Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Bulletin Green Tip #7: Bring Your Own Bag
- "in most of Europe and Canada it is considered customary to bring your own bag...Instead of offering discounts for people who do bring their own bags (like in the US), they charge for those who don't."
- "Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest them."
- "A plastic bag can take between 400 to 1,000 years to break down in the environment."
- "Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food."
- "Nearly 90% of the debris in our oceans is plastic."
- More than "380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year."
- The United States "goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually."
- "Four out of five grocery bags in the U.S. are now plastic."
- "The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store."
Source: The Crunchy Wife at http://www.thecrunchywife.com/.
Having trouble with remembering to bring the reusable cloth bags with you? Leave them in the car. After you unload your groceries, bring them right back outside and put them in the car. Or, get yourself a free window cling that will remind you to grab the bags before you leave. You could save the energy required to ship you the little window cling and make yourself a pretty little sign for the backdoor. Whatever works for you, just try to remember to bring those bags with you. And if you find yourself at the store without a bag, just reuse the bag as much as possible and then recycle it when you're finished. :)
Some articles on the brown paper versus plastic bag issue:
- The paper vs. plastic question must die (Grist.org)
- Which is more environmentally friendly: paper or plastic? (HowStuffWorks)
- Paper vs Plastic: The Final Decision (Organic Lifestyle magazine)
- Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know (TreeHugger)
- Plastic bags are the devil (No Impact Man)
-- Melissa, secretary
Meeting Agenda with Notes March 12, 2010
Environmental Club Meeting Agenda
March 12, 2010 12:45 PM – 1:21 PM
Mrs. Turner's room, E5
1. Welcome and Introductions: New members.
2. Discussion of paper conservation (2/26/10 – 3/12/10)
- Notes: Taylor printed double –sided, used the backs of old binder paper for new assignments. Liana tried writing smaller to save room.
3. Pleasanton Unified School District Environmental Awareness Committee meeting
- March 24 at 4:30 PM in Bernal Room at PUSD District Offices 4665 Bernal Avenue
- Amador student presentation about Environmental Club’s projects, successes
- Volunteers: Emily and Swethaa
4. 40th Earth Day/Week Celebrations (week of April 19 – 23; Earth Day is April 22nd)
- Reminder to look at Earth Week calendar on blog and in email. Mohr Garden project work day April 23 to be planned.
- Club Events:
Saturday, April 17
Livermore Earth Day Celebration. YES / NO
8:30 AM – 11:30 AM (Volunteer community clean up)
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Earth Day Celebration)
Free to the public. Location: Robertson Park, 3200 Robertson Park Road, Livermore. The goal of this volunteer community clean up, non-profit event is to recognize, celebrate and promote the region’s unique beauty and to educate the public regarding how to conserve, preserve and protect our local and global resources.
OR
Earth Day at Forest Home Farms YES / NO
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM at Forest Home Farms, 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd., between the Bollinger and Alcosta exits off the 680 freeway. San Ramon, CA
Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day while helping to spruce up Forest Home Farms Historic Park for spring! There'll be projects in the vegetable garden, the wildlife garden and around the farm. Bring your own gloves and garden tools. Refreshments will be provided. This is a FREE, volunteer event perfect for scout groups and service clubs.
The club will be attending this event as an informal activity—not school sponsored and the school is not liable. We will have parent drivers for carpooling.
Wednesday, April 21
AVHS Environmental Club presents Flow
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Location: AVHS multipurpose room
Time: 7 – 9 PM. Free admission; popcorn, cookies and water will be sold.
We need to ask teachers if they will offer extra credit for attending.
5. Additional events/activities:
- Alviso Adobe “Tools from the Ancient World” March 27 2PM to 3PM
- Earth Hour March 27, 8:30 PM – 9:30 PM turn the lights off! (www.earthhour.org/); Farmer’s Market to pass out fliers 9AM The club will be meeting at the Farmer’s Market on this day, and everyone is welcome to attend. It’s informal, not school-sponsored, etc.
