Sustainable Mullica Meeting, Friday Night at 7:00 PM

Who:  Calling All Mullicans!

What:  Sustainable Mullica Meeting & Green Drinks

When:Friday, October 28, 2011 @ 7:00 PM

Where:  Polk's Cabin, 1701 Fifth Avenue, Devonshire in Mullica Township

Why: To Celebrate Mullica Township's Sustainable Jersey Certification and Discuss Sustainable Mullica's Projects & Concerns

If the weather cooperates we'll be outside and have a bonfire

 

Please RSVP by Tuesday, October 25, 2011 to Susan at susanpolk53@gmail.com or (609)703-1700

What we will be discussing:

New Focus for Sustainable Mullica:

•    Education for Sustainability Programs – Bringing the Sustainable Me! Program to Mullica Township Middle School

• Food Production – School Garden – Mullica Township Committee, Sustainable Mullica, AtlantiCare’s Healthy Schools, Healthy Children and Mullica Township School will join together to create a school garden

•  Waste Reduction – Continue Gayle Brill’s action and focus on recycling in our schools

• Adopt a Backyard Composting Program

• Adopt a Grass – Cut It and Leave It Program

•   Other Innovative Project – Work on creating a sustainable living demonstration site

No meeting for April, Neighborhood Clean Up in its place

We will NOT hold our April Sustainable Mullica meeting on the last Monday of this month.  In lieu of our monthly meeting, Sustainable Mullica is asking all to organize a Neighborhood Clean Up in honor of Earth Day.  Please see the above tabbed document and feel free to use it to help with your event.  Post your pictures and comments on our facebook page or send them to me to be viewed on our blogspot.

"Purge the Plastic" Pledge

Sustainable Mullica, with the help of Emily Schlee and friends will have a table set up at the elementary school entrance during the parent-teacher conferences on 2/11, 2/14 and 2/15 where they will be handing out "Plastic Bag Fact Sheets" and "Reduce Your Use" Pledge forms. These forms can also be downloaded here, filled out and brought into the elementary or middle school offices to the attention of Jean Gallagher. You can also bring in the filled out form to the Sustainable Mullica meeting, scheduled for Monday, January 28th.

The first 100 to take the pledge will get a free, unbleached cotton, made in the USA, reusable grocery bag with the Sustainable Mullica logo on it.

Plastic Bag Fact Sheet

Reduce Your Use Pledge Sheet

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere

Everywhere you turn, you hear about cutting back on plastic usage, yet everything seems to be in plastic.

BPA, HDPE, PVC, PETE, these acronyms are on all plastics, but what do they mean?  Here's a brief primer on plastics (the 7 most commonly used):

PETE (#1 plastic) Polyethylene terephthalate ethylene. Use in water, soda pop, and shampoo bottles. Also in detergents & peanut butter containers. Widely recyclable.

HDPE (#2 plastic) High Density Polyethylene. Use in milk containers, water jugs, bleach bottles (although use of bleach is highly hazardous to you and the environment), cleaning products. Widely recyclable.

Never use PVC ( #3 plastic) Polyvinyl Chloride or Vinyl Chloride. Used in cling wrap, toys, water pipes. Avoid at all costs. Vinyl chloride is a human carcinogen ! Not recycled.

Avoid LDPE (#4 plastic)Low Density Polyethylene. Used in grocery store bags, plastic wrap and baby bottles. Safer than most plastics but not commonly recycled. Safer for food than others and less toxic to produce.

Avoid PP (# 5 plastic ) Polypropylene. Used in food containers, plastic squeeze bottles like ketchup and syrup.

Never use PS (#6 plastic) Polystyrene. Used in Styrofoam containers and opaque cutlery. Highly toxic to the nervous system and the brain. Is a suspected carcinogen. Also may have an effect on the liver, kidney, stomach and blood cells. Not recycled.

Avoid other(#7 plastic) usually polycarbonate. Used in plastic baby bottles, sippy cups, 5 gallon water bottles, sport bottles, and metal food can liners. This is the BPA leacher! Not recycled.

We know it's hard to eliminate plastic usage, but #3, #6 and #7 are the big offenders with orange juice and milk.  Next time you're shopping, check the numbers on the bottom and if they have them, try a brand that doesn't use those plastics.  Milk and Orange Juice is widely available in cartons now.

