Fresh AIRE

Troubled Water - True Costs of Bottled Water

The Green Guide recently had an excellent article all about the problems and environmental impact of bottled water. The article also included good sources for safe reusable water bottles. Some snippets from the article:

• In bottle production alone, the more than 70 million bottles of water consumed each day in the U.S. drain 1.5 million barrels of oil over the course of one year.
• A 1999 Natural Resources Defense Council study found that, with required quarterly testing, tap water may even be of a higher quality than bottled, which is only tested annually.

Read the full article -- it's interesting! Also see the related blog post on this topic, "Water, Water Everywhere..."

Water, water everywhere...

The evils of bottled water have been in the news of late. In June, the Arlington County Board pledged to drink tap water and the San Francisco Mayor banned bottle water from city government offices.

At home and at work, I use a 1-liter bottle that I refill over and over (and yes, occasionally wash). I carry a smaller refillable bottle when I travel, which helps avoid the exorbitant $3/bottle prices -- the going rate in Las Vegas, for example (eek!).

And to support AIRE, we all need to be reducing, reusing and recycling.

All of this is a perfect lead-up to my main point, which is that we are selling awesome water bottles in the Arlington County Store. Here's a photo I snapped moments ago. They are available in fun, hot colors and are just about the best-selling item in the store. At $5.99, they are a bargain -- I'm tellin' ya, Starbuck's is selling the same bottle for $10-12. Come by the store and take a look -- it's located on the ground floor of Courthouse Plaza, our government center, 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Across the plaza from the movie theatres and right on top of the Courthouse Metro station. Hours are 8-5, Monday-Friday. Come on by!

Stay hydrated!

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Diana Sun is Director of Communications for Arlington County, a walking commuter, a brand-spanking-new biker, and a happy resident of the urban village of Clarendon.   

Saving the Environment at the Hospital -- and More

Two things I want to share in this posting -- a little story about my recent hospital visit and some cool events coming up:

Saving the Enviroment at the Hospital
Yesterday, I was at Virginia Hospital Center for a routine check-up. Before the exam, I had to remove my clothes and put them in a large plastic bag the hospital provided. As I was waiting along with several other people, I noticed the trashcan was full of these (used) plastic bags. It occurred to me -- what a waste! It didn't seem the bags were made from recycled materials ... the bags themselves weren't being recycled ... and the hospital was clearly using many, many bags each day.

As I sat there thinking through all this plastic bag stuff, an extremely pleasant manager came by and asked me if I'd like some coffee. (Sidenote: I've had great customer service experiences at the hospital and think it's a fantastic facility.) I declined the coffee but decided I'd take the opportunity to pitch my cause about the bags. I asked if the hospital could explore other options ... Could the hospital recycle the plastic bags they currently use? Could they switch to plastic bags made from recycled materials? Or could they switch to bags made from recycled paper? Are there more environmentally friendly options or processes? The manager I'd cornered was interested (and said she'd heard other concerns in the past) -- she also promised to pass along my feedback to the higher ups. The morale of the story: Take every opportunity to look around you and think about how the situation could be different -- how things could be improved or changed to result in a positive impact on our environment.

P.S. If you have kids, you might want to check out "The Magic School Bus" Holiday Special DVD that's all about how recycling helps save the Earth. We checked it out from the Arlington Public Library I watched it last night with my 4-year-old, Carter, and though she didn't "get" it all, she understood enough and loved it!

Good Events Coming Up
May 19: Solar Open House
May 17: A Sense of Wonder — A One-Woman Play about Rachel Carson (supposed to be awesome!)
May 23: Green Kitchens and Bathrooms (good one of you're thinking about remodeling)

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Jennifer K. Smith, 17-year resident of Arlington,
Arlington County communications mgr. (& AIRE blog manager)

6th Grade Environmentalists Take Action

My sixth grade students had a wonderful experience with environmental civic action this year. As part of the national Earth Force program, 10 students sponsored an Electronics Recycling Event for their home community of HB Woodlawn on March 24. Their motto was "We'll bring it to you," meaning they went to over 70 HB Woodlawn households with their parents, student and teacher volunteers, to pick up old, unwanted electronics. It was a huge success!

