Bethlehem Goes Green! Recycling & Green Living Tips

Earth Week 2009 Activities at Elsmere Elementary School

Kate Kloss - Principal, Dan Rain, Harriet Jaffe, Mike Klugman and I (Leslie Trosset), have put together some fun green activities at Elsmere School in honor of Earth Day, Wed. April 22nd. 

We've planned a variety of week-long activities and guest speakers, including:

• New Capri Sun, Kool-Aid, Honest Tea Drink Pouch recycling program that earns Elsmere's PTA 2 cents per pouch collected. Checkout www.terracycle.net.
• Lunch trash daily weigh-in. We'll weigh the lunch trash everyday and see if through recycling, not wasting food, and using re-usable containers will help reduce waste.
• Planting a strawberry bed with Dan Rain.
• Green "Spirit" Day - wear green, eco-friendly shirts, organic shirts, earth shirts, etc.
• A visit from Enviroman - our very own Middle School Asst. Principal Mark Warford will speak about the environment.
• A visit from a wildlife rehabilitator.
• A visit from Cornell's 4H who will bring their energy bike - pedal to see how much energy it takes to light a regular lightbulb vs. a Compact Florescent (CFL).
• A visit from Sharon Fisher - our town's recycling coordinator, who will discuss recycling.

A Video Tour of Bethlehem NY's Rupert Road Recycling Facility

On Thursday, April 2, 2009, I video'd Sharon Fisher - Town of Bethlehem Recycling Coordinator as she shared information on recycling and discard of unwanted items, including old applicances, metals, paper, glass, cans, and the all confusing plastic. The Rupert Road Transfer station is for town residents only.

The biggest lesson learned for me was on the subject of plastic recycling. The town of Bethlehem ONLY accepts plastic BOTTLES 1 & 2. You have to reuse or toss all of your plastic food containers, even if they are labeled with a #1 or #2!

The town of Bethlehem can only recycle #1 & #2 BOTTLES:

• juice
• water
• vitamin water
• milk
• any 1 & 2 bottle with a neck

Toss or reuse these containers:

• butter
• sour cream
• peanut butter
• berry containers
• cooked meat trays
• deli containers
• any other container, even if it is labeled as a 1 or 2

Pre-1980 the Rupert Road facility was used as a landfill for municpipal trash and you'll see the large mound in the video. Around 1980, they were no longer allowed to accept the trash but they kept the facility open to accept items such as: tires, electronic items, old TV's, microwaves, refridgerators, paper, metals, plastics, cans, furniture and more.

If you choose not to pay a hauler, you can bring your regular trash there for a smaller fee and they will transfer it to the Albany Landfill where some of our haulers bring the trash they pickup curbside.

For more recycling details, please visit the town's web site, call Sharon Fisher - Recycling Coordinator at the town at 439-4955 ext. 1510, or leave a comment below.

Leslie Trosset - Bethlehem Goes Green

Albany Freecycle: Give-Get Stuff for Free

Freecycle.org is a non-profit movement of people all over the world who are giving and getting stuff for free.

Locally, there's an Albany, New York Freecycle group with over 4,000 members.

Members offer or request items such as:

• furniture: tables, chairs, beds, couches
• kitchen appliances: large and small from stoves to microwaves to blenders
• clothing: adult and children
• toys
• perrennials
• animals and accessories: free kittens and dogs, dog crates
• you name it

It's free to join and once you do you'll have access to the local Yahoo group where all the items are posted. As with all online groups, there are rules to follow and all items must be free. An online moderator helps keep all postings on track.

Instead of throwing out stuff you no longer want or use, offer it up on Freecycle and see if there are any takers. Your stuff doesn't always need to be in great condition; there are people who love to refinish or recover furniture or tinker with broken cameras, camcorders or other electronics. Whatever you do, never throw electronic items in the trash. Save it for the Town of Bethlehem's annual electronic recycling day which occurs in October.

The goal is to keep perfectly usuable items out of our landfills. Here is Freecycle's mission:

"Our mission is to build a worldwide gifting movement that reduces waste, saves precious resources & eases the burden on our landfills while enabling our members to benefit from the strength of a larger community."

Join Albany New York's local chapter of Freecycle and do your part to reduce the stuff in our landfills.

How Recycling Reduced My Trash by Fifty Percent

Recycling paper packaging from the dozens of products that enter our home each week helps reduce our trash by at least 50%. 

Instead of tossing the paper packaging, break it down and set it aside in a large bin or bag and then every few weeks bring it to the park and ride lot at the end of Rte 32 bypass. Look for a big bin labeled GreenFiber.

Once you start paying closer attention, you might be amazed how many of the products you buy contain paper packaging. Here, in this picture, is a small sampling of some of the products we buy that contain paper packaging.

Here's a sampling of what GreenFiber collects:

• newspapers
• cereal boxes
• brown paper bags
• paper packaging
• magazine
• phone books
• office paper
• cardboard

It's so easy to recycle this paper. Instead of throwing it away, we just fold it and set it aside in a big bag. Then, every few weeks when I'm heading to the Town Park, Line Drive ball fields, or a friends house, I make a quick stop at the park and ride bins and empty the bag into the Green Fiber bin.

Best of all, a company called GreenFiber takes the cardboard from bins all over the  country and turns it into natural fiber insulation for your home or business! That's right, you can head right over to Lowes in Glenmont and buy it. Very cool.

Looking to go green in your business? Call GreenFiber and ask about their recycling plan where they pay you for your paper. They'll even bring a bin to your business.

Your Wet Newspapers are Going in the Landfill

• Hold your newspapers until the following week if it's raining on trash/recycling day. (or they'll end up in the landfill)

• Place the newspaper in paper bags, NOT plastic bags (or they'll end up in the landfill)

Driving around Bethlehem on this rainy morning there were hundreds of recycling bins filled with newspaper - wet newspaper.  The good news is people are doing the right thing by recycling the newspaper, the sad part is, most people aren't aware that if it's wet or contained in a plastic bag - the newspapers are going to the landfill and won't be recycled.

According to Robert Wright Disposal, the Albany landfill (Thruway-Exit 24) won't accept wet newspaper because it's combustible. So the private haulers will take it, toss it in their recycling truck and then dump it when they get to the Bethlehem transfer station on Rupert Road.

Newspapers left out for recycling in plastic bags are going to the landfill, too. Why? Plastic bags are not recyclable and according to Robert Wright Disposal, they are don't have the time to sort through thousands of pickups to remove the plastic bags. We can't blame them. It would take hours.

Wright's information sheet does indicate to use paper bags for the newspapers, but they left out the wet part.

So, Bethlehem residents, let's start following the rules so more of our trash can be recycled.

Were you aware of the rules? Please leave a comment below and let us know your thoughts.