My personal recycling center

Some might think that collecting recycling at holiday parties veers too close to collecting garbage. However, with this very attractive "personal recycling center" on my shoulder, I will discretely collect wine corks, Brita water filters, and batteries that my friends and neighbors bring to holiday parties. It's easy and oh so "chic."

Holiday Recycling

Holiday gatherings are a great opportunity to collect items for recycling. For example, our block is having a progressive cocktail party, where we move as a group from house to house. I'll be collecting Brita water filters, non-plastic wine corks, and batteries for our group. As part of the DC Recycler recycling circle, Kim collects the filters, Cathy collects the batteries, and I collect the wine corks. See the July 25th posting below about starting your own recycling circle. It's easy and interesting.

Great Fair Trade Chocolates as Gifts

Well, this isn't about recycling, but it is about a great chocolate company that is located in DC. Divine Chocolates is a company owned by farmers in Ghana. Their farmers' cooperative, Kuapa Kokoo, is truly amazing. The chocolates are fair trade, are delicious, and would make very nice gifts, in my opinion. Kuapa Kokoo has invested its Fair Trade income in building schools, sinking wells for clean drinking water to villages, providing mobile medical clinics for farmers in remote growing regions, and fostering women’s income generation projects to help women earn additional income for their families when the cocoa season is over. Most chocolate companies have horrible labor records, but Divine Chocolates seeks to provide an alternative to this. AND Divine Chocolates is located in DC!

Washington City Paper exposes commercial recycler failure

Washington City Paper did an amazing job reporting on the failure of many commercial recyclers, condos, apartment buildings, and businesses to recycle. Some commercial haulers mix recycling with garbage and delivered it all to the dump and other non-recycling locations. Since business waste represents 75% of all DC waste (residences make up 25%), this is really serious. If you see recycling being mixed with trash, please call DC's Department of Public Works (202-673-6833), or email them: dpw@dc.gov. Only by complaining will we force the city to enforce its own laws. As I mentioned before, when I worked for NY state government, we wanted the public complain, so that we could get the resources to do our jobs and deal with public demands. At the same time, as far as I know, DC does recycle residential recycling, so don't stop recycling!

Recycled Printer Cartridges!

You can now buy recycled printer cartridges that are 100% guaranteed from Castle Ink. They have ink refill kits, inkjet cartridges, laser toner cartridges for a huge variety of printers (Dell, HP, Epson, Lexmark, Brother, and so on). AND they are cheaper than new cartridges. Even more impressive is that they PAY up to $4 for your old cartridges. So, why are we buying new cartridges and toner??

Sign up for wind power

While this isn't about recycling, you can switch to 100% wind power and stop encouraging new coal plants. Clean Currents provides this option for DC and Maryland residents. It's easy to sign up.

Anything that goes in a landfill doesn't decay

I heard this long ago, but was uncertain whether it was true. The DC Office of Recycling reassured me that, yes, anything that goes in a landfill does not decay. So, don't think that your biodegradable bags or corn cups will decompose in the landfill. They do not want ANYTHING to decompose there (since it would produce awful run-off, etc), so they don't provide the conditions for this to happen. Therefore, biodegradable items have to be composted. And you can't compost them in your backyard because most items require special conditions to compost. Therefore, you need to have a great workplace that uses a commercial composter (e.g., the House Office buildings, the National Geographic Society, On the Fly) or you have to find a commercial composter yourself.

Sometimes you just have to do it yourself

At the end of the Green Festival, I happened to meet a few members of the inspiring Boonsboro Recycling Task Force. Ten residents of Boonsboro, MD decided that they would just have to organize recycling themselves. What they did can be done by anyone interested in expanding recycling. The Boonsboro crew saw immediately that the DC Recycler had the same goals.

