Getting Answers About What Gets Recycled

While members of GGN make plans to visit a recycling facility to see what exactly gets recycled, here's something from ASK UMBRA, the answer lady at the eco-website Grist [A Beacon in the Smog] which you might find interesting:

Ask Umbra

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30 Jan 2014 6:57 AM

Ask Umbra: How can I be sure my recycling gets … recycled?

By Ask Umbra

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Send your question to Umbra!

Q. How do I know whether the items I place in my recycling bin are actually recycled (short of attaching a spy camera to a glass bottle or following the collection truck like an investigative journalist)? I try to reduce my consumption so that this question burns less intensely, but I have yet to reach a packaging-free state of being. When it takes so much water to clean the plastic and glass, I wonder if the effort and water are worth it.

Lori H.
Urbana, Ill.

A. Dearest Lori,

Spy camera? Glass bottle? Before I say anything else, I must say this: Please make this movie. I heart innovative documentaries about our municipal waste systems.

But as cool as this project would be, it’s unnecessary for your peace of mind. I can understand how modern single-stream (or commingled) recycling programs -- in which all items go into the bin together -- might seem dubious. I just toss all the paper and glass and plastic together, and it somehow all ends up separated and recycled? Really? Yes, really, for one major reason: Recyclables have value. And where there’s a dollar to be made, we can be confident people will do their best to make it.  READ THE WHOLE THING. . .

To Ban or Not to Ban Plastic Bags • That is the Question

The RUBI [Reusable Bag Initiative] Team met with activist Jordan Parker, Director of Bring Your Bag Chicago, to hear ideas about how to end plastic bag pollution -- one reusable bag at a time. Just having a sticker like this from Bring Your Bag Chicago [on the driver's side car window] could go a long way to reducing plastic bag waste in Northbrook. 

Should there be a charge every time you use a plastic or paper bag when you purchase items from the grocery or other stores? Cities are starting to do THAT. Should the USA adopt the German model that requires manufacturers to rethink every aspect of manufacturing? That includes everything from packaging to disposal -- each step of the process must be engineered with recyling in mind. The recycling responsibility is put on a product's producer, not the consumer. With German recycling at 70% versus the US at 33%, the idea is worth considering. Read about it HERE.

On the other side of the coin -- should bans on plastic bags be banned outright? Supporters of Bag the Ban, along with the rest of the enormous plastic bag industry, certainly think so. But their powerful lobbyists didn't stop Governor Quinn from vetoing an Illinois bill, funded and backed by the plastic bag industry, but opposed by environmentalists, that would have banned municipalities with less than two million people from ever banning plastic bags. It's worth noting that the well coordinated misdirection tactics and PR efforts of the plastic bag industry haven't stopped many cities from banning plastic bags outright.

Read about LA's ban on plastic bags passed in 2013 HERE. 

Northbrook is on notice. Something can be done on the local level. So GGN has started the conversation. Watch for our booth on Earth Day. Put your two cents in. To Ban or Not to Ban. 

Merilee Novinson, the meeting secretary, wrote down the 

myriad ideas presented, as fast as she could.

Kathleen Drewno, RUBI Team member, who suggested the RUBI acronym.

Jordan Parker, Director of Bring Your Bag Chicago, discusses one 

of the many problems with plastic bags.

 Lew Cohen, RUBI Team Leader, a study in concentration, 

focuses on the discussion underway.

The RUBI group with Jordan Parker on the left. Everyone in the front row is holding an example of a reusable bag -- the kind you want to have in your car when you go shopping. Burlap. Canvas. Hemp. Microfiber. There are many kinds. Doug Gerleman, GGN founder, stands in the back holding up one of the culprits -- a plastic bag that has a heavier weight and handles so it can be used more, but like the thinner, single use plastic bags, it still can't be properly recycled and presents the same problem as single use plastic bags. Don't be fooled. A plastic bag that's thicker with handles is still a plastic bag. You can't put lipstick on a pig. 

Climate Change • A Four Square Argument

Forest Preserve Restoration | Chicago Tonight | WTTW

In case you missed Northbrook environmentalist, Steve Packard, when he was interviewed by Chicago Tonight reporter, Elizabeth Brackett, during a walk through Sommes Woods, here's the link:  Forest Preserve Restoration | Chicago Tonight | WTTW

SAVE THE DATE!!! 

