 |
 |
|
|
Dave Heineman, GovernorBoard of TrusteesDistrict I |
Well summer will be here June 21st, even though some of the cooler and rainy weather has made the last week feel like early spring instead of late spring. The crops are waiting for a boost of sunshine after getting some much needed moisture. The Trust will be holding a round-table at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Kearney on Friday, June 26th to discuss our funding categories. We want to get the public’s input for our next five years. Those of you with current grants don’t forget your quarterly reports and requests for extensions if you aren’t able to get your grant completed before their expiration. Have a safe and enjoyable summer. Mark Brohman
This is a reminder to all our contacts that the Trust will be organizing "The Nebraska Environmental Trust Categories Roundtable" on June 26, 2009 at the Kearney Holiday Inn. Grantees, partners and interested members of the public may attend the meeting to let their voices be heard in suggesting new categories of funding for the Trust or revising the existing ones. The Trust sets funding category areas for five-year periods, in a process involving members of the Nebraska public and conservation communities. Until July 2010, the Trust will consider funding proposals in the following priority areas:
We would certainly welcome all the suggestions and input we can get during the Roundtable. You may even write to us if you have any suggestions. If you would like to attend the Roundtable, please call Lori Moore at 402-471 5409 or email your RSVPs to: lori.moore@nebraska.gov
The San Francisco Chronicle published an article last week that, "The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal for the most comprehensive mandatory composting and recycling law in the country." The ordinance is expected to take effect this fall. The legislation calls for every residence and business in the city to have three separate color-coded bins for waste: blue for recycling, green for compost and black for trash. Failing to properly sort your refuse could result in a fine after several warnings, but Newsom and others say fines will only be levied in the most serious cases. Fines for residential customers and small businesses that generate less than a cubic yard of refuse will be capped at $100 and businesses that don't have proper bins could face fines up to $500.00 The proposal is seen to be an effective way to cut about two-thirds of the 618,000 tons of waste the city sent to the landfill in 2007. Cities from Pittsburgh to San Diego have mandatory recycling. However, none requires all food waste to be composted. Seattle passed a law in 2003 requiring people to have a compost bin but, unlike San Francisco, it did not mandate that all food waste go in there. The rationale behind the move is clear. Material like food scraps and plant clippings that go into landfills take up costly space and decompose to form methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. A June 2008 report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a group focused on environmentally sound community development, said a zero waste approach is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective ways to protect the climate. Cutting waste sent to landfills and incinerators would be like closing 21 percent of U.S. coal-fired power plants, the report said. About 36 percent of what San Francisco sends to landfill is compostable, and another 31 percent is recyclable, a comprehensive study found. By the city's count, it currently diverts 72 percent of its waste, best in the nation. If recyclables and compostables going into landfills were diverted, the city's recycling rate would jump to 90 percent, said Jared Blumenfeld, Head of the City's Department of Environment. Only 22 percent of the city's 10,000 large apartment buildings have composting bins, but the number has tripled in the last year, said Robert Reed, a spokesman for San Francisco Collectors Sunset Scavenger Co. and the Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling Co. "Once people start to compost," he said, "they find it easy to do." One hang-up, of course, is the perceived yuck factor. "It's a false phobia that things are going to smell," Reed said. "It's the same garbage you already had, it's just handling it differently, in a more environmentally responsible way." Here are some interesting composting tips: Source: Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling Co.
If you know someone who would like to receive Resource every month, they can add their name to our e-mail list using the form at www.environmentaltrust.org You can also send an e-mail to Sheila Johnson to subscribe. Do you have an event you would like to announce in RESOURCE? Send your event details to Sheila Johnson and we will include it in our next mailing. |
 |
|