DeKalb County, Georgia, has drastically changed their public web site. Though the overall look is attractive, they unfortunately did not leave in place "referral" pages. So if you try to get to the formerly advertised web page for Curbside Recycling, for instance, all you get as a "page not found" error. Grrr.
For those interested in residential curbside recycling in DeKalb County, I finally located the new web address for that page:
As stewards of God's earth, we can likely find many areas of our lives in which to reduce our human impact on the environment. Most churches have gatherings at which food or beverages are served. So why not switch to using cups, plates, and other food service items made from renewable resources or recycled content?
At the 2009 Dekalb Book Festival, I noticed that at least one food vendor was using compostable eco-friendly cups made from corn. These "CornCups" intrigued me. I kept one around and finally took a photo plus looked up the company online.
The sell cold cups and hot cups made from corn and disposable plates and bowls made from renewable sugar cane.
You can buy their items with or without a "green stripe" near the base that lets people know the cup is made from renewalble resources and is compostable. The green stripe versions are slightly more expensive but may better announce a group's stewardship of the earth.
Whether organizations buy from this company or a similar one, changing from plastic products to ones like these would better help protect and renew God's earth.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the biggest issue is the building waste; some 40 to 50 percent of the buildings fell in Port-au-Prince and nearby towns. “Thousands of buildings suddenly become debris and this overwhelms the capacity of waste management,” says UNEP’s Muralee Thummarukudy, who is directing efforts to collect the waste for use in reconstruction projects.
Even before the quake Haiti had major environmental problems. Intensive logging beginning in the 1950s reduced Haiti’s forest cover from 60 percent to less than two percent today. This lack of trees causes huge soil erosion problems, threatening both food and clean water sources for throngs of hungry and thirsty people. “If you have forest cover, when heavy rain takes place it doesn’t erode the land,” UNEP’s Asif Zaidi reports. “It doesn’t result in flash floods.” He adds that, due to its lack of forest cover, Haiti suffers much more during hurricanes than does the neighboring Dominican Republic.
Compounding these ecological insults is Haiti’s fast growing population, now 9.7 million and growing by 2.5 percent per year. This has pushed millions of Haitians into marginal areas like floodplains and on land that could otherwise be used profitably. “Most fertile land areas are often used for slums, while hillsides and steep landscapes are used for agriculture,” reports USAID’s Beth Cypser. The resulting sanitation problems have stepped up cases of dysentery, malaria and drug-resistant tuberculosis among Haiti’s poverty-stricken population.
[Source: EarthTalk, from e-magazine, 28 Knight Street, Norwalk, CT 06851.
Phone: (203) 854-5559/x106 - FAX: (203) 866-0602, earthtalkcolumn@emagazine.com]
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Two church members are talking. One says to the other, "Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He lets people harm his world and his creatures when He could just do something about it."
"God's always listening. Why don't you just ask?"
"I'm afraid God might ask me the same question."
God has no "Plan B". He's counting on us!
I have discovered over 4,000 books about conserving the environment that you can order at a discount. Where, you ask? Better World Books.
Their "Outdoors & Nature/Environment/Conservation" category currently lists 4,418 books. Most are presumably used books at a nice discount. But the company stocks new ones as well. "The Green Festival Reader" was showing as a Better World Books staff person's pick this week. That actually started me poking around and finding the environment conservation category.
Disclaimer: One of my kids works at Better World Books, which is how I came to be searching their web site. I like the company's philosophy. Better World Books' tag line is "The Online Bookstore with a Soul".
"Every ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees."
That got me researching and examining recycled personal laser printer papers.
A tidbit from the "Get Involved" web page related to Armstrong Atlantic State University sort of slapped me up side the head:
"When buying printer paper, look for recycled paper with a high percentage of post-consumer content and the minimum of chlorine bleaching. Even recycled paper gobbles up a great deal of energy, water, and chemical resources in its processing."
I have been buying Recycled paper from Office Depot. But it's only 35% recycled materials. A fast web search showed that Mohawk recycled paper is from 100% recycled materials.
Then I ran across another sobering fact: "100% recycled copy and print paper use at least 50% post-consumer recycled content ". So 100% = 50%. Strange math! Read the labels carefully
Not only that ... most recycled paper is guaranteed to run on office copiers, laser printers, and inkjet printers. Only testing will tell if the paper curls too much in humid conditions (like summer in Hotlanta).
After more searching (I refuse to say "Bing-ing") I found acid-free 100% recycled paper processed without using chlorine. The paper has better recycled amount, is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), is available from a local business, and is an excellent price. Next time, I get the 100% recycled paper!
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