Save on energy bills with class.

[From the Jackson Citizen Patriot]

Interested in getting a $100 credit toward your energy bill?

Community Action Agency is offering the credit to eligible candidates who participate in an energy-reduction class.

Classes are offered on several dates throughout October, November and December.

For more information or to register for a class, contact Community Action Agency at 784-4800, ext. 250. Classes will take place at 1214 Greenwood Ave. in Jackson.

Starve the incinerator.

In reference to the article on October 24, 2007 (“Trash Flow at Troubled Incinerator Increases"), why don’t the residents in Jackson County do their best to put the incinerator out of business?

A quote from the article stated “the amount of trash being diverted to the landfill also has increased, but (Steve) Shotwell said that is because trash flow overall has increased.” This is good news?

I find it disheartening that trash flow has increased. When will the residents of Jackson County understand that the trash hauling fees they pay are directly tied to the $91.41 per-ton tipping fee? By reducing the amount of material they put on the curb each week as trash, they can save themselves money, as well as reduce the overall trash flow.

A lot of the material that is put out as trash can be disposed of in many of the areas recycling collection points. This will reduce the trash flow to the incinerator, which in turn could eventually lead to a decreased need for the incinerator itself.

At a recent electronic waste collection event coordinated by Recycling Jackson, over 24,000 pounds (12 tons) of “e-waste” was collected. This was a six hour event, and if that material was disposed of as “trash” and taken to the incinerator, the cost would have been just over $1,000 in tipping fees. By collecting this material during the event, the burning or burying of this material in the McGill Landfill was prevented.

Recycling can be an emotional issue of “saving the environment”, but for those that are looking for ways to reduce expenses at home, simply removing the recyclable material from their trash can save them money. Businesses that remove recyclable material from their trash can realize savings up to 50% on their trash hauling costs.

It is time for Jackson County residents to make it a goal to reduce the dependence on the incinerator, and force the local government to find a different way to generate income from trash; 6,563 tons of trash generated nearly $600,000 in tipping fees in September.

If the county became more proactive on recycling, couldn’t we have generated income from an aggressive recycling program, and reduce that 6,563 tons of trash being burned or buried in September?

I think so.


[by David Milis, written as a letter to the editor to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.]

Easy ways to recycle at work.

Maybe you're a big recycler at home - but what about at work?

Many workplaces have instituted company-wide recycling program (Recycling Jackson's own George Gansos has done a tremendous job at Foote Health Systems), but some are still stuck in the pre-green era. What to do?

Do like I did: make it personal. Here are some quick tips to do your own recycling at your workplace.

Invest in recycling bins
Bins can be as sturdy as the plastic trash-like bins, or a plain old cardboard box - the key is to put them in places where people will use them. I've found next to the copy machine and printer works well, as well as our receptionist desk. If someone makes a mistake, the tendency is to toss the scrap paper in the trash. If you put a recycling reminder in front of them, it will better your chances of collecting the paper.

Paper, not plastic
I figured that gathering my loads in paper grocery bags would work best; that way, I could toss the whole thing in the mixed paper bin at the drop-off sites. So I sent out an all-staff e-mail asking for spare bags, and my co-workers came through in spades. Now I line the recycling bins with the paper bags, snatch them when they're full, and dump the whole load at the drop-off site.

Remind, remind, remind
Catch someone tossing their printed e-mail (can you say, "Grrr!") in the trash? Remind them of the conveniently-placed bins you have stationed next to the printer. Send out e-mail telling staff when you'll be collecting the paper each week. Post flyers (on recycled or already-used paper!) next to the copier or in the breakroom with recycling tips and information on drop-off sites in town. If you have a company newsletter, post a little article in their about your company's new efforts. Do away with disposable plates and cups, and have staff bring in their own from home.

DIY
Sometimes it takes a champion to do the right thing: if your place of employment isn't as passionate about recycling as you are, take the initiative and do everything yourself. It made take you a few extra minutes a week to gather your recycling and drop it off (say, on the way home - or on your lunch break), but your example may inspire others. I was the only recycler in my office, but the idea caught on and now I have a co-recycler who actually drops everything off for me.

Of course you'll always have the employee who dumps their Styrofoam coffee cup into the paper bin when they walk by, or the people who bypass the bin all-together and continue to toss their paper in the trash. It's no biggie. Just remember any little bit you do helps.

I've found that, over time, the amount of paper we're recycling has to make a difference somewhere, somehow. Even if it's a mindfulness trick - keeping recycling in people's brains - it's worth the effort.

