Happy Earth Day

I passed a household that had five garbage cans out Monday morning for pickup. Then, Monday night, there was a presentation at the City Council meeting about a company that offers a "cash for trash" recycling program where homeowners earn dollars for redemption at local and national businesses for every pound of trash they recycle, and I thought of those garbages and how the majority of items in them were probably recyclable. So, the program could certainly do some good to encourage more recycling in Dunwoody and to circulate local dollars at local businesses, thereby strengthening our local economy.

I've been thinking about this program ever since, however, and see one flaw in the system. I wonder if there is an option where instead of being compensated for every pound recycled, we get compensated for every pound below a certain threshold that we don't put in the landfill. You see, people who compost their kitchen scraps, consider packaging and waste when they shop and try to reduce both at the point of purchase, and grow their own food and purchase unpackaged food directly from farmers may not have an "impressive" amount of recycling by their curb each week (it is a goal of mine, for instance, to actually reduce waste in general, even recyclable waste), and the "Cash for Trash" program does not reward any of these eco-conscious actions. This is like the Gwinnett stormwater credit program that rewards having a sprinkler on a timer but doesn't reward simply not watering your lawn.

Anyway, I remember the City of Atlanta mentioning it was going to start using a Cash for Trash program, so I want to find out if it has done so and how that is going. Also, Atlanta's recent announcement of the first Zero Waste Zone in the country (downtown Atlanta), designed to encourage more convention business (we're losing conventions to cities considered more green, by the way), is a movement to keep an eye on, especially if we hope to grow our business meetings/tourism activities here in the Perimeter area.

Other green news of the day:

* See the Dunwoody farmers market update here. Other local food options include the Peachtree Corners CSA and the Alpharetta Farmers Market (among many others).

* Here's the latest on The People's Garden at the USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C.

* Our neighbors at the Newell Rubbermaid headquarters in Sandy Springs announced some new recycled office products today. See the press release here.

* Here are the area events going on as part of Comcast Cares Day Saturday, with the culminating event open to the public at the Dunwoody Nature Center from 1-4 PM.

* Marc Sommers of Parsley's Catering (formerly of Dunwoody but now in Marietta) sent me some pictures of the raised gardening beds Farmer D just built at Parsley's super-green event facility. Here's one:













* I saw two little third-grade girls almost get hit by a minivan this morning while crossing Meadowlake at Trumbull on their way to Vanderlyn. It is lighter out in the morning now and the weather is lovely. Please be aware that more children are walking to school.

* Take a look at the map of recent visitors to this blog in the sidebar (if you are getting this blog via email, go to the actual blog here to see the map on the right hand side). (I don't know what that Albuquerque blog mention is--I think that may be an ad.) People around the country (and world!) are interested in seeing what sustainable steps we take with our brand new city.

I joined the county recycling program two years ago today in celebration of Earth Day. Maybe there is some eco-thing you've been wanting to start doing as well. Perhaps today is a great day to kick it off. (Psssst--want an easy one that makes things just plain nicer? Use cloth napkins from now on. What a pleasant, paper-saving upgrade.)