San Anto City Council Says Yes to Recycling for Multi-Family Units

The sky was an especially bright shade of blue that afternoon on December 9th, when San Antonio's City Council voted unanimously to approve the multi-family recycling ordinance that ensures that "residents living in multi-family units have convenient access to recycling programs."

Multi-family recycling, the ordinance asserts, is "a key component of the 10-Year Recycling and Resource Recovery Plan approved by City Council in June 2010 [where] multi-family property units represent approximately 30% of all housing units in San Antonio and generate between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of waste annually."

The plan is to roll out recycling on a schedule that calls upon the biggest complexes to jump in first by July 2011 and to have all complexes--from 3 units to 300 units--on track to recycle by April 2012.

Here is a link to the ordinance with all the concomitant “whereases” and “be it ordaineds (suitable for framing!)

So break out the champagne. Uncork the sparkling cider. Then, save up those bottles for a collection COMING SOON to your apartment, condo or townhouse.

Congratulations to ALL who worked hard on making this happen!

City to Vote today on Apartment Recycling

Get a sitter. Pull out the coat a tie. The City of San Antonio is scheduled to vote today to recycling plan for apartment complexes.

Here's a link to the City Council Agenda:

https://webapps1.sanantonio.gov/agendabuilder/printAgenda.aspx

Place: City Council Meeting, Municipal Plaza Building, City Hall Complex, 114 W. Commerce.

If you can't attend, consider contacting your City Council member today:

http://www.sanantonio.gov/council/

Here is a briefing document, presented by Solid Waste Management

An excerpt:

"Ensuring that San Antonio residents living in multi-family units have convenient access to recycling programs is a key component of the 10-Year Recycling and Resource Recovery Plan approved by City Council in June 2010. Multi-family property units represent approximately 30% of all housing units in San Antonio and generate between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of waste annually. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's estimates, over 50% of household waste is paper, plastic, metals, and glass. These items are generally accepted in a single-stream recycling program."

Here's an article by the San Antonio Express News

Why Moore is not More and Talk on Zero Waste Tomorrow Night

The people who made The Story of Stuff have now produced The Story of Electronics. In it, they note that Moore's law (that digital technology will improve at dramatic if not exponential rates) need not mean More stuff (that electronics must be designed for the lifespan of a fruit fly).

Want to learn more about how to reduce e-waste and take steps on the path toward zero waste? There's a gathering tomorrow night that might be just for you: Why Zero Waste and How to Get There!, convened by the Alamo Sierra Club

Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:30 PM
Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, San Antonio TX 78209
210-357-1900

More details:
Join the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club at its monthly general meeting to hear Robin Schneider, Executive Director of Texas Campaign for the Environment and member of Central Texas Zero Waste Alliance, talk about countries, states and cities that are setting goals to significantly reduce waste and create recycling for the 21st century. She will also discuss how the Alamo Area can join with other Central Texas communities to create jobs through sustainable production and consumption.

At the Witte Museum, 3801 Broadway, at 6:30 pm, socializing starts at 6.

Need to catch up on the coverage?

Spread the word. A vote on apartment recycling for the City of San Antonio could reach City Council as early as this winter.

Here's a quick roundup of recent news:

The City of San Antonio is preparing to require apartment complexes to start recycling programs. Story by Texas Public Radio

Vote postponed but still planned for December - Story by San Antonio Express News

Work on ordinance underway - Story by San Antonio Express News

Less is More: Pathway to Zero Waste Gains Ground

If you tune in to Texas Public Radio, you’ve likely heard the host of new broadcasts of late on sustainability in the city and the region.

This includes TPR's Living Green programming and podcasts, along with a set of new recycling resources.

An important link is to AACOG’s resource recovery page, where you can find out where to drop off no-longer-needed computers, televisions and other e-waste.

The timing is right, as the city moves forward on a pathway to zero waste initiative.

As it stands, an area study shows that despite the growth of Bexar County, only 18 percent of waste is being diverted to recycling programs. And a big portion of this is comprised of organic materials (“green waste”) that could be enriching our soils instead of languishing in our landfills.

