Americans throw away multiple millions of tons of food waste per year and many of these items could be diverted from the landfill and used to make your gardens more beautiful! Would you rather grow a landfill or grow a garden? I think the answer is clear – so, why not compost?
Read MoreLearn Your ABC's BYOBag Campaign Update
Check out the "Learn Your ABC's" BYOBag Review & Update presentation to learn more about our progress.
Read MoreLeave the Leaves!
What’s more beautiful than the fall colors that adorn Princeton each autumn? Leaving those leaves where they can do some good.
Read MoreS.H.R.R.E.D.temberfest this Saturday, Sep. 26th 10 am-2 pm
Don't forget this weekend is Princeton's annual S.H.R.R.E.D.temberfest on Saturday, September 26th from 10 am to 2 pm rain or shine at Witherspoon Hall parking lot, 400 Witherspoon St. This annual event organized by the Public Works Department and provided by the NJ Clean Communities Grant & the NJ DEP Recycling Tonnage Grant, is a great way for Princeton residents to recycle many household items rather than send them to a landfill.
Shred your personal documents
Household goods & clean clothing recycling
Rain Barrels $30.00 per barrel (small quantities available)
Recycle home medical equipment
Electronic & computer recycling
Dumpster discards & Donate bikes
Check out the Princeton Municipal website for a complete list of what you can and cannot bring.
Backyard compost bins will also be available for the subsidized price of $30. Backyard composting is a great way to divert food waste from being sent to the landfill. According to the EPA's 2012 Municipal Solid Waste Characterization Report, 21% of waste going to municipal landfills is food waste. We can put that waste to a better purpose by composting and putting important nutrients back into the soil. Limited bins are available so arrive early.
Rain barrels will also be available for the subsidized price of $30. According to the EPA, lawn and gardening take up about 40% of water usage during the summer months in the Mid-Atlantic. Rain barrels help conserve water and energy. It takes energy to treat and transport water to consumers. To learn more about rain barrels, check out this FAQ from the Rutgers Water Resources Program.
Also taking place on this day is the Mercer County Improvement Authority's last Household Hazardous Waste Collection and Electronic Recycling Event in 2015. Mercer County residents can bring hazardous waste and electronics for recycling and safe disposal. The event takes place at the John T. Dempster Fire School 350 Lawrence Station Road, Lawrenceville. Go here for details on what materials are accepted.
Not able to make it S.H.R.R.E.D.temberfest or to the MCIA event, check out the Princeton Municipal website for more information about recycling.
6.5 Million Tons: You Can Stop Waste as Close as Your Mailbox
When you think about saving the planet, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For many it is saving trees in the rainforest, making sure to recycle, turning the lights off or reducing the amount you drive, but opportunities for sustainable behavior can be anywhere. Junk Mail is the epitome of waste, but the scale of this waste is revealed in a CBS news report on the subject revealing that, “advertising mail accounts for 59 percent of all mail Americans receive. But only half of that mail is ever read, according to the United States Postal Service.” The sheer magnitude of waste is very impressive. In a report released by ForestEthics, we learn that junk mail accounts for 6.5 million tons of paper and 3.7 million cars worth of Greenhouse Gas resulting from the manufacture of that paper, and that is not even including the carbon cost of transportation and distribution. Most people don’t even think of what a massive waste this is and wouldn’t know where to start trying to stop it.
What can you do?
There’s good news, it can all stop with a few simple steps. The Federal Trade Commission and usa.gov have both provided us with a list of instructions for stopping junk mail ourselves. The first step is through the Direct Marketing Association Mail Preference Service. The Direct Marketing Association(DMA) is an organization that compiles all publicly available consumer habits and information about you and markets it to those companies that are sending you junk mail, but the DMA allows you to place yourself on a “delete” file which is sent to companies that will take you off the list. All you need to do is visit their website or send a $1 processing fee with a request to remove you to the following address:
DMAchoice; Direct Marketing Association; P.O. Box 643; Carmel, NY 10512
This process only takes five minutes but has been known to take some time to take effect. This is a good first step, but once you have been removed from the DMA lists, you may still have to contact a few of the companies sending you junk mail directly and ask them to remove you from lists they rent or sell. To remove yourself from lists that provide pre-approved offers of credit or insurance call the credit reporting agencies at 1-888-567-8688 or visit their website. These are just the basics, it should take less than thirty minutes to reduce the flow of junk mail to a trickle.
How to get even less junk mail
There are more advanced tips that you can use provided by Global Stewards’ website. This article on treehugger.com also shows us a few paid services that will save you the trouble and may provide a more complete reduction of junk mail. Not as hard as we all thought after all.
