Recycling

Hope you are all out enjoying the beautiful weather after our cold January and start of February.  My husband and I love our walks in the mornings.

After looking over the City’s website, I would like to remind you that we have a relatively new Neighborhood  Depository at 9003 North Main (N Main – north of Crosstimbers).  You may take your recyclables and junk waste there from 9 am to 6 pm 7 days per week.  Bring your Driver’s License or recent utility bill to prove that you are a resident.

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There was also a bit of information new to me.  The company, Jaco Environmental, has a program for recycling refrigerators, freezers, and room air conditioners.  I went to their website (www.jacoinc.net) and there was a place to enter your zip code to start the process.  I didn’t enter mine as I have no appliance to recycle.  But the info on the website said that they recycle 95% of the components, that pick up is free, and they give a $25 rebate.  If anyone tries this, let me know how it goes!!

Many of you know that another source of information about the neighborhood (quite complete and well researched) is the online newsletter Nor’westener 3-3-11.  Ben Crabb, of Timbergrove, writes it.  His email is bncrabb@comcast.net and I am sure that he would add you to his readership if you contact him.  Each issue has excellent info and I go there to be sure that I haven’t missed something of great importance environmentally to share with you.  In January, Ben wrote up a very comprehensive article about home lighting.  He had a great deal to say about which bulbs (incandescent, LED, or compact florescent) are best.  To boil down my views on the matter, as long as you recycle the spent florescent bulbs (IKEA), they are much cheaper and better for the environment than incandescent which squanders a large percentage of energy on making heat.   LED (Light Emitting Diodes) have the potential for being the cheapest, after you factor in the length of time that they continue to work.  However, they are a larger investment.  I will email the article to you so that you can take advantage of all of Ben’s work if you email me.

I certainly hope that you all have had a wonderful, wonder filled Christmas and New Year.  And, I hope that any of you that had a “real” tree has dropped it off to be converted to mulch.  Our nearest site for that is:  4200 West T.C. Jester, at the T. C. Jester Park.  That continued to January 9th, but if you missed that, you may place it at the curb on tree waste collection day (for N. Lazybrook that is the month of January and the third Thursday or the 20th; for S. Lazybrook that is January, the fourth Monday which is the 24th).  You are asked by the City to please remove tinsel, lights, ornament, tree stands, etc before you put it out.

I received a recycling book from 2008 entitled Be Green so I’m going to share something from it for the next few articles.  It quotes the EPA as saying, “Thirty six States are anticipating water shortages by 2016.   Yet, the average American uses more than 100 gallons of water each day.”  And the NRDC as stating, “A family of four using low-flow shower heads instead of full-flow models can save about 20,000 gallons of water per year.”

Getting low water use toilets is also an astounding savings of water (and money).  Some ways to save water saves money without costing any – like turning off the water when brushing your teeth or washing your face and fixing leaks when they first start (rather than putting it off).  Please share your favorite water saving tips with me before or at the next meeting.

I was out walking this morning and realized that I haven’t written a note to you about what to put in your green bins for quite a while.  For instance, please flatten your corrugated cardboard, even if it’s a little box.  And, even squish your cans and plastic as you are able.   When the city has so many tons of  recyclables to carry around, every little bit of space that we can save for them saves our money and their effort.

Also, the city only has markets for plastics numbered one (1) through five (5) and seven (7).  When you send something numbered six (6) or styrofoam, it has to be removed from the stream of recycling and placed in the garbage.  That takes money and time to do.

The other items that go into the green bin are:  magazines, newspaper, catalogs, office paper, unwanted mail, phone books, aluminum cans and tin cans, used oil in clean, screw-top container. (can be original container)

I have the cities’ web site:  www.houstonsolidwaste.org. Please log on there and find out more or call 311 and ask any question; if they don’t know they will go and ask someone who does!!  And, you can always ask me – 713-880-3845.

Also there is another web site that Crystal shared with me and I’m going to share it with you: www.storyofstuff.org Try it – it has some stuff to think about and ideas to put into your life to be more green.

The City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department opened its new Neighborhood Depository and Recycling Center in North Houston on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 9003 North Main, Houston, TX 77022.

This state-of-the-art facility consists of a concrete ramp for unloading heavy trash into 40 cubic yard roll-off boxes (“dumpsters”) and a service building, as well as a drop-off site for recycling. Solid Waste Management Department Director Harry Hayes said, “We are excited about the opening of this site. We will be able to accommodate 10 vehicles at a time for bulky items and tires plus additional vehicles for recycling simultaneously.”

Read more at http://www.houstontx.gov/solidwaste/press-20100810.html

With the oil spewing out of the BP well in the Gulf, it is hard to talk about anything else about the environment.  However, since that is really out of our hands, I would like to share a few bits of information with you.  I was reading my Sierra Club magazine and found out that using pesticides on our lawns can kill birds – not just the long term consequence of soft shells in their eggs, but an immediate toxic affect.

Check out this PDF about toxicity of pesticides.  I did and got an Audubon Chart which I plan to use. Several of these pesticides are dangerous for humans, pets, fish, and bees as well as birds.  Also, go to http://bit.ly/lawncare for help in learning to care for gardens with minimal or no use of pesticides.

Also, if you need to find a local recycler for something, go to earth 911.com.  Type in the item that you want to recycle and give your address.  Then you’ll get the nearest recycler.  Now, it gives recyclers within 25 miles and sometimes there is not a recycler of that item within 25 miles.  But, its another good tool for when you want to recycle something.

As my husband and I walk in the neighborhood, it seems that we have fewer people putting out their green bins.  Please let me know if you need any information or help.  The next recycling opportunity for neighborhoods in Houston is to get Automated Recycling.  It is only in a few neighborhoods, but the ones who have it have recycling participation rates of over 50 %.  Increasing our participation rate would, therefore, not only be better for the environment, and save money for the City (and therefore ourselves), but would also be a possible step in getting this new style of recycling.  The carts that are used are 96 gallon green bins similar to the garbage cans that we have.  All the recyclables would go into it and we could recycle glass in these bins if we were chosen for this program.  Please, let me know what I can do to help you recycle.