Greenversations

As the end of summer approaches, I find myself not basking out in the sun, but preparing for the school year. While most of the nation’s children head back to school in September, in our neck of the woods school starts in August. With four school age kids in our household, the list of needed school items is quite extensive. This year I decided to get ahead of the game. With some careful planning, we are greening our way back to school.

As with previous years, the girls will be wearing hand-me-down uniforms. I usually buy one new uniform a year for one of my daughters and the rest are traded with a colleague whose daughter goes to the same school. A pair of shoes will be refurbished for one of the girls.

This year I decided to look first for the required school supplies at home instead of hitting the mall. So far, my eldest daughter’s backpack will be reused and our youngest daughter will use her older sister’s rolling backpack from the year before last. One quick cleaning was all it took to make it look brand new. Pens, pencils, rulers, staplers and binders, among others are being reused from last year. I was surprised to learn that six billion pens are thrown away every year!

Since books are another big ticket item in the “back to school” budget, I buy them from online retailers that specialize in used books. Only updated editions of specific books and workbooks are being bought new.

Furthermore, I have decided that all new items we purchase this season will be made from recycled or sustainable sources.

Here are some brief pointers to make your back to school a green one:

• Take inventory before going to the stores–this will save you time and money and it will be good to our Earth.
• Buy quality materials when available, (i.e. backpacks, shoes, etc.) to ensure durability.
• Refillable pens and pencils are a small change with a large impact. Fourteen billion pencils are manufactured every year, some from ancient trees.
• Reuse everything that remains in good condition. Limit disposable supplies.
• Make your kids a greener, waste-free lunch.
• Use recycled paper to protect our trees and cut down on waste.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

Ya se acerca el fin del verano y en vez de estar disfrutando el tiempo que me queda, me estoy preparando para el regreso a clases. Aunque en Estados Unidos muchos niños regresan a la escuela en septiembre, acá en Puerto Rico nuestros chicos comienzan clases en agosto. Con cuatro niños en edad escolar asistiendo a una escuela privada, no es difícil imaginar que nuestra lista de materiales escolares es extensa. Sin embargo este año decidí organizarme para hacer de este un regreso a la escuela más verde.

Como en años anteriores las niñas utilizarán uniformes usados. Generalmente les compro un uniforme nuevo y el resto los intercambio con una colega cuya hija asiste a la misma escuela. Un par de zapatos recibirá suelas nuevas, evitando así la compra de un par nuevo para mi hija mayor.

En vez de salir a comprar los útiles escolares comencé revisando las cosas que tenía en casa. Mi hija menor reutilizará el bulto que su hermana mayor no utiliza desde el año antepasado y la mayor el que le compré el año pasado. Con una lavada ambos lucen nuevos. Algunos lápices, bolígrafos, grapadoras y carpetas del año anterior se volverán a usar. Me sorprende saber que en el mundo 6 mil millones de bolígrafos terminan en la basura cada año!

Los libros son los artículos de mayor valor en nuestro presupuesto de vuelta a clases por tal razón los decidí adquirir, en su gran mayoría, de varios sitios electrónicos que se especializan en libros usados. Sólo adquirí nuevos aquellos de nueva edición y los cuadernos de trabajo.

Los artículos nuevos que me faltan por adquirir para este año escolar serán reciclados o de fuentes sustentables.

Adjunto una breve lista para hacer de su vuelta a clases una más verde:

• Tome inventario antes de salir a compara–esto le ahorrará no solo tiempo y dinero, sino que ayudará al Planeta
• Compre la mejor calidad que pueda para asegurarse que los artículos le duren (zapatos, bultos, uniformes)
• Los lápices y bolígrafos con reemplazo son un cambio pequeño de gran impacto. En el mundo se manufacturan 14 mil millones de lápices, algunos de árboles centenarios
• Reutilice todo lo que este en buen estado. Limite los útiles desechables.
• Prepare a sus niños una merienda verde, libre de envases desechables.
• Utilice papel reciclado para evitar desperdicios y proteger árboles

Sobre la autor: Brenda Reyes Tomassini se unió a la EPA en el 2002. Labora como especialista de relaciones públicas en la oficina de EPA en San Juan, Puerto Rico donde también maneja asuntos comunitarios para la División de Protección Ambiental del Caribe.

