Booboo Bunny - Green Roots Activist

Sorry I haven't posted here in a while. Work and family has been keeping me busy. I've also been busy with the "Go Green" blog for my son's elementary school. I recently learned that many plastic bags such as cereal bags, bread bags, ziplock bags, toilet paper and paper towel wrapping, and much more can be recycled at facilities that accept plastic grocery bags. Check out this link for a complete list of plastic bags that can and can not be recyled in this manner.

As dorky as it sounds, I was inspired to contact a bunch of manufacturers that use these types of bags in their packaging. So I e-mailed all of the major cereal manufacturers as well as other companies informing them that those bags are recyclable and would they publicize that fact on their packaging and website. I advised the to specifically note that they should be recycled at your local grocery store and similar facilities that accept plastic grocery bags. If you just mention that the bags are recyclable, people might put them in their curbside recycling. Most curbside recycling programs do not accept plastic grocery bags. They create havoc at the sorting facility because they get tangled in the machines and jam them up. The bags are also really lightweight and fly out of the back of the truck and become litter. I was disappointed in the reponse of some manufacturers in that they simply wrote back a boilerplate response thanking me for writing and that they would pass my concerns onto the appropriate party. Others did a better job and shared their other sustainable practices. They also said that they would share my idea with their marketing department and their webmaster. That would be cool if these companies made that change. Some of them were nice enough to send me some coupons for their products, so that made my time and effort more worth while.

I've been active with other grass roots efforts as well. I knew from researching the internet that many schools in our school disrtict had some sort of recycling program. I thought it would be great to share ideas amongst our schools and collaborate on larger projects. So I created a Google group to serve as an open forum to discuss these ideas. I also sent e-mails to all of the elementary schools' principals as well as the PTA presidents. I shared all of the great things we've done at my son's school, asked them to share what (if anything) they're doing at their school, and encouraged them to check out our green club blog. I got a response from less than half of those e-mails that I sent. For those that did respond, they gave me a simple answer back but gave me the impression they otherwise weren't interested. But I got some very favorable responses from about 5 or 6 schools. These are schools that are very interested in starting their own green effort and were looking for help getting things going. So my contacting them was very helpful to their effort. I got lots of great compliments on my green blog too.

One of the big changes I'd like to make in the school district is change from paperboard milk cartons to plastic milk chugs. This is because the former is not recyclable and the latter is. Switching to the plastic milk chugs will reduce the amount of trash heading to the landfill and will suplement our other recycling efforts in the school. I had enquired about this with the school district about a month ago and was told that the plastic milk bottles were more expensive than the traditional paperboard milk cartons. I did some research and learned that schools that make the switch have seen a big increase in milk and lunch sales. The increase in sales typically offsets the increased cost of the plastic milk chugs. Schools have found that it reduces the amount of waste generated in the cafeteria by about 10 - 15 percent. This will help reduce the overall amount of trash produced by the school so maybe the school could go with fewer and/or smaller dumpsters. This would result in an overall cost savings. I'm hoping that the reduction in waste hauling services would offset the costs for the school district to start a district-wide recycling program. Currently, most schools do not recycling. Some schools are partnered with recycling companies that collect only newspaper and aluminum cans. This is a free service to the schools and actually raises a little money for them. Other schools, such as my son's, pay for their recycling service. We have mixed stream recycling so we can also recycle paper, plastic, metal, and cardboard as well newspapers and aluminum cans. Our PTA pays for this service to the tune of over $700/year.

The last activity that has been taking up my time is a fundraiser for the green club. I collect cartons for MilkMuny. They pay schools 50 cents/carton and turn the cartons into neat wallets. It's similar to the popular Capri Sun juice pouch brigade that TerraCycle does. The school didn't want students bringing cartons to school so I found a different solution. Every Monday, I stop by my local IHOPs and pick up two to three garbage bags of Florida Natural 1/2 gallon OJ cartons. I average between 40 - 60 cartons a week. I spend Tuesday and Wednesday mornings (before work) cutting the tops and bottoms off the cartons and rinsing them out. I sent my first batch of 300 cartons to MilkMuny about a week ago and will soon receive a check for $150. They will accept up to 1,000 cartons over the course of the school year. We'll use that money to fund our battery recycling program as well as other activities.

All of this volunteering has been very rewarding. I hope to inspire more and more people to help protect the environment.

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Polar Bear Nipples

I read a book to my son every night before he goes to sleep. He's been reading a bunch of non-fiction books lately. A few night ago, we read a book about polar bears. The book talked about baby polar bears getting milk from their mother. Boo Jr told me, "Polar bears don't drink milk. Milk comes from cows." I then explained to him that all mammals make milk and proceeded to list different kinds of mammals. I told him that if our dog, Sofie, had puppies that she would make milk, and told him that Mommy made milk after she gave birth to him.

"But where does the milk come from?" asked Boo Jr.

"Nipples." I said.

"Oh." my son said. And we continued on with reading our book.

