Welcome

A Few Great Events coming up in October - Join us!
Oct. 2: First Friday tabling - look for us out front of the now-opening Friendly Spot icehouse (former location of King Willie's on South Alamo)

Oct 10th: CPS Livegreenfest - sharing a booth with the fabulous Cove Restaurant - NOTE: this event is postponed due to rain - we'll keep you posted on new dates.

A Few Quick Tips for Promoting Recycling in San Anto:
Each day, you, me and everyone we meet can take a simple, everyday step to make our city a better place. We can all reduce, reuse, and recycle to keep our bills down and keep useful material out of landfills.

If you already have curbside recycling at your house: you can make the most of it by recycling not only the usual glass bottles and jars, but also paper of almost all types, plastics (labled #1 - #7) and metal. For questions: call "311."

If you live in an apartment or are a business owner and don't yet have recycling, you can help us secure recycling options by signing and circulating this petition. If you're a tenant, you can also ask your property manager what plans are underway to set up recycling.

Meanwhile, on this blog you'll find a raft of resources to help, brought to you by the Alamo Group of the Sierra Club.

We hope to hear from you: You can post your stories and suggestions here!

City of Austin mulls over more recycling, but cost in these lean times, an issue

We hear from an article by Sarah Coppola in the Austin American Statesman that the City of Austin is considering a requirement that more offices, businesses and smaller apartment complexes recycle—but some have raised concerns about the practicality and cost.

Right now, Austin requires apartments and complexes with 100 or more units and businesses with 100 or more employees to make recycling containers available onsite and pay private haulers to pick them up. The city program covers single-family homes, some small businesses, duplexes, and fourplexes. But, the article reports, according to Rick Cofer, head of a City Council-appointed committee on the issue “The city must broaden its 11-year-old rules if it wants to meet its recently adopted "zero waste" goal of diverting 90 percent of trash from landfills by 2040.”

Austin, like other cities in the region is struggling to do the right thing in a tough economy and weak commodities market. Today’s return on useful trash is just not what it once was. But also, the city shells out substantial funds to have recycling hauled to…you guessed it…San Antonio!

Upshot…SA-town has a local plant but no recycling ordinance for apartments or businesses yet on the books. If we want to achieve serious waste reduction, what about skipping the partial-solution and building the capacity for city-wide participation? Your thoughts?

Prom Dresses to Wingtips

Beyond the usual papers, bottles and cans, a host of organizations and individuals are joining forces to keep the useful stuff of our lives in circulation and out of landfills.

Have a stroller that’s taking up space in your closet? Freecycle is a grassroots group with 7+ million members around the world that promotes the free exchange of still-useful stuff in local towns. You can post or ask for an item at a group near you at http://www.freecycle.org/.

If you find yourself with a “new or nearly new” gown, purse, jewlery or wrap, you can donate the duds that allow a high school student at Northeast ISD to attend her prom, recital or scholarship ceremony at Formally Yours Project, a nonprofit put together by the Lee High School Campus PTA.

Dell and Goodwill Industries set up the Reconnect Project to “accept any brand of used computer equipment in any condition” Just enter your zip code to find a drop off location.

And the EPA has published ways to recycle your old cell phone, batteries and charger through a retailer at Plug-In To eCycling.

Karma may be more difficult to recycle, but there’s always offering needed help to a friend.

Truth found in Aqua Veritas

In Italy, where 40 gallons of bottled water are consumed per person per year, city officials are promoting "Aqua Veritas" (tap water or "the mayor's water") to quench a mighty thirst and stem the tide of plastic bottles, according to the New York Times. In so doing, Venetian officials say, they have "reduc[ed] the amount of plastic trash over all to 261 tons a month now from 288 tons a year ago."

Here in the U.S., which remains, the world's top consumer of bottled water--and where consumption has doubled in the last decade--we might want to take a page the Italian "libro." If we did so, we might keep the estimated 60 million plastic bottles out of landfills and incinerators that wind up there each day. If city water isn't available or to taste, there's always filtering...or taking water to work in a re-usable flask.

When we do use plastic, we need better options in the Alamo City to get it to the recycling bin. You can help by signing or spreading the word about this Sierra Club petition.

If you still drink the bottled variety, I'm like you and I'm gonna commit to change.