Staples vice president Pat Girard, who sponsors Earth Force in our area, was so impressed, he not only gave the students the award at the Earth Force Youth Conference, but also is going to initiate an electronics recycling day at the local Staples stores in the Metro area and has asked these students to help him run it some time this Spring.

The impetus for this project was protecting our local HB Watershed because in the fall, while on a trip to a local stream, students found a variety of electronic equipment, such as hard drives and cell phones, directly in the stream water. Discovering that Arlington did not have curb side pick up for electronics recycling, they sponsored their own event.

The breakdown -- 433 items collected

• 263 computer components (monitors were the most recycled item)
• 113 TV, video, and audio items
• 15 cell phones
• 32 communication devices (telephones, fax machines, and an answering machine)
• 35 miscellaneous household appliances (Easy Bake oven, a vacuum cleaner, and a curling iron, rechargeable batteries)

The students also sent out a survey to a randomly chosen number of HB Woodlawn households to find out how interested they would be in curb-side recycling of electronic equipment. It turns out that 85% of the respondents favored having quarterly curb side electronic pick ups at their homes.

The sixth graders also presented their project, before and after, to the County Board (see photo) - and received great support. Paul Ferguson championed out effort and we thank him tremendously. The entire County Board praised the students' effort and County government staff also helped ensure the project's success, offering tips and support in collecting the items.

Sixth Grade Electronics Recycling Group
Ibby Han, Grace Evans, Elliot Grace, Zack Shoultz, Julia Voight, Myranda Miller, Millie Smith, Catie Mitchell, Anna Toth, Jonathon Wabeke

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Kathy Molina, Katherine_Molina@apsva.us
6th Grade Science Teacher
HB Woodlawn School (Arlington)

Banning Bags and Duping the Kids

Episode 3 (or 4?) -- The Smiths Take on Global Warming: This past Friday night, I got a phone call from my friend, Vicki Cornish, a 15-year resident who lives in the Donaldson Run area. We hadn't talked in a long time, and I figured Vicki was simply calling to chit-chat. Well, for sure we did some of that, but then the truth came out! Vicki had been reading all about the Fresh AIRE campaign in the last Citizen newsletter. And she had discovered this AIRE blog -- and that I was connected to it. Then I learned Vicki was on a mission. She wants plastic bags banned from Arlington. She sent me some background about how San Francisco recently banned petroleum-based plastic checkout bags in large markets and pharmacies. The mandate calls for the use of biodegradable plastic bags or recyclable paper bags. Certainly seems like it could be a good idea. Anyway, after we talked, I pulled open our kitchen drawer where we keep a bunch of junk. Man. It was packed full 'o plastic bags -- mostly grocery bags. I admit, I haven't been bringing them back to Safeway for recycling. Not until now, that is. Recycling plastic bags is the least we can all do, isn't it?

One more recycling thought for any parents out there. I have two young girls who go to preschool. While I appreciate all the wonderful "art" they produce...it SERIOUSLY accumulates. I decided I'd recycle some of the "art" with our other paper products we put out each week. I had to approach this very carefully. Tip 1: Choose your purge time carefully. I waited until the 4-year-old headed to gymnastics at Barcroft with Daddy-O...and until the 2.5-year-old was napping. Then I quickly when through the pile. (No worries, I did keep several especially wonderful works of art. The picture at right represents the 5% I kept.) As for rest, it's all bagged up -- in a paper bag! -- and ready for Tuesday morning's recycling pick-up -- carefully hidden and out of sight, which leads to my second tip. Tip 2: Don't let the kiddies SEE any of their art in the recycled paper pile/bag. Lordy, that's happened to me a couple times: "Mommy, I found this in the trash...who put it there?" My flustered response? I fibbed. "Honey, I don't know HOW that got there...it must have fallen off the counter somehow!!" OR "Daddy must have accidentally put it in there."

Stay tuned for the next Smith Family adventure...

Jennifer K. Smith, 17-year resident of Arlington
Arlington County communications mgr. (& AIRE blog manager)