Go RISE Up vs. Go Green

Going Green can be a little to broad and often times confusing so I wanted to provide an easy alternative, Go RISE Up. Comparing my companies mission vs. the popular phrase "Going Green" and the sometimes annoying advertising message that "Going Green" is easy. Everyday you see another list of The TOP 8 WAYS TO GO GREEN or THE TOP 10 WAYS TO GREEN UP YOUR LIFE and so on. Are these list working? If so where are all the reusable bags at the checkout counter, where are all the solar panels in your neighborhood and where our all the compost bins in our back yards? Obviously, the catch phrase "Going Green" is an attention getter as marketers would have discontinued using the phrase years ago if it did not draw and keep your attention. The problem is going green is not necessarily easy or cheap and the term is vague.
Go RISE UP at face value is a message we teach to schools and businesses to get them up and participating in recycling everyday. Go RISE Up is a message that encourages an individual or a community to not only recycle but to close the loop. By closing the loop I mean we encourage people to buy recycled goods, demand that companies they buy from recycle, demand that companies manufacture goods that can be recycled, to make sure your school, town, or business is recycling and to make sure local markets for recycling flourish. The last part is imperative if we don't want to send recyclables to landfills or 5000 miles across the ocean to be recycled due to a lack in demand for recyclables.

So at the end of the day if you "Go Green" I am sure you are doing something worth while and very important. I guess we all have our passions and ours is to recycle and therefor we will continue to push the message to Go RISE Up!

Made in the USA

If you are reading this post than I am sure you are aware that the recycling market is experiencing a major funk. Municipalities are loosing their "shirts" on recycling the same items they were making record revenues on just a year ago. The quality and the amount of the recyclables are not to blame for the slump. The demand for actual recyclables across the world is the culprit. The problem is directly related to our countries economic downturn, drastic declines in consumer spending and therefor our decrease demand for foreign goods coming from China. China is the biggest user/buyer of our recyclables. Surprised. Our biggest export is our discarded paper to China. The richest women in China is the head of a recycling company, so you can imagine how much that company relies on our demand for what those recyclables are made into. As a country of consumers who are not consuming, it does not take long for the chain reaction of demand for our recyclables in China to dry up. When demand for their goods decreases, fewer recyclables are being bought by their factories. That is where we are today.
As people in the US are out of work and looking for jobs, could their garbage and recyclables be their best bet for strengthening their local economies? Absolutely.
We need to invest as a country in local markets and demand for our recyclables A single plastic bottle or recycled piece of paper can travel all the way around the world before coming back in the form of a new product due to our reliance on foreign manufacturing. I know that the best way forward for everyone is a global economy where we buy and sell goods and services across the globe. What I propose is each country initiates a pact to incorporate recyclables into their countries economies. This not only is a 'green" thing to do but will create a lot of jobs and local revenue when you local recycling center has local buyers who are the end users of the recyclables. This investment in a locale recycling infrastructures would not eliminate the global sales and shipping of recyclables but would significantly curb the stockpiling of recyclables due to the fact our limited manufacturing industry in the USA has not Incorporated our recyclables into the ingredients of the products and goods we are manufacturing currently.