Expand Your Green Vocabulary

Got a question about a green term?

Check out the EPA’s “Terms of Environment” page for an excellent glossary of green terms, abbreviations, and acronyms.

Read Full Post »

Protect the places we play

Clif Bar Green Notes marries the power of music with a passion for the environment, partnering with musicians to reduce the environmental impact of their tours.

Buy the benefit album: Protect the Places We Play on iTunes.

Download 2 free tracks (code:  M6LR76RFRNW3) expires 7/15/2009

Volunteer events

Contest: Tell about places you want to protect and win free green gear. 

Take the pledge.

Read Full Post »

New Environmental Books in the Library

Come check them out.

 

QC981.8      Dire Predictions: understanding global warming.  (2008)

.G56                                       The illustrated guide to the findings of the IPCC.

M3

2008

 

QC981.8     The Long Thaw: How humans are changing the next 100,000 years

.G56                                       Earth’s History.    (2009)

A72

2009

 

QH541.1     Sustaining Life: how human health depends on biodiversity.   (2008)

.B56

S96

2008

 

QC981          Human Impacts on Weather and Climate.  2^nd ed.  (2007)

.C72

2007

 

G128              Diversity Amid Globalization: world regions, environment,

.D58                                       development.  (2009)

2009

Read Full Post »

Water: Take care of it!

Water Tip of the Day

Pick up litter in your neighborhood and on your school grounds – everything eventually ends up in a water body.
Source: The Groundwater Foundation

For a list of water facts in English and Spanish, visit our Be Water Wise! Facts page

Nashville’s Earth Day – Sat., April 18 — Centennial Park

Read Full Post »

NWF’s Chill Out Contest winners

Watch this webcast to see what the awarding colleges and universites across the nation are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.

http://www.fc-tv.com/clients/nwf/700k.asx

 

Read Full Post »

Tennessee Bottle Bill

This week’s long-awaited hearing on the bottle bill was cut short, due to endless discussions of other items, and will resume next week. That’s the bad news.

The GOOD NEWS is that the little bit of testimony that we had time for was absolutely perfect! See the short press release below. 

The other GOOD NEWS is that the delay may prove to be a blessing in disguise, because it gives us that much more time to hammer away at the 5 votes we need. 

In the meantime, here’s how you can help, one more time . . . And don’t forget to share this e-mail with your own network and beyond. You never know whose desk it might land on.

1. COME TO THE DAD-GUMMED HEARING! TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 11:30 CDT, LEGISLATIVE PLAZA, ROOM 12

I hate to say it, but except for our legion of speakers, Tuesday’s hearing room was PRACTICALLY EMPTY. Folks did trickle in over time, and we are grateful to every one of them. But if this bill is really as popular as we say it is, we should be able to PACK THE HEARING ROOM!!! Shame on us if we cannot.

Think of it this way: One way or the other, you’ll see history being made. Either the bill passes, which will be hugely historic; or I explode into a thousand pieces, which will also be historic, though not nearly so pleasant.

But seriously: Next week, we’re the second item on the agenda, following a budget presentation by the Department of Tourist Development. That will probably take 20 minutes, so feel free to arrive closer to 12 noon. We should be finished–one way or the other!–by 12:30.

2. WORK YOUR CONTACTS IN THREE SWING DISTRICTS 

We need to be sure of five votes, and we can’t take any chances. The following three senators in particular need to hear FROM THEIR OWN CONSTITUENTS by Tuesday morning, and preferably by Saturday evening. (Please don’t call on Sunday–that’s Easter.)

They’ll all be back in their districts later today and will return to Nashville Monday afternoon. If you personally don’t live in one of these districts, try to think of folks who do. Tell them the basics–using the bullet points below if you like–and then give them the contact info.

Thanks as always!

1. SENATOR MIKE FAULK (R-Church Hill)

Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson and Union counties

District office (423) 357-8088

Nashville office (615) 741-2061

sen.mike.faulk@capitol.tn.gov

2. SENATOR KEN YAGER (R-Jacksboro) 

Campbell, Fentress, Morgan, Rhea, Roane and Scott counties 

District office (865) 285-9797

Nashville office (615) 741-1449

sen.ken.yager@capitol.tn.gov

3. SENATOR CHARLOTTE BURKS (D-Monterey)

Cumberland, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White counties

Home: (931) 839-3392

Nashville office (615) 741-3978

sen.charlotte.burks@capitol.tn.gov

TODAY’S PRESS RELEASE:

Bottle Makers to Senate Committee: “We Support Bottle Bills”

Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the proposed “bottle bill” (5-cent deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers) was cut short by the clock, but not before executives from the nation’s second-largest glass-container manufacturer told lawmakers, “We used to oppose bottle bills. Now we support them.”

Peter J. Walters, vice president for purchasing and distribution at Muncie, Ind.-based Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc. (formerly the Ball Corporation), explained that container-deposit programs alone provide the quantity and quality of recycled glass required by his industry. 