- School black out April 22 We have to write a proposal to submit to administration. There will be different levels/stages of “greenabilty” that teachers can achieve for this day.
- National Agriculture Day March 20: Fact Sheet & Video
6. These Come From Trees: Guerilla Paper Waste Elimination Project: thesecomefromtrees.blogspot.com $1 donations?
7. Did anyone check energy meter? Check it out before our next meeting.
8. Share DOTs (Do One Thing).
- billionactsofgreen.net
- Post your DOT on our Facebook page or group to share your idea.
- Liana pledges to take shorter showers. We discussed unplugging electronics to save energy.
9. Food scrapping discussion. We have decided not to apply considering the fact that the bins do not cost anything to obtain. We may consider applying for grant money for solar lights, but for now we will plan on obtaining some bins and possibly starting the food scrap program this school year. We will, at least, obtain them and figure out logistics, etc. We hope to work with Leadership and other clubs (Interact, etc.) to get the process going.
10. Brief discussion of focus group ideas. Taylor will make a list of teacher suggestions to make cards at our next meeting.
11. ACE lesson plan. (We did not discuss this and will discuss it at a future meeting.)
12. Next week’s bulletin green tip #7: Bring your own bag.
- Interesting facts about plastic bags:
We didn’t have time to talk about them, so a bulletin green tip post will be added to the blog including information about plastic bags.
13. Interested bloggers? Check out Taylor's new green blog at taylorconfessions.blogspot.com
Thank you everyone who attended today's meeting!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Ooops...Confession #1
adios. Taylor
This was originally posted at Confessions of an Environmental Noob on March 2.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Meeting Recap & Requests February 26, 2010
Quick links:
- Meeting agenda with notes from today's meeting (February 26, 2010)
- List of local Earth Week events
- DOT ideas/ Ways you can easily change the world document
Please email us which focus group you were in so we can update our list. Also, please send us a brief explanation/some notes of what your group discussed and brainstormed. We want to create a list of goals/ideas for each focus group.
If you couldn't attend today's meeting, please let us know which focus group you think you'd find most interesting:
- Solar panels/energy
- Food scrapping (our ACE grant that we're applying for would go toward food scrapping)
- Beautification/flowers/gardening at Amador
- Teacher/classroom encouragement of green habits
If you'd like, it'd be AWESOME if you guys researched environmental things that interest you between now and our next meeting on March 12. If you find interesting facts, stories or tips, write them down. We will save some time at our next meeting for people to share what they learned.
Rather than break into focus groups every meeting, we may have meetings where we focus on one thing. For example, maybe at our next meeting we'll have a club discussion on food scrapping or solar power. We will let you know ahead of time so you can do some research if you want so our discussion will have some facts, etc.
Around March 10, we'll send you a meeting agenda so you will know what we'll be doing at the meeting. You're always welcome to send us suggestions for meeting topics or any interesting facts/articles, etc. that you want us to pass along to the club.
Again, thank you everyone!
See you March 12 for sure and hopefully around school :)
Melissa
AVHS Environmental Club secretary
---
Inspiring Nature Thought for the Day...
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
-- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Ways YOU can easily change the world
Energy
According to the EPA, 75% of the electricity used to power electronics is consumed when they are turned off. Have your class/family members take turns being a weekly “energy monitor,” making sure electronics are off and unplugged when not in use.
- Turn off the lights and television when you leave the room, and make sure the lights are off in your house during daylight hours.
- Shut down the computer at night and unplug it to avoid wasting energy and vampire energy-sucking electronic cords.
- Use your cell phone and computer less to reduce energy consumption and increase time spent with family, friends or outside.
- Try to go stove and oven-free for a day and eat foods like hummus and pita bread, salad, veggies with dip, or plan to reheat leftovers in the microwave (microwaves aren’t the best alternative, but they use less energy than an oven).
