November 16th, 2009

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

If you haven’t seen it, please take a look at our story about America Recycles Day. Find out just how much energy we can save by recycling, a no-brainer if ever there was one.

Last year, a Harris poll found that 91 percent of Americans reported that they recycled. But that figure seemed really high, given the low recycling rates in some cities, like Houston, Dallas, Detroit and Indianapolis. Those were some of the slackers revealed in a study of municipal recycling in 2008 that showed major US cities varied wildly in the amount of recyclables they collected, from San Francisco’s near 70 percent to Houston’s under 3 percent.

Plastie bottle spewing

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September 28th, 2009

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

This month, Starbucks locations in the United Kingdom and Ireland began serving “100% Starbucks Shared Planet and Fairtrade Certified Espresso” to the local clientele –an average of two million people per week. So figure that’s a lot of cappuccino contributing to better wages and working conditions for small-scale farmers.

Starbucks, already the largest producer of fair trade coffee in the world, is making an even bigger promise: In partnership with Fairtrade Labeling Organizations International (FLO), the company intends for every espresso-based drink to be Starbucks Fairtrade-certified within the next six month at all Starbucks locations in Europe.

Starbucks Fairtrade Certified Espresso is grown mostly in Latin America, specifically Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. Their farming communities will immediately benefit financially from the transition, according to Starbucks, which estimates the switch will contribute over $4 million annually to these smaller farmers.

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