Peace College has made significant strides in our recycling efforts in the spring semester. We should also consider the other 2 components of the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle program.
Reduce What You Buy
Waste reduction starts at the decision to purchase. By making slight alterations to your shopping list you can significantly reduce the amount of waste created in and around the home.
· Buy products in the largest size you can use; avoid excess packaging
· Buy products that can be reused such as rechargeable batteries
· Reduce paper waste by cancelling unwanted mail
· Buy non-toxic cleaning products whenever possible
· Sell or give away unwanted items
· When purchasing one or two items ask the cashier to keep the bag or bring your own.
· Buy juice in concentrates and drink out of reusable containers instead of single serving packages
Buy Reusable and Long Lasting Items
· Use rechargeable batteries in toys, flashlights and radios
· Use a real camera instead of disposable ones
· Switch to cloth napkins, sponges and cloth towels or wipes
· Use a washable commuter mug
· Use washable plates, cups and silverware for parties and picnics instead of disposable products
· Use an electric razor with replaceable blades instead of disposable razors.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Recycle Medicine Bottles
Peace College Health Services Mari Lippig wishes to help you recycle your empty prescription bottles. Mari hopes to send most of these bottles to a mission hospital in Guatemala and local free clinics. Before sending her your empty prescription bottles take off the labels, so no one has access to your personal information and then clean and sanitize the bottles thoroughly.
If you rather not send Mari your empty prescription bottles here are fun tips to help you recycle!
If you rather not send Mari your empty prescription bottles here are fun tips to help you recycle!
Friday, March 20, 2009
“The Paper Thing Again”
“Paper comes from an enormously abundant renewable resource. It’s biodegradable, so it’s not a threat in landfills (or woodstoves). So…frankly I don’t give a hang about using a few more sheets. The best you can do by reducing usage is to put paper industry workers out of work.”
I saw the above comment on one of my favorite blogs. It is hard to believe someone can actually believe that. I thought it would be helpful to provide a few facts to dispel such idiocy.
It takes a lot of resources to produce, package, ship and eventually discard a few sheets of paper. Here are some facts from a great web site you may want to visit.
http://www.printgreener.com/earthday.html
Printing Facts
· Average cost of a wasted page $0.062
· Average employee prints 6 wasted pages per day, that's 1,410 wasted pages per year!
· The average U.S. office worker prints 10,000 pages per year.
· While 3 out of 4 office workers print from the Internet, 90% of people with a printer at home print Internet content.
Consumption
· In 2004 the United States used 8 million tons of office paper (3.2 billion reams). That’s the equivalent of 178 million trees!
· The U.S. is by far the world’s largest producer and consumer of paper. Per capita U.S. paper consumption is over six times greater than the world average.
· In the United States, we use enough office paper each year to build a 10-foot-high wall that’s 6,815 miles long. That’s more than the distance from New York to Tokyo!
Energy
· The U.S. pulp and paper industry is the second largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper uses 11,134 kWh (same amount of energy used by an avg household in 10 months).
Water
· Making one single sheet of copy paper can use over 13oz. of water– more than a typical soda can.
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 19,075 gallons of waste water.
Waste
· One ton of paper requires the use of 98 tons of various resources.
· In 2003, paper and paperboard accounted for 35 percent of the total materials discarded in the United States.
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 2,278 lb of solid waste
CO2
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 5,690 lb. of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of 6 months of car exhaust).
· Dumping paper in landfill adds methane to the atmosphere as it decomposes, with 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
Ink
· If you were to fill up the tank of your car with Hewlett-Packard or Lexmark ink, it would cost $100,000.
· If you filled an Olympic-size swimming pool with ink it would cost $5.9 billion.
I saw the above comment on one of my favorite blogs. It is hard to believe someone can actually believe that. I thought it would be helpful to provide a few facts to dispel such idiocy.
It takes a lot of resources to produce, package, ship and eventually discard a few sheets of paper. Here are some facts from a great web site you may want to visit.
http://www.printgreener.com/earthday.html
Printing Facts
· Average cost of a wasted page $0.062
· Average employee prints 6 wasted pages per day, that's 1,410 wasted pages per year!
