Tag: simplicity

Sustainable Sandal Soles

Chaco Z/1 Sandals A friend of mine received her sandals back from Chaco last week. It was the fourth time that she has had them re-soled. Inside with her newly soled sandals was a note from Chaco:

“Thank you for sending your Chaco sandals for repair. You join the thousands of people who take advantage of our on-site repair experts, a team that last year saved 13,270 pairs of sandals from an untimely visit to local landfills. By doing your part, you help us do our part to operate in the most environmentally sustainable way we can.”

Last summer, I purchased my first pair of Chacos. They are brilliant. I look forward to having them re-soled someday.

Aluminum recycling in Corvallis

aluminum can

The Allied Waste newsletter arrived in the mail today. The folks at Allied Waste put together a concise and easy to read mailing called “At Your Disposal.” I was reading the “Curbside Recycling Update” section when I read about the blurb on aluminum recycling.

Aluminum goes to ALCOA on the east coast and is made into aluminum cans again.

I think it is great that aluminum cans from Corvallis, Oregon are being recycled. However, what is the environmental cost for transporting west coast cans to the east coast for processing? The process seems a little counter intuitive to me. I wonder if environmentally conscious recycling / post-consumer recycling processes need to be analyzed…

What do you think?

The Zerolon

The Zerolon by Zeroll:

  • Made of aircraft aluminum
  • Hard anodized, fused Teflon finish
  • Cuts waste up to 20%
  • Self-defrosting fluid in handle for quick load, fast release
  • Unique one-piece design
  • No moving parts
  • Comfortable in right or left hand

Anecdotal information shows that the “Original Zeroll and the Zerolon have increased profits for businesses for almost 65 years.”

Zeroll Zerolon Ice Cream Scoop

This is the first ice cream scoop that I’ve owned that came with its own instruction manual. My last scoop, a Pampered Chef ice cream dipper, was incinerated in the dishwasher.

The Zerolon should last until the year 3,056 where it will be discovered and revered as a cultural artifact.

“The Original Zeroll one piece design created a hollow handle for the Zeroll defrosting fluid that transfers hand heat through the aluminum handle to the unique scooping bowl. This helps the scoop cut through ice cream for easier dipping from bulk ice cream cartons.”

The Zeroll Company

Free (United Airlines) ticket voucher

United Airplane

How do I use a free ticket voucher?

I never really thought I would have to ask that question. Ordering airline tickets online is just like ordering food at my favorite restaraunt. It’s easy. I assumed that using a free ticket voucher would be as easy as any online purchase from Travelocity, Expedia, or Orbitz. I was wrong. Apparently money motivates the airlines to make online purchasing extremely easy. A free flight takes the cooperation of several agencies including the Post Office.

From United.com:

The first step in redeeming a free (United Airlines) ticket voucher is to call 1-800-UNITED1 to make a reservation.

There are two ways to have the ticket issued:

Mail the free ticket voucher to the address provided by the United representative over the phone. Please allow at least 14 business days for processing. Please note that the free ticket voucher must still be valid for United to issue the tickets.

OR

Bring the free ticket voucher to an Airport Ticket Counter to have the ticket issued. While making your reservation, remember to check with the United representative over the phone for your airport ticket counter’s hours of operation.

That’s right. I had to either mail the voucher or drive to the nearest airport with a United terminal. (Portland is almost 2 hours away and Eugene is 45 minutes.) I missed the convenience of an internet flight purchase. There’s something to be said about the simplicity of entering in my credit card and having an email confirmation sent to my e-mail. I decided to mail the voucher using Priority Mail from the Post Office.

The free ticket voucher process at United needs to be upgraded. The customer service representative gave me instructions that were eerily low tech: “Write the departure flight number, name of passenger, and confirmation number on the voucher.” The back of the voucher contained advertisements for United. I wrote down my information in between paragraph breaks…

I kept thinking to myself, what the heck are all those numbers on the voucher for?