PETE and HDPE plastics are recyclable and basically for one time usage only.

Many re-usable sports bottles, sippy cups and baby bottles are now labeled "BPA free", read the labels.  For sports bottles, try to use these or stainless reusable bottles.

Lastly, never microwave in plastic or wash plastic in the dishwasher, the hot water breaks down the plastic increases the chemical leaching.

Every little step taken helps.  It helps you and it helps the Earth.


Information found on Little Green Blog

We made the front page of the Press Hometown section!

  The Hometown section of today's Press of Atlantic City front page featured an article all about Sustainable Mullica.  To read full article, click tab next to the "home" tab. 

The "evils" of sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate

I generally make my own soap to avoid sodium lauryl or laureth sulfate and am currently on my last bar.  I also do use Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap (Fair Trade) as a shampoo/body wash.  The 18-in-1 soap has been around a long time, however I have found it to be a great shampoo for me.  However, after reading this current article in Mother Nature Network, it's made me rethink the whole thing.  Susan does the "Curly Girl" method, but my mind would allow me to really give it a go.  Perhaps I will try this method now using the conditioner once a week.  Susan talks the talk, but she also walks the walk.  For some the changes are easy, for others it's baby steps, but it's all good because every green change you make, you do make a difference.
Submitted by Deneen St. Amour

5/08/2010-Rain Barrel Class through Rutgers Water Resources Program

Today, I was able to attend the class on "How to make a rain barrel" and learned so much (like adding 2 teaspoons of mineral oil to the rain barrel with prevent mosquito larvae, and you should use a full rain barrel within 3 days and 1 inch of rain drops 5,000 gallons of water!). The making of the rain barrel, with their supplies literally took about 20 minutes. ( Yes, I crawled inside the barrel to make sure the spigot was in straight and put the O-ring on and no, it wasn't easy getting out and I ended up rolling around a bit until someone helped me), but all in all, not having the supplies on hand, making it there was worth it. I would have to check out the ones available in stores to do a cost comparison. 55 gallon containers are available on Craigslist, however the parts for making it you would have to purchase at Lowe's or Home Depot and, to be honest, having them hand you all the supplies made it easier. I plan to paint this one and have an idea in mind and yes, they even give you directions.

Hammonton Green is hosting a Rain Barrel on Sunday, May 23rd from 1:00 to 4:00 PM and I hope to attend that class also (as I want two of them). Cost is $40.00 and covers supplies, but you must pre-register.

EARTH DAY 2010

From Little Green Blog

On April 22, 2010 millions of people around the world will celebrate Earth Day, marking its 40th anniversary. The idea behind the day—honoring the planet and all living things that inhabit it—began during the early 1960's. The first official U.S. observance of Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 by a Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson.

Some people think that Earth Day is a day for the "granola's" or the "Hippies and Tree Huggers", when really, it is for the exact opposite! We know what to do, now we need to help the others understand what this whole thing is about! Everyone is responsible for this planet ; the Chinese, the Americans, the Jewish, the Catholic, the Baptist, the Buddhist, etc..! Everyone! We need to start taking care of this planet that we inhibit for our own good. Earth day is the largest NON - RELIGIOUS holiday celebrated today. Including 184 countries and a 1/2 Billion people. But still, that is only 7 % of the people on earth.


This Earth Day you should try help someone else to become "Eco-conscious". Kind of like "pass it on". Tell someone about the garbage swirls in the Pacific. Show them the photos of the huge amounts of trash found floating in the ocean and the 100,000 related marine animal deaths. Send someone the recycling facts and teach someone to compost! Spread the word! Let's get that 7% up this year. Everyone counts.

Gardening: Making Paper Pots for Seedlings

Found this great link from DinnerGarden.org and Dave's Garden. Newspaper ink is soy based, so no worries there. Easy, FAMILY activity for starting your garden.

Green Egg Dyeing: Eco-friendly ways to dye your eggs that really work

The Long Island Press has a fantastic article on dyeing your eggs using nature. Long before Paas came out with their dyes, people dyed their eggs naturally. There are lots of sites online that cover this, however the author of this article actually tested a bunch of methods and did experiments and found out which ones really worked and posted them all in her article. So, if you haven't dyed your eggs yet and want to have some fun and a great green family activity, look over the article and try one of proven experiments done by author Jaclyn Gallucci.

Eco-Friendly ways to dye eggs