Earth Emerson

FYI From the Massachusetts Sierra Club:

Please Join Us at a Press Event to
Call for Passage of the Updated Bottle Bill!

The Legislature is only in session until the end of the July, and the Updated Bottle Bill (H3515/S1480) is still stalled in committee. With just four weeks before the end of the legislative session, we need to show our legislators that there is strong public support for it.

The Updated Bottle Bill proponents are therefore asking you to join in a strong show of support for this important bill and to help build momentum for its passage!

WHO: All supporters of the Updated Bottle Bill legislation

WHAT: A press event to call for passage of the Updated Bottle Bill; several guest speakers invited

Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 10:30am
State House, Beacon Hill, Boston
Grand Staircase, Second Floor

Supporters of the Updated Bottle Bill are encouraged to stay after the press event and visit their legislators' offices (approximately 11am until noon).

To RSVP or for questions, please contact: Phil Sego phil@sierraclubmass.org

If you cannot make it, please be sure to contact your State Representative and State Senator TODAY and ask them to tell leadership that they are in favor of passage of the Updated Bottle Bill, H3515/S1480. If you know who your legislators are, click here to contact them: www.mass.gov/legis/memmenu.htm. If you're unsure, click here: www.wheredoivotema.com. Or call 617-722-2000.


Additional information:

The Bottle Bill is the state's most successful recycling and litter prevention program. Since the Bottle Bill's inception in 1983, over 30 billion containers have been redeemed, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. But to keep up with the times and consumers' tastes, the bottle bill must be updated. An Updated Bottle Bill would expand our container deposit system to include non-carbonated beverages such as water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. It would decrease litter - and increase recycling.

An amazing 80% of beverages that are covered by the bottle bill are redeemed/recycled. But unfortunately, only 22% of non-deposit containers are recycled - the rest become litter, clog our storm drains, or are thrown in the trash.

Updating our bottle bill will boost recycling, save our communities the cost associated with disposal and litter cleanup, and conserve valuable resources. These plastic bottles are made of 99% petroleum - what an inappropriate waste to bury our valuable oil in landfills or burn it our or incinerators.

H3515/S1480 would (a.) expand the bottle bill to include water, sports drinks, flavored teas, juices, and other on the go beverages. (b.) it would reestablish the Clean Environment Fund, taking forfeited deposits and using these funds to improve recycling and other environmental projects (c.) would provide an industry-paid slight increase to redemption centers, who have not had a raise in 18 years. This bill would not increase the deposit, and would not cost the state any money. This bill would help reduce litter, increase recycling, and help municipalities reduce collection and cleanup fees.

Endorsed by Over 150 Cities and Towns, and by over 50 advocacy Groups throughout the State. Enacting the update would save our cities and towns significant amounts, from lowering disposal costs, litter collection costs, and storm drain cleaning.

Increases Recycling Rates: Approximately 80% of bottle-bill-covered beverages are redeemed/recycled. Only 22% of NON-redeemable beverages are recycled.

Complements Curbside Recycling: Curbside is very effective for beverages consumed at home. But the majority of single-serving containers are consumed on-the-go, out of curbside's reach.

Decrease Landfill Use: The state is running out of landfill space. The 1.1 billion containers that we send to landfills every year would fill Fenway Park to overflowing.

Saves Energy, Saves Oil: Most of the containers under the update are made of PET, 99% of which is petroleum. Recycled PET is badly needed for textiles. Had these bottles been recycled, we would have saved the energy equivalent of about 48,000 barrels of oil.

Strong Public Support: The public is very supportive of the bottle bill, seeing the positive effect that it's had on the environment.

Producer Responsibility: Bearing the cost of a product's waste should be the responsibility of beverage producers and consumers, not taxpayers and communities. The bottle bill is a model for this kind of sustainable financing.

Creates Green Jobs: Gains in employment have been shown in nearly every state that updates their deposit system. Many of these jobs come in the recycling sector, which now produces important - and sustainable - raw materials to be used in manufacturing.

Keeps Current With Consumer Habits: The original bottle bill was never meant to be non-reactive to consumer trends. Now that 1/3 of our containers are not covered by the 27-year old law, we need to update it.

Revenue Positive for the State: Unclaimed deposits are maintained by the state. The cost of updating the bottle will not require any funding.

Supports the Redemption Centers: The bill includes provisions to increase the handling fee (not paid by the state). These small, often families owned business have not had an increase in handling fees in 18 years. They are currently experiencing huge increases in operating costs; many of them have been forced to close.

Provides Relief for Small Stores: The update allows small stores to opt out of taking returns if there's a nearby redemption center.

No Additional Costs for Supermarkets: Almost all large supermarkets have more than enough capacity in their "reverse vending machines" to accept the increase in containers. Neither additional machines nor floorspace would be required.

