Natural Resources are Important

An interesting editorial in the La Crosse Tribune (found via the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voter’s blog) talks about the importance of protecting our natural resources, like groundwater.  I would add the importance of residents participating in their local recycling program as a way to protect natural resources.

Wisconsin requires recycling by banning certain items from landfills.  These include items Waukesha residents can recycle in their curbside bins:

• plastic bottles & jugs (#1’s and #2’s)
• steel cans
• aluminum cans
• paper

Other items including grass clippings, tires, and motor oil are also banned from landfills.  By recycling these items, residents protect natural resources like 

• iron ore
• bauxite
• oil
• divers forests of trees

By reducing the demand for these natural resources we insure that the habitats effected by gathering these resources stay intact.  Two key habitats affected include the rain forests (bauxite) and temperate and boreal forests (trees used for paper products).

Despite the fact that recycling is such an easy way for residents to ease the strain on our natural resources, Wisconsin’s recycling rate hovers around 35%.  The national recycling rate for plastic #1 bottles (i.e. soda & water bottles) is an abysmal 23%.  As we all focus on Earth Day festivities this week and the importance of saving natural resources, consider a small action to make everyday Earth Day and make sure you recycle 100% of what you can.  

Want to do one better?  Tell a friend about the importance of recycling.  I’d love to hear ideas: how do you share recycling with those you know?

2008 Recycling: A Year in Review

So it takes a while, but all the numbers are in for 2008.  Here are the highlights from Waukesha County data as well as the DNR’s annual report:

• There are currently 70 operating, licensed landfills in WI, which is down from 1,158 in 1980.  These landfills took in 10.8 million tons of solid waste.  1/5 of all waste landfilled in 2007 was from other states.  Trash is down 3.2% in 2007 from 2006.  2008 numbers were not in this part of the report.
• Over 11,000 Wisconsin businesses, schools, and government institutions create hazardous waste each year.
• 1,061 different recycling programs in the state (a.k.a. Responsible Units)
• 411,047 tons of paper and containers were recycled by residential recycling programs in 2007.  When businesses are included, this number rises to over 1 million tons of recyclables.  This is the equivalent of taking 657,480 cars off the road for the year.
• It was a big year for construction & demolition waste.  UW-Whitewater while demolishing old buildings and constructing a new business building recycled over 14,000 tons of materials.  The demolition recycling rate was at 98%!  Also, the Marquette Interchange project reused fly ash and some other industrial waste material to reduce costs and the environmental impact of road construction projects.  There is also a growing mechanism to support asphalt shingle recycling.

Closer to Home

• Waukesha County processed 22,662 tons of residential recyclables.  That saved enough energy to power 2,281 homes for 2008.
• Recycling earns your municipality money!  In 2008, recycling dividends totaled $879,246.  
• Over 2,000 people visited the Materials Recycling Facility.  Schedule your tour today by calling 262.896.8300 if you are a community group, school group, or scout troop in Waukesha County.
• If you can’t make it to our facility, let us come to you!  In 2008 our staff completed 63 presentations. 
• Collected a total of 200,270 pounds of hazardous waste, a 1% increase compared to last year.

What is on our agenda for this year?

• We would love to inform your organization about recycling, green gardening practices with less pesticide use, green cleaning presentations, composting, and more.
• We are planning several Boy Scout Merit Badge Workshops.
  • Gardening 
  • Environmental Science
• We will have a new traveling trunk to supplement the LEAF curriculum.  If you are a teacher, visit our teacher page at www.waukeshacounty.gov/EnvironmentalEd to stay up to date with all of our new curriculum assistance and to download lessons that are already currently available. 
• And tons more! Make sure to stay tuned!

NBA Goes Green

 

The NBA goes green. Learn how you can increase recycling at your local park so your court doesn't look like this one.

The NBA had a special green week last week.  Many teams focused on waste reduction and recycling.  This year the Milwaukee Bucks focused on reducing energy use.  According to the Buck’s go green website, the link between athletics and the environment is a strong one because most athletic events are held outdoors and it is important to preserve the environment.  If you are interested in learning more about public place recycling at your local park, visit Be SMART’s website to learn how to make a recycling program effective at a sporting event of your own.  For questions about recycling at local parks, contact your municipal office.