One of the great things about being an intern at EPA is that I have plenty of opportunities to get away from my desk. Sure, a trip to the Montgomery County (Maryland) Recycling Center – which happened earlier this month – isn’t the most exotic destination I could possibly imagine, but it’s still nice to get a break from staring at a computer screen. And, as it turns out, recycling centers are more interesting than you might think!

Everything about the Montgomery County Recycling Center – the bright colors, the pictures on the wall, and even our tour guide – exude enthusiasm about recycling. “We have a goal of 50 percent recycling for Montgomery County,” our guide told us (they’re currently at 44 percent). The Center is all about helping residents learn what they can do to recycle more; they try to make recycling as efficient and convenient as possible, and they even sort residents’ glass, cans, and plastic bottles (no need for residents to do it themselves!). That’s probably one of the reasons that Montgomery County is inching closer to a 50 percent recycling rate (the national average municipal solid waste recycling rate was 33.4 percent in 2007).

The Center receives about 200 tons of paper a year. Nationwide, 54.5 percent of paper products were recycled in 2007. I ran the numbers and figured that, if Montgomery County is consistent with the national average, then for every 200 tons of paper that come into the Center annually, there are about 167 tons of paper that are go into the trash. That’s not surprising – paper is the single biggest type of trash that we generate.

Right next to the Center is a solid waste transfer station, which accepts materials that the Recycling Center doesn’t, such as oil, point, dirt, electronics, batteries, propane, helium (who has excess helium? Clowns?) tires, scrap metal, and building materials. Just about anything that can be manufactured can be recycled.

In my program, the Industrial Materials Reuse Program, we deal with recycling every day. It was interesting to see where recycled materials actually go, and it was enlightening to look at the tons of materials in the Center – pile after pile of glass, metals, paper, and plastic – and realize that if they hadn’t ended up there, they would have ended up in a landfill.

About the author: Ayende Thomas is an undergraduate Civil Engineering major at Howard University with an interest in environmental engineering. She is currently a summer intern in EPA’s Industrial Materials Reuse Program.

For years we have heard about recycling our plastics, aluminum cans, paper and used electronics – but what else can we recycle? I recently found out that my old running shoes can be recycled and remanufactured to make athletic surfaces. During the manufacturing process, my old shoes are cut into three slices which are then fed through a grinder and then purified. The purified material is then used to produce many different types of surfaces such as playground surfaces, tennis courts and outdoor tracks. Check out this recycling process! I don’t know of any other programs like it, but hopefully it will catch on. It is a cool process that will save energy and resources. And, like many other recycling processes – we also help the environment by reducing excess waste when we recycle our old shoes. Instead of piling our old shoes on top of a local landfill, we can put them to use in our parks and athletic centers. What other products in our home can we recycle? Let’s help prevent waste and conserve resources and energy through recycling in our homes and communities. Be sure to let us know what great ideas you have.

About the author: Michelle Gugger graduated from Rutgers University in 2008. She is currently spending a year of service at EPA’s Region 3 Office in Philadelphia, PA as an AmeriCorps VISTA.

On Sunday night, I saw a computer monitor that had been left near the curb next to the trash cans four houses down from mine. My first thought was that some people are not really aware of the significant damage they cause the environment by tossing electronics along with their trash. I really hoped somebody would pick up this cast-off soon. Unfortunately, on Monday morning, my husband called me to say that he had seen municipal workers literally throwing a computer monitor into a public works pick up truck. The monitor broke into pieces as it landed in the truck’s bed. He was extremely worried about the harmful substances that would leak into the ground along with the regular trash once the monitor was disposed of in the landfill.

Obsolescence, development of new technologies and massive marketing campaigns that make people want to buy the latest models result in a fast-growing surplus of discarded electronic equipment around the world. Electronic equipment has revolutionized the way we communicate, but most of these items contain serious contaminants such as lead, cadmium, beryllium and brominated flame retardants that need to be carefully disposed of.

Many states have “diversion from landfill” legislation that requires electronic equipment to be collected and processed separately form garbage. In April 2000, Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to make it illegal to dispose of CRT (cathode ray tubes) in landfills. In Europe, these regulations and bans date to the 1990’s. As of 2008, 17 states in the U.S. had enacted responsibility laws and 35 states were considering electronic recycling laws. Earlier this year, the state of Washington passed legislation requiring manufacturers of electronic goods to pay for recycling and establishing a statewide network of collection points.

