“What do we want?”
“Garbage!”
“When do we want it?”
“Now!”

Clean-Up Group

Yes, the 26 students, staff and faculty who participated in Parkland Reads’ College Clean-Up – Part 2 were indeed hungry for garbage. Wearing fashion-forward lime, reflective vests and gloves, adrenalin coursing through their veins, they broke into five groups and energetically covered the inside of the College. Within 45 minutes, all groups had returned, bearing small bags of trash and much larger bags of recyclables. It was particularly noteworthy that the ratio of recyclables found to trash was about 7 to 1. Many, many pop bottles and quite a lot of paper and cardboard were the bulk of the recyclables.

Trash and recyclables

After the clean-up, a drawing was held to give away 4 copies of Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. The happy winners are shown below.

Many thanks to everyone who participated and supported this endeavor. A special thank you to Marsha Reardon for helping to organize and promote both College Clean-Ups. If you are interested in finding out about other volunteer opportunities at Parkland, please contact her at 353-3302 or mreardon@parkland.edu.

Next semester we’re hoping to do more clean-ups, so stay tuned for details!

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Elizabeth Royte passed along information about a couple of programs that may be of interest. Cut and pasted from a recent email:

Here’s something on RecycleBank, the program that gives vouchers for goods in exchange for recyclables. Some communities with Recycle Bank include:

• Wilmington, Delaware (first full city program, reached 95% participation and 40% diversion)
• Everett, Massachusetts (went from 95 to 825 lbs/HH/yr.)
• Cherry Hill, New Jersey (uses a community reward model instead of the individual incentives [I really like this])
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1st community to test Recycle Bank in 2004).

RecycleBank is now in 10 states and claims that the communities using this system are averaging a 40% landfill diversion rate.

People who are interested in sustainability issues might want to sign up for e-mail from the Grassroots Recycling Network (grrn.org). They have a list called GreenYes (it’s listed in the left-side nav bar on the home page) where people write in with questions, experts lurk, answer, debate. They cover all kinds of recycling, EPR, composting, language for local ordinances, etc. It’s a searchable database and it made reporting Garbage Land a whole lot easier. I highly recommend it.

Cheers,

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Royte, me and a Big Pile of Mushroom Compost in Champaign, Illinois.

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Follow along as Jon Rolls in the UK embraces a week of Zero Waste. Today is day three for the Rolls household.  http://jrzerowastechallenge.blogspot.com/

Could you do this for a week?

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Do you sometimes notice various kinds of trash inside Parkland and wish someone would pick it up? Can you imagine yourself spending an hour involved in this worthy endeavor?
 
The Parkland Reads College Clean-Up – Part 2 (this time indoors) will take place this Friday, October 24, from 3 – 4 pm. We’ll be recycling everything that we can and also generally noting the kinds of trash that we find. 

The Clean-Up Project is sponsored by the Office of the President, Parkland Reads, Student Government, Sustainable Campus Initiative, and Student Life.
 
Gloves, bags, treats and the admiration of the Parkland College community will be provided. Please join us!
 
To sign up, e-mail: parklandreads@parkland.edu.

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This blog, from a women in the UK, is an interesting read.  She began by taking part in a Zero Waste challenge in March and her book, The Rubbish Diet will be published in 2009. http://therubbishdiet.blogspot.com/

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Curriculum Discussion for Parkland College Faculty.

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, 2:00-4:00 pm, D116

Are you interested in using Garbage Land in your classes but not sure how? Would you like to discuss curriculum ideas with your colleagues?

Join Jennifer Satterlee and Lynne Scott to discuss ideas for integrating the book and activities related to its themes into your spring semester classes.

Reserve your spot by emailing CenterForExcellence@parkland.edu or calling ext. 3767.

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Thank you, Parkland Reads, for that awakening presentation today by Garbage Land author Elizabeth Royte! As someone unacquainted with exactly what ecological footprint I’m leaving behind for future generations, I greatly appreciated having this opportunity to begin giving it an honest examination.

Boy, can this woman talk some serious trash! Royte was articulate and thorough; you could tell she’s been giving this lecture to quite a few audiences over the past three years. Her accompanying PowerPoint accurately followed the intriguing course of the book, taking us from her initial guilt-tinged question six years ago, “where does my trash actually go?” to her trek alongside her neighborhood sanitation workers (I wondered what Sullivan actually looked like); her attempt to sneak a peek around the Bethlehem Steel landfill; her hair-raising adventures through salt marshes loaded with crap; and her enlightening exploration of waste management facilities. (Americans seem to be managing their wastes, for sure…but not so well.)

Royte’s gentle, matter-of-fact way of speaking, sprinkled with touches of humor, kept the audience both amused and alarmed during each phase of her journey. She weaved for us a smart pattern of national statistics on American consumption and waste accumulation; evidence of the advantages of reducing, reusing, and recycling; and practical tips (replete with media resources) on how we can reduce our own garbage footprint. It was comforting to see concerned students, such as the nursing students who were there, asking Royte specific questions about what they can do to decrease their lifestyle toll on the planet.

OK, I confess to not having before recycled my plastic bottles, only my aluminum cans–Royte has made a new convert today! (Still am a bit fearful of food scrap composting, however, due to the vermin that are attracted to it–raccoons terrify me!) Consider the Parkland Reads presentation, and the lunch that followed, a huge success!

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Do you know what another name is for the trash and recyclables found outside of Parkland during our September 25 Clean-Up?

“Raw data!”

Yes, we not only collected trash and recyclables, but we also collected valuable information on the kinds of materials that were found outside of Parkland. We are anticipating that our October 25 clean-up of the inside of Parkland will give us even more useful data.

Parkland Reads is therefore beginning to collaborate with Parkland College Sustainable Campus Initiative (SCI), whose mission is: “To encourage a campus-wide commitment to sustainability, while promoting an environmentally responsible citizenry through student engagement, community involvement, and curriculum incorporation.”

We’re specifically hoping through this collaboration to help inform and improve Parkland’s recycling policies. What better college-wide legacy could there be from our reading and exploration of Garbage Land this year, than a better plan for dealing with our own trash and recyclables, while also educating our community?

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