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Any Port in a Storm :: The Beacon :: Saving the World :: In your own "backyard"
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casimira
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In your own "backyard"
« Thread Started on Oct 8, 2009, 3:12am »		[Quote]
There are all these things on here about being ecologically responsible,"green" as it were. What do each of you do in your immediate area,your block,your community to help be a more responsible ecologically minded citizen?
I am on the board of our neighborhood citizen group and some of the things we are doing incorporate the local public schools (I help with one of the gardens at a nearby school),and am also involved with helping curb the litter problem in and around the neighborhood as it has always been one of my pet peeves.Organizing monthly cleanups,encouraging people to clean their catch drains of leaf debris(blown in by leaf blowers) and similar problems in and around some local businesses.
I guess what I'm getting at is ,until we clean up our own "backyards" so to speak ,we can then help to educate others, particularly children, about global awareness.
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #1 on Oct 8, 2009, 2:00pm »		[Quote]
Maybe not quite what you're looking for, but something I think is important...

For a number of years I have participated in the Audubon Society's Annual Christmas Bird Count which helps protect species and their habitat. The activity involves identifying,counting and recording sitings of all birds observed in an assigned "count circle" (in my case, an area covering a couple of square miles) on an assigned day. The count is conducted by thousands of volunteers across the Americas. From the Audubon website:

"The data collected by observers over the past century allow researchers, conservation biologists, and other interested individuals to study the long-term health and status of bird populations across North America. When combined with other surveys such as the Breeding Bird Survey, it provides a picture of how the continent's bird populations have changed in time and space over the past hundred years."
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lagatta
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Re: In your own
« Reply #2 on Oct 8, 2009, 2:16pm »		[Quote]
The Bird Count is a very imporant initiative. It certainly fits in here.

We did a cleanup of a very insalubrious alley neaby; we had been bothering the city about it for years and they did nothing. An accumulation of junk and filth is not only a vermin and fire hasard but increases feelings of insecurity in urban neighbourhoods. Have also taken part in the annual cleanup of our so-called "mountain", Mont-Royal. Though obviously certain hazardous rubbish such as used injection needles have to be located and left to those expert in disposing of them safely.

I belong to a housing co-op, and can't tell you how much time we have to spend cleaning up the rubbish people leave at the edge of our postage-stamp perennial gardens in front of the triplexes. I caught one cretin letting his pitbull dog shit in our flowers, he swore at me and called me a "vieille chipie". Suppose I am. The problem is the balance between insisting on a clean environment and not wanting conflict with dubious characters in the area (We have good reason to think this guy is a drug dealer).
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casimira
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #3 on Oct 8, 2009, 3:01pm »		[Quote]
It is often times a fine line. Sometimes, I will see adults walking with children,presumably the parents,doesn't matter,and will see the adults litter blatantly in front of the children and the whole world. It is all I can do to refrain from nastily yelling at them. Because I know what the result is going to be and the children are 9 times out of 10 going to end up emulating the parents behavior and become litterbugs too.

Imec,I didn't know you did the Audubon Bird Count,that's great. Did it many times years ago and got away from it somehow. Am still an avid birder though.
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auntieannie
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #4 on Oct 8, 2009, 5:37pm »		[Quote]
I started at home, by looking for ways of using less electricity/water/gas. I had a look at what we were eating and at our waste. This one, we still need to work on, unfortunately. I had a look at our cleaning products and our toiletries. I had a look at the non-food we buy and how to reduce that- and the relevant waste, too.
I also volunteer for an environmental charity, which aims to encourage people to be green in their everyday life. There are a few local initiatives/associations I take part in, all with a view to leave a smaller "footprint" on this planet.
With my boyfriend, we decided not to own a vehicle, so we can only use public transports or our bicycles.
I am now off to the pub, to meet other green minded people to keep the environmental network going in town.
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kerouac2
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #5 on Oct 8, 2009, 6:15pm »		[Quote]
During the European elections this year, the Green party came in second in Paris -- 29.97% for the governmental party to 27.46% for the Greens. In my own neighborhood, the Greens came in first -- 33.40% against 18.66% for the government.

Paris has become one of the "greenest" cities in France, and that really changes the ways things are done quite a bit -- as evidenced by the Vélib program and the major efforts in recycling. The citizens have won against real estate developers several times in getting luxury apartments cancelled and having a park created instead -- which was a huge loss in tax revenue for the city, but the right thing to do.
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spindrift
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #6 on Oct 8, 2009, 9:24pm »		[Quote]
The most I do for my neighbourhood is pick up plastic bottles, McDonalds wrappers and beer cans that are sometimes discarded in our pristine street.

