NJ Community Water Watch

The Toms River Times had a recent article about Make a Difference Day in Toms River. The Ocean County College chapter of New Jersey Community Water Watch spent a Saturday in early October cleaning up Long Swamp Creek which empties into the Toms River and Barnegat Bay. Chemistry Professor Marashi of OCC told the reporter: "We must call upon our young generation to participate in activities, such as New Jersey Water Watch, to help educate, organize and actually clean our precious resource, water. Educators, parents, business leaders and politicians must expand awareness of these (environmental) issues and assist in fashioning solutions and processes to prevent the deterioration of our environment and help in improving it." Why not volunteer for such an organization as a member of the "OCL Going Green Team?"

Going Green at Your Library Blog

Check out this blog - lots of great green news related to libraries!
http://greeningyourlibrary.wordpress.com/

Conserve Water (AND Money!)

Check out this site for tips on saving water in your household from Mono Lake, CA:
http://www.monolake.org/waterconservation

Recycling CDs and DVDs

This APP article gives ideas about recycling CDs and DVDs. The first suggestion in the article is to check with your local library!

Recycled music
Q: I buy more music and movies online and my CDs, videos, cassette tapes and even some DVDs are now just taking up space on the shelf. How can I recycle old media materials?
A: Consumers shouldn't toss old CDs or videos into the trash. They could contain chemicals and metals that don't belong in a landfill.
Check with a local library, school or community center to gauge whether they might have use for them. Beyond that, it's smart to ask a local sanitation department if it recycles such items.
The Environmental Protection Agency points consumers to various resources such as http://earth911.org, which lists services that handle the recycling of various materials. Earth 911 offers more than 2,900 locations that handle media such as CDs and DVDs. The plastic from CD containers, for example, can be used to make new containers or even create the casings that cover street lights, according to Trey Granger, spokesman for Earth 911.
He said consumers also can consider new uses for old media. Scratched CDs, for example, can become drink coasters or wind chimes.
"They're largely made of plastic, which is very recyclable and is important to do because they're made of oil," Granger said.
There are also companies such as GreenDisk that make a business of collecting what it calls "technotrash" from around the country. Mickey Friedman, chief operating officer at GreenDisk, said consumers are starting to ask more questions about what to do with the electronic detritus building up in basements, garages and attics.
Consumers and businesses can send old media to GreenDisk for processing. The company will handle up to 20 pounds for about $7 and charges 30 cents a pound after that. Under another plan GreenDisk will send a "technotrash can" — a container that can be filled gradually with a range of electronic waste. Once it's full, customers send the container back for recycling. The company covers the cost of the return shipment.
The Associated Press

Mandatory 4 day work week

Utah has become the first state to mandate a 4 day work week for its state employees.

"Gov. Jon Huntsman, a first-term Republican, says he's making the change to reduce the state's carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, improve customer service and provide workers more flexibility."


This effects about 17,000 state workers--
Could this be done in Ocean County?

Memorial Day Message from the Sierra Club

Memorial Day Weekend is coming and -- in spite of gas prices -- more Americans than ever are planning to getaway by car. (1) But that doesn't have to cost as much as you think.
There are lots of ways to save gas (checked your tires lately?) but the easiest and most effective way is to slow down (just a little bit). When you add up the savings, it's like getting paid to relax.
So before you get behind the wheel for the upcoming holiday, show us what you're made of. Pledge to Drive 55 (or whatever the speed limit is on the roads you're traveling) for Memorial Day Weekend.
The Union of Concerned Scientists tells us that dropping from 70 to 60 mph improves fuel efficiency by an average of 17.2 percent. Dropping from 75 to 55 improves fuel efficiency by 30.6 percent!(3)
Put another way, in a family sedan, every 10 mph you drive over 60 is like paying 54 cents per gallon more for gas you bought at $3.25 a gallon. (4) That extra cost is even higher for big SUVs and other less-efficient vehicles.
And the time you save by going easy on the accelerator may not add up to as much as you thought. On a 300-mile trip, driving 65 instead of 70 mph would cost you only 20 minutes -- but save money and spew less carbon.
Take the Pledge!
Learn about other ways to avoid a "pain in the gas" when it comes to getting from here to there.
Is driving to your destination more fuel-efficient than flying? Take our "How Green Is My Getaway" quiz. You might be surprised.
Our April 29 post about driving the speed limit in our Green Life blog led many to share the wisdom of their personal road trip experiences. You can read all of them here, and share your own.
Have a great Memorial Day,
Greg Haegele
Director of Conservation

