Fresh AIRE

Be a “Green” Jammer!

Think “green” thoughts this summer...especially if you’re taking part in the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) 2008 tour.  When singing along to the tunes, especially the infamous DMB song Tripping Billies, “Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we’ll die,” hang on to your bottles and cans!  DMB wants you to take this one seriously and is challenging you to recycle at the remaining shows of their 2008 tour by seeking out the specially marks bins – in exchange for some cool stuff, like front row seats!  It's called 'So Much to Save.'  DMB is going beyond recycling though.  The band’s efforts are known as “The Bama Green Green Project.”  Other cool efforts, like ‘Eco-Rideshare’ - launched to promote carpooling to shows, are taking off.  How cool is that?  And so easy too!!  As if DMB isn’t already one of the sweetest bands around, they’ve just earned extra points in my book.  Keep on jammin’!

Another “Green” Friend?

I can’t take credit for turning another friend “green,” but I would certainly like to boast a bit about her efforts!  A very dear friend came to me recently and shared the details of an interview she saw on TV with Julia Louis-Dreyfus.  In this interview, Julia listed off a host of tips anyone can employ to save energy and live more sustainably.  My friend was astonished by the amount of energy saved in one CFL (80%), and even more so by the impacts of using those pesty plastic bags at the grocery store:  those bags aren’t biodegradable, contribute to litter, harm animals, and require tremendous amounts of energy in camparison to reusable shopping bags. 

This simple interview really pushed my friend into action.  She’s trying CFLs now, considers reusable shopping bags, and, most notably, she’s looking at other ways to reduce her consumption.  She asked me recently, “are those plastic red party cups bad?”  She uses two of these cups a day, only once, and then discards them.  My answer, “YES!”  If you have to use them, reuse them.  But, better yet, get a reusable travel mug – stainless steel are best! 

Having worked in the environmental field for nearly 10 years now, you would think that my environmental habits would extend to all my family, friends and neighbors.  I do have my environmental peeps for sure, but I just don’t like to be pushy to those that aren’t.  My preferred approach is to brag about my “lighter shade of green” friends when they do truly wonderful things for our environment. 

Thanks Friend!

134 tons of fun

I saw the traffic jam Saturday morning of folks trying to get to T.J. for the County's environmental recycling event, E-CARE. More than 1,800 people delivered a staggering 80-plus tons of electronics, enough to fill five tractor trailer trucks; 47 tons of household hazardous materials and more than seven tons of small metal items such as pots, pans, lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners.

If my math is right, each person brought, on average, almost 150 pounds of stuff to recycle! OMG, that is awesome!

Saturday's haul is nearly 20 tons more than has been collected in any previous recycling event. If you missed E-CARE and you have stuff you need to get rid of, no worries! You can visit the County's Household Hazardous Materials disposal facility or Electronic Collection and Recycling Center.

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Diana Sun is Director of Communications for Arlington County, a walking commuter, a new bicylist, and a happy resident of the urban village of Clarendon.

I'm So Proud!

Although my family has always been supportive of my career choice, they have never really understood my interest and motivation in working to “protect the environment.”  But, after more than 14 years of studying and working in the field, I think they’re starting to come around and I’m just so proud! 

I’ve long been deemed the “tree-hugger” in my family and quite frankly, very proud of that.  I wear it like a badge of honor.  Wearing this badge means that I often have to remind my mom to “turn off the faucet” when she cleans up the kitchen counters, tell my dad to “turn off the light” when he leaves a room, or urge my brother to “recycle that bottle” when he’s about to throw one in the trash can.  I try not to nag, but I do look for these instances where an opportunity presents itself and I jump right on in with my two cents.  The best part of wearing this badge is that it has actually rubbed off in some way. 

The best example of this is the decision my parents made in 2003 to buy a Honda Civic Hybrid.  Now, we can’t forget one of the major factors in this decision – the allowance to use the HOV lanes!  Nor can we forget the bottom line benefit of money saved at the pump (the car averages about 40 mpg).  But, we should focus on the fact that by owning this car, my parents are continuing to prevent an enormous amount of harmful emissions that would have otherwise gone into our air.  The decision, as my parents like to say, was a “no brainer.” 

Another example is the fact that my mom now not only looks for CFLs instead of traditional incandescent bulbs, which is a huge leap in itself, she even knows to look for the ENERGY STAR label on the package.  For those not familiar, ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices.  You can now find the ENERGY STAR label on over 50 product categories as well as buildings (commercial, institutional, and industrial) and homes.  Now, my mom may not know the details of ENERGY STAR, but she recognizes that the cyan blue label means something important.  She understands that it means it will save her money and allow her to one way to “do her part.” 