There's a local group called Shabby Winchester moaning on about cracked pavements and street lights that need painting but honestly, compared to any Asian city, they are in good condition (I get shouted down about this).
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lagatta
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Re: In your own
« Reply #7 on Oct 8, 2009, 11:21pm »		[Quote]
I find the change in consciousness in Paris rather remarkable. 25 years ago, cycling there required a bit of a death wish. Yes, in part it is due to gentrification and that is a problem, because it means people in popular suburbs could resent environmentalism as a rich person's luxury, but 25 years ago affluent people didn't give a rat's arse about the environment.

Apartments vs parks is always iffy in the case of cities, as to have a pleasant and salubrious urban environment (where most people don't have private gardens, at least not ones of any size) requires well-planned parks everyone can walk to, but it is also more environmentally-friendly in most places to increase density. Guess that doesn't apply in Paris - the problem is how uninviting so many of the suburbs are - and I'm not stereotyping them all as ghettoes. That will be an important challenge environmentally as well as socially in the coming years.
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auntieannie
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #8 on Oct 9, 2009, 4:25pm »		[Quote]
if my boyfriend sees empty glass bottles (NOT the broken ones) left on the pavement on his way home, he will carry them to the nearest "glass recycling bank".
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #9 on Oct 9, 2009, 4:57pm »		[Quote]
Do they actually recycle glass in the U.K.? They accept it for recycling here as well but the reality is most of it is not recycled - the laws of supply and demand just don't support it. A small portion of it is ground up and used to make roads for the garbage trucks on the landfills.
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bixaorellana
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #10 on Oct 9, 2009, 5:07pm »		[Quote]
They should send the glass to Mexico. Around Tonalá and Tlaquepaque in Jalisco (near Guadalajara) you see huge piles of discarded glass bottles and the like in front of all the glass-blowing workshops there. They're turned into stuff like this, among other things:
[image]

I haven't joined in this discussion because most of what I do for the environment around here is pretty much passive -- I don't throw trash on the ground. I don't burn my garbage, etc. The garbage thing infuriates me, since we have twice weekly trash pick-up. Last night when it was almost dark I looked across the property and was almost blinded by the shooting flames of my neighbor's trash pile. People burn stuff that would make great compost, too! >:(
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auntieannie
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #11 on Oct 9, 2009, 5:11pm »		[Quote]
I think the situation is the same here, imec. My understanding is that a tiny portion of it is recycled and the rest gets used in roadworks. stupid, really, as glass is one of the easiest materials to recycle/reuse.
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #12 on Oct 9, 2009, 5:37pm »		[Quote]

Oct 9, 2009, 5:07pm, bixaorellana wrote:
They're turned into stuff like this, among other things:


Like this?

[image]

[image]
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auntieannie
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #13 on Oct 9, 2009, 6:28pm »		[Quote]
I love "recycled" art!
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bixaorellana
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #14 on Oct 9, 2009, 8:34pm »		[Quote]
I've seen glass items from there like in your second picture, Imec, but the lovely art work in the top picture is new to me. Nice!
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #15 on Oct 9, 2009, 8:35pm »		[Quote]
Cancun.
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casimira
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #16 on Oct 9, 2009, 9:04pm »		[Quote]
Tulane University here takes glass for their Art Dept. They have for about 20 years now. You have to take it there,divide it by color into the proper bin.
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #17 on Oct 9, 2009, 9:26pm »		[Quote]
This is a discard from my cemetery shoot. An odd use for broken beer bottles... (they're embedded into the cement)

[image]

[image]
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lagatta
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Re: In your own
« Reply #18 on Oct 9, 2009, 11:29pm »		[Quote]
In Heaven there is no beer
That's why we drink it here
And when we're all gone from here
Our friends will be drinking all the beer.

In Heaven there is no wine
So we drink till we feel fine
And when we leave this all behind
Our friends will be drinking all the wine.

In Heaven there is no fear
So we worry too much here
And we drink ourselves full of beer
To help us when we deal with the fear.

In Heaven there are no drugs
That's why we hang with thugs
And when the Lord pulls the plug
All the thugs will still be selling drugs, yeah.

Thugs and drugs
Beer...