Smart Container Act 2008 (Bottle Bill)

The proposed “Smart Container Act” would require a 10-cent deposit on all plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans (other than refillable containers) less than 24 oz. and a 20-cent deposit on such beverage containers over 24 oz. up to 3 liters. The proposal would include juice, sports drinks, and bottled waters as well as soda, wine and beer containers. The legislation was introduced on Jan. 8, 2008. To view the text of the legislation click on either format
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillView.asp

This is a link to an organization called The Container Recycling Institute which promotes recycling of container and packaging waste
http://www.bottlebill.org/legislation/usa/nonbb-nj.htm

Look at these articles from Jan. '08 National Geographic

HIGH-TECH TRASH. - what's happening w/some of our discarded technology tools


E-HAZARDS. - what's IN some of our discarded technology tools


RECYCLING THE BIG PICTURE. - if you have access to the print magazine, check out the Glass & Paper Recycling Graph - we need to be better!

Going Green with our purses

The Big Green Purse is a blog about conscientious spending. The creator, Diane, believes women have alot of power to affect positive environmental change with the way we spend our money--what she calls our "green purse." She encourages us to spend wisely--Going Green does not have to cost more. Her "Be one in a million" plan is to encourage women to pledge to use purse power to have a billion dollar impact on the environment.

Blog roll please-EcoLibris

20 million trees are cut down every year to produce American books!!! Here is a green business that works with book related industries to balance out those staggering numbers by having readers plant a tree for every book they read.
Here is the Eco-Libris blog blog and the website. In an earlier posting about National Library Week one of the founder's of Eco-Libris interviews his mom who has been a librarian for 27 years. Let's get a blogroll going on the sidebar!

One More Newspaper Article

Make a statement for Earth Day with these eco-friendly products
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200804100410/LIFE/80408040

Recycling of Electronics

Firm Offers Recycling of Electronics
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/NEWS/80409028/1070/rss02

Battery and Cell Phone Recycling

I just saw an ad for this
call2recycle.org where people can drop off cell phones and rechargeable batteries.

Friendly Cleaning Ideas

One of my favorite charities, the Heifer Organization, had a list of environmentally friendly alternatives to cleaning in their recent publication of the World Ark Magazine that I thought may be useful. Their magazine is online and the list is found on page 6. This is the link:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/heifer/worldark_20080304/

Post Office helps with recycling

The US Post Office is launching a new pilot program; click below for the article.

http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2008/pr08_028.htm

How to Recycle Everything

I came across this link and thought we could use it for some ideas to pass along.

How to Recycle Everything

I'd like to recommend the book:
Exposed: the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products - Who's at Risk and What's at Stake for American Power by Mark Schapiro
It really gives you a global perspective of how the United States is falling behind the rest of the world and how it is affecting our economy.

Solar Shingles

Here is a link to an article about Solar Shingles. I was fascinated by this concept and am hopeful they can become part of the Brick renovation and Stafford's new building. I'm quite sure they will be expensive, but I wonder if we will be able to get a grant to help out with the cost of these. http://www.ovonic.com/PDFs/featured_solutions/oakland_university_goes_solar_uni-solar_shingles.pdf.

Welcome

This weblog is maintained by the Going Green Committee of the Ocean County Library headquartered in Toms River, New Jersey.
If you have any articles or information on recycling or conservation you'd like to share, you are welcome to add a comment here that will be considered for publishing on this blog.