One of the most common questions I get is, “Why should I pay for a composting service when I can compost on my own?” And my answer is, “If you can compost on your own, you should!” Many people don’t have the time, space or inclination to compost — that’s why our business exists —
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Watch how organizations like Fabscrap and All Together Now PA are supporting sustainable clothing designers like Lobo Mau increasing textile recycling to build a circular textile industry in Philadelphia. Read the full cover story here. Grid and Fabscrap are also hosting a live panel discussion on the cover story on Jan 19th, register here.
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Lindsey Troop is the regional manager for Fabscrap Philadelphia. Photography by Drew Dennis. Fashion Forward By Samantha Wittchen Jordan Haddad sat in his 1,800 square-foot studio in South Philly’s BOK. The waste was piling up. His local sustainable fashion company, Lobo Mau, had been saving fabric scraps from all of the clothing it designed and
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I’m wearing spandex right now. No, I’m not at my computer in an Olympic leotard or even Lululemon athleisure. I’m wearing Levi’s jeans, and though they are almost all cotton, they have about 3% spandex, a kind of plastic, woven into them. The unfortunate fact that they have plastic in them prevents them from being
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Mulch, compost and wood chips are piled high on the concrete grounds of the Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center in West Fairmount Park. On a typical day at the center, city residents fill out the sign-in sheet and waiver form and collect whatever organic materials they need from the scattered piles with shovels and buckets
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In the lower underbellies of BOK, a 340,000 square-foot co-maker space in South Philly, there is a labyrinth of glass—walls of emerald greens and blues, and shelf after shelf of clear jars, beer and soda bottles. The glass is all empty, pre-used, awaiting its new future wherein Bottle Underground, the one and only glass collection
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It’s hard to believe that only six months ago I wrote an article for Grid lamenting the incredible proliferation of single-use to-go containers due to take-out food during the pandemic and wishing some entrepreneur would come up with a system for reusable containers in restaurants. A lot has changed since then. Of course, many of
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In January 2019, Grid ran a cover that read “Dumpster Fire.” The article, entitled “A Big Waste,” was about the fact that Philadelphia was burning 50% of its recyclables. Keep in mind this was well before the pandemic, so there were no excuses of extraordinary volume or of a depleted workforce. What the article revealed
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By Shari Hersh, Ron Whyte and Emma Wu While many people are experiencing pandemic fatigue, understandably eager for a return to normalcy, the COVID-19 crisis remains far from over. India is experiencing a nightmarish second wave that has led to overcrowded hospitals and critical shortages of lifesaving medical equipment. In its neighboring country Nepal, the
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In the United states, hospitals produce almost 6 million tons of garbage each year. The pandemic hasn’t helped this already existing problem, globally, between late July and December 2020, volunteers collected more than 107,000 pieces of PPE from beaches and waterways, and this is likely a vast undercount of what was and remains out there.
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In my February Grid commentary on the glut of single use takeout food containers during the pandemic, I expressed hope that local innovators and entrepreneurs would develop reusable container systems. I’m excited to report that my hopes have been answered—or at least they were for a moment On March 22, 2021 Philadelphia-area Indian food chain
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