PurJuly item tracking

We now have 10 people participating in the #PurJuly challenge! So exciting! There's still time to sign on to the challenge.

An interesting side benefit is that I've learned that spreadsheets on google docs can be easily filled out by multiple people. Witness, this form. This is a simple way for anyone partaking in the challenge to log their daily purged items. Awesome. (Ok, yes, I'm a geek...)

If you don't see your name in the drop down menu, just let me know and I can add it. (Or, if you prefer, you can use the Anon sign-in.)

I will post a link to the spreadsheet of data, once it's filled out a bit. I'm getting excited (and a teeny bit nervous, too...)

Here's to de-cluttering in the month of July!

PurJuly

Can you give up one item a day for a month? Let's find out! Let's make the month of July the month for purging. It's Purge-July (PurJuly)


Last week, I tweeted something about an exciting blog project. Today, I unveil to you what that was all about. I recently read something about a family purging one object from their lives every day for a year. Because I'm not really *that* dedicated, I decided to take on this challenge for a month. I want to invite you to partake in the challenge with me. Read on for more details.


About six months ago, a co-worker had the idea for us to save every item that we discarded for a month that was not recycled or composted. The experience was fun, interesting and surprising. It's strange to be able to look in a box and see the waste you made weeks ago. Normally, once we've thrown something "away" we never give it a second thought. It also had me thinking about ways to be even friendlier to humanity's chance on the planet. It has had some lasting effects on my behavior. I'm hoping the experience of purging one thing from my life, blogging the experience and hopefully having others join me in the experience will also have some lasting effects. 


So, here are the rules (they're pretty simple.)

1. Purge at least one thing from your life every day for the month of July. The "thing" can be something tangible  (items you're not using, like clothing, media, electronics, etc) or they can be something more creative than that. (Got files clogging up your computer system? Perhaps purging some of that old stuff will be a positive step towards helping those of us with a little touch of the hoarding.) If you miss a day, it's ok, I won't tell! The important thing is to give it a try.
2. If the item is tangible, send me a picture of the item (you don't have to do this every day, unless you want to) and I will try to blog everyone's items (If I get swamped, I might just pick a few each day.) I'd also like to keep a running list of the items with a brief description/weight, etc. 
3. The Twitter hashtag for this project will be #Purjuly

See? Easy! Let's take on this challenge together and see what happens!

Remember, we have the clothing swap coming up in August, for those of you in the area. So, if you're cleaning your closets, you have a built in place to bring those items you're no longer using. I take no responsibility whatsoever for any setbacks you might experience by filling up the space you cleared with new treasures. ;)

Recycled Arts Festival Tossed and Found experience

The last weekend in June is the award-winning Recycled Arts Festival in Vancouver, WA. This event is totally amazing-A wonderful way to see the creativity from artists all over the region. (This year the festival features 108 artists!!!) Get a jump on your holiday shopping!

One of the unique aspects of the festival is the Tossed and Found booth. 

"I can't believe someone threw that away!"
Pictured are actual items from the 2011 collection.

The tossed and found experience offers a glimpse into what people are disposing of at the transfer station. Items are collected at the transfer station for about 2-3 months prior to this event and displayed for the public to view. Following the event, everything will be donated to The Paws and Claws thrift store (The St. John's one on 52nd Ave.) where it will be available for purchase. Be sure to visit this display for an awe-inspiring glimpse into the world of waste and to learn about alternative disposal ideas. Make sure to pick up a copy of the Clark County Thrift Store Map!


The Tossed and Found Experience is brought to the festival by Waste Connections, Inc. and Columbia Resource Center.

Recycling 101 Class in Vancouver, WA

Plastic Bags ~ Nursery Pots ~Aerosol Cans ~ Cardboard Boxes ~Motor Oil ~ Yard Debris ~ Antifreeze

empty aerosol cans such as this one are
acceptable in the curbside program
in Clark County, WA

Would you like to learn more about recycling – What goes in the cart, what doesn’t and other places where things can be recycled? Please join us for a free recycling class 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 22, in the Cascade Park Library Community Room. The library is at 600 NE 136th Ave., next to the Firstenburg Community Center.

City-recognized neighborhood associations who send a representative to this class and publish an approved recycling article in their neighborhood newsletter can earn money for their neighborhood association treasury.