- Take BART to the City instead of driving.
- Purchase fewer new products. Try to buy used, or don’t buy at all. Every time we purchase something new that could have been avoided, we encourage the continued production of that item. Often we buy things without really needing them and this wastes energy that could have been conserved or used for a better purpose.
- Shop at places like Plato’s Closet, the Discovery Shop, and thrift stores. Often these places have more unique clothing, books and other products than you’d find at the mall.
- Ride your bike at least once a week to school.
Paper
- Print double-sided to avoid wasting paper.
- Buy recycled paper products and always recycle paper when you’ve used it to its capacity.
- Write smaller, use the whole page and find creative ways to reduce the amount of paper you use.
- Save paper that has only been printed on one side and reprint on the back for school worksheets and printed things that can be less formal (use clean paper for nice projects, of course).
- Stop using paper towels and paper napkins and instead, use dishtowels and cloth napkins.
- Reuse wrapping paper.
- Buy brown paper for wrapping—it can be used for any occasion and it’s recyclable (most wrapping paper isn’t).
- Buy used books (the library sells some books for $0.50 - $1.00; The Bookstore on Hopyard has a neat selection of used books). Or reuse by borrowing books from the library or from friends.
- Avoid post-it notes—use old scrap paper instead.
- Bring a reusable mug to the coffee shop or fast food restaurant. Try to buy a metal-based coffee mug instead of plastic, since plastic is never a good choice.
Water
- Turn the water off when brushing your teeth and lathering your hands when washing them.
- Take shorter showers. Turn the water off while shampooing, etc.
- Instead of buying plastic water in a container from the store, invest in a water filter (Brita makes some great ones) that you can just pour cold tap water into. It filters out the bad stuff and leaves the water tasting great.
- Just drink tap water—a lot of the time it’s the same water you’re drinking from the bottle. Plus, plastic can leach into the bottles :(
Plastic
- Plastic doesn’t break down easily and it can cause many health problems. It’s also made from petroleum, which has causes pollution and other health problems. Plus, it’s a nonrenewable resource.
- Pledge to never again use plastic water bottles. Buy a reusable metal water bottle and never look back!
- Avoid food that comes in plastic. Often, the plastic can leach into the food.
- Avoid plastic baggies. Use Tupperware or glass jars (Anchor Hocking has great choices) instead.
- Say no to straws. If everyone used them as sparingly as possible, we’d save a lot of plastic from ending up in a landfill.
- Use old silverware instead of plastic utensils. Some companies make reusable wooden utensils that you can bring with you places.
- Any product (other than paper, for example)that is only used once should be a sign to any environmentally-conscious person…think about what the purpose of the product is and make a decision about using it or not based on how important using it is. There are almost always alternatives if the thing is truly necessary. People survived for thousands of years without plastic utensils or straws. Being able to see this—the concept of what is necessary versus what just makes my life easier (it takes planning to remember to bring your own utensils, so using a plastic one is easier, for example) is something that we all must think about if we really want to make a difference. Being aware is the FIRST step to changing your habits. Be always thinking about the impact of what you are doing.
- This may sound trivial, but it is something to think about: using a wooden pencil is a better choice than mechanical. In my opinion, plastic is never a better choice. Ever. Therefore, wooden pencils are a better choice.
Some more things to think about from EcologyCenter.org:
“Of all the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, 36% are emitted from industrial sources and product manufacture, 28% from commercial and passenger transportation, 18% from commercial business, and 18% from residential sources.5 Significant greenhouse gas reduction requires a reassessment of many of our everyday activities.”
“Be a critical consumer. Cut down on CO2 by selecting locally produced whole foods, thereby reducing energy for processing, transport, and refrigeration. Purchase products that are manufactured without large energy inputs. For example, buy recycled — it requires much less energy to make a product using recycled materials than using new, raw materials. Picking used goods keeps materials from going to the landfill and eliminates energy for new manufacture. Avoid products with excess packaging, which is wasted energy. Livestock is a major source of methane and requires lots of energy to produce — consider your meat intake. Buy less stuff.”
