America Recycles Day, November 15, 2016 has arrived—and I want to talk about a pet peeve: Large events that provide NO recycling options! I have recently attended indoor and outdoor sporting events, a large training event with teenagers, and a wedding. In every instance, huge quantities of bottles and cans were thrown into the garbage, not because the facility did not have recycling on the premises, but rather because they did not make it easy for participants to recycle.

People want to recycle. According to an April, 2016 Pew Research Center Report, 39% of U.S. adults say the term “environmentalist” described them very well. Data from a Pew 2014 survey shows that close to half, 46%, of Americans say they recycle or reduce waste to protect the environment whenever possible.

So we need to give people a chance to recycle: If you are planning a personal or work event, check with your venue to ensure that adequate recycling options are available for the guests or participants making it easy for them to recycle.

One easy way to ensure that you are “greening” your event is to find Virginia Green Certified venues. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), and the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association (VRLTA) have partnered together to provide opportunities for facilities to reduce the environmental impacts of the tourism and events industry and raise environmental awareness.

To become VA Green Certified, Convention and Conference Centers must at a minimum

• Provide Recycling:provide for recycling at their events
• Minimize the use of disposable food service products:use products that are made from bio-based or renewable resources and provide for recycling or composting of items
• Water Efficiency:must have a plan for conserving and using water efficiently
• Energy Conservation:must have a plan in place to reduce overall energy consumption
• Support Green Conferences & Events: must offer a “green” or “environmentally-friendly” package for events.

For ideas on Green Events, please check out the fact-sheet on Environmentally-Responsible Conferences, Meeting, and Events:  http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Portals/0/DEQ/PollutionPrevention/VirginiaGreen/8-4-11_Green_Events.pdf

To find lists of Virginia Green Certified facilities, go tohttp://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/PollutionPrevention/VirginiaGreen/GreenConventionsConferences.aspx

As we get closer to America Recycles Day, November 15, I wanted to talk about a BIG recycling opportunity that often gets missed.

Everyone has seen the pile of cabinets, appliances, light fixtures, countertops, flooring, carpeting, etc. that accompanies a remodeling project. Most of what is in that heap can be recycled or reused—and if donated to a qualified 501(c)3 charity, can be claimed on taxes as a charitable donation at fair market value. While deconstruction does cost more than demolition, and usually takes longer since the materials are being carefully salvaged, the advantages of tax savings and environmental sustainability can outweigh those disadvantages

Located in Fairfax, DeConstruction Services, LLC has had over 1,000 deconstruction projects in the area since 2004, donating the property owner’s material to The Rebuild Warehouse in Springfield. According to Amy Hughes, V.P. Human Resources, DeConstruction Services has saved 25,656 trees. This translates to 5440 football-sized plots of plantation pine trees and 192 tons of greenhouse gases not produced. On the economic side, the value of the property owner donations of reclaimed used building materials has added up to approximately $24 million.

Second Chance, located in Baltimore, is another large-scale deconstruction company that does projects in Fairfax County. They are actually a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that, according to their website,  provides “people, materials and the environment with a second chance.” They deconstruct buildings and homes, salvage usable materials and have a retail space for those items in Baltimore. Additionally, with the revenue generated, they provide “job training and workforce development for those with employment obstacles in the Baltimore region.”

Whether your project is a smaller bathroom or kitchen remodel or a whole house major reconstruction, consider deconstructing rather than demolishing. Also check out available salvaged materials for the construction phase.

Locally, The Rebuild Warehouse in Springfield, along with Habitat for Humanity’s ReStores in Alexandria and Chantilly accept—and offer—a wide range of building materials.

For a complete list of deconstruction advantages, go to http://www.secondchanceinc.org/benefits-of-deconstruction/

While most of Styrofoam—95%— is actually air, the solid part is the epitome of environmentally unfriendly: not only does it not biodegrade, but when it is burned, it creates a toxic ash. And remember, in Fairfax County, our municipal waste is virtually all burned at the Covanta trash-to-energy plant in Lorton (more on that in a future blog). Also, polystyrene, Styrofoam’s generic name, is made from styrene, a petroleum by-product.

However, it is precisely its lightweight easy to mold qualities that make polystyrene plastic such a desirable packaging material. So, what is an environmentalist to do?

