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OREGON DEQ STUDY HIGHLIGHTS BENEFITS OF TAP WATER
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's new assessment of drinking water delivery systems bolsters the argument to "reduce first, then recycle." The study, "Life Cycle Assessment of Drinking Water Delivery Systems: Bottled Water, Tap Water, and Home/Office Delivery Water," evaluates 48 different delivery scenarios among several variables to determine their overall environmental effects. Whereas common knowledge holds that tap water is an environmentally preferable method to bottled water, many often point to the buildup of used plastic bottles in landfills around the world as the culprit. This study, however, finds that it is not the disposal that has the greatest environmental impact, but the manufacture of the bottle itself. Regardless of whether a plastic bottle is 100% recycled or thrown in a landfill, its environmental impacts are still far greater than the tap water delivery system because of the energy and resources needed to produce the bottle in the first place. Even the best-performing bottled water scenario, requiring a light-weight recyclable bottle, has overall global warming effects greater than 46 times those of an identical volume of tap water. |
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Workshop Now Available Statewide
The Composting Association of Vermont is pleased to announce that the Worms in School workshop is now available statewide for preschool through grade 8 classrooms.
Worms in School is a 1 – 2-hour hands-on introduction to vermiculture – or composting with worms. It is designed for classrooms to have ongoing vermiculture based learning. The workshop includes: compost bin set up; care and feeding of worms; harvesting of worms and vermicast (composted material); and follow up technical assistance. Teachers also receive Feed it to the Worms, a 100-page curriculum guide that includes lesson plans with standards, activity pages, templates to collect data, a glossary, and links to electronic resources. The curriculum was developed by Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance with funding support from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and USDA.
Worms in School is an example of ‘education for sustainability.’ Students learn how organic material is transformed into a soil amendment, and they experience first hand the sustainability of a food system that includes recycling. In addition to the biology in vermiculture, the worm ‘community’ can be integrated into math, social science, language, and arts curriculums, and in the larger school community to inform responsible stewardship.
You can find more information about Worms in School at: www.compostingvermont.org. Costs for a bin and worms varies depending on the availability of donated bins and worms. There is a one-time fee of $100 for the workshop and follow up technical assistance. See website for more details and to contact a Worms in School instructor.
The Worms in School workshop is made possible through grant funding and partnerships with the UVM Extension Master Gardener/Master Composter Program and Gardener’s Supply in Burlington.
- from Composting Association of Vermont
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Got an old mercury-containing thermostat?
Don’t trash it.
Cash it!
It is illegal to dispose mercury-containing thermostats in solid waste in Vermont.
In 2008, mercury thermostat collection legislation was passed requiring thermostat manufacturers to provide a financial incentive of $5.00 for turning in a mercury-switch thermostat for recycling. Bring your mercury-switch thermostat to any Thermostat Recycling Corporation (TRC) collection location in the state and receive either an in-store credit (at retail locations) or a coupon that can be mailed in to receive payment by check.
TRC collects mercury-switch thermostats at all heating and cooling wholesalers in Vermont and at many thermostat retailers. All District transfer stations are participating in this program and have TRC coupons. |
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