Welcome to Clean Calgary's E-Newsletter. You are receiving this because you indicated interest in receiving up to date environmental information and tips concerning Calgary and urban environmental issues.
In this issue:
Waste at Work Workshop
Where: Clean Calgary Association - 809-4th Ave SW
When: March 20th, 7pm - 8pm.
The cost is $5 and we have a max. capacity of twelve.
Please call to reserve a seat:
Lindsay Luhnau
Phone: (403) 230 1443 ext. 228
lindsay@cleancalgary.org
Ask Ashley - Is the use of garburators environmentally friendly?
Q:
Hello,
Is the use of garburators environmentally friendly?
Cathy
A:
Hello Cathy,
Many people swear by the use of garburators, otherwise known as garbage disposal systems, to deal with their kitchen waste. Garburators, however, are not environmentally friendly. Garburators require considerable amounts of water to operate properly and they can overload the sewer lines and treatment plants with solids, leading to increased chemical usage for treatment, while putting strain on the treatment facilities themselves. This has a negative impact on the aquatic environment, while the increased energy used to deal with additional waste is detrimental to our air quality and adds to our climate change problems. Also, once the kitchen debris you loaded into your garburator is screened out at the treatment facility it gets trucked to the landfill anyway.
The environmentally friendly choice would be to compost your household’s organic waste, which includes your kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, dryer lint and yard waste. Composting is easy and you can get started without much effort. Clean Calgary Association sells compost bins at our EcoStore (809 4th Ave SW) for $25 and offers composting workshops to get people started. Our website www.cleancalgary.org provides further information on composting.
Have a great day,
Ashley
Ashley Lubik, BSC in Environmental Science, is a Calgary Materials Exchange Program Assistant at Clean Calgary Association.
Please send your question concerning Water, Waste, or Recycling to Ashley Lubyk
Participant of the Calgary Materials Exchange becomes first grocery in Calgary to go Trans Fat Free
Community Natural Foods has been a participant with the Calgary Materials Exchange (CMEX) since June of 2005. Since then they have set up a number of programs to divert waste from Calgary’s landfills. Currently the have private collection for all recyclables including tin cans and cardboard. In addition, Community Naturals Foods also has their organic waste picked up and composted. In 2006, Community’s two stores mitigated 23, 000 Kg of CO2 through their recycling and composting initiatives with CMEX
Community Natural Foods is continuing their great work by becoming the first and only grocer in Calgary to get serious about trans fats. They have removed products with an industrially produced trans fat content of 0.2 grams or more per serving from their shelves. Health Canada considers products with less than 0.2 grams per serving as trans fat free.
Scientific evidence has shown dietary trans fats can increase the risk of developing heart disease. That’s because these fats increase levels of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) or “bad” cholesterol, significantly raising the likelihood of heart disease. Trans fats are found in many processed foods on the market. The biggest offenders include margarine, packaged foods, baked goods, canned and instant soups, dips and toppings, cookies and crackers, frozen foods and fast food.
Michael Collens, general manager for the natural foods market says “we’ve been planning this for a while because we feel it’s important to eliminate products from our shelves containing any unsafe ingredients.”
Canadians remain among the biggest consumers of trans fats in the world. Although there are now labelling regulations calling for food products to list the amount of trans fat in the nutrition facts, these labels can be difficult for the average consumer to understand. Since trans fats are synonymous with partially hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated oil and shortening, the job of uncovering product contents can be complicated.
Tip of the Month
Take at least one cloth bag with you every time you go shopping
· Canadians take home over 55 million plastic bags every WEEK.
· Though plastic bags are a better alternative to using paper bags, using neither a plastic nor paper bag is the best option.
· If each person in Canada used just one reusable bag per week, we can save 171 million bags a year.
· Plastic bags, when littered, can get stuck in sewer and drains causing water back ups or floods. Plastic bags are banned in Bangladesh for this reason.
Source: Raven Recycling Society and Clean Calgary Association
Starve a Landfill. Feed your future!
Our landfills are packed with “good stuff” and we are running out of space to put “real garbage” into them (the portion of garbage that cannot be recycled). An astonishing 42% of residential garbage sent to our landfills can be turned into the best nutrient for your soil: your organics and yard wastes – but you can change this and we can help!
Clean Calgary Association is searching for Dalhousie Households to join the Waste Wise Community Outreach Program. Households who join will be provided with free composting supplies and hands-on training from Master Composters. Our goal is to help residents reduce their waste to landfill by a minimum of 30% during 2007.
The Waste Wise Community Outreach Program counts on support from Alberta Ecotrust, City of Calgary Waste and Recycling, Grassroots NW, and Shell Environmental Fund.
Do your part with our help: compost!
If you do not live in Dalhousie but want to learn about composting, reserve your seat to attend a Backyard Composting Workshop:
- Dalhousie Community Hall, March 31st, 9:15am – 10:45am. Price: $7.00
- Edgemont Community Hall, April 21st, 9 am-10:30 am. Price: $7.00
Space is limited; reserve your seat calling 230.1443 ext. 222.
For more information or to join Waste Wise Program, contact Karen at 998.8846 or email karen@cleancalgary.org
Arusha Action Film Series presents Troubled Waters
In CELEBRATION OF WORLD WATER DAY, the Arusha Action Film Series presents TROUBLED WATERS , 60 minutes of new documentary material on WATER followed by a panel discussion and Q+A, on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 @ 7:00PM, at the Plaza Theatre - 1133 Kensington Rd NW, Calgary. Suggested $10 donation, 100% Calgary Dollars accepted. The panel discussion will be featuring Leslie Walker, KAIROS; Mel Teghtmeyer, Council of Canadians; and Danielle Droitsch, Bow Riverkeepers.
For more information contact:
Brennan Wauters, CITIZENShift/NFB (citizen.nfb.ca), 403.978.8978 or b.wauters@nfb.ca
Gerald Wheatley, Arusha Action Film Series (films.arusha.org), 403.270.3200 or gerald@calgarydollars.ca
Gael Blackhall, Kairos Calgary (www.kairoscanada.org), gblackhall@shaw.ca
Shiny Shoes
Most traditional shoes polishes are toxic. Many commercial polishes contain trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, or nitrobenzene, all of which are suspected human carcinogens that can easily be absorbed through the skin.
There are several safe, non-toxic alternatives to traditional shoe polish. To make your leather shoes shine again, all you will need is some white, lint-free cloths, some water, and a bit of olive, walnut or vegetable oil. First, remove dust and dirt from the outside of the shoes with a slightly damp cloth, then gently buff the surface dry. Pour some oil onto a dry cloth and rub over the leather until the oil has been absorbed into the leather and the shoes are shiny.
Alternately, rubbing shoes with the inside of a banana peel will also make them shine, since banana peels are rich in potassium, one of the key ingredients of commercial shoe polish.
To keep shoes looking their best, polish them once a month. Brushing the dirt off when you are through wearing them for the day can reduce build-up and reduce the need to polish them so frequently.
Shoe polish can be extremely harmful to the environment. If you have old shoe polish around the house, make sure you don’t dispose of it by washing it down the drain. Instead, bring it to your local hazardous waste collection site. For a listing of year-round household chemical drop-off locations visit www.calgary.ca.
Reprinted in part from “Go Local," the Winter 2007 YES! Magazine, PO Box 10818, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110. Subscriptions: 800/937-4451 Web: www.yesmagazine.org
top of page
|