Encourage companies to send items packaged with alternative materials:

• Puffy Stuff and StarchTech, for example, use cornstarch to create completely biodegradable—and allegedly edible—packing peanuts. This packaging material can even be hosed down and used as fertilizer.
• EarthAware™’s packing materials are made with a special type of plastic that can biodegrade in just 5 years. That’s a lot quicker than Styrofoam’s biodegradation date, which is never.
• Evocative is making Mushroom® Packaging— an earth-friendly protective packaging product made out of mushrooms(!)— that companies like Dell and Stanhope Seta are using today

What to do with the polystyrene packaging you receive?

Packing “peanuts” can be saved and reused to ship a package. Or they can be donated to UPS, FEDEX, or other shipping stores for re-use.

Molded polystyrene packaging, the kind that cushions new appliances in the box, should not be put in recycle bins, and there are no Fairfax County or nearby recycling centers for this type of plastic.

Cool art project anyone?         

You can recycle more than you think!

According to the EPA, the average person produces 4.40 pounds of trash per day or about 1.5 tons of solid waste per year However, we recycle and compost only 1.51 pounds of our individual trash generations. While the EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, we only recycle about 30% of it! So, here is how you can do your part to lower your trash output even further.

In honor of upcoming America Recycles Day on November 15, here are some items you may want to consider recycling: https://www.berrybreeze.com/10-things-can-recycle-probably-dont-now/

To add to that list, TerraCycle and Scotch Tape have created a free recycling program for tape dispensers and cores:  https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/scotch-tape-brigade-r

Do your part and extend your recycling power!

America Recycles Day is coming on November 15!

We all know that single-use water bottles are terrible for the environment. The statistics are staggering:  According to National Geographic, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, adding 29 billion water bottles to waste disposal. Additionally, in order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil. That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months. For every six water bottles Americans use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. Just look around: plastic bottle litter is everywhere.

The fight against single-use water bottles, however, is a tough one: they’re convenient and many believe bottled water is “purer” than tap water.

Convenience includes both the carrying and the refilling aspects of the water bottle. The advent of sleek, attractive reusable water bottles designed to fit into a purse or ergonomically designed for easy holding, makes carrying your own personal reusable water bottle much more convenient. And many of these are manufactured sustainably.

Also, more and more locations have rapid bottle filling capacity making the filling process easy and quick. For example, Primo Water has filling stations at local retailers. You can use their store locator at   http://www.primowater.com/Great-Value-FILL-IT-YOURSELF.aspx.

For even greater convenience, consider getting your workplace or local school a hydration station.
Brita offers a reusable bottle sale fundraising program that incurs no out-of pocket costs. Check out the details at http://britahydrationstation.com/pages/fundraising.

Tap water has been given a bad rap. First of all, according to Food and Water Watch, more than half of all bottled water comes from the tap. Also, tap water is usually tested more frequently than bottled water to comply with Federal standards. If taste is an issue, often due to chlorination or mineral content, a filter can be an easy fix.

If you still have any concerns about your water quality, contact your local water company to request a copy of the Annual Water Quality Report, also known as the Consumer Confidence Report. Go to https://www.fcwa.org/water/water.htm in Fairfax County.

So, find yourself a water bottle that fits your style… and use it over and over again!

#WaterWednesday

When was the last time you used a marker? Was it a washable marker to create a sign? A highlighter to help you remember some information on the page? A permanent marker to label your moving boxes? Or was it a dry erase marker to use on a whiteboard?

And how quickly does that marker go dry? Expo claims its markers can last 2-3 years. As a former teacher, I can guarantee you that my markers never lasted more than a month or two.

Markers are convenient and can boldly proclaim your message. They are, however, almost entirely made of non-biodegradable plastic. They may be small, but the numbers add up: Crayola alone reports that it produces 465 million markers every year. That’s a staggering amount of plastic, especially when you consider the short life of the average marker.

Fortunately, MARKERS CAN BE RECYCLED. The easiest way to recycle them is to team up with a school that is collecting “dead” markers as part of Crayola’s Colorcycle program. Enter your zip code here http://www.crayola.com/colorcycle/sign-in.aspx  to find the nearest participating school, or start a marker collection program at your local school by registering on the Colorcycle website http://www.crayola.com/colorcycle.aspx.

Crayola’s Colorcycle program takes any kind of marker and pays for FedEx to come pick it up at the school. They then repurpose the markers to make transportation fuels and to generate electricity. (The markers from Canada are made into a wax compound used in asphalt production.) According to Crayola,

— One box of eight (8) recycled markers creates enough energy to prepare a breakfast that consists of brewing a pot of coffee, frying an egg, and making two pieces of toast.

– 308 markers produces 1 gallon of fuel, which is enough to power an SUV (consider 15 MPG) for 15 miles.