For more information or to pre-register, please call 360-619-4122, and provide your name, neighborhood association* and phone number. Your pre-registration will help insure we have enough materials for everyone.

*If you would like to just attend the class (not representing a neighborhood) you're welcome to do that. The class is open to the public.

Why Recycle?

Curbside recycling is
simple and convenient

Recently, I presented at a series of recycling classes put on by the City and County. Part of the class requires the participants to include a recycling article in their neighborhood newsletter. I thought this one did a good job of capturing a lot of the reasons for recycling that we discussed at the beginning of the class. Enjoy!

So What’s the Big Deal About Recycling?

A lot of us in Hough {Neighborhood} are good and diligent recyclers, toting our big blue carts and glass bins to the curb every collection day.  Most of the time we don’t think about doing it because we know it’s the right thing to do.  During my recent attendance at the Recyclingest Neighborhood Workshop, I was asked the question, “Why do you recycle?”  “For my child’s future,” I replied, but after I answered I was wondering where the concrete evidence was to prove I was doing the right thing.  Luckily, our trainer for the day, Terra, had the answers and they were pretty impressive.

Many of the products found in
the landfill could have
been recycled, if
separated properly.

First, let’s talk conservation since that’s often the moral grounds for recycling.  According to the British Metals Recycling Association, we save approx. 60% in energy costs when we recycle steel and a whopping 95% when recycling aluminum.  When you think about the process it makes sense.  Instead of mining iron or bauxite ore then refining it to get the virgin base metal, we’re simply melting down material that’s already been processed and reforming it.  Recycling most paper products saves approximately 40% and glass 30% in energy costs.  For those a generation older than myself or those from other countries, you may recall sending bottles back to the bottling company to sanitize and reuse.  Guess how much that saved in energy costs compared to making new glass bottles: Over 300%!  Glass bottles can be reused an industry average of 12 times before they are recycled.  

Glass is accepted in
most recycling programs.

So there’s a lot of energy to be conserved by recycling, what about the other major pitfall for our future generations, the environment?  How much does recycling really help us here?  When we can’t eliminate the need for paper completely, recycling it will reduce air pollution by 74% and water pollution by 50% compared to making it from virgin material.  Steel mills using recycled scrap instead of new iron reduce air pollution, water, pollution, and mining wastes by 70%.  Recycling glass and other metals also has substantial environmental benefits in the reductions of pollutants. 

Not enough of a reason you say?  You wanna get down to recyclable brass tacks?  Well here’s where you can put your money where your mouth is.  In Clark County, residents who’ve reduced the size of trash containers from 96 gallons to 64 gallons (because they are recycling so much more in the big blue carts) save an average of nearly $200 per year. (Figure calculated by Waste Connections Waste Reduction Specialist.)  Businesses with robust recycling programs are saving money as well by reducing their trash container sizes and, in some cases, are even creating revenue from their recyclable material.  And the recycling and reuse industry is big.  How big?  Roughly the same size as the US auto manufacturing industry!  And talk about job creation, for each 10,000 tons per year of trash, 1 job is created in the waste industry.  However for each 10,000 tons per year recycled material produced these many jobs are created:  Composting – 4, materials recovery – 10, recycling-based manufacturing – 25, plastics – 93, and computer reuse – 296!

 
All of these reasons are substantial in their own to start recycling today and I encourage folks to take it a step further.  Organize with your neighbors to combine trips to the West Van Materials Recovery Center when you need to get rid of Household Hazardous Wastes or other recyclables that they don’t collect curbside.  Offer to take your neighbor’s collection of plastic bags to the store next time you’re planning a trip.  There are so many ways we can create a more sustainable community and recycling is a key element.  I’m doing it for my child’s future, why are you?


Article reprinted with permission from Brian Boothe

Do you create recycled art or fashion?

If you live in the Vancouver/Portland metro area and create recycled or reused fashions, accessories or other goods, here are some opportunities you should know about:

Do you create fun recycled goods,

like this lightbulb bud vase?

-- The Earth Day celebration at the Marshall Center is getting bigger and better with each passing year. There are still a few vendor spots left this year. Email 

-- For Earth Day, The Stream Team of Clark Public Utilities will be holding a fashion show and are looking for fun fashion and accessory items to show off. Email 

-- In June, the theme for First Friday in Camas is Recycled Arts/Go Green. They are looking for vendors. Email  

--Perhaps one of the most well-known (and certainly one of the biggest!) events to show and sell your wares is the annual Recycled Arts Festival put on by Clark County Department of Environmental Services. This event is all full for 2011, but there is a waiting list. 