Another big cache of waste comes from the cans, bottles and newspapers that wind up being trashed, merely for the lack of adequate apartment recycling options.

We can do something about this – and are likely to have the chance when a new proposal for apartment recycling is proposed this fall.

Keep an eye out for the proposal to City Council. It’s a chance for us, in an everyday way, to make our city a healthier, more sustainable place.

Earth Day Pledge/Hawaii

This just in.

The Sierra Club is calling for Earth Day Pledges and with your pledge you'll be entered into a drawing for a trip for two to Hawaii. Taking reusable bags to the supermarket instead of using paper/plastic is one of several pledges you can make. To find out more, make a pledge, or compare progress in TX to other states...

Home Wreckers and Water Savers

Habitat creates Home Wrecker Crew.

With leadership from Chris Martin at its Walzem Road Home Center, Habitat Humanity of San Antonio recently kicked off a new deconstruction program aimed at helping to salvage usable fixtures from houses slotted for renovation.

The project gives good, re-usable materials a second life; sparing them from the project dumpster and landfill and has the added benefit of reducing hauling costs for contractors and providing an itemized (tax deductable) donation receipt to owners.

To learn more or to volunteer, visit Wrecking Crew online or contact Chris Martin at 210.599.7109.

If you’re in the market for materials for your apartment, home or garden, it may be worth a visit to one of Habitat's Home Centers.

Home Centers sell new and used home improvement materials and proceeds fund Habitat for Humanity S.A. All this, and they’re helping to keep windows, tile, doors, cabinets, and light fixtures in use and out of local landfills.

Speaking of saving precious resources…
There are still a few days left (‘til April 1) to take part in SAWS Fix a Leak Program. While you’re at it, you’ll be earning a $5 credit for yourself and a $5 contribution to Texas Public Radio. To check out the water audit…

Like this blog?
(1) Follow it by selecting the link at the top right of this page.
(2) Share it with a friend
(3) Add your thoughts – ideas and suggestions are always welcome

Getting Real about Plastic

Paper v. Plastic? Tote bags win (again).
If you’ve been looking for more information on the paper v. plastic question, this occasional feature by the Washington Post may lend you a hand. The piece offers a quick, visual comparison of consumption, production, pollution of each material and considers how readily each biodegrades and can be recycled. The feature notes that while four in ten of us think that plastics will biodegrade over time, petroleum-based plastic resists degredation. Its strength, in other words, is its greatest weakness. For more information, visit the Washington Post online.

Decoding the Codes
What are those codes on the bottom of plastic containers? It turns out that they refer to the resin content of bottles and containers. For more on this, visit this chart from the American Chemistry Council.

Plastic clogging Our City’s Waterways – and Something You Can Do Did you know that plastic bags are the number one item pulled out of San Anto waterways during the Basura Bash cleanup? You can help reduce plastic waste by joining Basura Bash 2010 on Saturday, March 27th.

What is Basura Bash? Basura Bash is the biggest single-day waterway clean-up in Texas and, according to the organizers, the only event that collects recyclable waste products. Volunteers are needed to collect trash and recyclables from the banks of our local waterways, including the river at Brackenridge Park, Salado Creek at Martin Luther King Park, San Antonio River Mission Reach at Mission County Park, and a host of other locations. To get invovled...

For videos on the impact of plastic on oceans and marine life, see below. Note that the Marine Society (second video) doesn't stop at cleanups and surveys; it takes data on plastic trash back to product manufacturers to call on them to come up with solutions.

Jared Diamond: A Case for Change

In his talk to a full house at Trinity University earlier this month, Jared Diamond opened with an anecdote about his first visit to Texas. Then part of a Harvard-led debate team, he and his partner were evidently bested by the Texas team, led by none other than Barbara Jordan.

Dr. Diamond went on to share with us a message of concern and hope. Informed by the study of advanced societies through history that have collapsed, he posits, for failing to see and solve key environmental problems, he warns of the risk of modern-day “ecocide.”