Maybe someday I'll institute a system for plastic bottles. But for now, my little recycling program works just fine. And so can yours with just a little bit of effort.

This blog doesn't come from trees.

But paper towels do.



Hence the idea behind the These Come from Trees movement - an effort to save on paper towel usage.

You can buy a set of stickers that goes to help the Sierra Club, and TCFT have found the stickers - which are a kind of culture jam - reduce towel usage by about 15%.

No trees were harmed in the writing of this post.

Number of the day.

24,725

Pounds of wasted collected at this past weekend's e-waste drive.

That's more than 12 tons of electronic waste that didn't get incinerated, buried, or shipped off to some other continent.

Thanks again, Jackson, for helping us out.

Saving, by the numbers.

I started doing things different when I found out it would save me money.

I switched my home over to CFL bulbs when I learned it would save me on my power bill, and I haven’t changed a bulb in the last three years. Looking back, that was my first venture in to a “sustainable” way of life, and it was 100% motivated by saving money at home.

I work with this guy that has practiced sustainability for longer than I have been alive. He got to know me, and he learned I was a “numbers” guy. “Show me the numbers, show me how the numbers are good or bad, and then we can make some decisions.” That’s me. He showed me numbers at work. He showed me bad numbers at work. Time to make some decisions…at work.

I work for this company. This company is big, and sells a lot of stuff. I mean this company is real big, and sells more stuff than any other company. They employ a lot of people (should hit two million before the end of the year). We are controversial, but when you are number one, everyone watches what you do closely. With so many stores and so many people working, yes, mistakes are made. Wait, it’s Wal-Mart. I work for a division of Wal-Mart called Sam’s Club. More importantly, I work for Sam’s in Jackson.

Sam’s in Jackson has a problem – our trash cost lots of money.

Anyway, back to this guy that has practiced sustainability longer than I have been alive. He wasn’t pushing anything, he just brought up some numbers to me. He told me that it is expensive to throw away trash in Jackson, then he showed me the numbers. He even multiplied numbers together to show me the numbers can get real big. But he had an idea.

The idea was great - and the idea was grand: if we put less stuff in our trash compactor, it will cost us less to throw away. The idea was, in fact, incredibly simple. So simple, no one had ever thought of it in our building. The numbers guy said, “how we gonna do it?”

New terms were learned by the numbers guy – tipping fees, incinerator, recycle, reuse, e-waste, and the list goes on and on. At every new term, I am putting numbers to it. If you do the research (the numbers guy did) you will simply see that trash in Jackson County is more expensive than 97% of the nation. That puts us in the top three percentile in the nation (insert comment here of things we may be in the lower 97% percentile). “How we gonna do it?”

The “sustainable longer than I have been alive” guy knows this other guy. If you want to know who the other guy is, come out to Sam’s Club and look at the three containers we have on-site. These two guys REALLY know the numbers when it comes to trash and recycling. Numbers guy has nothing on these two, but numbers guy knows they have the answer to “how we gonna do it?”

It’s called a “partnership.” Sam’s Club partners with a local company that is committed to recycling. That company (wait, Northwest Refuse. Might save you a trip to Sam’s) has allowed us to partner with them to recycle material from our business. If we put less stuff in our compactor, we can save money. Numbers guy likes this a lot. A reduction in expense can almost be considered profit. Numbers guy shares this successful partnership with the leaders in his company.

With timing being everything, the initiator at our building that has practiced sustainability longer than I have been alive (again, wait, Larry Bamm - can’t believe I didn’t mention his name earlier) showed me what sustainability was before the president of our company (Lee Scott) rolled out a program that commits Wal-Mart to sustainability.

Once this commitment was made by our company, it became very easy to implement the ideas Larry had had years in advance, and with increased support. Numbers guy embraces the possibility of saving tens of thousands of dollars per year with our buildings commitment to recycling. We have reduced the material we send to the landfill/incinerator by close to 50%. Numbers guy equates this to expenses being reduced by the same 50%.

To wrap this up, I hope to appeal in some weird way to others to look at recycling in a way that will assist them the most in implementing recycling in their lives. If it is monetary, you will save money if you recycle. I pull all plastic out of my trash at home, and have reduced my trash at home by around 40%. Numbers guy measures this by how full his trash can is at the side of the road every week. My CFL bulbs have reduced my electricity bill by 24%.