· The average U.S. office worker prints 10,000 pages per year.
· While 3 out of 4 office workers print from the Internet, 90% of people with a printer at home print Internet content.
Consumption
· In 2004 the United States used 8 million tons of office paper (3.2 billion reams). That’s the equivalent of 178 million trees!
· The U.S. is by far the world’s largest producer and consumer of paper. Per capita U.S. paper consumption is over six times greater than the world average.
· In the United States, we use enough office paper each year to build a 10-foot-high wall that’s 6,815 miles long. That’s more than the distance from New York to Tokyo!
Energy
· The U.S. pulp and paper industry is the second largest consumer of energy and uses more water to produce a ton of product than any other industry.
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper uses 11,134 kWh (same amount of energy used by an avg household in 10 months).
Water
· Making one single sheet of copy paper can use over 13oz. of water– more than a typical soda can.
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 19,075 gallons of waste water.
Waste
· One ton of paper requires the use of 98 tons of various resources.
· In 2003, paper and paperboard accounted for 35 percent of the total materials discarded in the United States.
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 2,278 lb of solid waste
CO2
· Production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 5,690 lb. of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of 6 months of car exhaust).
· Dumping paper in landfill adds methane to the atmosphere as it decomposes, with 20 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
Ink
· If you were to fill up the tank of your car with Hewlett-Packard or Lexmark ink, it would cost $100,000.
· If you filled an Olympic-size swimming pool with ink it would cost $5.9 billion.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Artful Waste
Peace College student, Elizabeth Prince is collecting bottle tops for creating a work of art that will focus on recycling. She spent about 45 minutes at the large recycling container behind Belk Building this morning collecting tops. If that won't get you an “A” I do not know what will. She would not go into much detail about her creation but committed to letting Anthony and I have first peek when completed. We intend to take pictures and publish when completed.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Update: RecycleMania
We have seen significant gains in recycling over the past seven weeks. Each person on campus has averaged 1.02 pounds of waste per day. Of which 23% has been recycled! In the initial week of tracking we recycled approximately 14% of our waste. For the last 2 weeks (excluding spring break) we have recycled 35% of our total waste. We have a way to go to meet our goal of recycling 50% of our total waste by March 28th the last day of RecycleMania.
I believe we can reach our goal if everyone would do just 4 simple things:
1. Move the trash can away from your desk to a location where you will need to walk to it to put trash into it.
2. Put a recycling container as close to your desk as possible.
3. Take the unused paper out of your printer and load with paper that has been printed on one side. When you need clean paper load just enough for the document you are printing.
4. Watch the video Sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It will change the way you think about trash.
I believe we can reach our goal if everyone would do just 4 simple things:
1. Move the trash can away from your desk to a location where you will need to walk to it to put trash into it.
2. Put a recycling container as close to your desk as possible.
3. Take the unused paper out of your printer and load with paper that has been printed on one side. When you need clean paper load just enough for the document you are printing.
4. Watch the video Sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It will change the way you think about trash.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Save Energy, Money and Reduce Waste by Switching to Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars. The average U.S. home has 30 incandescent bulbs.
If every U.S. household changed its five most frequently used light fixtures or bulbs to ENERGY STAR-qualified lighting, each family would save more than $60 annually ($30 or more in each bulb’s lifetime) in energy costs. National annual energy savings would be $6 billion, equivalent to the annual output of more than 21 large power plants.
If every U.S. household changed its five most frequently used light fixtures or bulbs to ENERGY STAR-qualified lighting, each family would save more than $60 annually ($30 or more in each bulb’s lifetime) in energy costs. National annual energy savings would be $6 billion, equivalent to the annual output of more than 21 large power plants.
Try the EPA’s Personal Emissions Calculator to obtain an estimate of your personal greenhouse gas emissions or your family’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Take The Pledge
Make your contribution to greening Peace College. Sign the pledge and be a part of Peace's vision for a sustainable future.