1) Figure out ways to collect recycling that the city doesn't yet recycle. While those in Boonsboro had to organize a recycling dumpster, here in DC you could work with neighbors to find a business that could collect for you. Hill's Kitchen collects Brita water filters for us, which we pick up and send away for recycling.
2) Get the schools recycling. The Task Force started environmental clubs in their high school and middle school. According to DC government, the DC schools are way behind on recycling. If you have a daughter or son in the DC schools and interested in recycling, you can contact the Office of the Chancellor to join the program to start a recycling program in their school.
3) Ask the government to expand recycling. From my experience in government, we always wanted residents to complain and demand better service. If you don't demand, the government officials have no leverage in starting or expanding programs. Just call 311. You can let them know what kind of recycling DC should have, request a recycling bin, ask them recycling questions, report recycling violations (for example, at restaurants), etc.
4) Provide information about what can be recycled and where. The Boonsboro group created a recycling how-to information sheet that was mailed with the residents’ town utility bills. Let your neighbors and friends know about regular DC recycling and new recycling possibilities. Also let the DC Recycler know and we'll post it to the blog!

The Boonsboro group even organized their own Green Festival last year with a recycling collection zone, a kids zone, a clothing swap, and 80 vendors. The Boonsboro group also saw that DC has only 31 recycling cans in public spaces, when little Boonsboro already has more than that! Get some friends/neighbors together and change your world.

The DC Recycler is ready for the Green Festival

I will be investigating the recycling opportunities at the Green Festival today. Lots of excitement!

Reporting live from the DC Green Festival

Yes, the DC Recycler will be reporting LIVE from the DC Green Festival this weekend (Oct. 10 and 11). The Festival will take place at the Washington Convention Center, very close to the Mt. Vernon Square (yellow and green lines) and McPherson Square (blue and orange line) Metro Stations. Lots of great speakers -- Joel Salatin, Cornell West, Amy Goodman -- and interesting workshops on community gardening, alternative energy, composting, and the parallel hemp universe. The Festival strives to be a zero-waste event, so there will be lots of recycling and composting to report on.

Commercial Recycling

In DC, 70% of trash is generated by businesses and other non-residential sources. So, residences are not the serious problem. We should be looking to convert commercial trash to recycling. Recycling is required in all commerical establishments, BUT businesses only have to recycle glass, paper, and metal (aluminum, steel and tin). Recycling of plastic food containers and beverage bottles is optional. Why do we have to do more recycling than businesses? Businesses should have to recycle plastics and everything else! Why do DC take-out restaurants not have any recycling at all? That is the question of the day!

Thank you campaigns

Many social change groups have realized the importance of thank you campaigns, sending mass thank-you emails to city offices that have started a new program (like when DC greatly expanded its curbside recycling program this year) or a politician who voted for a new policy (e.g., Tommy Wells' support of the 5 cent tax on plastic bags). One morning, I read in the Post about the amazing mental health programs for youths in the DC prison system, so I decided to thank them by email for doing this. I received a real letter in the regular mail, thanking me for my support especially because the press and others are rarely sympathetic to the help they strive to provide troubled youth in DC. The fact that I received a real letter signaled to me that more thank yous are needed! Next time you hear about a great new program or policy send an email of support. Of course, always send an email to push, complain, and needle policy makers to expand recycling and other programs!

Cork Collection and Recycling

One can collect (natural) wine corks in an attractive glass jar and then bring them to Hayden's Liquor at Eastern Market (700 N Carolina Ave SE), which are then picked up by the DC Recycler and sent to Yemm and Hart to turn into cork tiles. At the same time, you can see (in the upper left hand corner of the photo) that I don't yet have an attractive way to collect Brita water filters, but Hill's Kitchen (at Eastern Market metro) does collect them for the DC Recycler to send for recycling too.