On February 27, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, hear Steve Packard [above] 

along with Linda Masters, Jeanne Dunning, and Sai Ramakrishna 

at the Northbrook Public Library -- a special event organized by  

the Forest Education Team of Go Green Northbrook

•FOCUS ON OUR FOREST•  

The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary

The GGN's Reusable Bag Initiative [RUBI] had its regular Wednesday meeting today at the Northbrook Public Library. Join us next month -- Wednesday, February 5th at 1:00 PM. Same place. 

We have lots of energetic people on the RUBI team -- all committed to an environment without single use plastic bags. Why not add your thoughts to the list of ideas we want to implement in the next few months? Earth Day is coming.

In recent years many initiatives have been underway across the country to encourage use of reusable bags in place of plastic. For starters, Highland Park has taken the first step on the North Shore and passed an ordinance requiring businesses to make reusable bags available for purchase, and provide containers to recycle plastic bags. 

Recycling is problematic because single use plastic bags are not biodegradable. Many cities in California have simply banned plastic bags outright. Seattle bans plastic bags and requires a 5 cent deposit on paper. 

Bring Your Bag Chicago, a "Bag the Plastic Bag" ban currently under consideration in the Windy City, has its own Facebook page. In fact, YOU probably have a bunch of reusable bags languishing in the way back of your car, even as we speak. Next time you're at Sunset or Trader Joe's or Whole Foods -- don't forget to take them with you!!! 

To emphasize the difference you can make by taking your reusable bags when you shop -- here's a satiric video, narrated by Jeremy Irons, as only the British can, to remind us of the problems caused by plastic bags -- issues which may have started locally, but now have proliferated into an oceanic disaster with global consequences. 

Polar Vortex -- Climate Change or Not?

Here are some links to articles about the Polar Vortex phenomenon -- perfect for dinner table discussions with your Uncle Hal, who still thinks Watergate was just an unfortunate misunderstanding. Talk among yourselves. 

The Guardian -- UK
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/07/us-polar-vortex-global-warming

NPR:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/07/260455201/what-is-the-polar-vortex-and-why-is-it-doing-this-to-us?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

Rachel Maddow
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/winter-climate-and-whats-truly-laughable

Scientific American Editors' Blog
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2014/01/06/what-is-this-polar-vortex-that-is-freezing-the-u-s/?fb_action_ids=655321094525132&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B624568307580688%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

5 Ways to Make Your New Year's Resolutions Green!!!

These great green ideas have been contributed by GGN's Merilee Novinson, Team Leader for Communications. 

Do you want to do something for our planet Earth this coming year, but feel overwhelmed with all the problems publicized in the media and everywhere on social networks? 

Go Green Northbrook has some simple things you can do. 

If you pick just one idea from these lists, you’ll be giving Mother Earth the best gift of all - your time and attention. SO...just do it! Pick one green idea and set it as your goal in 2014!

Five Things for You and Your Family to Consider:

1. Eliminate meat just one meal each week. You’ll save 84,000 gallons of water, 245 pounds of grain and 15.5 gallons of gas.

2. Download Earth911’s iRecycle app for iPhone or Android: It tells how, where, when to recycle almost anything for FREE.

3. Carry a bag with your own reusable containers when eating out and eliminate a restaurant's non-recyclable containers for food being taken home.

4. Turn off computers at night vs. sleep mode to save 40 watt hours a day.

5. Don’t rinse off dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, just scrape them off. Save 20 gallons of water each load.

Five Things for Homeowners to Do:

1. Use reusable bags for all shopping -- saves energy and reduces waste.

2. Redecorate for energy savings. Make sure all registers are free of obstructions from furniture and draperies. One foot clearance is best for efficiency.

3. Make sure the fireplace flue is closed when not in use to save energy.

4. Visit Energy Star’s Home Advisor for customized tips.

5. Clean out the garage to get rid of hazardous waste, then park the family cars in the brand new space you've created. 

AND, one more thing: Consider joining Go Green Northbrook as a member. Check out all your friends and neighbors who are getting satisfaction helping others step up and be counted as friends of our planet.  

Have A Happy New Year from Go Green Northbrook!!!

Forest Education Team Presentation February 27th