Paper Company Finds that Green Makes Good Business Sense

Grays Harbor Paper went under in 1992, and not just jobs were lost – as families made hard choices and were forced to move, some committed suicide. 600 people in the nearby rural cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen lost their jobs. Things were bleak overall, and Bill Quigg had quite a task in front of him when he bought the company in 1993.

That’s why he decided to make a big change: the traditional paper industry wasn’t working in these small logging towns, partially because of the protected status of the endangered spotted owl, which calls the forests in this area of Washington state home. Where workers once cursed the owl for putting them out of work, Quigg saw a solution: using 100 percent recycled paper instead of cutting down trees. And, he didn’t stop there – the plant is now entirely powered by biomass fuel derived from logging waste.

Quigg isn’t doing it for the earth. It’s all about money. From Mother Jones:

“Politically I am on the right side of Genghis Khan,” says Quigg. “I’m not a lefty wacko.” Nevertheless, “We make the greenest products, and we make them with the greenest fuel,” he enthusiastically boasts. “Nobody else does that. We have the audacity to think we can change the market. If you buy local and smarter, you save a tremendous amount of fossil fuel.”

Regardless of Quigg’s motivations, Grays Harbor Paper stands to be an excellent model for green practices reviving depressed rural areas as well as green business practices in general. As other companies watch, perhaps down the line we’ll see more following the same path to being successful and eco-friendly at the same time. They’re not mutually exclusive, folks!

Link [Mother Jones]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Mmm, Roasted Plains Pronghorn Antelope! To Save a Species from Extinction, Serve it for Dinner

When you’re deciding what to cook for dinner, your first thought might not be Tennessee fainting goat, the Makah ozette potato or the Carolina Flying Squirrel. First of all, they’re endangered, which you’d think would mean we should not be eating them. Second, we’ve become accustomed to eating a somewhat narrow range of ‘acceptable’ foods even though choices for nutritious, edible meals abound far beyond what’s typically found in an American refrigerator.

Gary Paul Nabhan is compiling a list of endangered plants and animals that were once commonly eaten in America, but are now threatened or extinct in grocery stores and restaurants. From the New York Times:

Mr. Nabhan’s list, 1,080 items and growing, forms the basis of his new book, an engaging journey through the nooks and crannies of American culinary history titled “Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods” (Chelsea Green Publishing, $35).

The book tells the stories of 93 ingredients both obscure (Ny’pa, a type of salt grass) and beloved (the Black Sphinx date), along with recipes that range from the accessible (Centennial pecan pie) to the challenging (whole pit-roasted Plains pronghorn antelope).

To make the list, an animal or plant — whether American eels, pre-Civil War peanuts or Seneca hominy flint corn — has to be more than simply edible. It must meet a set of criteria that define it as a part of American culture, too. Mr. Nabhan’s book is part of a larger effort to bring foods back from the brink by engaging nursery owners, farmers, breeders and chefs to grow and use them.

The idea behind this is to increase the demand for such exotic foods, causing an increase in farmers’ desire to grow and raise them. He also wants to preserve America’s rich culinary history, which is fading away as we get used to eating the same things over and over again.

Interesting idea, but can you stomach the idea of eating something like squirrel? The only person I’ve ever known to eat squirrel is a woman who grew up very poor in an extremely backwoods part of north central Florida, and that squirrel was usually roadkill made into soup. Is your mouth watering yet?

Links [New York Times] & [Environmental Graffiti]

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons & Wikimedia Commons

Heap Some Home Cookin’ Onto Pig Piss Plastic Plates

Imagine enjoying a delicious meal at a friend’s home, noticing their nice dinnerware and complimenting them on it. “Oh, these? They’re made of pig urine!”

Agroplast of Denmark aims to put pig piss plates on the tables of restaurants and homes around the world. Cnet news has it:

The company has essentially devised a way to better commercialize urea, a compound of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen, found in urine.

Other animal waste products like manure can be inserted into the system, but pig urine is particularly interesting because it is an environmental hazard, says Peter Tøttrup, a partner at Seed Capital, a Danish venture firm that also helps the government incubate start-ups. We ran into Tøttrup at the coffee urn at the NordicGreen conference in Menlo Park, Calif., this week.

“There are 20 million pigs in Denmark, and what they do environmentally is a problem,” he said.

Agroplast sees pig waste as an eco-friendly solution to the fossil-fuel-plastic dilemma. Not only can it be used in products, it eliminates the issue of disposing of the waste. Tøttrup claims that these pig waste plastics would cost less than fossil fuel plastics, but others disagree, as historically bioplastics have been more expensive. Either way, the company advocates using pig waste in fertilizers (okay, sounds about right) lotion (getting grosser) and as a “flavor enhancer in cigarettes” (um, vomit).

Link [cnet]

Photo credit: Flickr user beelden zeggen meer

Because You Can Train Bears to Do Just About Anything: The Hockey Edition

Great FSM! This video of a bear playing hockey disturbs me on a deep level. That thing would be a monster in a hockey fight.

Bears belong in forests.

Great Jebus’s Ghost! Video- An Elepant Freakin’ Painting a Picture of Herself

Wow, this is one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in a long time. You have to watch this video of an elephant painting a picture of himself. So. Very. Amazing.

I couldn’t help it tearing up at the end. Wow.

Animals vs. Humans: Humanity Gets Pwned

It’s no stretch to say that in the ongoing war of Animals vs. Humans, we’re in the firm hold of the lead. Humanity and all our endeavors have killed gazillions of animals, both endangered and tasty (sometimes both!) over the past couple hundred thousand years or so.

Here’s a crazy video showing Animals getting a little payback and attacking the shit out of people. It’s hard to feel too bad for some of the folks getting smacked down in the video, especially the guy branding the horse. There is no blood or guts shown, but some of the folks here are getting MESSED UP by bears, horses, elephants, and rabbits. Viewers with sensitive constitutions should pass this one by.