Welcome Back!

Allright...we're starting things back up now. Our first Earth Tutors of the semester will be this coming Friday...meet at Amsterdam and 116th at 1:30.

And below is a recap of last night's meeting:

1. Community Gardening. Food Sustainability Project will be working with us on this. Maddy will be going to their meeting next Sunday at 8 in Math 520 to find out more...others are of course welcome to attend as well! (although it is right in the middle of the Super Bowl). Next Monday we'll discuss where to proceed from there. We are also trying to incorporate composting into this project. To learn about composting, go here: http://www.lesecologycenter.org/composting.html

2. Plastic bags. Prospero will be researching places to recycle plastic bags. In at least 6 months the law goes into effect that requires plastic bag recycling. In the meantime, assuming it's not too expensive to recycle them, we will have a week where we collect bags in the dorms for recycling. Once we find out where we can recycle plastic bags and if we can afford it (which should be by next Monday), we'll plan which week to do our plastic bag drive. For general info, check out plasticbagrecycling.org

3. Community Outreach....Jason will get from Nilda the list of tenant businesses that Columbia sent a letter to about going green, and Jason will also get that letter. From there, we will plan our campaign to make sure they comply with the goals of that letter and with goals of our own, and devise a way for us to approve or disapprove of their actions.

4. Lerner Recycling Center...we will meet with Nilda soon about this. Sara, Janelle, Mary, and Prospero want to be in on that meeting. Stay tuned.

5. Earth Week! Next week we should have the info on dates for Earth Week events (depends on Bacchanal stuff), and then we'll reserve space immediately and start planning immediately. We've had some great ideas already!

6. Stay tuned for next Mondays meeting, when we'll talk about all the stuff above plus OCEANS, SEAFOOD, FROGS, RECYCLING, and E-WASTE!!

Plastic Bag Recycling

This spring look out for plastic bag collection sites on campus and in dorms. We've found a place in the city who collects used plastic bags and recycles them, which is far better than sending them to landfills. So if you've got a stash of plastic bags that you swore you'd reuse but never did, fear not, soon they can be recycled.

In the meantime, get yourself a tote bag, available at JJ's and most local grocery stores, so you never have to use a plastic--or equally bad paper--bag for your shopping. Seriously, get a reusable tote bag and use it. Now.