Sustainable Cherry Hill: Smith Saves NJ Recycling from Dump

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Smith Saves NJ Recycling from Dump

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

Go directly to Frank Brill's EnviroPolitics blog and read the (Hollywood-esque) story about NJ Senator Bob Smith, who managed to save the Garden State's recycling program from being trashed!

You'll need your thinking cap for this one but I promise you a happy ending!

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Cherry Hill 2020: Shaping a Sustainable Future Update

What do you get when you put 90 diverse community members in a room for 16 hours over three days with highly trained professional facilitators?

We did it! We built a shared vision for Cherry Hill and kick started a concert of efforts that will shape our future and formed energized task forces dedicated to accomplishing the sustainability goals set forth at the conference.

The conference was held at the beautiful Unitarian Church in Cherry Hill and started with a delicious sustainable dinner from Joe Palombo's Mirabella Cafe on Thursday, July 16 and concluded on Saturday, July 18th.

Participants included representatives from local government, education, faith groups, businesses, community groups, residents of all ages and more.

Don't worry if you weren't at the conference, because we have plenty of opportunities for you to participate in the eleven action groups that resulted from the process.

Join one of our Task Forces!

1. Green Building
2. Educating for Sustainability
3. Community Composting/Zero Waste
4. Green Business
5. Way to Go: Alternative Transportation
6. Faith and Sustainability
7. Renewable Energy
8. Local Food/Gardening
9. Land, Air & Water Conservation
10. Urban/Regional Partnerships for Environmental Justice

Contact Executive Director, Lori Braunstein at
lori.braunstein@sustainablecherryhill.org or 609.238.3449

or join us at Green Drinks, a monthly informal networking event for those of us thinking and talking about sustainability held the first Wednesday of each month at PJ Whelihans in Cherry Hill from 6-8pm. The next one is October 7th! We'll have sign up sheets and information about each task forces ready for you.

Our Sponsors include:

Joe Palombo's Mirabella Cafe
PREIT/Cherry Hill Mall

Avalon Carpet, Tile and Flooring
Cipriani Builders
Delaware River Port Authority
PIA Services
Spiezle Architectural Group

Forbo

Del Duke Insurance Agency
Elite Landscaping
Kohls
TD Bank

Del Vel Chem
First Green Financial
Go Green with Jo Green
Grosolar
Keller Williams Realty
Lazgor Development
Pinnacle Financial Advisors
Plant a Tree USA
Samson Family Foundation
Suburban Organics
Sustainable Cherry Hill Club at East
Tech Terra Organics

Office Supplies donated by Office Depot. Check out their new Green product line!

Delicious Food was donated by:

Mirabella Cafe, Tortilla Press, Norma's Middle Eastern Restaurant, Manhattan Bagel, Springdale Farms, Whole Foods, Wegmans, PJ Whelihans, Great Harvest Bread Company, Kibitz Room, Plaza 70 Bagels, Acme Markets, Pepsi, Canada Dry and more.

For more information, contact Lori Braunstein

Lori.Braunstein@sustainablecherryhill.org

Ten Simple Things You Can Do TODAY!

1. Change your old incandescent bulbs to energy efficient CFL bulbs. These bulbs are cleaner to manufacture and reduce your energy use by 75%. CFL bulbs are now available in a variety of types, from soft light to those you can use with dimmers. Due to the small amount of mercury contained in these bulbs, please dispose properly. CH DPW offers safe disposal six days a week.

2. Stop using plastic bags. These bags are not biodegradable, are made from petroleum and often end up polluting our land and oceans. Invest in some good quality reusable bags. Most grocery stores offer discounts for using these bags. Carry a small one in your car or purse for trips to CVS or Target.

3. Stop using plastic water bottles. As with plastic bags, these bottles are not biodegradable and are made from petroleum. Valuable resources are used to manufacture, transport and even to recycle them. Did you know that health guidelines for tap water are more stringent than those for bottled water? Invest in a BPH free reusable plastic or a metal water bottle and kick the bottled water habit. You'll save some cash in the process!

4. Turn the key and be IDLE FREE! If you are going to be stopped in your car for more than 30 seconds, turn it OFF! Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to warm up your engine and turning your car off and back on does not use more gas than keeping it on. You will cut down on dangerous pollution, decrease carbon emissions and save some money at the pump.

5. Install a programmable thermostat. Save money and natural resources by setting it to a lower temperature while you are away during the day and at bedtime. Before assuming you will be cold, test it out! Put on a sweater, reduce the heat for a week and see how you feel.

6. Pack a waste free lunch. Reuse containers and reduce trash. Did you know that the average kid's lunch generates almost 70 lbs. of waste per year? Buy in bulk, not in single serving packs, buy juice in large bottles and don't buy plastic sandwich bags, paper napkins and paper lunch bags. Put food in reusable contatainers, pack cloth napkins and put the whole lunch in a long lasting reusable bag.

7. Eat one less meat meal per week. Did you know that the meat industry produces a huge amount of greenhouse gases, both methane from the cows digestive system and CO2 from the energy required to grow and transport their feed? Eating lower on the food chain can decrease your carbon footprint dramatically.

8. Bring your own cup to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. You'll save paper, reduce chlorine used to bleach cups and decrease your contribution to landfills. Many coffee shops will give you a discount for bringing your own cup!

9. Use paper products made from recycled paper. If every household replaced just one roll of virgin paper towels with 100% recycled paper towels, we could save 1/4 million trees, 4 million cubic feet of landfill space, 500 million gallons of water and prevent 90,000 lbs of pollution? You can find recycled paper towels, napkins and toilet paper at your neighborhood grocery stores. Better yet, do without paper towels and use dish towels instead!

10. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! This one covers it all. Buy less and think about what you are going to do with it when you are done using it. Recycling is great, but did you know that for every one can of trash or recycling we put out by the curb, that over 70 cans of waste were produced in the manufacturing and transportation process for all the stuff we buy?

Welcome to SCH

"We have not inherited the earth from our ancestors,
we are borrowing it from our children"

Hi everyone from Lori. This native american saying illustrates beautifully the reason why Sustainable Cherry Hill is so important to me. I have come to understand that as Americans, we are using up our natural resources 20% faster than they can be replenished. What that means is that we are using more than our share to support the lifestyles that we have grown so accustomed to living.

Our children look to us, as adults, to care for them and to do everything possible to make sure that their future is at least as bright as our own. They trust us to make smart choices concerning their health, education and financial futures. We need to be making equally good decisions about how we use energy, water and other natural resources. It is irresponsible and irrational of us to ignore the impact we have on the natural world and to deny how much we rely on the environment to meet our daily needs. Without a healthy earth, we cannot function as a society, which includes a sound economy.

Large corporations have begun to realize and act on this reality, but in general, our communities have been slower to understand. The goal of Sustainable Cherry Hill is to help educate and empower our community to view the world through a different set of glasses and to act upon this new understanding of the world. We are all in this together and the one resource that Cherry Hill possesses is PEOPLE! Lots of folks making small changes will result in large scale transformation.

As Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has".

Stay tuned for lots of great information about how we are creating and organizing SCH into a non-profit group. It's been a lot of work, but truly satisfying as I've gotten lots of support from the folks at Town Hall, the business, religious and school communities and of course, the residents of Cherry Hill.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Smith Saves NJ Recycling from Dump

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Cherry Hill 2020: Shaping a Sustainable Future Update

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