There are so many other ways to make a difference. Got some ideas? Post them here or on our Facebook group.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
ACE assembly encourages AVHS students to join Environmental Club
ACE website
ACE on Facebook
ACE blog
The presentation was creative, informative and encouraged a lot of students enough for them to sign up to join our club! It's very exciting. Our next meeting on February 26 will probably be our biggest meeting yet, so be prepared for the meeting to be super-charged with enthusiasm about saving our planet.
We'll probably each choose our DOT (Do One Thing), as ACE encouraged us to. Everyone will choose one thing they want to change and they'll do that over the course of the following two weeks (kinda like our green tips and challenges, only everyone will have their own personal DOT).
We may film a bulletin commercial with everyone who comes to the meeting. The sheer volume of people may be a great way to encourage others to join, so we may go film a short commercial on the field. Everyone could stand behind one speaker and then at the end we could all shout some awesome phrase to encourage people to join.
By that point, I should have a comprehensive list of Earthweek events in the community and Leadership will have met with our club's officers and Mrs. Turner. We'll go over the events we discussed at our last meeting for our new members and I'll probably make an agenda like last time so people can follow along.
Don't forget to be thinking about ways to reduce the amount of litter in your lunch. We will have a discussion about that at our next meeting, as well.
See you all February 26 in E5 at lunch!
Melissa
Monday, February 15, 2010
Bulletin Green Tip #5: Litter-free lunches
We have already discussed reducing lunch waste this year (see the tip here). Our focus then was lunch bags and reducing our waste impact by bringing a reusable lunch box or bag.
For the next two weeks, though, we're going to try to reduce waste in all aspects of our lunch. Try to reduce your waste one step at a time. It'd be great if one day during the next two weeks you went completely litter-free. Write down your most common disposable items and think of ways to reduce your use of them. Also write down any challenges you face or successes you have while trying to go litter-free at lunchtime so we can have a discussion about it at our next meeting on Friday, February 26.
Some things/tips to think about:
1. Plastic baggies are a big issue in waste-generation from lunches. Some great alternatives are reusable containers like Tupperware or glass jars (glass is a better option since it doesn't leach toxins into your food as plastic does; just make sure it's durable glass!). Anchor Hocking has some AWESOME alternatives to plastic baggies. I use their one cup size Kitchen Storage with BPA Free Lid container for trail mix, hummus dip and dry cereal. They make containers in a variety of sizes, so you can use the larger ones for salad, chips, sliced veggies, etc.
If you can't purchase some Tupperware/glass jars, then the second best option is to reuse the baggies. For greasy foods, like chips, it's difficult to wash and reuse them, but for foods like crackers, cookies and some sandwiches that don't leave huge messes inside the bag, you can rinse the bags and hang them to dry. Avoid reusing them more than a few times because plastic breaks down over time and will leach into your foods the more you reuse it. Reusing them once or twice won't hurt you, though (well, it won't hurt you any more than using the bag the first time).2. Use cloth napkins in your lunch. This is an easy one! Most households have at least one set of cloth napkins. If you don't have any, you can often find them second-hand, or invest in a set for your family. They're a great alternative for everyday use, at home and at school.
3. Reduce your reliance on packaged foods. Not only do they generate more waste, packaged foods are most often processed and unhealthy compared to non-packaged foods like vegetables and fruits. There are some healthy packaged foods, like certain granola/fruit & nut bars, but for the most part it's always better to eat real food. Shop the perimeter of the market for the healthiest, least-packaged foods.