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Doing Homework

My wife is the one who typically does the homework with Boo Jr. They do it right after he gets home from school and before dinner. But every once in a while, I'll do homework with him or help him study for his tests. One thing that I'm enjoying is that he's starting to learn more complex subject matter in school. Earlier this year, his class learned about the continents and oceans. They also studied American geography such as knowing where the Rocky Mountains, Appalachian Mountains, Mississippi River, James River, and Virginia are on a map. More recently, they've been studying the water cycle, The need to know all about evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and run off. It's neat that they also talk about how it's important to conserve water and protect our water sources from pollution. They've also gotten into learning about the states of matter - solid, liquid, and gas. It's been cool remembering the old days when I learned this material in school.

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Parent/Teacher Conference

My wife and I attended the first parent/teacher conference this school year. Boo Jr. is now in second grade and has been doing well. He had a bit of a rough patch adjusting to first grade and had a number of distractions to deal with. He was hospitalized last fall with salmonella poisoning and had a long term substitute teacher in the spring when his first grade teacher was out for several weeks due to a health issue.

The teacher described my son as "such a sweet and polite boy" and being "so enthusiastic" about school. It's great to hear comments about that to confirm that you're doing a good job raising your child. Boo Jr's doing well overall. He's above average in a couple areas and needs a little help in some other areas. He's made some great progress eith his reading comprehension skills and getting it more in line with his reading ability.

I really like Boo Jr's teacher, Mrs. L. His first grade teacher last year, Mrs. F, was OK, but Mrs. L just seems more warm and caring. That seems to be more beneficial in Boo Jr's success in school. I'm hoping that he continues to excell in his strengths and make progress with his weaknesses because third grade brings the dreaded SOL tests.

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Prisoners Have It So Rough

I was out in the field earlier this week at one of my prison jobs doing a punch list. The GC was telling me about a neat program they will have at this jail. Each housing unit holds 96 inmates (assuming double bunking). There are 3 flat screen tvs mounted up high. Inmates are given special ear phones and can "tune in" to a specific tv. That way inmates can listen to Oprah and not be distracted by Judge Judy on the other tv.

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Our Throwaway Society's Effect on Wildlife

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.


Click HERE to see even more photos.

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Volunteering

Many of you know that I volunteer for the Green Club at my son's elementary school. It's been quite a rewarding experiencing, but I've been experiencing some frustration lately. I'm one of two parents who are quite involved and do a bulk of the work. At the beginning of the year, we asked parents to volunteer to be green club representatives for their child's classroom. Their duties would be minimal such as to make sure the classroom had the appropriate recycle bins. We had a really great response and had 50 parents sign up.

Our club conducts numerous fundraisers and projects throughout the school year. Our next event is participating in the school's "Fall Festival". They have a pumpkin lighting, face painting, and other crap for the kids. I sent a mass e-mail out to everyone asking for volunteers to help out with the Green Club's activities at this event. We need people to sell reusable grocery bags, and we need people to keep an eye on the recycling stations and swap the bags out so they don't overflow. I was hoping we would get a dozen or so volunteers to split up the duties. So far, we've only gotten two responses out of 50.

I'm more peaved that people can't be bothered to respond to the e-mail than anything. It's OK if you can't volunteer because you weren't planning on attending the event anyway. But at least have some courtesy and let me know that. I know everyone can't be as gung-ho as me, but I think people can give up 15 minutes of their time at an event like this so they can sell bags or something.

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Harmony Korine by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree)

Rain, come down, and fall forever
Drain, the dirt, into the wasteland
Pray, for sound, to quiet the howling

Feel, no shame, too brave
Feel, afraid, to wait forever

Kneel, to fade, the day�s corrosion
Crawl, depart, towards perdition
Gray, the part, the bruise within you

Feel, no shame, too brave
Feel, afraid, to wait forever

Forever

Feel, no shame, too brave
Feel, afraid, to wait forever

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That's My Boy!

It was busy weekend here at the Rabbit household. We had our company picnic to go to on Saturday and a birthday party on Sunday. It was just me and my son who went to the picnic. My wife is just getting over being sick and has a sorority conference to go to later this week so she didn't want to push her luck getting sick again. This year, the picnic was held at the president's house. He has a horse farm out in the boonies west of Richmond. It's a really nice house. We had it at his house this year because of the down economy. He provided the hamburgs, hot dogs, and sodas while everyone else brough a dish to pass. He has a large playset in his back yard for his grandkids, so that's where everyone's kids spent most of their time. There was one older woman who was looking over an infant who was playing in the kitchen under slide platform. Boo Jr was playing in there for a while too. When I stopped by to check in on my son, the woman complemented me on how well behaved he was and how gentle he was with the baby.

Yesterday, we had a birthday party to go to. It was at Mad Science. I stayed at the party because it was a half hour away and I didn't know the birthday boy's parents. It was a pretty neat party with lots of fire and loud noises, but I would never spend that kind of money on a party like that. The birthday boy's mother complemented me a number of times about how "awesome" his manners are. I can see why when you compare him to one girl who complained that her second slice of pizza was too small and was whining "when are we going to get our gift bags?". I was a little bummed that Boo Jr didn't want to go on the hovercraft ride. I think he was scared of the loud noise made by the blower. I had Boo Jr thank birthday boy's mom for the party, and unprompted, he gave her a hug. That really made my day. I need moments like that to reaffirm that my wife and I are doing a good job raising our son. The way my son acts at home sometimes (especially getting him downstairs to eat dinner), it makes you wonder how good a job you're doing. I guess we're doing just fine.

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One way to stop global warming...

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