Other collection systems, such as curbside and drop-off bins, not only yield low volumes, he said. What material they do generate is often mixed with unacceptable items such as test-tube glass, Pyrex bowls and ceramic coffee mugs.

The problem is not simply the cost of buying and installing expensive sorting equipment, said Walters, nor is it just the added energy cost of running furnaces at higher temperatures. It’s the fact that even the best sorting systems can’t always filter out minute contaminants. Champagne bottles have been known to explode because of the weakness created by a tiny bit of embedded stone. 

Also giving testimony on Tuesday was Jai Templeton, mayor of McNairy County in southwest Tennessee. Templeton is a member of the Tennessee Association of County Mayors, which has endorsed the bottle bill.

Templeton told the committee that he personally favors the measure, in part for its ability to create jobs and reduce solid waste at no cost to local government, but equally for its ability to reduce litter. According to the county sheriff’s deputy in change of litter pickups, he said, at least half of McNairy County’s litter is beer bottles, soda cans and other beverage containers. 

The proposed bill is expected to eliminate 80% – 90% of beverage-container litter while continuing to fund the county litter crews and other litter programs.

Hearings on SB 1404 are scheduled to resume Tuesday, April 7, at 11:30 a.m. in the Senate Environment Committee.

###

A summary of key points:

• This year’s bill (via an amendment that was approved on Tuesday) poses no new cost to beverage distributors. They will pay only a “container-recovery fee” of 1/8 cent, which works out to roughly what they now pay via the  ”litter taxes.” These taxes will be repealed when the bill passes, and the funding for the litter grants will instead come out of the bottle-bill revenues. 

• Empty containers do NOT get returned to the grocery store. Returns are to any of hundreds of independent businesses known as certified redemption centers, which may be owned by individuals, businesses, local governments and nonprofit agencies. 

• Redemption centers make a living by (1) selling the container scrap to local scrap dealers or end-users; and (2) receiving 1 cent per container out of the unclaimed deposits. Assuming 5 billion containers a year, 85% redemption, 500 redemption centers and a 5-year average of scrap prices, this provides an average annual gross revenue of more than $200,000 per center. 

• Redemption centers may, if acceptable to the local government and the local recycling infrastructure, also accept non-deposit items such as cardboard, newspaper and pickle jars. This potentially doubles the number of “convenience centers” in the state, at no cost whatever to the state or to local governments. And because people will be going to the redemption centers to get back their deposits, their recycling of these other items will also increase. (Overall residential recycling in deposit states is 3 times what it is here–31% vs 10%.)

• The bottle bill will dramatically reduce TN’s litter, half of which is bottles and cans. A 5-cent deposit will reduce this portion of litter by 80% to 90%, and will reduce overall litter by at least 40%, perhaps more. 

• A randomized survey of 777 registered voters by UT’s Social Science Research Institute found that 80.4 percent of Tennesseans support a 5-cent deposit. 

• All three of the major container-commodity trade groups–the Aluminum Association, the Glass Packaging Institute and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers–now acknowledge container deposits to be a legitimate and effective way to get both the quantity and quality of container scrap their members need. 

• 80% of all containers are beverage containers; and 80% of all returned containers (including virtually all of the glass and aluminum) are used to make new beverage containers. The plastic that is not used in containers is used in such products as carpet and fleece.

• The bill will keep more than 200,000 tons of material, collectively worth at least $50 million, out of landfills, while saving the energy equivalent of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a year and avoiding 150,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gases.

• The bill will actually help hold down future beverage-price increases, because in most cases, it’s less expensive to make new containers out of recycled ones. Beverage prices are lower, on average, in the 11 deposit states.

Marge Davis, Ph.D.

Coordinator

Pride of Place/Tennessee Bottle Bill Project

A Project of Scenic Tennessee, Inc.

45 Burris Court

Mt. Juliet, TN 37122

home (615) 758-8647

fax (615) 754-0966 

cell (615) 294-2651

www.tnbottlebill.org

margedavis@comcast.net

Read Full Post »

Pride of Place (POP) — 5¢ Tennessee container deposit

Dear Friends:

I’ve given up on my effort to use cool e-mail stationery. We’ve got more important things to focus on. Like . . . VICTORY!  

For once I’m not going to go on and on and on. I’m just going to give you a handful of action items (along with the usual list of key features) and ask you to pour your hearts out for these last few hours before Tuesday’s all-important Senate Environment Committee hearing. 

Action items:

• PLEASE COME TO THE HEARING TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! The Senate Environment Committee convenes Tuesday (April 7) in Room 12 of Legislative Plaza, corner of 6th and Union in downtown Nashville. Start time is 11 a.m. rather than 11:30. Our bill (SB 1404) is next to last on the agenda, so it probably will be 11:30 before they get to it.  

• Note: There is no House hearing on April 8. This will likely happen on April 15, IF the bill passes out of committee on Tuesday. Plan to come to that, too.