Clear info on Carbon Offsets

Here is some actually useful info on effective carbon offset companies. I know that offsets aren't recycling, and I had disregarded offsets as a scam. However, now there are standards that allow you to know that the green house gas reduction wouldn’t have happened without your purchase. So, now it is easy to buy offsets when you decide to fly, drive, or even just use electricity. Green America has some actual recommendations:

NativeEnergy’s WindBuilders program sells offsets to finance new wind projects. More than half of offset purchases worldwide support renewable energy projects and displace coal-fired electricity. Many projects lack the capital they need to get built.
3Degrees offers offsets from wind facilities in northeastern China and India.
TerraPass offsets support methane capture at landfills from Maine to South Dakota.
CarbonNeutral Company offers offsets from a project that provides seed funding to a pilot solar lighting scheme for midwives in rural India. Their partner is the amazing Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India.

Both the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) and Green-e Climate program require their member retailers to ensure that any reduction in greenhouse gases sold as a carbon offset is "real, verified, permanent, additional, and unique." Basically, you want to know that the reduction wouldn’t have happened without your purchase.

Return your old Patagonia clothes to Patagonia stores

Yes, Patagonia will recycle most old Patagonia clothes into new ones (see details at the website). The DC store in Georgetown will take these items or you can mail them to Patagonia.

Hill composting experiment put on hold

Due to a confluence of circumstances, we are putting the Hill composting experiment on hold for the time being. The general view is that bioplastics require a commercial composter. However, I'd like to hear if anyone has successfully composted their bioplastics.

There is a commercial composter in the District!

Remember that bioplastics (like corn cups, corn utensils, etc.) can't be put in your recycling bin or composted at home. EnviRelation is a commercial composter, which collects food waste AND bioplastics. They, however, just collect from businesses, so let your favorite restaurants know about EnviRelation. The bioplastics must come from 100% plant products, which is easy to check by looking for the US Composting Council or Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) logo. Some plastic bags are not made of 100% plant products, so composting them would lead to lots of plastic bits in your compost. BPI has a great website listing Certified Compostable Products (bags, utensils, etc.) by brand name. EnviRelation also composts: paper hot and cold beverage cups, single service disposable containers, straws, stir sticks, dessert bags, portions cups, and sugar and sugar substitute packages. Let your favorite restaurants and cafes know!

Common Good City Farm will be the first "Commons Compost" in DC

Here's the news from Common Good City Farm:

"We are pleased to say we will finally be happy to take your veggie scraps starting in the 2010 season...next spring, Common Good City Farm will begin the first 'Commons Compost' in Washington, DC. You will be able to bring your food waste to the Farm. We will decompose it for you and turn it into usable soil for us to use on the Farm. ...Excited about this? Consider supporting this new venture by donating today. Your donation will allow us to build larger compost bins when necessary and create educational signage to accompany them."

Update on Composting in DC

Exciting new development in the DC area.
1) Composting of leaves
College Park, Prince George's County, and even DC composts leaves, though it is uncertain how many leaves are actually composted in DC.
2) Composting of food waste and maybe bioplastics
* DC Central Kitchen sends some kitchen scraps to a farm in MD.
* National Geographic DC HQ cafeteria.
* House office buildings
* Georgetown University?
* George Mason University?

Cities that already have food composting:
Cambridge and Somerville, MA
Denver
Duluth, MN
Modesto, CA
Halifax, NS
Oakland, CA
San Francisco
Seattle
Toronto

Maybe we should follow the lead of Cindy Olson of Eco-Coach, who has been urging citizens to call the DC Council and Mayor’s office demanding a better municipal composting program.

More magazines are using recycled or FSC-certified paper

American Prospect, Yoga Journal, the Buddhist magazine Tricycle, Mother Jones, Natural Home, Veg News, Mothering, and other magazines are now using recycled and/or FSC-certified papers thanks to help from Green America's Better Paper Program. They are expanding the market for municipal recycled paper. The Better Paper Program is saying to vote with your dollars (and has a very useful link to Amazon's recycled paper magazines), but I'm not so certain that I would choose my magazines based on their paper content. However, maybe it would be better to contact the magazines that we buy, tell them that we really value the use of recycled paper, and let them know about the Better Paper magazine program.