The Green Team: Let’s look more closely at paper recycling. In an earlier newsletter we wrote that China formerly processed many recyclables, but they now require recycled material to be 99.5% free of contaminants.  We can meet those standards if we are more careful in our recycling.  

So what contaminates paper for recycling?  This is a list of things not to include in paper for recycling.
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• Anything like paper cups, paper napkins, paper straws or pizza boxes that has been in contact with food, even if clean.  Paper napkins, straws and pizza boxes may be composted, but many paper cups are coated on the inside with plastic. Ask whether paper items are compostable.  
• Receipts on heat treated paper that may be BPA coated such as gas station receipts.  The best idea with these is not to get them at all because BPA is transferred by contact with the skin.  BPA interferes with hormonal functions. Refuse receipts or get them electronically.
• Tissues even clean ones because the fibers are too short.  However, these can go into the compost. Cloth handkerchiefs are a great alternative.
• Photos.  Photos on cardstock are recyclable, but when on photo paper they are not.  Photo paper has a plastic layer to protect the print that will contaminate paper recycling.    
• Wax paper.  The waxes may be soy-based or paraffin-based.  Soybean wax is difficult for microbes to digest and paraffin is a petroleum product and you don’t want it in your soil. 
• Paper towels.  Like paper napkins, paper towels have fibers that are too short to recycle and they are used for cleanup.  They may be composted.
• Shredded paper.  Like paper towels and tissues the fibers in shredded paper are too short for recycling.  However, it may be composted.
• Foil backed paper.  Paper with foil backing like the inner wrapping of some chocolate bars that I like to eat.
• Sparkle and bling on greeting cards.  Paper greeting cards are recyclable, however, any foil, sparkle, ribbons or bling makes them not recyclable.  

The exclusions may seem impossible to remember, but they are reasonable when we look more closely at how things in our environment are made and think about their impact when they are no longer usable.
-Ella Ingraham, for the Green Team

Green Team: Have you been considering composting to contribute to improving the environment?  If you don’t have space in your yard or business site, you have another choice if you live or have a business in downtown Greenfield.  The Compost Coop is a local business that will develop an individualized plan for you. They provide a collection container and pick-up it up weekly or biweekly.  The Coop partners with Just Roots and Martin’s Farm to actually compost your compostables. Saints James and Andrew uses the Coop’s service.
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The Coop was developed in the Think Tank at the Greenfield Jail to provide work experience, democratic control of their workplace and a living wage for people coming out of jail and prison.  They have support from local foundations, businesses and consumers as they build their business. If you are interested in more information, their website is www.thecompostcooperative.com.  What a useful service for the community and an exciting way to help people rebuilding their lives! 

-Ella Ingraham, for the Green Team

What does zero waste mean?  The definition adopted by the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) is: “The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of all products, packaging, and materials, without burning them, and without discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.”

Zero waste encompasses recycling and reusing resources, but more broadly focuses on restructuring production and distribution systems to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste and to conserve resources.

Why consider zero waste when we’re satisfied with our current consumption and trash disposal practices? In addition to consuming more of earth’s resources than are regenerated our trash is poisoning us and the other lifeforms that share our planet.  Plastic is being found in the flesh of fish and sea creatures including fish that we eat. There is plastic in the ocean and on our beaches. A particularly evocative image was in a National Geographic article from May 2018. Imagine 15 grocery bags filled with plastic trash piled up on every single yard of shoreline in the world. That’s how much land-based plastic trash ended up in the world’s oceans in just one year.  This year scientists found microplastics in the air that we breathe.  The pervasiveness of plastic pollution points out how important it is to reduce the amount of plastic we use and dispose of.    
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To learn more about interesting day-to-day ways to reduce waste and conserve resources join our November 10 book discussion of 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste by Kathryn Kellogg.  It will be a brown bag event from 12 to 1 p.m. Kathryn Kellogg is a blogger who has reduced her household waste for two years to one 16-ounce mason jar. 
-Ella Ingraham, for the Green Team

One of the tools in the Creation Care toolbox is the carbon offset.  A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.  People may buy them to offset air travel or part of their total greenhouse gas emissions as a household.  Some airlines offer them to offset the significant emissions associated with flying. I went to the website Terrapass and found out that for traveling from Boston to San Francisco and back, my estimated emissions would be 3,487 pounds of CO2 and an offset would cost $17.40.   
You may ask, is this effective?  According to a study by Stanford University of California mandated program limiting carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, they are effective because they’ve required forest owners to change their practices as part of making credits available and polluting companies have had to reduce emissions because the pool of available credits is limited.  There have been side benefits in preserving habitat for endangered species. In addition, when you purchase an offset, it may be tax deductible when the offset is purchased from a nonprofit.      
- Ella Ingraham, for the Green Team     

We know that when we drive our gas-fueled cars, buy food transported from far away places, take a flight to an exotic destination or when we use electricity from the grid, CO2 is generated.  CO2 is a greenhouse gas and rising greenhouse gas levels are a driving factor in climate change. According to EPA statistics, transportation accounted for 29% of 2017 greenhouse gas emissions, electricity 28%, industry 22% and commercial and residential sources including heating 12%.  Electricity may be generated using fossil fuels or alternative energies such as wind or solar. According to its own reports the majority of Eversource’s electricity for New England is generated using fossil fuels. On a household basis we can estimate how much greenhouse gas we generate from all our activities and this is our carbon footprint. Reducing our carbon footprints as individuals and households, as a church community and as part of a global effort is one of our goals. 
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The Diocese of Western Massachusetts is participating in an online pilot program to estimate a household’s carbon footprint and actions to reduce it.  Go to www.sustainislandhome.org to register your household for this program.  The Green Team is interested in your input about this program so please get back to us.  
-Ella Ingraham, for the Green Team     ​