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E-News: Green Star's Electronic, Environmental Newsletter!
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| Green Star E-News Vol. 2, No. 2 February 8, 2001 Ten years of recognizing businesses committed to environmental responsibility. In this issue: * New Members: Mt. Edgecumbe School * Shining Stars: Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation * Air Quality Brown Bag * Star in a Green Star TV Ad * Non-profit Paper Summit * Recycling 101: Why Glass? * Green Events Begins with a Bang * Volunteers Still Needed * Thank You AFE Speakers * Welcome New 2001 Sponsors ================================= NEW MEMBERS Mt. Edgecumbe School The environmental club at Mt. Edgecumbe in Sitka, Alaska, is taking the initiative to make their school a Green Star Awardee. The students participated in a Green Star training in the fall and hope to have their Award by the end of the school year. Mt. Edgecumbe is one of two schools in the Southeast applying for the Green Star Award. For a list of all Green Star Awardees, visit our web site at http://www.greenstarinc.org. ================================= SHINING STARS Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation ADEC Green Star Coordinator, Tee Little, knows how to keep her office up to date on the Green Star Standards. Tee divided her office up into teams for Green Star Jeopardy. Each team competed for a trophy which will be passed on, or kept, by next year’s winner. The game made reviewing the Green Star Standards fun and easy. The ADEC is proud of their Green Star Award and is working hard to receive the Air Quality Award this year. Next week, the group will co-host a brown bag lunch on the Air Quality Award. This is a great way to keep staff informed and to network with other Green Star members. To find out more about Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, visit the organization's web sit at http://www.adec.org. ================================= AIR QUALITY BROWN BAG LUNCH Friday, February 16, 11:00 am-1:00 pm, Green Star and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will provide information on Air Quality issues in Anchorage and how your business can achieve the Green Star Air Quality Award. Representatives from the Municipality of Anchorage Air Quality Department and Anchorage Transit Department are among the speakers. Come learn about how air quality effects your community and ways to improve it. Green Star is offering free enrollment for the Air Quality Award during the next three months and this is a great chance for your company to learn more about the Award. Enroll in the program during the Brown Bag and receive an “Idle-Free Zone” sign for your parking lot. Cookies and Beverages provided. Contact Betsy at 278-7827 for more information. ================================ STAR IN A GREEN STAR TV AD Green Star is seeking stories and stars for a series of advertisements which will air on local TV stations. Send us a single paragraph describing how your organization eliminated or reduced a waste stream, and your business may be chosen to star in the TV ads. Just imagine the positive P.R. and the community recognition your business could gain for the actions you have taken. Not to mention, you may be chosen to appear in the advertisement! Submit your paragraph by February 21 to sean@greenstarinc.org. Please include your name, organization name, phone number and e-mail address. ================================ NON-PROFIT PAPER SUMMIT On Wednesday, February 21, 2001 at 2:00pm, Alaska Center for the Environment is holding a paper summit for non-profits with PIP Printing and Alaska Paper. The non-profit community will build a co-op block of alternative paper, to make recycled, chlorine free, and tree free paper affordable and easily obtainable. This will ensure increased demand to the paper suppliers therefore lowering prices and increasing availability. So far over 50 agencies have signed up to attend the summit. The summit will take place from 2-4pm, February 21, at the new ACE office at 807 G street suite 100. Organizations must RSVP to Beth Porterfield, 274-3650, to attend the summit. ================================ RECYCLING 101: Why Glass? In the past few months, Green Star has received numerous inquiries about recycling in Anchorage. Where can we take materials? How do we prepare them? In an effort to answer all of these questions, this is the first in a series of articles introducing each recyclable material to the Anchorage community. Each month, Green Star will share information about a different recyclable commodity, including where to recycle it, how to prepare it, where it goes after you drop it off, how your efforts help that particular industry, what it is made into, and other important information. The National Picture Glass accounts for 5.5% by weight of our national waste generation, according to U.S. EPA’s most recent figures (1997). That's 12 to 14 million tons of glass waste generated per year. The 5.5% figure is down from about 10% in 1980. The reason for the decline is mostly due to light-weighting of packaging materials (i.e., thinner glass bottles) and the displacement of glass by plastic bottles and jars. Most glass waste is in the form bottles and jars, such as beer, wine, liquor, soda, and juice bottles. In 1997, approximately 3 million tons of glass were recycled. This is about 27.6% of all glass containers and 24.4% of all glass waste generated. Most of the glass went into the production of new containers but some went into fiberglass insulation, glasphalt and other uses. Glass container manufacturers recycle cullet (which is another term for the glass collected for recycling), combined with soda ash, limestone and sand, to create "new" glass. To make new containers out of old, the recyclable glass bottles and jars must be separated by color. Only small amounts of other colors can be mixed in before it affects the quality of the glass. For obvious reasons, more contaminants in the form of other colors can be mixed in to make green or brown (also called amber) than can be found in clear (also called flint) glass. Only container glass can be recycled into new containers, so plate glass, pyrex, mirrors, ceramics, and other glass products must be kept out of the recycling bins. Mixed cullet, the kind collected in Anchorage, can be used for road base construction, pipe backfill and storm drains, asphalt called "glasphalt," sandblasting abrasive, and fiberglass insulation. It can contain more contaminants, making recycling easier for the consumer. Glass in Anchorage Anchorage generates 11,745 tons of waste glass per year (1997 data) and recycles 152 tons of this, or about 1.3% of