In this month’s newsletter, we look back at a full year of events & more in 2013.
PLUS! With big changes next year in the funding model for printed paper & packaging, how much do you know about EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility)? Board Member Sandy Sigmund breaks it down for us.
Click to view a pdf copy of the RMRS December, 2013 Newsletter. This and past newsletters are archived on our website.
In this month’s newsletter, Remembrance Day reminds us of other battles being fought, and the upcoming holidays have us thinking green.
PLUS! Wanna save the world? There’s an app for that – actually, there’s a bunch of them!
Click here to view a pdf copy of our RMRS November, 2013 Newsletter. This and past newsletters are archived on our website.
For Waste Reduction Week 2013, Ridge Meadows Recycling enlisted the help of a Grade 6/7 class at Eric Langton Elementary. The class completed a Lunchtime Waste Audit with RMRS Environmental Educator Dan Mikolay, counting how many items in their garbage can were a) recyclable b) compostable (or still edible!) and c) actually belonged in the garbage. Their results were very close to the District 42 average of 33% recyclable, 55% compostable, and 12% garbage. They then looked at ways to reduce their waste, including packing Litterless Lunches.
Using suggestions from the students, we compiled Litterless Lunchkits and gave them to Maple Ridge Mayor & Council as part of our “Litterless Lunch Challenge” during our Waste Reduction Week presentation on October 22, 2013.
The class challenged Mayor & Council to not produce anything from their lunch that isn’t recyclable or compostable for two weeks. Good luck!
Thank you everyone who helped out with the presentation: RMRS Board Member Carly O’Rourke, Dan Mikolay, Carly Johnson & her students, and Karen Learmonth from Amber Light Photography!
Also check out the photos from Eric Langton Elementary’s Litterless Lunch Challenge to Maple Ridge Mayor & Council for Waste Reduction Week 2013!
Click here to view a pdf copy of our RMRS October, 2013 Newsletter. This and past newsletters are archived on our website.
In this month’s newsletter, we look at reconnecting – to school routines, to nature, and to ourselves.
Download your own pdf copy of the RMRS September, 2013 Newsletter
This and past newsletters are archived here.
In August’s newsletter, we look at the fascinating world of reuse – creative, resilient, useful and quirky!
Download your own pdf copy of the RMRS August, 2013 Newsletter
This and past newsletters are archived here.
In July’s newsletter, we explore what it means to “reclaim” something…and who it belongs to in the first place.
Download your own pdf copy of the RMRS July, 2013 Newsletter
This and past newsletters are archived here.
Many people now know the first of the “3 Rs” is REDUCE, but what does this really mean? It can refer to reducing your energy & water usage, or reducing your garbage through diversion, or even reducing your carbon footprint. In this month’s newsletter, we take it a step further and explore the idea of reducing our consumption habits and clutter in order to increase our enjoyment of life.
We also introduce the latest item to be accepted at the Maple Ridge Recycling Depot, Cooking Oil, and list upcoming events in June & July. Read this month’s Recycling Report to learn more, or become a member of the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society and have the newsletters arrive directly to your inbox!
Click to download our RMRS June, 2013 Newsletter. This and past newsletters are archived on our website.
The “Green Thing” (modified from original)
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized and explained, “We didn’t have the ‘green thing’ back in my day.”
She was right, that generation didn’t have the ‘green thing’ in its day – they didn’t need it. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles, and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, neighbours and cousins.
Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – if that, not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you.
When they packed a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded-up, old newspaper to cushion it, not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school; or they rode the school bus instead of turning their parents into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint, they just asked someone.
The ‘green thing’ wasn’t a movement yet because there was no need for it – today’s seniors grew up in an era when most everything was reused or repaired and very little was thrown out. We have since changed to a throw-away society. How do we get back to the “good old days”?
As an environmental, non-profit society, Ridge Meadows Recycling is committed to finding sound, environmental end markets for the material we collect.
We are excited to announce that one has developed for polystyrene, better known as styrofoam, and through the Multi Materials BC program we are able to accept this previously un-recyclable item for free drop-off at the Maple Ridge Recycling Depot. Save it up & bring it down!
The styrofoam is taken to a new company, Foam Only, located in Coquitlam. Foam Only takes all types of styrofoam, from polystyrene used in road construction and fridge packaging to household items like egg cartons and meat trays.
The company densifies it and reprocesses it into items like picture frames, crown molding, and baseboards.
Learn more about Foam Only through Vancity’s “Story of Impact”:
