Go Green with your E-Waste
Did you know?  Electronic waste is the fastest growing waste stream (only 12% gets recycled) and the biggest source of toxic heavy metals in our landfills. “Scientists are finding higher and higher levels of flame retardants used in electronics and other products in the bodies of Americans and in fish in our lakes and bays - and even in polar bears. … E-waste should not be buried with municipal garbage.”   (Source: Texas Campaign for the Environment website, 2009).

What you can do: 
1. Vote with your dollars!  Buy electronics from retailers or manufacturers who take back and recycle their non-working products.  For the latest information, visit texastakeback.org   If you are buying a new TV, buy from manufacturers who will take back & recycle their Tvs (most do not), visit takebackmytv.com

2. Visit texastakeback.org to find a drop-off location for your electronics.  Here are some of the responsible recycling options on that website:

* Central Texas Goodwill accepts all working TVs, as well as non-working Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba televisions.

* Central Texas Goodwill recycles any brand of non-working computers and parts.   For a full list of the manufacturer's computer recycling programs, visit www.texasrecyclescomputers.org.

* All Best Buy stores recycle most electronics.

* Costco's e-waste recycling program offers Costco cash cards in exchange for electronics that you ship (at no cost to you) to their partner, Gazelle.  Visit Costco's home page and click the "recycle" button to print free shipping labels.  They accept over 20 categories of electronics.

3.  Educate and Advocate!  To learn more about the e-waste issue in Texas (from a public-interest perspective), visit: texasenvironment.org/ewaste.cfm

Compost your Pumpkins at school
Did you know? “If you compost or green-cycle your jack-o'-lantern this year, you'll keep 10 to 20 pounds of waste out of the landfill. And even though pumpkins are biodegradable, almost nothing that's biodegradable breaks down under the dry and oxygen-deprived conditions of a landfill.
“If just 10 percent of all pumpkins sold this year were composted instead of being thrown out with the garbage, 100 million pounds of waste could be kept from the nation's landfills annually. The effect of this level of waste reduction would be as though nearly 42,000 U.S. households stopped producing garbage altogether.”*

What you can do: Don’t wait for your pumpkin to rot on your porch!  Carve it as close to Halloween as you can, then bring it to school during the school day the week after Halloween and toss is into our compost dumpster located on 34th St., between the school building and the portables.

*www.blueegg.com/answer/Compost-Your-Jack-O-Lantern.html

“We hear a lot about climate change, and what we can do and should do, and stuff that's happening in Congress. But people want to know what they can practically do every single day, and composting your food scraps is probably the single most effective thing that you can do as a citizen in the United States today.”   --JARED BLUMENFELD (Environmental Officer for the City of San Francisco, where city trucks pick up  food scraps for composting, just like they pick up recycling!)
 
Go Green with classroom parties!
Did you know: Each year, Americans toss out enough paper and plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times if you laid them end-to-end. Plus, dishwashing takes less water than producing new disposable plates. 
But on the dishwashing end of things, we are in a drought!  Also, many of us have limited resources in this economy for things like disposables.  That begs the question:  what sort of dishware should we use for our classroom parties at a time like this? 

What you can do: 
1.  For families who want to contribute to classroom parties but have limited resources, check out one of our TWO PTA “party packs” -- a set of 30 re-usable cups, plates and bowls that you take home to wash and return to school the next day. Remember that typically less water is used to wash a full load in a dishwasher (15 gallons) than washing dishes at the sink (5 gallons per minute).  To reserve the party pack, visit our Go Green page.

2.  When buying disposables, use paper or compostable dishware/utensils and compost all paper and food waste (even cake!) Find out where you can buy compostables in Austin.  

Check out our online presentation for "Making your Classroom Party a Zero-Waste Event" or download a printable guide here.

While we are on the topic, think about other ways we can be less-wasteful at school: by using no more than 2 paper towels at the sink, by bringing your own mug to Monday morning coffee, and by packing a litter-free lunch!  Bring your ideas for cutting waste to the Go Green committee. Sources: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-27-umbra-dishwashers-vs-handwash/ http://www.idealbite.com/mobile/tiplibrary/archives/fashion-plates-resolutions-week http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/starch-your-engines
 
Trim Your Trash
Did you know?   The collection, disposal and storage of garbage are a major contributor to climate change.  It is estimated that “significantly decreasing waste disposed in landfills and incinerators will reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent to closing 21% of U.S. coal-fired power plants. This is comparable to leading climate protection proposals such as improving national vehicle fuel efficiency." (StopTrashingtheClimate.org)  Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute a quarter of a U.S. city's garbage and packaging materials make up nearly a third of an American consumer's waste.  