EPA has been working to educate consumers on reuse and safe recycling of electronics. This past Earth Day, two bills were passed by the House of Representatives to require EPA to give merit-based grants to universities, government labs and private industries to conduct research on the development of new approaches that would improve recycling and reduction of hazardous materials in electronic devices.

In our household, we throw out our unwanted electronics during an e-cycling drive. Last year, the local Engineers and Surveyors Association held a multi-city e-waste drive during which I not only disposed of an old computer monitor and fax, but also an old TV from my parent’s house. However, there are other options like donating the equipment for refurbishment and resale. The two latter are more common with cellular phones. All of them are much better than throwing electronics into the trash.

About the author: Brenda Reyes Tomassini joined EPA in 2002. She is a public affairs specialist in the San Juan, Puerto Rico office and also handles community relations for the Caribbean Environmental Protection Division.

Vi el monitor de computadora un domingo en la noche al lado de los contenedores de basura de una casa a cuatro residencias de la nuestra. De inmediato constaté que, aún con todos los esfuerzos de educación ambiental que hacemos, hay algunas personas que no entienden el daño que causan al ambiente tirando enseres electrónicos a la basura regular. Pensé que quizás alguien se lo llevaría antes que llegase el camión de basura. Sin embargo mi esposo me llamó el lunes en la mañana para indicarme como los trabajadores de recogido de desperdicios habían dispuesto del monitor tirandolo al camión de la basura y como este se hizo añicos ante sus ojos. Y fue así como nuestra mayor preocupación se tornó realidad. Este monitor que desprendía componentes y sustancias químicas peligrosas terminaría junto a la basura regular en el vertedero.

El advenimiento de nuevas tecnologías, la obsolencia de équipos electrónicos junto a campañas publicitarias que destacan las virtudes de tal o más cual equipo han creado a nivel mundial un exceso de electrónicos que son descartados cada año por un modelo más eficiente. Si bien han revolucionado la manera en la que nos comunicamos, no podemos perder de vista que muchos de estos equipos también contienen contaminantes como plomo, cadmio y berilio, entre otros, que necesitan ser dispuestos adecuadamente.

Muchos estados tienen legislación que prohibe de su disposición en los vertederos. Estos equipos deben ser recogidos y procesados fuera de la corriente regular. El estado de Massachussets fue el primero en hacer ilegal la disposición de tubos de rayo catódico (CTR, por sus siglas en inglés) en abril del 2000. En Europa muchas de estas leyes y estatutos de prohibición datan de los años 1990’s. En el 2008 17 estados de Estados Unidos habían creado leyes de responsabilidad y 35 estaban considerando establecer leyes de reciclaje de electrónicos. Al presente, el estado de Washington pasó legislación requiriendo a los manufactureros de equipos de este tipo pagar por el reciclaje de estos y establecer puntos de recogido a través del estado.

La EPA ha trabajado arduamente para educar a la ciudadanía sobre el reuso y el reciclaje seguro de estos equipos. Durante la conmemoración del Día Internacional de la Tierra este año la Legislatura aprobó dos medidas que le dan a la EPA la facultad de otorgar subvenciones a universidades, laboratorios del gobierno y la industria privada para llevar a cabo investigaciones sobre el desarrollo de nuevas formas de mejorar el reciclaje de electrónicos y reducir los componentes peligrosos en estos equipos.

En nuestro hogar llevamos nuestros equipos electrónicos al recogido anual que hace el Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores. El año pasado llevé una computadora vieja y un fax junto a un televisor viejo de la casa de mis padres. Sin mebargo hay otras opciones como donar el equipo, revenderlo o arreglarlo. Las últimas dos son muy comunes con equipos como teléfonos. Cualquiera de estas opciones es mejor que tirarlo a la basura.

Sobre la autor: Brenda Reyes Tomassini se unió a la EPA en el 2002. Labora como especialista de relaciones públicas en la oficina de EPA en San Juan, Puerto Rico donde también maneja asuntos comunitarios para la División de Protección Ambiental del Caribe.

Instead of throwing it away, food waste can be composted and reused on lawns and gardens. Yet food waste remains single-largest component of the waste stream by weight in the U.S.

What do you do with food waste?

Each week we ask a question related to the environment. Please let us know your thoughts as comments. Feel free to respond to earlier comments or post new ideas. Previous questions.

En lugar echarlos a la basura, los desechos de alimentos pueden ser utilizados para hacer compostaje y reutilizarlos en el césped y jardines. Los desechos de alimentos continúan siendo el componente singular de mayor cuantía en el volumen de basura por su peso en Estados Unidos.

