  You try to do work at home, but then someone at home needs your attention.  Other people at work, who are not Moms, their careers stay on fast track.  Yours stagnates.

My own Mom gave up 25 years of her life, and her career, to be a Mom.  She was on course to be one of the first women executives at Time, when Time was the most powerful media company in America.  She chucked that, to cook, and wash dishes, and clean the house, and do the shopping, and make the doctor’s appointments, and wash underwear.  To be a Mom.

I have learned many things, being a Mom to my Mom.

I have learned that being a Mom is the most frustrating, boring, stupid, repetitive, tedious, day-to-day the least rewarding thing I have ever done.

I have learned that being a Mom to someone I love is the most satisfying, valuable, by far the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever done.

I have learned that Moms – not me, but real Moms, to real kids – are the most the most generous, loving, caring, thoughtful, capable, the most fantastic people in the world.

To my Mom – Patty – and to all Moms on Mother’s Day:  Thank you, you are the best.