As for the more important reason to implement recycling in their lives, it will save the earth. This is a broad statement, but I have not yet attained the emotional reasons for recycling. For those of you that have this outlook, I look to learn from you. In my “numbers guy” mentality, you are the ones I learn from the most. I don’t resist you, I just need more time to learn.

Partner with me. I am the one that has the most to learn. If you have any questions about the monetary impact that implementing a recycling program at your place of business, feel free to contact me at Sam’s Club.

My name is David Milis, and I am a member of Recycling Jackson.

Blog Action Day.

Today is Blog Action Day.



Hurray!

Fellow Blog Action Day-ers, Lifehacker.com (a great source, by the way, for life improvement) posted some easy way to live a greener life.

We'd add one: recycle all your e-waste, plastics, and paper. Here's how to prepare your materials.

Go Green!

On outdated hardware and e-waste

Sam’s Club in Jackson partnered with Recycling Jackson for an e-waste event earlier in the year. Yesterday, we partnered up again, and kept a whole bunch of electronic waste from going in to a landfill. Or did we?

A lot of the material we saw today came from some large organizations that apparently had this material somewhere. Some of the old relics included dot matrix printers, copiers last used in 1997, some 386 computers, and I even saw some kind of cash register/adding machine that had to be from the 60s.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it showed up today, and I know it’s going to a better place. I would just be curious where it came from. Organizations updating their hardware is understandable. One donator today said that there will come a time where disposing of a CRT monitor would require “an act of God.” It was funny, but as I saw old, outdated material roll in throughout the day, I wondered how much was left.

What do large businesses, government entities, schools, community organizations, and mom and pop still have laying around? Where is it being stored? One individual commented today when they saw a government sticker on the side of a very full truck, “are my tax dollars going toward storing that old stuff?” I don’t have the answer, but it seems like a logical question.

Back to the question of did we really keep a bunch of electronic waste from going in to a landfill. From the contributions today, the answer is a definite yes. From the items left behind, the answer may be no. Does an event such as today’s increase awareness, or make someone decide their storeroom is due to be emptied?

Will those that decide that today is the day to rid their life of electronic waste do it properly, or just figure their items will be “ok” in the regular garbage?

[by David Milis, RJ board member/Sam's Club employee]

E-waste drive a truckload hit.

Our fall e-waste drive went really, really well.

Jackson County and the Community Action Agency alone could've made this drive a success. Several truckloads of printers, PCs, and monitors made for a lot of exercise.

Sam's helped us out so much - from marketing to the location, and even some pizza for lunch.

Valley City will load the e-waste to Grand Rapids and work their magic. That's a couple of tons of material that will not be burned or buried in a landfill.

Thanks to everyone for their help!

> Head here for more pictures.

Blog Action Day coming Oct. 15

We're participating!

We made the news.

The Jackson Citizen Patriot ran with our fall e-waste press release. Check it out here for the next month or so.

Here's the full text:

Sam's Club foundation matches grant for $1,000

Recycling Jackson has received a $1,000 matching grant from the Sam's Club Foundation Community Matching Grant program.

The grant will help support Recycling Jackson's education efforts for its upcoming e-waste collection day Oct. 13.

The collection is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Sam's Club, 3600 O'Neill Drive. Jackson residents can drop off electronic waste, including televisions, computers, microwaves and cell phones.

Suggested donations range from free for cell phones and printer cartridges to up to $25 for a console television.

For more information, visit www.recyclingjacksonmi.org.

Where to e-cycle?

Here's a handy list of places to recycling your electronic gear, besides at the Recycling Jackson site.

[A big thanks to former Recycling Jackson president Travis Fojtasek for help with the list!]

> Apple
Takes back used Apple gear (iPods, Macs, etc.)

> Hewlett-Packard
Recycles PCs, printer cartridges, cell phones, and more.

> Toshiba
Trade-in and recycling program for PCs, batteries, and more.

> Best Buy and IKEA
Both retailers have drop-off locations for used electronic gear.

> Plug In to E-Cycling
Environmental Protection Agency hooks up with manufacturers and retailers for donating e-waste.

> Collective Good
Donate cell phones, pagers, and PDAs to charities.

> Battery Solutions
Uses Pail-Mail system to recycle batteries.

> Rapid Refill Ink
Neat store in the Jackson area that refills ink cartridges for about half the price of a new one. Great way to reduse and save!

> Goodwill Industries
Goodwill has partnered with Dell to take back computer e-waste and peripherals for free. Just drop it off during business hours.

Know of any more? Let us know in the comments!