I pledge to become an integral participant in the Sustainable Peace program. I will consider the environmental, social and economic impact of my daily decisions and make every effort to reduce my ecological footprint. I will also share my individual sustainability efforts with others at Peace College.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Reduce Global Warming: Go Veggie!
The single most important step an individual can take to reduce global warming is to adopt a vegetarian diet. This is because the largest contributor to global warming is the livestock industry, according to a United Nations study published in 2006 titled, "Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options."
“Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.”
– United Nations, 2006
Some key findings of the UN report include:
Raising animals for food accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.
Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tons in 1999/2001 to 465 million tons in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tons.
Methane sources - not carbon dioxide sources - are the biggest cause of global warming today, and will continue to be for the next 50 years. The number one human-related source of methane worldwide is livestock.
Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. While carbon dioxide levels have risen by 31 percent, methane levels have more than doubled.
Animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of methane a year, about 85 percent from livestock digestion and 15 percent from manure "lagoons" used to store untreated feces.
Methane cycles out of the atmosphere in just 8 years, so reducing meat consumption quickly translates to cooling of the earth. In comparison, carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for centuries.
Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.
“Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined.”
– United Nations, 2006
Some key findings of the UN report include:
Raising animals for food accounts for respectively 37 percent of all human-induced methane (23 times as warming as CO2), which is largely produced by the digestive system of ruminants, and 64 percent of ammonia, which contributes significantly to acid rain.
Global meat production is projected to more than double from 229 million tons in 1999/2001 to 465 million tons in 2050, while milk output is set to climb from 580 to 1043 million tons.
Methane sources - not carbon dioxide sources - are the biggest cause of global warming today, and will continue to be for the next 50 years. The number one human-related source of methane worldwide is livestock.
Methane is 21 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. While carbon dioxide levels have risen by 31 percent, methane levels have more than doubled.
Animal agriculture produces more than 100 million tons of methane a year, about 85 percent from livestock digestion and 15 percent from manure "lagoons" used to store untreated feces.
Methane cycles out of the atmosphere in just 8 years, so reducing meat consumption quickly translates to cooling of the earth. In comparison, carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for centuries.
Livestock now use 30 percent of the earth’s entire land surface, mostly permanent pasture but also including 33 percent of the global arable land used to producing feed for livestock. As forests are cleared to create new pastures, it is a major driver of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing.
Go Green, Eat Green, Live Green
Peace College’s Wellness Center and Belk Dining Hall are pleased to announce the excitement of “Go Green- eat green, live green.”
Let’s have fun trying more green vegetables and fruits for the last two weeks of March. Belk Dining Hall is working extra hard to bring almost 40 shades of green to your plates.
Your mother was right; eat your greens! Did you know that Green vegetables like broccoli, spinach and brussel sprouts are nutritional powerhouses and green vegetables are low in calories, promoting weight loss!
Your mother was right; eat your greens! Did you know that Green vegetables like broccoli, spinach and brussel sprouts are nutritional powerhouses and green vegetables are low in calories, promoting weight loss!
Friday, March 6, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Hello everyone! I wanted to let everyone know what some of the Green Team members were up to on this spring break!
I am in New Orleans right now and a lot of the Green Team members are with me. Here is an update of what we have done so far!
-saw Brad Pitt's Project make it right. All of the houses he built are covered in solar panels.
-we also went to a model "green home" which is the first sustainable home in a New Orleans neighborhood. They are building 5 more completely sustainable signle family homes and an apartment complex. They will be offered for very affordable prices to family's from the lower 9th ward.
-we went to the musicains village where homes were made for the local musicians who lost their homes. this was in hopes of keeping the New Orleans culture alive.
-spent the day today packaging over 10,000 pounds of food at the first harvest food bank
-we have gone shopping, ate good New Orleans food, met tons of really cool people, learned a lot, and had a great time.
We are going out tonight to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and coffee, and then start our project for Habitat tomorrow.... so I will keep everyone updated!!!!