What you can do:  When it comes to the waste we produce, we save money and the planet by reducing, reusing and recycling and composting!  Support the City of Austin in its goal to reduce our waste 90% by 2040.  It can be done!  

*  A fun and EASY way to inspire the whole family to change the way we think of STUFF is by watching the short animation at StoryofStuff.com  

* Small steps add up to a big difference, but building them into your routine takes effort (such is my experience with reusable shopping bags!)   Check the Go GREEN page at brykerwoodspta.org for ideas from last year's newsletter on reducing waste, such as opting out of junk mail, packing litter free lunches, buying in bulk, breaking the bottled water habit and shopping for less packaging.  Go to austinrecycles.com to learn even MORE about what can be recycled and where.

* One of the biggest impacts on our waste stream comes from composting at home. The City of Austin's Home Composting Rebate Challenge supports you in learning how to compost AND affording a compost system.  If you want to compost in your apartment, worm composting is a great, odor-free, way to do that.  Or subscribe to a collection service, such as Green Bucket Composting.
  
Recycle Food Waste
Did you know? Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 24 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That's a lot of waste to send to landfills when it could become useful compost instead!   All around the country, landfills are filling up, garbage incineration is becoming increasingly unpopular, and other waste disposal options are becoming ever harder to find.  According to Jonathan Bloom at wastedfood.com, the food rotting in landfills creates millions of tons of methane gas, which scientists say is 20 times as harmful to our atmosphere as carbon dioxide.  Landfills are the largest human-related source of methane.

What you can do:  Start a compost pile or a worm bin to transform your fruit and veggie scraps into something useful for your plants and lawn.  By addressing the solid waste issue, composting provides a way of instilling in children a sense of environmental stewardship.  With composting, children can do more than just sending cans or newspapers off for recycling -- they can see the entire cycle, from "yucky" food scraps or other organic wastes... to something that is pleasant to handle and is good for the soil. Contrary to the "out of sight, out of mind" philosophy, children who compost become aware of organic wastes as potential resources rather than just as something "gross" to be thrown away and forgotten. They learn through direct experience that they personally can make a difference and have a positive effect on the environment.

Reduce Junk Mail
Did you know: Junk mail is more than an annoyance.  More than 100 million trees of bulk mail arrive in American mail boxes each year – that’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months. In 2005, 5.8 million tons of catalogs and other direct mailings ended up in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream – enough to fill over 450,000 garbage trucks. Less than 36% of this ad mail was recycled. The production and disposal of direct mail consumes more energy than 3 million cars.  

What you can do:  Opt out of receiving junk mail!  Several websites make it easy for you. Stop mail-order catalogues at CatalogueChoice.org.  For a fee, some organizations make it very easy to opt out of junk mail: 41pounds.org or precycle.tonic.com.  The tonic website also makes it easy to purchase this service for as little as $10 as a gift for someone else.

Recycle Paper
Did you know? More than 40% of garbage that Americans dump annually is paper.  High-grade printing, copying and writing paper is the largest single component in a landfill.  Fortunately, in Austin and at Bryker Woods Elementary, recycling just keeps getting easier!  It also earns money for our school. The 6th grade students are responsible for emptying recycling bins from every classroom once a week.  Our paper recycling goes to the recycling dumpster by the staff parking lot (south side of school).  

What you can do:  You too can place all your newspapers, junk mail, magazines, etc (paper only) in your single stream recycling bin. If you live in an apartment that doesn't provide recycling, Ecology Action offers a free recycling drop-off site at 707 E. 9th St.

Go Green with your holiday gifts!
Did you know?  Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year's holiday period than any other time of year.  The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week.
What you can do: 
1.  Consider buying or making gifts that have less packaging and that reflect your own "green" values.  Some ideas: *  Books purchased from our Scholastic Book Fair not only support our school library but also support an environmentally responsible publisher.* *  Shop locally to support our Austin economy or find original gifts made by local artists and craftsmen at art fairs, like Blue Genie Arts Bazaar, Cherrywood Arts Festival, Wheatsville Arts Festival, and the website Etsy.com. •  Gift cards for local services, stores, and restaurants. To encourage your gift card recipient to recycle their card and other wallet waste, consider including a stamped envelope addressed to Earthworks c/o Halprin Ind.; 25840 Miles Rd.; Bedford, OH 44146.
•   Donations to charities in honor of that person;
•   Experiential gifts, such as an art class, a horseback riding lesson, a trip to the rock climbing gym!

2. Consider your wrapping materials.  Some ideas:
•   Use cards and wrapping paper made from recycled paper;
•   Re-use old holiday cards by turning them into gift tags and wrapping decorations;
•   Recycle used gift wrap. Gift wrap is recyclable, unless it's laminated, metallic, or has a bunch of tape stuck to it. As for packaging remember, the City now accepts cardboard and paperboard, and any plastics #1-#7 in its Single Stream Recycling cans.

*"Scholastic's green publishing policy is truly industry-leading and will do much to continue advancing positive transformations in the book sector,"  --Tyson Miller, Director, Green Press Initiative.
Break the Bottled Water Habit
Did you know?  Everything we consume has a climate impact, but manufacturing and trucking water bottles to homes with clean tap water seems particularly wasteful. Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 cars for a year. (NY Times)  To put it another way, the entire energy costs of the lifecycle of a bottle of water is equivalent, on average, to filling up a quarter of each bottle with oil. (Pacific Institute)

Trucking around all those heavy bottles emits even more greenhouse gases.  Beyond the climate impact there’s the massive waste – 86% of water bottles aren’t recycled -- and water bottling is also, ironically, a very water-intensive endeavor. The Pacific Institute tells us that it takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water!

And despite the fact that it costs up to 5,000 times more than tap water, bottled water standards continue to be less than tap water.

What you can do:  Break the bottled water habit!  Bring a reusable water bottle to the Fall Carnival this Saturday and get FREE filtered water, courtesy of Greater Texas Water Company!

Remember to take reusable water bottles from home wherever you go.  Most affordable are plastic sports bottles – No. 2 and No. 5 considered by one plastics expert to be among the safest plastics.*  Both are used for margarine tubs and yogurt containers, for example.  Prices increase when you consider high-grade stainless steel bottles (such as Klean Kanteen), recyclable aluminum bottles with a non-toxic inner liner (such as SIGG) and bottles with built-in filter (such as the Wellness H2.O Water Bottle).   Like taking reusable shopping bags into a store, it’s a habit that will take time but is worth the effort.

* from “The (Possible) Perils of Being Thirsty While Being Green” NYTimes 1/5/08

Pack Waste-Free Lunches: Tip #1
Did you know?  It is estimated that a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year, on average. That equates to 9.3 tons of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school.  And as for us takeout fans, we generate an estimated 1.8 million tons of garbage each year in takeout bags and containers.  

What you can do:  On days when you or your child packs a lunch, make it a litter-free lunch!  It is another way children learn to care for the planet through Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!  Besides, it’s just… well,… nicer to eat from a container than from a baggie. with real silverware instead of a spork,  and with a cloth napkin instead of a paper one that often gets tossed without ever being used!  As for takeout food, try making time to dine-in or pack your own litter-free lunch.  If your takeout containers are not recyclable or compostable, ask your server “why not?”

Pack Waste-Free Lunches: Tip #2
Did you know? Packaging materials make up more than 30 percent of all consumer waste in the US, according to the EPA, and up to one out of every $11 you spend at the store pays for packaging.

What you can do:  Buying in bulk is one way to reduce the amount of packaging you consume, and is both lighter on the landfill and your wallet. And if you buy 15% of groceries in bulk you can save 1,355 lbs. of carbon a year that otherwise would be spent creating, transporting and disposing of excess packaging.  A litter-free lunch is a great place to start because the extra time you take to pack a lunch yields a healthier lunch.  By saying “no” to pre-packaged, processed foods, you are more likely to pack the GO foods and SLOW foods such as fresh fruit and veggies, baked chips, whole-grain bread and nuts.  Our kids are already learning about these through the CATCH program at school, so now is a great time to reinforce those healthy food choices.  If you buy individually-packaged baby carrots, yogurt, string cheese, or applesauce, consider buying these in bulk and investing in some leak-proof containers.  You will earn the money back in no time with the savings from buying in bulk.  (Have I mentioned the savings from NOT buying throwaway plastic baggies?  Don’t get me started!  I love it!)