¿Qué hace con los desechos de alimentos?

Cada semana hacemos una pregunta relacionada al medio ambiente. Por favor comparta con nosotros sus pensamientos y comentarios. Siéntase en libertad de responder a comentarios anteriores o plantear nuevas ideas. Preguntas previas.

After the success of President Obama’s political campaign, it became impossible to ignore the importance of emerging Web technologies. A Web presence characterized by information sharing, social networking and online communities emerged as a powerful way to transform a fledging grassroots movement into a national campaign. In 2008, Craig Hooks, former Director of the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, recognized the opportunity for EPA to utilize Web technology to get citizens involved in addressing environmental challenges together. He proposed the idea of a video contest to engage the public and to help solve problems associated with non-point source water pollution.

Although there have been great improvements in water quality over the past three decades, there is still a massive problem resulting from human activity on the land. Educating citizens about actions that they can take to reduce their impact is vital to improving the nation’s water quality.

The contest was a new way for the Office of Water to experiment with participatory governance using the Web. I’m happy to say that it worked well beyond our expectations. We marketed the contest using social media channels, creating a special EPA group on YouTube and filming our own promotional video, publicizing it on various Web pages, such as VidOpp.com and Fastweb.com, creating a Facebook group page as well as using more traditional outreach such as listservs. It helped that I am a twenty-year-old intern, comfortable with these cutting-edge marketing technologies.

We had modest expectations. The Radon Video Contest conducted last summer by the Office of Air and Radiation generated thirty videos, and we assumed we would receive about the same number. We were wrong. As the contest drew to a close, we began to get overwhelmed. By midnight, more than 250 videos had been submitted.

The judging proved somewhat challenging because of the range of topics and variability in quality. But in the end, we selected two outstanding top videos, “Protect our Water-Check Cars for Oil Leaks” by Lucas Ridley and “Dastardly Deeds and the Water Pollution Monster” by Nora Parren, along with twenty-one videos honorable mentions.

This contest was a monumental success. Collectively, our YouTube contest channel generated more than 18,000 collective views at the contest close and 28,839 views as of today. The interest it has generated has been amazing, and EPA has begun to realize the potential for government to gain the public’s interest using emerging Web technologies. We have been flooded by calls and emails from other EPA offices as well as other government agencies and nonprofit groups that wish to run similar Web contests. On June 10, 2009 Web 2.0 became the one millionth word to be added to the English language dictionary, showing how truly epic this movement is. This is the beginning of a new age for the government and with social media tools at our disposal, individuals can truly participate in their government.

Check out the contest winners.
View all the contest entries.

About the author: Rebecca Neary has been interning with the Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds at Headquarters since January 2009. Rebecca will be beginning her Masters Degree in Environmental Policy and Natural Resource Management at Indiana University this fall.

In 2007, 245.1 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in the United States. Of that waste, organic materials—yard trimmings, food scraps, and paper products—made up more than two-thirds of our solid waste stream. Even though organic waste makes up most of our waste stream, it is something that we can reduce. Composting can turn our organic wastes into valuable compost which can be used for landscaping and gardening purposes. By composting we can also reduce methane, a greenhouse gas with 21 times the heating potential of carbon dioxide which is largely produced from the organic wastes in our landfills.

There are many types of composting options to choose from. At the end of the composting process you will end up with a great, free product for greening lawns and producing strong, healthy garden plants.

So here’s how you can start. Look at your options. Some include vermicomposting, compost bins, or installing a composter in the sink like a garbage disposal. Discuss with your caregiver or principal which option works easiest and best for your home or school. Then work on making successful compost by watching what you put into the composter. EPA’s web site has great information for creating a compost pile right in your own backyard.

So take action against producing so much waste and reduce green house gas emissions. By composting you can eliminate the threats to climate change, water quality and pollution by transforming your waste into a product that will benefit your lawn and garden. Talk to your friends and family about how they can start a composting project at home. You can also become a climate ambassador by starting a composting program at your school. You will find that it can be fun, especially if you like to garden! Be sure to tell us your composting plans. Let us know which option works best for you, how much waste you will be reducing and what you plan to do with your compost.

About the Author: Michelle Gugger graduated from Rutgers University in 2008. She is currently spending a year of service at EPA’s Region 3 Office in Philadelphia, PA as an AmeriCorps VISTA