Where can I get a recycling bin?

Someone or something took my recycling bin.  Seriously.  This was not cool.  However, because I happen to have a stack at the office, I grabbed a bin and went happily on my way.  If you do not have a readily accessible stack of blue bins for residential recycling in your office, you can get a bin at the following locations (assuming you are a resident in the County’s recycling program)…

1. Your village, town, or city hall.  
2. Recycling drop-off locations

All county residents of participating communities may get a blue bin from the following locations.  All county residents of participating communities can also drop off bottles, cans, and recyclable paper at these locations.  Proof of residency is required.

Delafield (City) Recycling Drop Off
111 Main St.
Monday – Friday; 7 AM – 3:30 PM
Hartland (Village) Department of Public Works
701 Progress Drive
Friday 7:30 AM – 3:30 PM 
Additional Hours April – Nov include 2nd & 4th Saturday from 9 AM to 1 PM
Pewaukee (Village) Garage
Building #2, 552 Hickory St.
April through Oct Only – Wednesday 4 PM – 7 PM & Saturday 9 AM – 3 PM
Waukesha (City) Recycling Drop Off
900 Sentry Drive
Saturdays 8 AM – 4 PM
Additional hours April – Nov include Wednesdays 11 AM – 7 PM

3. Retzer Nature Center

S14 W28167 Madison St.
Daily, 8 AM to 4:30 PM

4. Special Event Distributions

Visit Waukesha County’s website for an up-to-date listing of all upcoming special events where you can get a blue bin. Better yet, are you having a special event, school event, or other community get together where people could get blue bins? If so, let us know and we can get you bins to distribute! E-mail us for more details.

5. Residents of specific communities can also, with proof of residency, receive a blue bin at their city’s recycling drop off location.  These include residents of Big Bend (village), Brookfield (City), New Berlin (City), Pewaukee (City),  and Waukesha (Town).

Recycle Cell Phones

If you need even more reasons to recycle your old cell phone, there is now a week dedicated to cell phone recycling.  The second week in April is now here to remind you that all of the heavy metals in your phone don’t belong in a landfill.  Check out Earth 911’s article for more information.

Video: How to save energy & reduce trash

This video follows 2 students through their day to show ways that we can all save energy and reduce trash.

What a Busy Weekend!

There has been so much going on in my busy little social life lately!  I wanted to share some updates on what has been going on as well as promo a few events coming up. mK – here we go!

Ice Skating at the Petit Ice Center

From WaukeshaNow.com

What a fun event!  It was great meeting so many people and getting a little time brush up on my ice skating skills as well!

Electronics Scrap Collection in Milwaukee

This event was very successful, collecting over 236,000 lbs. of electronic waste.  Did you miss the event?  Here are a couple of resources:

• Residents of Waukesha County can recycle their computers, free of charge, at several county collection sites.  Visit Waukesha County’s website for more info.
• TV’s with screens less than 32″ can be taken to Best Buy.  Recycling is free with the purchase of a $10 gift card.  TV’s with screens over 32″ will need to be disposed of in other ways.  If you are purchasing a replacement TV, the best option is to negotiate disposal of the old TV as a condition of the sale.  Other options are available on our website.
• Cell phones can usually be recycled by the same stores that sell cell phones.  (whew! say that 10 times fast!)  Other local organizations, like The Women’s Center in Waukesha will also take them for donation.
• Want to do more?  Currently there is pending legislation in Wisconsin that deals with electronics disposal.  Learn more about the law and be sure to let your legislators know how you feel!

Lake Country Community Fest

Recycle Raccoon at Lake Country Community Fest

Lake Country Community Fest was wonderful!  It was so much fun to take so many pictures with everyone.  It seemed like we talked to a million  people and answered a lot of questions.  We also gave away over 100 blue bins for curbside recycling.  Did you miss us?  There are a lot of local events coming up where you can get a blue curbside bin for free if you are in our program.