total glass waste generation. A Green Star Glass Recycling Program is helping to bring this recycling rate nearer to the national average of 24%. Glass is one of the few materials that remains here in Anchorage for recycling. All glass diverted from the landfill is delivered to Environmental Recycling Inc., at Point Woronzof, where the glass is processed through a system of burners, crushers, fans, and screens, which separates the labels and other contaminants, and crushes the glass to a fine sand or powder. Different size grains can be achieved for different uses. The glass product is bagged and sold through a local distributor. The sand is sold primarily as an abrasive blast medium -- the glass grit is sprayed at high pressures with air or water to remove corrosion, rust, and paint from tanks and other surfaces using the abrasive qualities of the sand's sharp edges. Other uses include septic system filtration media and skid reduction material on train tracks. How Do I Recycle Glass? The types of glass accepted for recycling in Anchorage include all colors of food and beverage bottles and jars. These colors can be mixed together. Bottles and jars should be empty and rinsed, with lids and caps removed. Labels can remain on the containers, as well as the little metal or plastic rings that may remain on some soda bottles after the cap is removed. Broken drinking glasses also are acceptable, as long as they are made of opaque glass (you can see through them). These can be added because the glass collected in Anchorage is not used to make new containers. Types of glass NOT accepted include: Pyrex Windshield glass Pottery Ceramics China Tinted Glass Mirror Light bulbs Plate glass from picture frames and windows ** Glass with wire or other reinforcing on the inner layers ** Plate glass can be recycled with containers in Anchorage but is difficult to transport to the recycling center and will not typically fit through the holes in the collection bin, often leading to dangerous piles of glass at the recycling center. If you have large quantities of plate glass, contact one of the organizations listed at the end of this article for specific information about recycling it. You can take your waste glass to the following locations: Anchorage Recycling Center, 6161 Rosewood Street (off Dowling) The Home Depot, 515 E. Tudor Road Northway Mall, 3101 Penland Parkway (near Safeway) Fairview Recreation Center, 1121 E. 10th Ave. Spenard Recreation Center, 2020 W. 48th Ave. Point Woronzof drop-off bin at the entrance to Environmental Recycling, Inc. If your business generates waste glass and you are interested in learning more about your recycling options, please contact Green Star at 278-7839. ================================ GREEN EVENTS BEGIN WITH A BANG Green Star’s first major GREEN EVENT has just concluded and it was a great success. The 3rd annual Alaska Forum on the Environment recycled several hundred pounds of aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, and mixed paper during its weeklong program (February 5-9). With the help of a handful of talented volunteers, Green Star equipped the event with about 30 recycling bins throughout the two floors of the Egan Center and monitored the bins during the week. Event participants pitched in to recycle and many were appreciative of the volunteers’ efforts. One participant made a point to express thanks for setting up the recycling program, saying that it was disappointing that little or no recycling occurred at last year’s Forum. She thought this year’s efforts were a vast improvement over the single aluminum-recycling bin available at the 2000 Forum. Green Star wishes to thank the organizers of the Forum for their interest and efforts to make recycling happen at the Forum, the wonderful support of volunteers who enthusiastically sorted recyclables and touted recycling throughout the event, and the participants at the event who took advantage of the recycling bins and expressed their support for the recycling activities. We hope to continue to expand and improve the recycling opportunities available at this and other special events throughout Anchorage in the coming years. ================================ VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED The 2001 Special Olympics World Winter Games is still looking for recycling volunteers for March 4-11, 2001. Volunteers will work directly with Pat Wendt, the recycling coordinator, but still need to fill out the Special Olympics volunteer application. Simply write in RECYCLING under the Job Description category and then contact Pat directly to let him know you are interested. The application is a formality to ensure proper credentials for the high-security event, so do not be too concerned about filling in the availability and venue information. Pat will be arranging these details directly with you when you join the “elite” group of recycling volunteers. Pat Wendt’s contact information: patw@gci.net or 441-9006. For a volunteer application, contact Green Star at 278-7827 or register online at www.2001worldgames.org. Contact the Games at 277-2497 or volunteer@2001worldgames.org. Venues include the Fed Ex building, Tesoro Ice Rink, Egan Center, Sullivan Arena, Kincaid Park, Alyeska, Hilltop, McDonald Center, and others. As a recycling volunteer, you will enjoy the opportunity to experience the Special Olympics events from a “behind the scenes” perspective. You will see more than you ever could with a ticket to the event! ================================ THANK YOU AFE SPEAKERS Green Star wishes to thank the speakers of the Natural Gas Vehicles in Alaska presentation at the Alaska Forum on the Environment. A stellar panel covered topics ranging from fleet vehicle costs to cold-weather maintenance. Many thanks to: *Dave Bennett, USAF CNG/Air Quality Director *Anne Schlapia, Municipality of Anchorage Air Quality Program *Terry McGovern, Continental Auto Group *Richard Huff, Phillips Kuparuk Fleet Manager ================================= WELCOME NEW 2001 SPONSORS Platinum: Phillips Alaska Gold: AT&T Wireless Supporter: Alaska Wildland Adventures In-kind: National Bank of Alaska, Data Pro, 2011 Enterprises, Phillips ================================= Please send comments, questions, or suggestions for future E-News topics to us at betsy@greenstarinc.org. Forward this newsletter freely. Send us any e-mail addresses you wish to add to our mailing list, and let us know if you would like to be removed from the list. Thank you! The staff of Green Star, Anchorage: Sean Skaling, Executive Director Jeanne Carlson, Recycling Program Coordinator Betsy Goll, Membership & Communications Coordinator |
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