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Mary Grace Miller and Anthony Williams assist student volunteer Alexis Giron in weighing food waste.
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How much food do each of us waste? Students Lucy Hammer and Alexis Giron are weighing our food waste. At weeks end we will tally the total waste and divide by the number of visitors to the dining room.
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Food; It costs Too Much to Waste

Consider These Facts

- One ton of methane has the global warming potential of 23 tons of carbon dioxide. A single dairy cow produces the equivalent to over 1.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide.1

- Through the process of digestion, livestock emit 16% of the world's annual production of methane gas. 1

- Raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. 2

- The livestock industry alone is responsible for 37 percent of human-induced methane emissions. Methane has 21 times the global warming potential of CO2. 2

- Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year.3

- The nation spends about 1 billion dollars a year to dispose of food waste.3

- In 2007, almost 12.5 percent of the total municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in American households was food scraps.3

- The decomposition of food and other waste under anaerobic (without oxygen) conditions in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.3

1. World Watch Institute. (2004, July/August). Meat: Now It's Not Personal. World Watch.
2."Rearing Cattle Produces More Greenhouse Gases Than Driving Cars, UN Report Warns," UN News Centre, 29 Nov. 2006.
3. Epa.gov

Bottled Water: What are you really buying?

Click here for yet another case for not buying bottled water.

Quench your thirst the Berkeley way

Peace College may want to consider this option considering North Carolina is
banning all rigid plastic containers from landfills beginning October 1st, 2009.

03.19.2009 - Quench your thirst the Berkeley way

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Wal-Mart to Assign New 'Green' Ratings

Wal-Mart Thursday will tell suppliers they must calculate and disclose the full environmental costs of making their products, then allow Wal-Mart to distill the information into a rating system that shoppers will see alongside prices for everything from T-shirts to televisions.

Click to read more of the article from the Wall Street Journal.

Competitive chair affair: Students use only cardboard, glue - Washington Times

Competitive chair affair: Students use only cardboard, glue - Washington Times

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Recycling Saves Energy

We have posted a ThinkGreen Widget from Waste Management on the left sidebar. The widget will help you calculate the amount of energy you have saved by recycling. Or click the link here to visit Waste Management’s Think Green web site.

eCycling

This Saturday get rid of your old, outdated electronics by dropping them off at one of three Best Buys locations. Volunteers will even unload your car for you.



To learn more check out this website:

http://www.fox50.com/dpp/community/E_Cycling_Page

Durham - Renaissance Center (7001 Fayetteville Rd, Durham, NC 27713)
North Raleigh - Capital Blvd. (6101 Capital Blvd, Raleigh, NC 27616)
Cary - Crossroads Plaza (237 Crossroads Blvd, Cary, NC 27518)

These items can be recycled:

• Tape Players
• Printed Circuit Boards
• Computer Monitors – Flat Panel
• CD Players
• UPS (personal & network)
• Televisions – CRTs
• Telephones
• Routers
• Televisions – Flat Screen
• Cell Phones
• Resistors Capacitors
• Desktop Computers
• Fax Machines
• Diodes
• Laptop Computers
• Electronic Games
• Terminals
• Keyboards
• Power & Network Cables
• Rechargeable Batteries
• Mice
• Network Hubs
• Peripherals
• Printers
• Switching boxes
• Military Equipment
• Scanners
• Controllers
• Medical Equipment
• Copy Machines
• Modems
• Telecommunications
• VCRs
• Docking Stations
• Commercial Equipment
• Stereos
• CD Roms
• Office Equipment
• Radios
• Hard Drives
• Banking Equipment
• Mainframes

N.C. Law to Ban Plastic Bottles from Landfills

Under a new law that takes effect Oct. 1, North Carolina will be banning all rigid plastic containers from landfills. This includes any bottles with a neck smaller than the container itself.

Every 17.3 seconds, North Carolinians throw away enough plastic bottles to reach the height of the Bank of America Building in Charlotte. Click here to see what happens to plastic when you recycle.

North Carolina is also building the nation’s largest facility to recycle PET bottles, which will able to process 280 million pounds of material per year. One of the primary partners in this venture is carpet manufacturer Shaw Industries Group, LLC, which can turn recycled PET into polyester for use in carpeting.

Clear Path Recycling will construct its facility in Fayetteville, N.C. at the DAK Americas’ Cedar Creek Site. DAK currently operates a PET resin manufacturing facility on-site and has significant infrastructure in place that the new JV will utilize. Approximately 100 new jobs will be created at the facility at the completion of both phases.