Time to pound the eco-beat.... Freecycle Net - local groups in Valencia County and the East Mountains, local recycling efforts by the B Street Market, P & M Signs, Aulde Glass Art, Straw Mountain Studio and more.
Heard about this? What a great idea. If you belong to either of these local Freecycle groups, please drop me a line at vcrary@yahoo.com
Recyle your paper bags at the B Street Market
Bring Your Own Bag, The New BYOB!
BYOB is this month's C3 - Carbon Conscious Consumer - campaign, answering that perennial check out question, "Paper or Plastic?" Neither. BYOB. Check out WaPo's nifty graphic that shows how the greenest bag is a reusable bag.
Most plastic bags are made from polyethylene, which is made from crude oil and natural gas, nonrenewable resources. This increases our dependency on foreign suppliers. Additionally, prospecting and drilling for these resources contributes to the destruction of fragile habitats and ecosystems around the world.
Paper bags use up trees. 14 million trees a year get the axe - literally - to make paper bags. It takes 4 times as much energy to make a paper bag as it does a plastic bag.
So do something simple and easy to make a difference—take your paper bags to the B Street Market to be reused - and then just Bring Your Own Bag when you go shopping.
Recycle plastic at P & M Signs (no plastic bags): support the local economy and tend the environment by taking your multitude of Grade 2 plastic disposables to P & M for them to turn into signs.
More about recycling plastic
…and you will know us by the trail of the empties
Aluminum cans - deposit box at Manzano Community Center, NM 55, or find someone collecting them for an earthship or other building project
Glass - local opportunities for recycling glass? Other than individual artists and crafters using glass in their work. I don't think there is anything organized. With all the artists and artisans here, we should be able to coordinate something. Stop by Cibola Arts and check out Susan Aulde's creativity with recycled glass. Ask about bringing her glass that otherwise would go to a landfill.
Table by Susan Aulde
Are there alternative building and other uses as well? Ronco, Ronco (bottle and jar cutter) where are you? Have you heard? It's a collectible now!
Not bottles, cans or bags (but I would not be surprised if Judy (Straw Mountain Studio) found ways to use them in her high end garment recycling - transforming and giving new life to formerly consigned to the thrift store, basement or back of closet clothing.
Nor let us forget local quilters and quilting as one of the earliest and yet to be surpassed craft / functional art recycling.
Likewise, Hamilton Designs and Stonehouse Gallery recyle rejected furniture and other items, turning them into design and folk art treasures.
The Top Ten Best Environment Stories of 2007, AlterNet. posted December 15, 2007.
Do you have your own recycling project or know of a local recyling story? Please send them to me (vcrary@yahoo.com).
When it comes to recycling, encouraging responsible consumption and carbon footprints, Town of Mountainair policies indirectly reward consumption, punish recycling. Suggesting change yields no result other than eliciting the circular argument that policies have to be this way because that's the way they are. However, I don't intend to stop trying... I invite you to join me.
Calculate your own carbon footprint... now go forth and step more lightly
2 comments:
Jude Mowris reports that she and Roy sign on and Freecycle. Sadly, no further details were forthcoming.
Great idea - thanks for the informantion. I just joined.
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