The greening of my condo building

The AIRE team's "Greening Your Condo Association" seminars and outreach are bearing fruit! Some enterprising folks from my condo building in Clarendon organized a Green Fair, held last night.

What fun! They proved that learning how to go green can be educational and fun, too! When I walked into the building last night after work, the lobby was abuzz. The booths and displays included several of my Arlington County colleagues, who brought CFL demos (and gave away free bulbs) and useful info on recycling, how to buy green power, etc.

Other booths included green-grown wine and coffee (free samples - yum!), a green cleaning service,  Arlington's new "Car-Free Diet," and more. Our building engineer even had a little display! The festive atmosphere made for lively conversation and a fun, communal spirit.

Folks seemed to be very interested in learning how to recycle more and got all sorts of good, practical advice from Jan Guastaferro of our County recycling team. We do recycle in our building, so we're off to a good start, and we can do more. What are other condo buildings doing?

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Diana Sun is Director of Communications for Arlington County, a walking commuter, a new bicylist, and a happy resident of the urban village of Clarendon.

It Happened at the Giant -- No Plastic, Please

This past Saturday, I did it. Oh, I'd been thinking about it for weeks. Then during my weekly grocery shopping trek, it happened. I walked by the end of an aisle at the Giant on Washington Blvd. and I saw the reusable bags for sale. Suddenly, I grabbed four of them and decided on the spot, "It's now or never."

When I went home, ALL our groceries were in the four reusable bags I had just purchased. No plastic bags. (And yes, my husband once again called me "Moonbeam," but he also seemed glad to have an alternative to a drawer full of plastic bags.) I felt a bit sorry for the check-out person; it seemed to take a bit longer for her to organize and place my items in the reusable bags. But that won't stop me from using my reusable bags...and next time I'll help more with that myself.

I was also pleased because more groceries seem to fit in those reusable bags as compared with the plastic bags. Four bags held $135 of groceries vs. the 15+ plastic bags I probably would have had to use. As for cost: they were just 99 cents each -- so it seems worth it.

I may also experiment with getting a few bags from some other stores. For example, I've heard folks say good things about the Whole Foods bags. (You can also find MANY sources for ordering bags online -- just go to Google and search on "Reusable Shopping Bag.") And we need to keep a few bags in the car AND the house -- for those unplanned trip to the CVS, Rite-Aid, Safeway, Westover Market, etc.

Next, I decided to evangelize a bit (with people I knew would forgive me for bugging them!). So, when I got home I called my mom and two sisters and urged them to start using reusable bags when shopping. They actually were a bit more enthusiastic than I thought they might be. And my sister Cindy called a few days later to say she was getting some reusable bags herself. Not only that, she was going to get some bags to give to her card-playing buddies.

Wow, maybe one person -- or a few people -- CAN start making a difference?! Be sure to leave a comment if you have something to share. (And if you're just "lurking" on the blog...be sure to at least read some of interesting comments from other folks.)

P.S. -- Check out these interesting plastic bag facts:

• Some 100 billion shopping bags end up in American landfills each year, according to Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research agency.
• IKEA recently last month began charging U.S. customers 5 cents a bag. As an alternative, the store sells large reusable plastic bags for 59 cents.
• Plastic bags made of polyethylene, which dominate the market, are non-biodegradable and are made from crude oil and natural gas, both nonrenewable resources.
• EPA estimates only 5.2% of the plastic bags and sacks in the municipal waste stream in 2005 were recycled.

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Jennifer K. Smith, 18-year resident of Arlington, AIRE blog manager

Troubled Water - True Costs of Bottled Water

The Green Guide recently had an excellent article all about the problems and environmental impact of bottled water. The article also included good sources for safe reusable water bottles. Some snippets from the article:

• In bottle production alone, the more than 70 million bottles of water consumed each day in the U.S. drain 1.5 million barrels of oil over the course of one year.
• A 1999 Natural Resources Defense Council study found that, with required quarterly testing, tap water may even be of a higher quality than bottled, which is only tested annually.

Read the full article -- it's interesting! Also see the related blog post on this topic, "Water, Water Everywhere..."

Water, water everywhere...

The evils of bottled water have been in the news of late. In June, the Arlington County Board pledged to drink tap water and the San Francisco Mayor banned bottle water from city government offices.

At home and at work, I use a 1-liter bottle that I refill over and over (and yes, occasionally wash). I carry a smaller refillable bottle when I travel, which helps avoid the exorbitant $3/bottle prices -- the going rate in Las Vegas, for example (eek!).

And to support AIRE, we all need to be reducing, reusing and recycling.