Diamond takes hope, however, in groups across the globe that have learned by example to collectively take up the challenges that face them, and adopt bold solutions. Such solutions aren’t engendered by politicians that pit environment against economy, but rather in recognizing the wisdom that sound environmental policy is sound economic policy.

Taking a page from Dr. Diamond’s book, if we invest in good solutions today for managing waste; securing clean energy; and protecting forests, wetlands, and other habitats, we too have a much better shot at a healthy future.

It’s a point worth raising the next time someone asks why we’d want to cut down on the waste of one-shot materials that go from grocery store shelf to landfill; why we’d want to reduce over-use or build, produce, travel and live in ways that don’t eviscerate the living world around us.

Together, Diamond suggests, we can make smarter choices; and together, we can make a difference.

Next up at Trinity: New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist Thomas Friedman, author of Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America. The lecture will take place at Trinity University at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Feb. 16, 2010, in Laurie Auditorium. Like so many good things, it is free and open to the public.

Bag it

A few weeks ago I went to a conference at which, instead of the standard bag-swag, they gave us a thin set of just-the-essential materials in one of those grass green HEB bags, donated by HEB. No, the bag wasn't as swank as some but it brought home the point: we can all find little and not so small ways to move away from overuse.

Take bags, for instance. While bans on plastic bags are gaining momentum worldwide, there's debate about whether that just leads to more use of paper. It's possible to limit or eliminate both--by going TOTE. The humble tote is strong, has handles, can be re-used, and is good for everything from books to fruit. It is said (though not confirmed) that a well-made tote can replace 1000 plastic bags. That doesn't mean we oughta go tote-buying-crazy. As Pablo Paster points out, the production of bags of all types of material (canvas, cotton, polyester, polypropyline) does have its impact. But within reason, the reusable bag beats disposables, handles down.

Don't want to buy totes new? Need a project for kids or the kid in you? Kismit and Morsbags show you how to make your own tote from materials you already own.

And here's a video to share by Good Magazine.

A Weed is a Plant

A movement is afoot that deserves our attention: the quest for Zero Waste. The zero waste case brings to mind the quote by Emerson that a weed is just “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” That connection may not be coincidental, as zero waste takes its cues from the natural world. In nature, it’s pointed out, cycles “function without producing waste.”

Here are a few examples of companies and cities striving to reduce waste or to go waste-free. According to Eco-Cycle, Fetzer Vineyards reuses and recycles paper, cardboard, glass, and other materials, and composts thousands of tons of grape pomace a year. The winemaker has reduced waste to landfills by 96 percent since 1990 and is pursuing a zero waste-goal. Hewlett-Packard is recycling metal, cardboard and plastic, diverting over 90 percent of solid waste and reportedly saving a million a year. Seattle adopted a zero waste strategy for the city in 2007. Austin approved a zero waste plan this past year. Also in 2009, Dallas County Commissioners Court passed a resolution for producer takeback recycling for electronic waste.

Artists are also playing a part. The late San Antonio artist, Rhonda Kuhlman, gave new life to castoff bottle caps and candy wrappers, converting them into sculpture and jewelery. You can visit her work--and tributes to Rhonda--online at Rock Paper Scissors Collective--a collective that she started with fabric artist Jane Bishop.

Where waste is recognized as a resource, rather than a useless byproduct, all sorts of creative new ways to convert so-called garbage into gold emerge. And the concept urges us upstream—to look for processes that eliminate waste altogether.

San Antonio just started a committee on zero waste – to find out more, contact your City Council member or the City Solid Waste Department.

relief fund

My heart and thoughts are with the people of Haiti and all those who have lost loved ones there. If you are also moved to help with the rescue and recovery, NPR has put together a set of how-to-help resource links; and the San Antonio chapter of the American Red Cross is calling on all of us to donate to the relief fund. One immediate way to help, set up by the U.S. State Department and the Red Cross, is to text “Haiti” to 90999 to send a $10 donation. Feel free to use this space if you have other resources you'd like to share.