The Roswell newsletter brought some excellent news today:

Keeping it green

Many departments are already recycling their clean, non-confidential waste paper -- here's how you can join them in reducing the amount of paper that goes into our waste stream.

Call Mary Kenefick, Director of Environmental Services at x8036 to request a blue tote. Please request only one blue tote per department or floor as there is a limited supply and they are expensive to purchase.

I have a recycling-motivated department and we already had a blue recycling tote in place. However, I have been a bit apprehensive about where all the contents of the tote were going. I am glad that there is official recognition for recycling efforts now.

Place the tote in a central, easily accessible area for all employees in your work area. Most departments find that a tote located near their mail boxes or photocopying area works best. Clean paper including magazines, newspapers, and cardboard "backers" from note pads and similar packaging can be put in the blue tote. The Environmental Services staff will collect this paper for packing for recycling. Cardboard boxes and large cardboard packing materials can be flattened and left in the same area as the blue tote and will also be recycled.

NICE! They will now recycle cardboard instead of tossing them in the big garbage bin when all the employees have gone home. Hallelujah!

I am elated that the task force is finally nudging Roswell on its way to becoming green! Now, if only they will reconsider the energy wasting policy of keeping *all* the computers on power all the time, instead of specific days on which they push updates...

We need an energy conservation task force as well.

I am working on cleaning out *everything* at home and reaching a paper/cardboard-free state by the end of summer. I could gather everything and dump it in trash but a teeny voice in my head is chiding me for not even trying to do the right thing.

So, does anyone know what I should do with cardboard from various cartons and boxes? The green and yellow paper recycle bins* around the city specifically forbid cardboard.

Also, what do you do with your metal/tin containers - such as containers of coffee, nuts etc that come with a plastic lid. Does the city collect scrap metal for recycling somewhere? Surely, metal has more recycle value than any of the other materials?

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• I take all my paper to one of the green and yellow recycling bins. The nearest one to Summer and Linwood is the one on Washington - about 2 blocks south of the Washington and Carlton. Has anyone seen one that is even nearer? It gets a little crazy wheeling carts of paper a mile just to make sure they are recycled.

Can anyone tell me where people might get rid of around 70 pounds of Acrylic Sheet that was formerly used for covering a greenhouse?

Someone in my department is re-roofing his greenhouse and would like to get rid of the old roofing responsibly - ideas anyone?

So you went to the grocery store and ticked off the items from the crumpled list you clutched till the ink ran and splotched your fingers. When you came out to your car, for those five little things you bought, you have EIGHT plastic bags.


Why is the Maths not adding up? Because when the cashier asked if you wanted the milk double-bagged, you unconsciously nodded, and lord forbid that the cereal ends up within a mile of soap or the bread, regardless of the fact that all of them are excessively packaged on their own anyway. So you come home with eight bags or more.


And you think, oh, I can return them the next time I go to the store, since they accept all plastic bags back, don't they? That may be true but ever wondered if it really gets recycled? Consider these statistics:



Source:
Yeah, highly unlikely.

What then happens to your plastic bags and your disposable coffee mugs, mug caps, disposable forks, knives, spoons, plates, boxes and all the other plastic that you throw away on a daily basis??



Some end up in land-fills.



Some end up in oceans.



You couldn't care less, right? It's just littering the ocean far away from you.

Well, think again. The plastic bags that you thought were being recycled choke and kill coral reefs by blocking access to their precious sunlight.


Unsuspecting birds feed on this plastic.




Some of these could be endangered species...


Some of these birds become hopelessly entangled with plastic bags making them unable to fly. Imagine living your life in a dirty plastic bag.


Some suffer worse fates.

This bird was choked to death by a handle of a plastic bag you gleefully dragged home and threw away.



Birds and corals are not the only victims. Plastic bags and plastic disposables float about the ocean.

Many turtles who live up to 120 years die in a mere 10-50 choking on shredded plastic bags.

This poor turtle was brutally choked to death on the Hawaiian atoll of Midway where all the plastic washed up on beaches.


They are eaten by sealion pups that die soon after.


In 2002, this young dead minke whale washed ashore the Isle of Mull:

Scientists conducting the autopsy were shocked to discover that the cause of death was a whale-load of plastic inside its stomach.


Land animals are affected as well. Rare species of monkeys have reduced lifespans because of plastic.


They affect birds of prey, thus disrupting the food-chain.


The king of the jungle is sadly humbled to death by the plastic bag you threw away.



For those of you who are gloating over the fact that you take only paper bags home, here's what your paper bag cost the planet:


Bring your own washable cloth bags.





