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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!



Reduce, Reuse, Rot & Recycle: Fairs Teaching 4 Rs Planned throughout the Keys

On Saturday, Nov. 15, a Recycling Fair will be hosted by Big Pine Academy at MM 30, from 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m. The event includes a coffee and bake sale, a plant clinic with Monroe County Extension agent Kim Gabel, a worm composting workshop and composter raffle, information on hazardous waste and monofilament disposal. Student art, featuring works created from recycled objects, will be sold to raise funds for the Academy. Stations will be set up to teach various ways to apply the 4 Rs and visitors can test their 4R IQ and receive a reusable Publix shopping bag. Waste Management will be sponsoring a recycling bin giveaway and Coca Cola will showcase their new hybrid delivery truck. Bring your plastic caps and lids, packing peanuts for recycling. Electronic recycling drop off will be accepted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, contact Shirley at 304-8812.

The Marathon R4 event begins at the Marathon Garden Club (MM50 bayside) on Saturday, Nov. 15 from 9 a.m.-12 p.m., where electronic recycling drop off will be available. Drop off an item and receive a $1 discount on admission to Crane Point Museum & Nature Center. A Master Gardener Clinic will be held for problem plants and gardening questions. Recycle bins and Publix green shopping bags will be given away. The event will continue at 1 p.m. at Crane Point Museum & Nature Center, located bayside at US 1 and Sombrero Beach Rd., with a presentation on composting to be given by horticulturalist John Henderson. Admission is free for participants in the hands-on training to create two composting sites at the Nature Center. Attendees are then welcome to wander the trails and enjoy the day at Crane Point Museum & Nature Center. For more information call Elizabeth Moore at 743-3900.

In Key West, the “We R4 Recycling Fair” offers fun, food and educational games from noon- 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16 in the Key West High School Courtyard. Participants can play Green Bingo and win prizes, including a kids’ bike, donated by the Bike Shop. Participants can earn a recycling bin, green bags and more, while learning about the 4 Rs and Zero Waste. The Recycling Challenge Game, designed to test skills in a game of competition, will challenge players in recycling duels to include Mayor Morgan McPherson, Commissioner Teri Johnston and other elected officials. Earth-friendly foods will be served by the high school culinary students, and a bake sale will be hosted by the student Green Team of St. Mary Immaculate Star of the Sea. Green films will be shown and mini-workshops on car pooling, FreeCycle, rainbarrels, and more will be presented. Bring a favorite t-shirt to be made into a reusable bag or pillow cover.  The Key West High School Alternative Energy Center will offer a demonstration on biodiesel and invites participants to bring their used, liquid-only cooking oil in a plastic container to be converted to fuel. Other exhibitors will sell green and energy saving products and services. Electronic recycling collection will be provided by Recycled PC Parts in the front parking lot of the high school from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information call Jody Smith-Williams at 304-2064.

The 2nd Annual Upper Keys GLEE R4 Fair, co-sponsored by Mariner’s Hospital, will be held at the Key Largo Community Park (MM 99.5) on Saturday, Nov. 22 from 11a.m.-2 p.m. Music will be provided by Dave and Nyan Feder, Micah and others. Monroe County Extension Services will provide games with prizes for children, while local schools display recycled/reused art projects and educational booths. Keys Sanitary and Veolia will demonstrate the dos and don’ts of recycling, and Keys Sanitary will give away 200 recycling bins to Key Largo residents.  The Upper Keys Garden Club will demonstrate composting and raffle a composter. All Keys Gutters will show how to do rainwater harvesting using a cistern, and raffle a cistern.  GLEE membership information will be available and bags made by the Keys Quilting Club will be given with each new membership. Publix green bags, as well as information on the Community Garden Project will be available. Other exhibitors include Island Dolphin Care (recycling your ink cartridges), The Audubon Society (collecting and recycling monofilament), FKAA, Upper Keys Animal Shelter (collecting towels, blankets, pet supplies, and large format newspapers), Florida Keys Heritage Trail, WeeCycle and many more!

Electronic recycling drop-off will be at the park entrance in the parking lot. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. For a list of items to be accepted click here.

The Key Largo Chamber of Commerce has organized a Community Clean-up Saturday from 8 a.m.- noon.  To sign up contact the Chamber at 451-4747.  The “Keep Islamorada Parks and Roadways Green and Clean” program is also organizing a clean up of the Whale Harbor Bridge area staring at 9 a.m. Contact Maria at 853-1685. Volunteers for the clean-up will be served hot dogs by the Key Largo Rotary and FKAA will provide drinking water. R4 Fair volunteers, sponsors and exhibitors, contact Christi Allen at 942-0808.

News:

as seen in E/ The Environmental Magazine!

Trash Talking
When it comes to garbage, American consumers could learn a few things from the Swiss

BY CHRIS HAMBLEY

The Swiss have a sensible solution to garbage collection and recycling that is so, well, Swiss. In most North American cities one hurls great numbers of black garbage bags into trash cans, where they’re often ripped open by marauding animals. Of course, some of the bags are green, boasting of extra-strength-easy-grip twist-ties or whatever “new” labor-saving innovation is being peddled at the mega-shopping center.
The Swiss put all their garbage in uniform, pay-as-you-use bags. So why can’t we?
Our system celebrates free enterprise, but the Swiss discard their garbage in official state-produced bags that come in three sizes: 15-, 30- and 60-liter and cost around $1.50 for the medium bag. In other words, you pay real money for the amount of trash you create. On the eve of garbage day, then, one can look down the road and see neat stacks of identical blue bags, and there’s something soothing in this uniformity.(more)


Mission:

Working together to make it easier and cheaper for citizens and businesses to reuse products, avoid disposables, and recycle.

Why Reduce, Reuse, Recycle:

  • Electronics and appliances are the fastest growing portion of trash today. The EPA predicts that in the next five years, approximately 250 million computers will become obsolete. Cell phones are being discarded at about 130 million per year. That's about 65 million tons of waste!
  • Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City!

R-R-R Goals:

  • Currently, businesses have to pay extra to recycle. GLEE hopes to reverse this and make recycling free for businesses.
  • Increase use of Freecycling! After all, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
  • Bring back free mulch. Now that the citrus canker scare is over, we hope to bring back the free deliveries of mulch from the Monroe County instead of shipping it all to the mainland.




What You Can Do:


Making small changes in the way we consume our natural resources adds up. Try some of the following:

  1. Get a travel coffee mug.
  2. Sign up with local re-use groups like Craigslist.org or Freecycle.org
  3. Donate to and shop from charity shops and consignment stores.
  4. Buy rechargeable batteries.
  5. Recycle! This is what Waste Management will pick up curbside:
    • Plastic bottles (water, soda, detergent, shampoo, and others marked 1 & 2)
    • Glass bottles and jars (clear, green, and brown)
    • Newspapers
    • Household batteries (in a sealed plastic bag, please)
    • Steel and aluminum cans (please rinse and tuck in lids)
    • Flattened corrugated boxes