Archive for September, 2009

Recycling in the Sojourner Truth Library

September 30th, 2009

Tomorrow is the last day the recycling info board will be up in the library, if you didn’t get a chance to see it Shayna models it Vanna White style below.

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Water Consumption Demonstration

September 30th, 2009

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Green of the Week

September 22nd, 2009

Here is a link to a NY Times report about homes built from recycled materials. The photos in the slideshow are really stunning.

What is your favorite part of the house? The storybook roof is just lovely!

What happens to my recycling?

September 12th, 2009

Here is a pretty cool video about the specifics of recycling:

Recycling 101

September 7th, 2009

Is it possible to recycle the “wrong way”?

Recycling can be selective; there are only certain things that can be recycled depending on the town. When the rules are broken than recycling becomes more difficult. For example when 10% trash is mixed into a recycling bin with 90% recyclables the entire thing becomes garbage.

Some rules for New Paltz are: plastic #3 and #6 are not recyclable; its best to remove the caps on your bottles; containers that still have food in them need to be washed out; paper needs to be sorted into a different bin than plastic/metals because they are collected separately.

What is the value of recycling?

Although the rules can be confusing recycling is extremely important because it prevents things from taking up space in a landfill. There is actually no such thing as throwing your trash “away”; you are simply sending it to another place, like a landfill in Michigan.

Recycling also saves a lot of energy because the materials are already present to be reused instead of having to be taken from the earth. For example a plastic water bottle is more easily melted down and turned into a fleece jacket than having to extract the raw materials from the earth to then make polyester. By recycling, not only are we preserving our natural resources but also preventing pollution and saving energy.

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