Earth Day 2008 in Veterans Park was a lot of fun. There were maybe 20 booths total and lots of activities for kids. We were able to talk to quite a few people while we were there and get some ideas of what we can do for our compost pile. The BTU was manned by Paul, a friend of mine's husband, and we were able to talk to him about the possibility of putting solar panels on our house or in our backyard. I'm sure we'll have a lot more questions as we continue to consider it. Both cities recycling programs were represented as well as TAMU's recycling program. Both cities utility companies also were there to discuss ways to cut back on energy consumption. It really was a gorgeous day for the celebration. The wind here lately has been horrendous, but Saturday was nothing short of perfect.
3 comments:
I saw your comment on Crunchy Chicken's blog about your electric company giving away Earth Day items in plastic bags. That exact thing happened to me here in WA state! I counted no fewer than six booths giving out plastic bags with pamphlets and other stuff in them and I was horribly dismayed.
And the icing on the cake--the kids were given a "passport" as they entered and had to stop by eight specific booths to get stamped to turn their card in for a prize. I looked at the prize booth--plastic junky dollar store toys! I'm angry still, two days later, and I think I'm going to write a letter to the editor of our local paper. Not that it will do a huge amount of good...
Melissa,
Thanks so much for checking out my blog!
I'm with you! As we were entering, we saw a ton of kids running around with yellow plastic hard hats that had been given away. I'm not sure where they got them since I was a little late in arriving, but for heaven sake!
Most of the booths were giving away little plastic items with their logo. We did pick up a few things (I got a funnel for the kitchen, we got a low energy night light, and a paper bag full of compost), but refused everything else.
And the food that was sold at the concession stand consisted of buttery popcorn, cotton candy and other sugary, fatty foods. Yuk! The woman at the recycling booth was complaining that people were contaminating the recycling containers for paper products with food trash. What a mess.
Overall, the booths were very helpful and everyone was really nice. It was a fun time, but a few little changes are definitely needed.
Perhaps the message in all this is that education is critical. My husband and I were talking about this the other night. People just don't know or understand and everyone is so busy, they don't stop and think about it (my mom didn't realize that there were numbers on the bottom of plastic bottles and that only certain numbers were recyclable in her area).
You should totally write a letter to your local paper! Nothing changes if we don't speak up. I was also thinking of either joining or at least speaking to the organizers of the event to offer some feedback. They probably just never thought about it.
(A similar "ugh" moment happened when I walked in the American Heart Association Heart Walk last year. They had subway sandwiches, bananas, oranges, and fruit, but they also were handing out doughnuts and soda. What????? Doughnuts and soda at the American Heart Association walk? Oh boy.)
As an update, I spoke with our local Earth Day coordinator and she indicated that there were not supposed to be any plastic bags! We're on a hunt to find the culprit!
So it turns out, they didn't know. Maybe there were leftovers from another year? She did mention that the city is starting up a canvas bag program. Stay tuned for more information. I'll pass it along as soon as it's posted on their site!
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