• Know any FARMERS?? If so, send me their contact info, asap. We need a farmer to testify on Tuesday. This is planting season, and none of our usual farmer-supporters is available.

• Got any great images of litter? If so, e-mail them to me, and I’ll put them in a slide show to be aired at Tuesday’s hearing. If we are going to survive the opposition’s efforts to kill the bill by putting it into a “summer study committee,” we need to remind them that a container deposit does as much about litter as it is about recycling. The opposition bills do nothing to address litter. (And they do little, realistically, about recycling.)

• Continue to
  • work your networks
  • e-mail the governor: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
  • contact committee members if you haven’t already done so (see list below), especially chairman Steve Southerland

Key features:

• The bottle bill will dramatically and permanently reduce TN’s litter, roughly half of which is bottles and cans. The 11 states with bottle bills found that overall litter dropped by an average of almost 40% within a few years of passage, and container-only litter dropped by as much as 80%. 

• This year’s bill imposes NO NEW COST on the beverage distributors. Under an amendment that will be voted on on Tuesday, beverage distributors will pay only a “container-recovery fee” of 1/8 cent, which works out almost exactly to what they now pay in “litter taxes” to fund inmate litter crews and Keep Tennessee Beautiful. Funding for these programs will now come out of the bottle-bill revenues.

• Empty containers do NOT get returned to the grocery store under this bill. Returns are to any of hundreds of independent businesses known as certified redemption centers. These may be owned by individuals, businesses, scrap yards, local governments and nonprofit agencies. 

• Redemption centers make a living by (1) selling the container scrap to local scrap dealers or end-users; and (2) receiving a handling fee of 1 cent per container, which is paid out of the accrued unclaimed deposits. 

• Redemption centers may, if acceptable to the local government and the local recycling infrastructure, also accept non-deposit items such as cardboard, newspaper and pickle jars. 

• The bill is endorsed by the Tennessee Association of County Mayors. 

• Manufacturers prefer bottle-bill scrap not only because it gets collected in such high quantities–the national average is 80%–but because it’s properly sorted by material and color, and with none of the cross-contamination, foreign materials and low volumes that tend to plague drop-off and curbside recycling programs. 

• For the first time in history, all three of the major container-commodity trade groups–the Aluminum Association, the Glass Packaging Institute and the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers–now support container deposits.

• In addition to recovering $50 million or more of scrap each year, this bill will save landfill space, reduce collection and hauling costs, save 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a year and avoid 150,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Senate Environment, Conservation and Tourism Committee members:

Marge Davis, Ph.D.
Coordinator
Pride of Place/Tennessee Bottle Bill Project
A Project of Scenic Tennessee, Inc.
45 Burris Court
Mt. Juliet, TN 37122
home (615) 758-8647
fax (615) 754-0966
cell (615) 294-2651
www.tnbottlebill.org
margedavis@comcast.net

  

Sen. Tim Barnes	D-22	Cheatham, Houston, Montgomery	305 WMB	741-2374
Sen. Charlotte Burks	D-15	Cumberland, Jackson, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, White	304 WMB	741-3978
Sen. Mike Faulk	R-4	Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, Union	11A LP	741-2061
Sen. Doug Jackson SPONSOR	D-25	Dickson, Giles, Hickman, Humphreys, Lawrence, Lewis		741-4499
Sen. Jack Johnson	R-23	Williamson & part of Davidson	10A LP	741-2495
Sen. Steve Southerland CHAIR	R-1	Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Unicoi	10 LP	741-3851
Sen. Eric Stewart	D-14	Franklin, Bledsoe, Coffee, Grundy, Sequatchie, Van Buren, Warren	310A WMB	741-6694
Sen. Jamie Woodson	R-6	Knox	6 LP	741-1648
Sen. Ken Yager	R-12	Campbell, Fentress, Morgan, Rhea, Roane, Scott	3 LP	741-1449

 

Think positive!

 

The litter & recycling solution based on a 5¢ Tennessee container deposit

Read Full Post »

New Environmental Books in the Kisber Library

Check these books out and celebrate Earth Day this month.

April 15 is Spring Fling/Earth Day on campus.

How to Reduce you Carbon Footprint: 365 simple ways to save energy, resources and money.

Cut Your Energy Bills Now:  150 smart ways to save money and make your home more comfortable and green   Bruce Harley

The Carbon-Free Home:  36 remodeling projects to help kick the fossil-fuel habit.   Stephen and Rebekah Hren.

Energy Independence:  your everyday guide to reducing fuel consumption.

Ready, Set, Green: eight weeks to modern eco-living.   From the experts at treehugger.com

The Bike to Work Guide: Save gas, go green, get fit.

Read Full Post »

2009 Chill Out Webcast — National Wildlife Federation

Check this out to see what other campuses are doing to improve the environment.

http://www.nwf.org/campusecology/chillout/broadcast.cfm

Webcast is April 15.  Go to the site and sign up.

Read Full Post »