All of this is a perfect lead-up to my main point, which is that we are selling awesome water bottles in the Arlington County Store. Here's a photo I snapped moments ago. They are available in fun, hot colors and are just about the best-selling item in the store. At $5.99, they are a bargain -- I'm tellin' ya, Starbuck's is selling the same bottle for $10-12. Come by the store and take a look -- it's located on the ground floor of Courthouse Plaza, our government center, 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Across the plaza from the movie theatres and right on top of the Courthouse Metro station. Hours are 8-5, Monday-Friday. Come on by!

Stay hydrated!

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Diana Sun is Director of Communications for Arlington County, a walking commuter, a brand-spanking-new biker, and a happy resident of the urban village of Clarendon.   

Saving the Environment at the Hospital -- and More

Two things I want to share in this posting -- a little story about my recent hospital visit and some cool events coming up:

Saving the Enviroment at the Hospital
Yesterday, I was at Virginia Hospital Center for a routine check-up. Before the exam, I had to remove my clothes and put them in a large plastic bag the hospital provided. As I was waiting along with several other people, I noticed the trashcan was full of these (used) plastic bags. It occurred to me -- what a waste! It didn't seem the bags were made from recycled materials ... the bags themselves weren't being recycled ... and the hospital was clearly using many, many bags each day.

As I sat there thinking through all this plastic bag stuff, an extremely pleasant manager came by and asked me if I'd like some coffee. (Sidenote: I've had great customer service experiences at the hospital and think it's a fantastic facility.) I declined the coffee but decided I'd take the opportunity to pitch my cause about the bags. I asked if the hospital could explore other options ... Could the hospital recycle the plastic bags they currently use? Could they switch to plastic bags made from recycled materials? Or could they switch to bags made from recycled paper? Are there more environmentally friendly options or processes? The manager I'd cornered was interested (and said she'd heard other concerns in the past) -- she also promised to pass along my feedback to the higher ups. The morale of the story: Take every opportunity to look around you and think about how the situation could be different -- how things could be improved or changed to result in a positive impact on our environment.

P.S. If you have kids, you might want to check out "The Magic School Bus" Holiday Special DVD that's all about how recycling helps save the Earth. We checked it out from the Arlington Public Library I watched it last night with my 4-year-old, Carter, and though she didn't "get" it all, she understood enough and loved it!

Good Events Coming Up
May 19: Solar Open House
May 17: A Sense of Wonder — A One-Woman Play about Rachel Carson (supposed to be awesome!)
May 23: Green Kitchens and Bathrooms (good one of you're thinking about remodeling)

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Jennifer K. Smith, 17-year resident of Arlington,
Arlington County communications mgr. (& AIRE blog manager)

6th Grade Environmentalists Take Action

My sixth grade students had a wonderful experience with environmental civic action this year. As part of the national Earth Force program, 10 students sponsored an Electronics Recycling Event for their home community of HB Woodlawn on March 24. Their motto was "We'll bring it to you," meaning they went to over 70 HB Woodlawn households with their parents, student and teacher volunteers, to pick up old, unwanted electronics. It was a huge success!

Staples vice president Pat Girard, who sponsors Earth Force in our area, was so impressed, he not only gave the students the award at the Earth Force Youth Conference, but also is going to initiate an electronics recycling day at the local Staples stores in the Metro area and has asked these students to help him run it some time this Spring.

The impetus for this project was protecting our local HB Watershed because in the fall, while on a trip to a local stream, students found a variety of electronic equipment, such as hard drives and cell phones, directly in the stream water. Discovering that Arlington did not have curb side pick up for electronics recycling, they sponsored their own event.

The breakdown -- 433 items collected

• 263 computer components (monitors were the most recycled item)
• 113 TV, video, and audio items
• 15 cell phones
• 32 communication devices (telephones, fax machines, and an answering machine)
• 35 miscellaneous household appliances (Easy Bake oven, a vacuum cleaner, and a curling iron, rechargeable batteries)

The students also sent out a survey to a randomly chosen number of HB Woodlawn households to find out how interested they would be in curb-side recycling of electronic equipment. It turns out that 85% of the respondents favored having quarterly curb side electronic pick ups at their homes.

The sixth graders also presented their project, before and after, to the County Board (see photo) - and received great support. Paul Ferguson championed out effort and we thank him tremendously. The entire County Board praised the students' effort and County government staff also helped ensure the project's success, offering tips and support in collecting the items.

Sixth Grade Electronics Recycling Group
Ibby Han, Grace Evans, Elliot Grace, Zack Shoultz, Julia Voight, Myranda Miller, Millie Smith, Catie Mitchell, Anna Toth, Jonathon Wabeke

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Kathy Molina, Katherine_Molina@apsva.us
6th Grade Science Teacher
HB Woodlawn School (Arlington)