– If a classroom recycles 193 markers, that is enough to move a city bus (consider 5 MPG) for three miles.

Markers are well worth recycling!

America Recycles Day, Keep America Beautiful’s nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling, is November 15 this year. Living in Fairfax County, where we have curbside recycling, it is easy to assume that the U.S. is a leader in recycling. In fact, the U.S. falls behind many other nations, with Americans recycling only 34 percent of all the waste they create, according to a 2013 report from the EPA.

Planet Aid shows here how we compare to other industrialized nations:

Many other countries have developed more successful recycling programs, with Austria at 63% and Germany at 62%, as the world’s leaders.

So, in honor of America Recycles Day, this blog will be highlighting some recycling opportunities in the next few weeks. We definitely have some room for improvement as a nation— and individually.

They’re green in principle, but not in the way people use them.  While many people have made the move to reusable bags, there is still some debate about whether these are, in fact, better than paper or plastic. Some studies suggest that it takes more energy to produce reusable bags, and that a large portion of those are just ending up in the landfill. Clean Fairfax suggests that reusable bags are still a much better choice if you make the decision to use and reuse them.

Read More:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/to-tote-or-note-to-tote/498557/

Here is why the reusable tote movement still carries some weight (sorry—couldn’t resist):

• The cotton bags cited in the article as requiring the most reuse to even out the production impact are the least common option used. It’s not hard to get to the 27 times of reuse identified in the article for other totes.
• Most reusable totes can be filled much more than a plastic bag, so proportionately we use fewer.
• Many plastic bags tear before they can be reused, and many people do not reuse the plastic bags.
• Look around: How many times have you seen plastic bags along the side of the road, in the woods, or, once for me, forty feet under water while scuba diving? Reusable tote bags are much less likely to end up as litter despite the article’s claim that they are ending up in the dumpster.
• Finally, it takes 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture the 102 billion plastic bags that Americans use annually, according to the United Nations.

Consider machine washable bags that can be rolled up and easily transported, like our fabulous CLEAN FAIRFAX bags.

Check out NationSwell for more facts about our plastic usage and great ideas on how to make some personal changes:   http://nationswell.com/37-ways-reduce-plastic-usage/#ixzz4K9gdFL1C

Sunchoke and Spinach Soup

• 3 ½ cups scrubbed and peeled sunchokes, cut into 1-inch pieces [Tuscarora Mountain Farm, Spring Run, PA]
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 medium yellow onion, cut into 1-inch pieces [Porter Farm, Elba, NY]
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup spinach
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Fresh thyme for garnish

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. While it’s heating up, clean and cut your sunchokes and onion. On a large baking sheet, toss together the sunchokes, onion, and garlic with 2 tablespoons of oil and a couple pinches of salt. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until the sunchokes are fork-tender.

In a medium pot, combine the roasted vegetables, spinach, milk, broth, and a couple more pinches of salt. Bring to a low boil and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the sunchokes are easily squashed with a fork. Transfer to a food processor and blend until creamy, adding salt to taste. Top your bowl with the fresh thyme, parmesan cheese, maybe some caramelized onions, and/or your favorite bready croutons.

(Now that my camera itself has improved, I clearly have some work to do in the composition department…)

So despite a number of unexpected developments and adventures with this recipe, it somehow still tasted sweet, nutty, and delicious. The original recipe didn’t use spinach, but I had some hanging around and figured a little greens never hurt anyone. I neglected to change the amount of liquids I added, so I ended up with more like a hot veggie smoothie than a creamy soup. I’d also never actually used my food processor before, so I wasn’t quite sure how to go about that. BUT somehow it still all worked out and was pretty tasty!

I’d also never even seen, let alone cooked or eaten, a sunchoke before. But I can tell you for sure I will be again! Not only are they actually really amazing for you, but they’re much sweeter and tastier than I was expecting. When I got them in my bag I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them, but that was part of my plan when I signed up with 4P Foods, I wanted to break out of my cooking comfort zone a little and check out some new vegetables. And this was my chance! Most of the recipes I initially found for sunchokes (or Jerusalem Artichokes) were just plain roasted, but I always find those recipes a little boring and better for side dishes. But since I’m a vegetarian (and a working adult) I don’t always have time or means to make a full side-dish + main-dish setup. So I looked around and found this interesting recipe for soup. I’d just gotten my new food processor, so it all seemed ready to work out! And boy, did it. I’m definitely a sunchoke convert now! Some fun nutritional facts about these funny-looking tubers is that they’re a great source of dietary fiber, iron, B-vitamins, and minerals like potassium.