In Heaven there is no sex
So let's do that next
And when our muscles no longer flex
Someone else will be having all the sex.

In Heaven there are no wars
Or cars, or movie stars
And when we no longer are
The world will probably still be having wars.

What the heck! Yeah!

Sex and war,
Bars and cars.
Drugs, thugs,
And delicious food.
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patricklondon
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #19 on Oct 10, 2009, 9:38am »		[Quote]

Quote:
Do they actually recycle glass in the U.K.?


Even if it ends up in road-fill, it's replacing something else, so it's still being recycled.
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casimira
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #20 on Oct 10, 2009, 10:49am »		[Quote]
[image]

Commonly utilized here in the French Quarter on courtyard walls to deter burglars
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #21 on Oct 10, 2009, 12:35pm »		[Quote]

Oct 10, 2009, 9:38am, patricklondon wrote:

Quote:
Do they actually recycle glass in the U.K.?


Even if it ends up in road-fill, it's replacing something else, so it's still being recycled.


Agreed - but it's it's not the case here. 99% of it goes to landfill (which I'm not opposed to - without landfills, we'd have to go many miles to find a hill).
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auntieannie
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #22 on Oct 10, 2009, 5:08pm »		[Quote]
I come from a country too small and too mountainous to ever have landfill ;). When I first heard of landfill sites in the UK, it reminded me of "swiping things under the carpet". It is soething I am not happy about at all.

In my opinion, most of what ends up in landfill could either have been re-used, re-cycled, turned into compost... or is dangerous to handle and will poison the ground into which it is buried.
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casimira
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #23 on Oct 12, 2009, 11:11am »		[Quote]
A small group of us neighborhood early morning dog walkers have reinstituted our Sunday a.m. clean up. Can't remember why we temporarily disbanded but we're back.
Each of us takes on 2-3 blocks in our immediate neighborhood and then meet up for coffee and dog romp afterwards. The coffee shop where we go is dog friendly and gives us free coffee and bagels and dog biscuits.
One of the blocks that I do incorporates a local bank with 3 drive up windows. You can't believe the number of empty bank envelopes people toss out the window . One day, I hope to find some $$ in one of them.
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imec
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #24 on Oct 13, 2009, 12:25am »		[Quote]

Oct 12, 2009, 11:11am, casimira wrote:
The coffee shop where we go is dog friendly and gives us free coffee and bagels and dog biscuits.


Somehow I'm guessin' it ain't Starbuck's in the bank...
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casimira
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #25 on Oct 13, 2009, 1:30am »		[Quote]

Oct 13, 2009, 12:25am, imec wrote:

Oct 12, 2009, 11:11am, casimira wrote:
The coffee shop where we go is dog friendly and gives us free coffee and bagels and dog biscuits.


Somehow I'm guessin' it ain't Starbuck's in the bank...

No,it's actually kind of a dive. But, they have the best coffee,free trade,roasted here,the owners are wonderful people. They took up a collection for my beloved,departed dog PoBoy when he was diagnosed with diabetes to help pay for his insulin.
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #26 on Oct 15, 2009, 9:51pm »		[Quote]
imec - I used to do the bird count when I lived in the US, it is really interesting to follow the results.

I have been successfully composting for a few years now. It is amazing how much of our waste can go into the compost. I may need to ask my neighbors if they need some, I can't use the decomposed stuff up too fast, since my gardening space is limited, and it is getting pretty full at this point.

The beaches here have a major litter problem, so when I go to a beach, I try to remember to bring some bags and I pick up the garbage.
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auntieannie
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #27 on Oct 19, 2009, 12:17pm »		[Quote]
Spindrift, allow me (as a cyclist) to thank you for collecting discarded waste in the street. It is SO ANNOYING to cycle on partly flattened beer cans, etc...
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #28 on Oct 21, 2009, 7:16am »		[Quote]
I regularly pick up trash in the street, well at least if it is something dry, particularly when there is a nearby rubbish bin. People look at me strangely.
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casimira
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Re: In your own "backyard"
« Reply #29 on Oct 21, 2009, 11:00am »		[Quote]
I do too,and I am always amazed at how long a bottle or a can or cup will sit right within reach of someone for days in front of their own home. Boggles my mind. One time I was talking to a neighbor in front of their home,there was a flattened can on the ground between us,I eyeballed it several times,and eventually I picked it up. The person said,"oh,thank you,that's been there for days and was driving me crazy". I really felt like putting it back.
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