Here's a cool little article about a few eco applications and sites that may be of interest on this Earth Day 2009. I like the Facebook app:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/22/its-earth-day-so-make-sure-to-try-out-some-green-vanity-apps/?awesm=tcrn.ch_XJ&utm_medium=awesm-twitter&utm_content=techcrunch-autopost&utm_campaign=techcrunch&utm_source=twitter.com

Any environmentalist can tell you that Global Warming (or, Climate Change), is a serious issue in today's state of the world, and that everyone should be doing their part to reduce their carbon emmisions to help cool our Earth down a little. However, not everyone knows the most efficient ways to do that. Sure, driving less is a big one, but for the urban student who doesn't even own a car, or drives only 3 months out of the year, that's not really an issue. Reusing canvas bags sure helps, but if you're eating in the dining hall, again it's not very pertinant to you, nor would you specifically have a big impact.

But there is something that almost everyone does three times a day that has an incredible impact, good or bad depending, on the environment. And that's what I'm going to talk about.

Every day a person sits down to a table of food to replenish his or her belly. But what that person choses to eat can either positively or negatively affect the world. If he or she sits down to a plate of delicious organic and locally-picked fruits and vegetables, that person is not only supporting those local farmers, but also helping replenish the land with nutrients not found in commercial fertilizer (which actually hurts the soil a lot). Local food also has to travel less far, thus further reducing carbon emmisions. And since that plate contains no meat, that person is also saving water, reducing carbon emmisions and encouraging clean air: all by the ommision of meat.

According to the UN, the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent - 18 percent - than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation. It also generates 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2. Most of this comes from manure. Livestock uses a third of our water supply and HALF of our agricultural supply, just for feed.

It takes enough fossil fuel to drive a small car 25 miles and enough water for 17 showers to produce one hamburger patty. The production of one pound of beef requires 2,500 gallons of water. It takes less water to produce a year's worth of food for a pure vegetarian than to produce one month's food for a meat-eater.

If you have a PB&J instead of a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution. Everything comes from plants anyway, just not always directly. You could eat the potato that grows straight from the ground, or you could eat the pig that eats the potatoes. The only problem with that is, why wait when there is already food there? The water it takes to produce the beef on one hamburger could pruduce peanuts for about 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the land that it takes to produce that beef could produce peanuts for 19 PB&Js.

And that's just peanut butter we're talking, here. The fact is,the closer to the earth you eat, the better it is environmentally.

So every year, Earth Emerson has our Vegetarian Food Festival. Like all events we have, it's about how every person can have a positive effect on our world. We educate how and why eating less meat, or just plain adopting a vegetarian diet helps the world from deforestation, water scarcity, and Climate Change. It's a choice you can make once a week or every single meal, and it has a huge impact. But we want people to have fun and enjoy themselves, which is why we have great restaurants donate food, and why we make our own awesome dishes.

Now that you know why we have our food fest, I hope you'll volunteer to help! Bake a delicious pie or stay late to clean up, or make a pamphlet to share the info you've just learned. It's about promoting sustainable lifestyles, not pushing judgement or preaching.

Info:
"Livestocks Long Shadow", The Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations. http://www.virtualcentre.org/en/library/key_pub/longshad/a0701e/A0701E00.pdf
The Peanut Butter and Jelly Campaign. http://www.pbjcampaign.org/
Logical Environmental Reasons for a Vegetarian Lifestyle. http://www.enviroveggie.com/

Bill Clinton and Al Gore spoke before 100 Mayors outlining ways to fight global warming and protect the environment. Here's the full article from KomoTV and the AP:

http://www.komotv.com/news/10962136.html

I have been following NBC Nightly News' coverage of the environment and watching their videos online and I stumbled on this link:
Enviro Videos

The link is a playlist of several short and useful video segments about greening the world.

Most of the clips come from this cool site called videojug.com.

Enjoy!

-Satch

We use way too much petroleum-based plastic at Emerson. From water cups and soda bottles to food serviceware petroleum-based plastic is all around us. The plastic is made from a non-renewable source and pollutes the environment during its production and disposal. These used to be the facts of life, but now there is a clear answer before us- corn and starch-based plastics that biodegrade and can be returned to nature safely. Let's transition this year to the new plastic. Here are some of the major players in this field:

http://www.cereplast.com/cmspage.php?pgid=51

http://www.natureworksllc.com/

http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/products/foods.htm

-Satch

The Sierra club website has some good info about compact fluorescent bulbs as relates to the potentially hazardous mercury content. The link below also directs readers to the EPA site for proper clean-up procedure should you drop one. The article also addresses the argument about how much energy it takes to light (turn on) a compact fluorescent bulb versus an incandescent.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200707/mrgreen_mailbag.asp

-Satch

Here's a cool story about a system to capture a car's emissions and then turn them into biofuel:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1847347220070719?src=071907_1249_ARTICLE_PROMO_also_on_reuters&sp=true

-Satch

There's a cool site called RiverWired.com.
"RiverWired is a content and social networking site dedicated to all things green."
Check it out and check out the story on making a green roof:

http://www.riverwired.com/?q=view_video/13765

-Satch

I'm sure many of you have seen this great spoof of the Matrix, but if you haven't you must check it out:

Part 1
http://www.themeatrix1.com/

Part 2
http://www.themeatrix2.com/

Part 3
http://www.moremeatrix.com/

-Satch