Use reusable mugs and cups for your daily coffee!


And that is not all.




Wouldn't you say its time to finally spell out a firm NO TO PLASTIC BAGS? How many more deaths and wars do you need? How many more coasts do you need choked? How many species would you like seeing wiped out? Say NO to this hideous and insidious pestilence.

Put an end to the plastic horror show.
Source of Slides:
Source of Photographs: Banish the bags Campaign, The Daily Mail.

My department had a spate of office moves recently and enough trash was generated to choke a small island off the coast of the Caribbean. On persistent prodding of the maintainence staff, secretaries and other people in power, I finally came to the most appalling conclusion that Roswell does not have a recycling plan!

Yes, all those recycle bins in your offices at Roswell are a psychological device for employees so that we can go on living in bliss and believe that we are recycling all those reams of paper, cardboard, plastic and glass!

For an institute battling cancer, this is most unacceptable behaviour. Worse is the deception of its employees by placing dummy recycle bins whose contents will be dumped into general trash when the employees go home.

I am going to make an official complaint to Dr.Trump. Can other concerned Roswellers please make the effort to make a complaint too? Your voice can be crucial to force the institute to be more environmentally responsible and stop polluting Buffalo's landfills with totally recycle-able trash.

Thanks!

I finally went to the city hall today and got my recycle bin!

@@******@@@@******HuRRRRRaYY!******@@@@******@@


O my blue recycle bin
To you my hopes I pin
Over the seas of unrecycled waste
Ferry my plastic and paper with renewed haste!

On a related note, denizens of Elmwood & Around, can you point me to cardboard/plastic/paper recycle drop-off boxes that you may have spotted in and around the Elmwood/Downtown area? I have a ton of cardboard, and milk cardboard cartons that I need to drop-off before I find the right neighbour, whose recycle-box-family I can put my new recycle bin next to.

I know of a couple, but they are a bit of a hike away:
1. On Virginia, on the way to Betty's, across from the fire-station
- Cardboard/Paper drop-off box.

2. On Lafayette Ave, just before the Lafayette-Grant crossing.
- Newspaper drop-off box

Thanks so much for your input!

I had an absolutely hideous nighmare some days back where I was the garbage bin and people were throwing their disposable cups/plates/boxes/tissues at me. I have had this nightmare recur several times since then and I have thus decided that it's time I did something about it. This is a self-reminding list of what I can do to decrease my leviathan, bloated Carbon Footprint . Some of it may sound like extreme measures, but who said bringing about a change was easy or comfortable?

Outside:

1. Stop taking plastic bags from any grocery store - yeah, including those small baggies I grab off rolls for my veggies/fruits. Alternative: Always carry a backpack. Use a thin-cloth bag for individual veggies.

2. Buy local produce as far as possible. They are way cheaper anyway.

3. INSIST on paper/cardboard take-home containers for take-home food at restaurants and *DEFINITELY* not take-home stuff in those evil styrofoam boxes. Keep a store of brown paper bags/one lunch-box in my bag/backpack if the restaurant does not have any other option.

At home:

1. Recycle and re-use all my existing plastic bags/boxes.

2. Replace all my incandescent bulbs with energy-saving compact fluorescent ones (I did this yesterday.)

At work:

1. Stop printing out stuff that I am not likely to read anyway or can read on-screen.

2. Stop using that hideous printer which doesn't have a duplex printing option. Instead, print on the huge printer upstairs which can print double-sided and take the effort to trek upstairs everytime I print out something.

3. Turn off my monitor before leaving work.

4. Bring my drinking cup to work and avoid all plastic/styrofoam packaging/cups.

5. Take a ceramic plate to the cafeteria (whenever I am eating there) and request that they put the sandwich/buttered toast on that plate. Avoid using any of those plastic boxes/styrofoam cups that will end up in a landfill.

6. Not grab a handful of paper tissues and end up wasting most of it. Instead, take my own cloth handkerchief/towel.

7. NEVER EVER use those plastic fork/spoon/knives - have a set of my own in my drawer at work.

8. Avoid eating anything from the vending machines - they wreck havoc on your body anyway *plus* they generate a lot of totally avoidable garbage.

9. Bring lunch from home and not buy packaged food, as many days as possible. Make that little effort to get up 5 minutes early to fix lunch in the morning - be it a salad or a sandwich.

10. Turn off the lights when they are not needed.


I think the list is endless - so I will keep adding to this list and make those changes in my carbon-smashing-foot-aggressive life slowly and steadily... even if it means sacrificing some pleasures. Because I hate nightmares - I have seen that they have a way of turning real at some point in time.