--In November, Vancouver Green Drinks is going to repeat their wildly successful Check 'Em Off, Green event. We are looking for creators of recycled/reused goods and also for local businesses to be part of our "local experiences" booth Email

Free Recycling Informational Class

Ever wondered why only certain items are collected for recycling or whether you really need to take the label off that can before recycling it? Well, the good news is, there will be 4 informational classes to answer all your burning questions about recycling.

Glass recycling is one of the many things you'll see
while on a tour of West Van Materials Recovery Facility

This is a free 2 hour training session, offered four times this year. Three morning sessions that include a tour of the newly updated processing facility will be offered Wednesday, March 23, Thursday, March 24, and Saturday, March 26, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at West Van Materials Recovery Center. An evening session will be offered Thursday, March 31, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the PUD Electric Center, 1200 Ft. Vancouver Way.

Space is limited for the daytime tours, so it is important to pre-register. Please call 619-4122 by March 21, and leave your name, address, phone number and the Neighborhood Association you are representing.

Poster Save = Epic WIN!

One of the really great things about the people I work with is their willingness to go the extra mile to make sure usable items stay out of the landfill, it at all possible.

Recently, my "partner in crime" for Green Drinks, Laura, approached me to tell me that she knew of a large stack of science posters that needed saving. Sure, she could have just thrown them in the recycling container and yes, they would have been recycled.... But, of course she wasn't happy with that outcome for such a resource and neither was I.

I talked to my colleague who works with local schools and he quickly found some interest in the posters. Local Science teachers would love to have these posters in their classrooms, we figured.

Round about this same time, sweet serendipity sent Mark to our January meeting of Vancouver Green Drinks. Mark works with science teachers in our region (Like, all of them!) and was so excited to hear about this "waste" item that we were trying to re-home.

Mark and two of his colleagues show off some of the 3,000 science posters
that are destined for science classrooms instead of a landfill

I'm happy to say that through the efforts of The Reuser, Laura, Gregg and Mark, the posters will serve their highest purpose, educating local children in science classrooms around our region, rather than be relegated to the recycling bin. Epic poster save WIN!

Here's what Gregg had to say about this project: "Setting up this Poster Save was a great idea. Thanks for helping make this happen Terra and Laura, and for connecting us with Mark! Through his work as Science Coordinator for ESD 112 Mark is going to distribute these 3,000 science posters to teachers all over Washington and Oregon."

Empower Up

Hopefully by now you've had a chance to visit Empower Up and meet some of the dedicated staff and volunteers that make this amazing program possible. If you haven't, try to make time soon. This program has so many facets, it's hard to explain them all. Some of the many wonderful things they've done with unwanted technology (computers, printers, etc.) include: donating video game systems and games to Marshall Center, after the center was burglarized, Donating 13 computers to local non-profits in the month of January alone, countless classes and internet cafe hours... trust me, the list goes on and on.

I also happen to know that Yours Truly sent on the wish list for the Southwest Washington Humane Society to Empower Up and they were able to help with some of their technology needs as well. What a wonderful example of great programs helping each other out, right here in Clark County.

Empower Up can always use donations-your supplies and dollars go a long way toward ensuring that EU will be around for many moons to come and will continue to support our community in the amazing ways that they do.

Calling parents and teachers: Free Recycling/Compost Assembly for Clark County K-8 Public Schools!

Will, in "Action"!

Clark County Environmental Services is happy to present a free recycling/composting presentation to any Clark County Public School, grades K-8 participating in the Save Organic Scraps school recycling/compost program.

Will Hornyak, a professional, national award-winning storyteller leads students on an exciting, interactive storytelling adventure as they learn about how to properly recycle and compost at school. 

Will’s storytelling will help students better understand how their simple choices of how they throw away their waste can have a big impact on our world. 

Will Hornyak

“Will Hornyak is a world class storyteller I can’t recommend him enough”

• - Joe Lapideus, Principal Chinook Elementary Vancouver

“Will Hornyak is a storyteller par excellence!”

• - The Oregonian Newspaper

Shows are around 30 minutes, and are usually held in the cafeteria, and presented to all grade levels. Talk with your school’s principal, and ecourage them to book a show.