Sustainability: Aluminum Cans

Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch a TV for three hours - it's equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline. 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline.

A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days. That's closed loop recycling at its finest! Because so many of them are recycled, aluminum cans account for less than 1% of the total U.S. waste stream, according to EPA estimates. An aluminum can that is thrown away will still be a can 500 years from now! There is no limit to the amount of times an aluminum can be recycled. We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.

Sustainability: Glass recycling

Although living in the most isolated chain of island in the world, does present it's own unique sustainability issues when it comes to recycling, here are some general facts about recycling glass:

Over a ton of resources are saved for every ton of glass recycled: 1,330 lbs. of sand, 433 lbs. of soda ash, 433 lbs. of limestone, and 151 lbs. of feldspar.
Recycling 1 ton of glass saves the equivalent in energy of 10 gallons of oil.
Glass never wears out -- it can be recycled forever!

Sustainability: Plastic shopping bags

Bring a reuseable shopping bag.  On average we use each plastic bag for approximately 12 minutes before disposing. It then lasts in the environment for decades (500-1,000 years). Although Paia has been plastic free for a few years, Maui as a County was the first to ban plastic bags in Hawaii. The ordinance passed in August of 2008, but the law took effect January 11, 2011.

Happy Tax Day!

Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "THEIRS?"  ~Author Unknown

Sustainability Facts: coffee cups

Bring a refillable coffee mug. Typical paper coffee cups aren’t made from recycled paper. Instead, most cups are manufactured using 100% bleached virgin paperboard. According to the paper industry, Americans will consume an estimated 23 billion paper coffee cups in 2010. That's a lot of trees!

Sustainability facts: Water Bottles

Bring a reusable water bottle, life these locally produced Blue Glass ones from sym.blue.ology. Americans use four million plastic bottles every hour, yet only one out of four is recycled. Millions of gallons of fuel are wasted daily transporting filtered tap water across America and around the world. It requires 3 times as much water to make the bottle as it does to fill it.

Mana Foods participates in Community Wellness fair

Christina, the vitamin room manager at Mana Foods, attended the Maui County Workplace Wellness Fair on April 5^th in Wailuku.   This event was put on by the county to educate and encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle.  Mana Foods was received very well.  Some of the comments I got were “oh, we love Mana Foods, you guys are the best!”  “ your deli is so delicious!”  We look forward to working outside of the store in the community promoting health and wellness.