Earth Hour

Did you participate?  I beat the hubby in backgammon & scrabble.  Now that’s what I call time well spent!  For some fabulous pictures on how some major cities and monuments looked, click on the picture below.

When all the lights go out - in Vegas! From boston.com. Click on the picture for more.

Playing Soccer with the Milwaukee Wave

 

Recycle Raccoon and Scoopie have some fun on the field. Thanks to Pete Prodoehl for the picture! http://rasterweb.net/raster/

Upcoming Events

An After School Event is being held THIS THURSDAY, April 2nd, at the Waukesha Expo Center.  Join us for a lot of fun from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

MRF Open House on Saturday, April 18th from 10 a.m. to Noon.
 

 

Residents begin their tour by learning what types of materials can be recycled and view the large bales of materials ready to be shipped.

Oconomowoc Library will be hosting Recycle Raccoon at selected story hours the week of April 20th.  More information is available at their website.

Greener Oconomowoc will be hosting it’s 2009 Resource Fair on April 25th. Visit their website to learn more.

Various programs are being presented through Waukesha city’s Park & Rec. Visit their website to learn more about the new ‘green’ programs.

Boy Scout Merit Badge Sessions will be available this summer for the Gardening Merit Badge & the Environmental Science Merit Badge.  Stay tuned to the Boy Scout’s website for more information.

Sally Ride Education Program for Teachers and Waukesha County will be providing a training session for teachers this summer at the Waukehsa North Session.  Specifically for 3rd – 8th grade teachers, participants will learn how to integrate natural resources into your curriculum in this fun week-long session that gets you out of the classroom and deep into learning!  Scholarship opportunities are available for those who teach in Waukesha County.

This Sunday

Recycle Raccoon will be at the Milwaukee Wave game this Sunday, March 29th at 2 PM.  For more information, visit the Wave’s website.

The game is for mascots, and we are even going to get to play soccer for a little bit!

If you make it to the event, I would love it if you could take some pictures and send them my way!

recycle more,

Recycle Raccoon

Earth Hour 2009

This Saturday millions will participate in Earth Hour.  This event is to show solidarity around the world of people looking to reduce their carbon footprint. 

While there is a lot of press release gold around this event, the larger goal should be to identify little changes in our everyday lives to save energy.  There is a possible involvement of 1 billion people in this years Earth Hour.  While it is great that all of these people are going to shut off their lights for an hour, think of the impact if these people also made easy changes to ‘go green’ for the every hour, not just Earth Hour.  Little actions could include:

• Getting a reusable mug.  The average American uses 100 Styrofoam cups a year.  If everyone involved in Earth Hour got a reusable mug, 100,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups would not be used this year.
• Getting a reusable bag.  For every reusable bag in use, 288 disposable bags would not be used per year.  If everyone involved in Earth Hour used 1 reusable bag, 288,000,000,000 plastic bags would not be used this year.
• Getting a lunchbox.  The average school child creates 67 lbs. of trash and food waste per school year.  This comes from too-large portions as well as disposable bags and single serve items.  If everyone involved in Earth Hour committed to eating what they pack for lunch and packing it in reusable containers, 33,500,000 tons of waste.
• Recycling an aluminum can.  Recycling a single aluminum can saves enough energy to light up a regular lightbulb for 4 hours.  If everyone that participated in Earth Hour recycled 1 aluminum can, we could light up a light bulb for 456,621 years.  In other words, we could light up every lightbulb in every residence in America for almost 2 hours. 
• Unplugging appliances not in use.  When an appliance is plugged in, even if it is not turned on, it is still using energy.  Is your phone charger plugged in right now?  What about your coffee pot?  These items use ‘phantom energy’ which accounts for up to 5% of your total energy bill.  Unplug items not in use or get a power strip that can easily be unplugged when items are not in use.
• Eating 1 local meal a week.  The average meal travels 1500 miles.  In other words, one meal eaten by every Earth Hour participant travels around the globe 60,236,125 times.  By eating one local meal a week, we can save a lot of energy as well as support our local economies.  (and eating locally doesn’t necessarily mean eating at a local restaurant!)

