GET GREEN!

Getting Green one step at a time!!!



We were looking forward to having progress on our Scottsdale school project at tonight's meeting but were unable to further the plans due to the fact that the 1st meeting with SUSD wasn't quite as productive as we would have needed it to be at this juncture. We are holding off on further details and plans til we have a more substantial foundation to build on...hopefully the next women's meeting will have a productive move in this arena. I met with Carla P. last week and I am now directed to furthering communication with Karen B.-it looks like we will be working with Community School Programs on the Sierra Vista project or one of their many others.


For last night's meeting, we discussed getting green in our daily lives and we focused on a few topics.


The first item of discussion here was GLASS. Currently glass is a commodity and it costs more to ship it than is logical. Local waste managements and recycle dumps are not able to ship glass to be recycled and reused properly so in most places it is being smashed and used as land fills. This last Saturday I attended the Get Green Market at Haus on Central Ave in downtown Phoenix and took in some information. I met a gentleman named Ray who works with a company called Refresh Glass. You can reach him via http://www.refreshglass.com/ and he makes glasses and vases from re-used wines bottles. He said that the first step in making a difference is education. Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle, in that order is the beginning. He informed me that instead of recycling our old wine bottles, we can drop them off at a local Whole Foods or other venues that collect these for people in his line of work. He said that currently they gather 1,500 bottles a week locally and that is rising! We should practice purchasing reused items to fulfill our needs and wants and we should remember that Eco-friendly/getting green doesn't necessarily have to be non-profit. Ray reminded us to use our imaginations and find way to be profitable in our new ventures with re-used items!


Next topic we learned about was COMPOSTING...at the same market I met Taylor Storey, a garden and landscape coach. He has a great blog, http://thedesertgarden.com/ . He taught me that composting provides you with fertilizer and organic material that improves the structure of your soil. Composting is made up of 4 ingredients: 1) CARBON: TP cardboard rolls, wood chips, dried leaves, straw, shredded paper, twigs, sticks, hay, coffee filters. 2) NITROGEN: kitchen fruit and vegetable waste, egg shells, coffee grounds. (NO meat, dairy, or fish products...and no eggs themselves) Lawn clippings (from the mowed grass etc.) 3) AIR: You need to turn your compost weekly. 4) WATER: You need to water your compost, and it should feel like a squeezed damp sponge.

In our modern day lives, this is still an option that we can make work. By contacting the City of Phoenix at the Durango Dump (their contact information can be found via the waste management website) we can purchase a reusable trash tub that they put many holes in the bottom of and can be used for composting...I think for as little as $5. The smaller containers for daily use with lids for your kitchen can be found on http://www.target.com/ or at Smith and Hawken stores for a little more pricey. There is one in town at Keirland Commons shopping center.

We turned in the donations for the local pet shelters to Leigh...if you have any more to donate you can bring that to the Relay for Life Event this coming Friday the 8th at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale.

RELAY FOR LIFE IS FROM 6pm TO 6am FRIDAY MAY 8th to SATURDAY MAY 9th! www.relayforlife.org/scottsdaleaz

Take a look at our girl Vanessa Gibb's family blog. There is a posting about the fundraiser that Kelly Meece put together for the Relay for Life at Saporros last week. www.gibbsfamilia.blogspot.com

Two great links to view are posted below. Please take a peek..they are both awesome. One is a local animal sanctuary in Arizona and the other is an Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where elephants and doggies live together.

Dr. Wilson’s Animal Sanctuary:
For pet owners who have had to give up their animals because of personal or financial troubles, Deborah Wilson’s ranch is a sanctuary. NBC’s Maria Menounos reports on how one woman is Making a Difference.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30442275#30442275


The elephant sanctuary in Tennessee below:

The next meeting will be Wednesday May 20th...IT IS SO GREAT HAVING GIRLS LIKE YOU IN MY LIFE!

This weeks goal was to find an Emergence-C packet at the grocery stores and drink it with your water...Try it out! :)