Hope everyone is enjoying their spring break!
-Immie Miles (Green Team Chair)
I am in New Orleans right now and a lot of the Green Team members are with me. Here is an update of what we have done so far!
-saw Brad Pitt's Project make it right. All of the houses he built are covered in solar panels.
-we also went to a model "green home" which is the first sustainable home in a New Orleans neighborhood. They are building 5 more completely sustainable signle family homes and an apartment complex. They will be offered for very affordable prices to family's from the lower 9th ward.
-we went to the musicains village where homes were made for the local musicians who lost their homes. this was in hopes of keeping the New Orleans culture alive.
-spent the day today packaging over 10,000 pounds of food at the first harvest food bank
-we have gone shopping, ate good New Orleans food, met tons of really cool people, learned a lot, and had a great time.
We are going out tonight to Cafe Du Monde for beignets and coffee, and then start our project for Habitat tomorrow.... so I will keep everyone updated!!!!
Hope everyone is enjoying their spring break!
-Immie Miles (Green Team Chair)
Six Interesting (and somewhat scary) Facts About Bottled Water
· Buying one gallon’s worth of bottled water is three times more expensive than buying one gallon of gasoline. – emagazine.com
· 30 million water bottles are thrown away every day, and each one of them takes 1000 years to biodegrade. – emagazine.com.
· Nearly 90 percent of [water] bottles are not recycled. – SeattlePI.com
· An estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not treated at all. – Allaboutwater.org
· It takes 15 million barrels of oil per year to make all of the plastic water bottles in America, according to the Container Recycling Institute. Sending those bottles by air and truck uses even more fossil fuel. - emagazine.com.
· Bottled water, because it is defined as a “food” under federal regulations, is under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—under much stricter standards—regulates tap water. Thus, bottled water, depending upon the brand, may actually be less clean and safe than tap water. The EPA mandates that local water treatment plants provide city residents with a detailed account of tap water’s source and the results of any testing, including contaminant level violations. Bottled water companies are under no such directives. - Allaboutwater.org
Now, here are tips for alternatives to buying bottled water:
· Get a filter for your tap (unless your tap water is quite good in the first place). There are many ways to go about doing this, from getting a Brita-filter to go over your faucet spout to installing one right into the sink system.
· Nalgene bottles are great.
· Brita pitchers are also really great for those who can’t get the faucet filters (e.g. college students).
· For barbecues, parties, and other events, use pitchers or water dispensers that you can use over and over again. In conjunction with these, try to also provide reusable cups instead of disposable cups, and if you must use disposables, try to get recyclable disposables.
· 30 million water bottles are thrown away every day, and each one of them takes 1000 years to biodegrade. – emagazine.com.
· Nearly 90 percent of [water] bottles are not recycled. – SeattlePI.com
· An estimated 25 percent or more of bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle—sometimes further treated, sometimes not treated at all. – Allaboutwater.org
· It takes 15 million barrels of oil per year to make all of the plastic water bottles in America, according to the Container Recycling Institute. Sending those bottles by air and truck uses even more fossil fuel. - emagazine.com.
· Bottled water, because it is defined as a “food” under federal regulations, is under the authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—under much stricter standards—regulates tap water. Thus, bottled water, depending upon the brand, may actually be less clean and safe than tap water. The EPA mandates that local water treatment plants provide city residents with a detailed account of tap water’s source and the results of any testing, including contaminant level violations. Bottled water companies are under no such directives. - Allaboutwater.org
Now, here are tips for alternatives to buying bottled water:
· Get a filter for your tap (unless your tap water is quite good in the first place). There are many ways to go about doing this, from getting a Brita-filter to go over your faucet spout to installing one right into the sink system.
· Nalgene bottles are great.
· Brita pitchers are also really great for those who can’t get the faucet filters (e.g. college students).
· For barbecues, parties, and other events, use pitchers or water dispensers that you can use over and over again. In conjunction with these, try to also provide reusable cups instead of disposable cups, and if you must use disposables, try to get recyclable disposables.
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