4. Make soup and bring it in a thermos. Soup is a perfect lunchtime meal during the winter. It would be ideal to make your own (click here for a great soup recipe I've made twice), since then you have control over what goes into it, and you reduce the amount of resources wasted when you buy it canned (can, paper label, plastic lining). Plus, it generally tastes better and makes you feel accomplished (maybe that's be me, but it's worth trying it!).
5. Buy a sandwich holder. I have a plastic one, which is not ideal. They make metal ones, so if you're going to buy one, invest in metal. Plastic is in so many things, it's always better to opt for non-plastic whenever you have the option. It can also hold chips, pretzels, pita bread, homemade granola bars (okay I've never tried making homemade granola and putting it in a sandwich holder, but try it and I'll bet it'd work!), etc.
6. Bring reusable utensils or actual silverware (not your parent's fine silver, though!).
7. Bring reusable water bottles and coffee mugs. Fill a coffee mug with apple juice instead of bringing a disposable apple juice box.
8. BE CREATIVE. That's the key to reducing your waste consumption. Think about what it is you are actually throwing away each day and brainstorm ways to reduce that.
For some more information, visit this blog post I wrote in October on alternatives to wasteful lunchtime objects.
Happy Reducing!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Healthy foods challenge
Our newest club challenge/goal is to eat healthier foods and be aware of what we are putting into our bodies.Some tips:
- If you want, keep a food journal for a day or a week or for all two weeks before we meet again and write down any ingredients you've never heard of.
- Try to eat food that includes ingredients you know are wholesome, which is easiest if you eat things that don't come in packaging.
- Shop the perimeter of the store to find real food, rather than packaged food.
- Try to eat organically or locally--shop in the organic section of the grocery store or go to the Farmer's Market Saturday morning.
- Read ingredients labels and avoid the following: hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives, bleached or bromated flour, any ingredients that you aren't familiar with and/or can't pronounce.
- Eat mostly vegetables, fruits and whole grains.
- Avoid refined sugars and candy. (How and Why)
- Enjoy one meatless day during the next two weeks to reduce your meat consumption and your environmental footprint. (MeatlessMonday.com)
- Don't restrict yourself too much. Choose one thing to start with, like avoiding high fructose corn syrup. Then slowly add more things to avoid/be aware of until you are eating mostly healthy, wholesome, nutritious foods. Otherwise, you'll burn out on the whole challenge by realizing how difficult it is to avoid all of the bad foods. Start small.
Try to keep this in mind for the next two weeks so we can have a discussion about the challenges we've faced at our next meeting on February 12.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
2009 Holiday Green Goals & Tips
#2: Avoid metallic or foil wrapping paper because they use more resources to manufacture and often can't be recycled.
#3: Bring your own bags when gift/food shopping. You may want to ask for reusable bags as a holiday gift. The best kind are those that fold in on themselves for easy transport. Stash them in your purse or backpack after use so you're never without them!
#4: Skip the gift box, unless you're reusing one from last year. Often they aren't necessary, they use energy to be produced, and they generate more waste with all that tissue paper. (Of course you can solve the trash issue by reusing boxes and saving tissue paper--see tip #5!)
#5: Salvage wrapping paper, tissue paper, boxes and bows. Rather than rip paper open, undo it carefully, remove the tape so it doesn't stick to itself, and neatly fold it to a manageable size. Stash it in a gift bag and save it for next year. AVHS Environmental Club secretary Melissa started this last year, and managed to wrap all of her friend's gifts with reused paper this year. (See her blog post about it here. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see the tips.)
#6: If you have a Christmas tree, recycle it. Contact your local garbage collecting service to find out if they have a tree recycling program. Many will pick it up from your curb.
Weekly Goal #1: Say no to plastic water bottles
Most people gave it a try, and many of us already use reusable bottles consciously. Let's all try to get a reusable water bottle sometime soon so we can really eliminate that source of waste.
Check out this TreeHugger.com article to learn more about why you should say no to plastic water bottles: A World of Reasons to Ditch Bottled Water by Union of Concerned Scientists