In most cities the cost of garbage collection and landfills is covered by property taxes. Neenah, Wisconsin is trying a new approach to funding garbage collection, and by doing so they’re hoping to reduce the amount of garbage collected. Continue reading
Last month, Recycla read an interesting article about the city of Seattle’s plans to cut back on the amount of trash going into municipal landfills. The city has already banned foam take-out containers and plastic bags, established mandatory cardboard recycling and food composting, and set up a registry for people to opt-out of getting phone books. But city management thinks they can do even more.
Enviro Girl has been tracking her trash in order to get a handle on exactly what her household throws away. When confronted with the latest statistics on Americans and garbage (Americans throw away an average of 7 pounds of garbage per person every day), she wondered how her family compared to the national average. In this instance, her goal was to be below average. Continue reading
As part of Enviro Girl’s effort to get a handle on her household’s trash habits, and in effect understand how people can throw away an average of 7 pounds of garbage daily, she’s writing down all of her household garbage. This list excludes recycled or composted waste. Since yesterday at breakfast Enviro Girl’s family has thrown out Continue reading
Enviro Girl tried to weigh her kitchen garbage bag this morning, but it’s still so light that her bathroom scale will not register it. It’s lighter than a gallon of milk, which weighs about 7-8 pounds, so 2 days into her Trash Study, her household is well below the daily average of producing 7 pounds of garbage per person. To recap: In her examination of the garbage issue, Enviro Girl is tracking her household’s trash for a week, Continue reading
As part of our exploration into trash, Enviro Girl is tracking what she throws in the garbage–a bit like counting calories or writing down every expenditure. To solve the trash problem (of 7 pounds per person per day in America), you have to understand it first. Enviro Girl considers herself to be well below the norm in trash production, but she’s tracking her trash because you never know what surprises you’ll find digging in the garbage… Continue reading
Last week Enviro Girl listened to a radio program where the guest speaker addressed the topic of garbage. He cited statistics claiming Americans throw away 7 pounds of trash a day. SEVEN POUNDS! Enviro Girl did a little research on her own and discovered this, this and this. Genuinely depressing stuff when considering the money, land space, energy and other resources wasted in our disposal habits. But Americans have a cavalier attitude about throwing stuff away–how can we convince people to throw away less stuff? And how can we convince people that generating less trash takes very little effort? Continue reading
This topic is near and dear to Enviro Girl’s heart, especially as we celebrate Earth Day this Sunday. All the great superheroes train up a new generation of crime-fighting warriors. The same must be true for those on the environmental front: we have an obligation to teach our children how to protect the planet and its resources and we have to explain why it’s an important value. In Enviro Girl’s mind, this boils down to a short list of 3 easy things we can do as parents and teachers: Continue reading
Posted in 3 Rs, contests, eco holidays, eco kids, green around the world, issues
Tagged how to raise children with environmental ethics, how to teach children about environmental issues, how to teach environmental ethics, how to train an eco-warrior, raise children thinking about nature, raising a generation of environmentalists, raising Eco-Activists, raising Eco-Minded children, teach children about environment
After realizing that she was not talking the talk as efficiently as walking the walk around her children, Enviro Girl knew she had to make more of an effort to connect the dots through discussion. Not in a preachy, pedantic way, mind you, but in a casual, “hey, look at this pile of food waste we’re carrying to our compost pile! That’s a LOT of waste we’re diverting from the landfill!” kind of way. Continue reading
Posted in 3 Rs, eco holidays, eco kids, green around the world, issues, school
Tagged beyond Earth Day, connecting environmental issues and behavior, connecting environmental issues to home, explaining environmental issues to children, how to incorporate environmental issues in a classroom, how to teach children about environmental issues, teaching environmental ethics
Last month Enviro Girl read this article with dismay. Here’s an excerpt:
Researchers found that, when surveyed decades ago, about a third of young baby boomers said it was important to become personally involved in programs to clean up the environment. In comparison, only about a quarter of young Generation X members — and 21 percent of Millennials — said the same.
Wow. Depressing, right? Continue reading
