Last  Sunday, Nov. 15, was America Recycles Day. To celebrate America Recycles Week at Clay Middle School, Linda Hynes and I, the PTO Green Team, started Lunch Time Recycling at the cafeteria on Wednesday and Thursday, 10:20 am – 1:30 pm.

On Wednesday, we started out with 250 pencils to give away for every student who put their recyclables into the right bin. We went through the pencils within the first hours! The next two hours, without the prize, we policed as many trays as possible to tell the students what they could put into the recycle bins, and helped the students to take off the caps, dumped the left over liquid, and peeled off the foil of the juice cups. We collected about 3 full bags of recyclables in 3 hours, saved them from ended up in the landfill. A lot of students had shown the enthusiasm and support, even without the free pencils. We were very happy to see that.

On Thursday, we noticed some of the kids had already caught on with the idea, with the visual help that Linda and her daughter made,  without too much policing over the trash bins, we collected 2 full bags.

With the great support from the lunch room staffs and custodians, on Friday, we set up two recycle bins with the sign at the same spot in the cafeteria, hoping to find out how much recyclables would be collected without us standing next to them.

When I went to pick up at the end of the lunch hour, I was very impressed! Both bins were about half full!! Majority of the bottle caps were collected in the box which we had taped to the bin, and even most of the foils were peeled off the juice cups! I stood on the side to watch the last group of students finishing up with their lunch. I would say about more than 50% of them recycled their bottles correctly, and about 30% of them had recycled all of their recyclables, ALL ON THEIR OWN!! I ended up with total a VERY FULL bag of recyclables – include at least 100 beverage bottles, which I have the caps to count for!

The most impressive thing I saw: there was a aluminum bottom of the Pringles’ container in the bin! Someone had taken the time to peel the cordboard off the container, so she/he could recycle the aluminum bottom!!

Great job! Clay students! I’m so proud of you!

Only 2 days left till the Solar Decathlon at Washington DC!

The Solar Decathlon joins 20 college and university teams in a competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house.

Saw a program on Sundance channel last year about the Solar Decathlon 2007. It was very interesting and exciting! Wish I could go to the National Mall and visit all the houses that the students have worked on!!

Check them out online!

Did you miss it? If you missed the global premiere?

Don’t worry. The DVD is available for pre-order now on the website.

I went to Monday’s Global Premiere at a local movie theater.  It was not just the movie;  it’s the live event from NY:

The film was released internationally on 21 September and 22 September at the “Global Premiere”. A green carpet, solar-powered cinema tent in New York was linked by satellite to 442 cinemas across the USA and to more than 200 cinemas in more than 45 other countries. Special guests included Kofi Annan, Pete Postlethwaite and Gillian Anderson. Popular musicians Moby and Thom Yorke performed live.

- source: Wikipedia

The movie is not depressing, I don’t think.
It’s telling in a way to show the urgency, and from many different points of view….

But what I really really like are the speakers after the movie. Too bad the theater was half empty, and we didn’t go as a big Green crowd together…

Everything is gearing up for The Climate Summit at Copenhagen this December.

Hopefully, with enough people who cares, we can get the message to the policy makers and really make some changes!!

The Age of Stupid Global Premiere Video News Release from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.

Last week, Jaymee’s school, Clay Middle School, held their first Clay Challenge – PTO fund-raising event. Students would run/jog/walk for 30 minutes around the track to raise money and awareness about the benefits of exercise and healthy living. There were 1200+ students participated.

The PTO provided event t-shirts and water bottles for all students. Being a PTO Green Team member at Clay, and having 2 cardboard recycle bins available, I offered to help collecting the water bottles for recycling.  With Jennifer Lapel and Wendy Wiese’s help and effort, we saved more than 700 plastic bottles from ended up in our landfill.

Great work!!

But when I was going through the bins to take off the bottle caps, more than 30% of them were still half-full, even a few of them were completely full. How sad… Ounce by ounce, bottled water is more expensive than gasoline!

There must be a better way, less wasteful way.

For all you eco-conscious  iPhone lovers out there!  Novothink announced their new Solar Surge case for iPhone and iPod touch on Sept. 2nd:

• State-of-the-art solar panel allows continuous charging from the sun
• Custom designed and engineered solar panels outputs 5.5V at 100 mAh in full sun
• 2 hours of direct solar exposure provides about 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network or 60 minutes of talk time on a 2G network

The word out there is that  it’s the first Apple licensed solar charger case for iPod Touch, and the Solar Surge for iPod Touch will be available at major retailers at the end of September for $69.95.  The iPhone model will follow in the fourth quarter of 2009.

I noticed another change in Vancouver on this trip: besides the over-grown, over-crowded cityscape, are the lovely community gardens popped up all over the city.

These community gardens are located on City of Vancouver’s parkland but organized through neighborhood groups.

Alone side the old train tracks in Kitsilano area, I walked through several very well-tended, beautiful gardens. One gardener told me there is a two-year waiting list for getting a small plot in the community garden. People in the over-populated urban area have to wait to get a small piece of land to grow their own veggies and flowers, enjoy peace and tranquility in the crowded city. That makes me really appreciate my backyard. Even though I cannot get all the yummy food in Indiana, at least I can own a good size of land to grow all the veggies that I want. Going home in 3 days, hope my plants are doing OK :)

Every summer, I take the kids to visit my parents for a few weeks. Last year, they were down in Taiwan. Kids got to use the  Taipei’s Metro system and walking so much under 90 something degree heat.

This year, they are back in Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the 15 green cities as Grist listed, where I had lived for a while 12 years ago. Much nicer weather this time.

It’s always a treat to visit Vancouver for all the great restaurants and the mountain and ocean view.   This time, I’m looking on the streetaround to find what’s GREEN about the city.

On my first day, as a loyal shopper, I had to go visit the new Wholefoods Market on 8th and Cambie. It was just opened in April. Very good size! So many different yummy prepared food, baked goods, perfect for grabbing a quick lunch. Too bad I’m not allowed to take picture in the store.

See the dark color exterior wall? (Sorry about the bad photo. Sun was at the other side) It’s a “Living Wall” full of plants.  It looked really nice. I’m sure we will start seeing green living wall popping up on a lot of new buildings.