While there are some that think Earth Hour is not a good idea because it gives the wrong impression that we need to all sit in the dark to save the planet and others participate just to spite different organizations, I think its a good chance to reassess how much we depend on all of our electronic gizmos and look forward game of scrabble while drinking out of my reusable mug and eating a locally grown salad.

Are you participating in Earth Hour?  What do you plan to do?

recycle more,

Recycle Raccoon

Recycling Myth: Landfills are cheap

  

 

 

Where does your garbage go? Learn about reducing your trash at www.BeSMART.org.

 

Let’s talk some trash.  The average Wisconsinitte creates over 4 1/2 lbs. of trash a day.  This is what we put into landfills, and does not include all that we recycle.  Despite the fact that we put so much stuff into landfills, most people know very little about them.  So here we go: a little bit of info about landfills.

Where is the dump?

Nowhere.  There are no dumps in Waukesha County, only landfills.  This may seem like picky syntax, but there used to be dumps and now there are not so depending what you are getting rid of, you may have to go to a different location.  Do you have something to trash?  The first step is to make sure you can throw it in a landfill.  According to Wisconsin state law the following items are banned from landfills.

• Lead acid batteries
• Major appliances
• Used motor oil
• Yard waste (Scroll down to ‘Item Questions’)
• Tires
• Newspapers, magazines, courrugated cardboard, office paper and other recyclable paper
• Glass, aluminum, steel, tin, and plastic (#1 & #2) bottles and cans

Other items can be recycled, such as electronics and textiles.  Some harmful substances like paint, chemicals, medical wastes, and antifreeze can also be disposed of in a more proper way than tossing it into a landfill.

If landfilling is the only option, check with your municipality to inquire about how much trash you can put out for curbside collection.  Each municipality contracts (or allows their residents to contract) for trash service individually.  They may or may not have included bulky items in their contract.  If the municipality did not contract for large or bulky item trash pick-up, there may be a drop off site your community pays for, or you may have to call your hauler and arrange for a special pick up.  

If you need to take your items to the landfill, there are 2 in Waukesha County.  These are privately owned enterprises and you should contact the landfills for information about their fee schedule.  Muskego (Emerald Park Landfill) — W124 S10629 S 124th St. — (414)529-1360.  They are open Fridays & Saturdays.  The other option is in Menomonee Falls (Orchard Ridge Landfill) — W124 N9355 Boundary Rd. –(262)253-8620.  They are open Monday through Saturday.  

They are going to charge me to throw it away?

Yes.  Wisconsin has some of the cheapest disposal rates, but there is a cost to toss.  Your contracted collection through your municipality is paid for by your community, some part of which you may see broken out on your tax bill.  On average, it costs $35 a ton to throw something away in Wisconsin.  This does not account for collection costs.  

Isn’t a landfill just a hole in the ground?

And the hole in the ground

And the green grass grows all around, all around

The green grass grows all around.

Not so much.  Landfills are highly engineered.  There is a thick clay liner as well as a plastic liner.  This prevents lechate (toxic runoff) from getting into the soil and groundwater.  Pipes collect lechate from the bottom of the landfill while other pipes collect methane and bring it to the surface.  There are wells to monitor groundwater, and pipes to monitor methane formation.  When the landfill is complete it is caped with a plastic and clay liner again.  Once a landfill is closed, the owner of the permit is responsible for care and maintenence for 40 years.  If anything goes wrong (i.e. the clay cracks because of settling, lechate leaks, methane causes the whole thing to explode, etc.) the permit owner is responsible.  However, after 40 years responsibility shifts to the state and they become responsible for any issues.

Despite being costly to operate, there are not significant jobs created by landfills.  For similar amounts to be disposed of, recycling generates 10 jobs for every 1 job a landfill creates.  The cost to toss, then, is not being circulated into the economy, but pays for the extensive monitoring equipment required for landfills.  This is why the 3 R’s (or 5 R’s if you are me) are so important.

recycle more,

Recycle Raccoon