EARTH DAY 2013 - APRIL 22.

LET'S CELEBRATE!
Send an e-mail to gogreen@gmail.com to invite a GoGreen volunteer to YOUR classroom!
So many ways to be kind to our Earth ...

- separate your waste in school and/or at home (compost organic waste, sort plastics/papers/aluminum)

- go on a nature walk (eg. on the school's nature trail)

- study about recycling (ask for GoGreen's play recycling truck)

- watch a puppet show about waste decomposition (ask for GoGreen's puppets and props)

- do green crafts (ideas here)

- play the recycling scavenger hunt (Sprout took some photos of green spots in Clemson. Find on the map where the photos were taken! You can see the map and photos here. )

- play the "oil game" (game handbook and video)

- discuss the "The Story of Stuff" (see videos here)

- read books about environmental issues (available at our library)

 

-check your ecological footprint here!

International Recycling

Webelo scouts from Troop 235 are busy recycling at the International Festival! THANK YOU, SCOUTS!

Did you know ..... The  Environmental Performance Index (EPI) completed by Yale University found that in green efforts the U.S. ranks only 39th from 163 countries examined?

The EPI rates countries by assigning numeric values for different aspects of environmental policies. Each of 163 countries was graded on a scale of 1 to 100 (with 100 being the highest score). The EPI ranks many European and South American countries higher that the U.S. The EPI takes into account not just recycling, but other factors like purity of drinking water, carbon emissions and disease rates.

2010 EPI Top 10 Countries With Scores (Out of a possible 100)

1. Switzerland, 95.5
2. Sweden, 93.1
3. Norway, 93.1
4. Finland, 91.4
5. Costa Rica, 90.5
6. Austria, 89.4
7. New Zealand, 88.9
8. Latvia, 88.8
9. Colombia, 88.3
10. France, 87.8

Well, we still have quite a way to go to make it into the top 10! Keep up Go-ing Green, kids!!!!

Field Trip

Guys, you won't believe the cool fieldtrip I went to with the 3rd grade classes!

We visited the Pickens Transfer Station where I saw what happens with all our trash after it gets picked up. I learned, that if we separate recyclables, they come to this huge transfer station and they get bailed up into giant, compressed cubes, and these recyclables are sold to recycling companies that make new things out of them. Our county earns money with this.

I also saw that everything that we don't put into our recycling bins, is collected here and gets trucked down to Homer, Georgia. We need to take it so far, because we don't have our own lined landfill. (We used to have one, but it filled up and is covered with soil now. Methane gas is still escaping from the decomposing waste, though...) Taking away our unselected trash costs out county 1 million dollars!

See, if we made less trash buy reducing our waste, or reusing some items, or by separating our recyclables, we wouln't need to spend such a big chunk of our county taxes on getting rid of our junk. Do your parents know this?

Click here for more pictures!

Great Go Green Tour! Kids send us your visions!

As you might know, 141 third graders from Clemson Elementary went on a great Go Green tour through our small city last week. They went to a recycling center where they heard a Land fill talk, visited the Clemson Sustainable Agriculture Farm were they heard a worm bin talk and ended their day at the Picture Green event at Clemson University where they looked at Visions for Self-Sufficient cities by Clemson University Architecture students. Go Green!! Go! 

Hey kids, tell me, Sprout, your vision for a self-sufficient city, one that takes care of itself and doesn't abuse the environment. You can write your idea on this post or email me drawings at gogreence@gmail.com!.

In this city called Reciprocity, waste is used and reused to make the city work. Everything is good for something, everything is recycled. Human waste is turned into fuel to make things work. The city works a little like a worm bin. 

In this city, harmful gases created by cars are transformed into Oxygen through photosynthesis using algae and streets are turned into parks.  Many existing cities can be transformed like this. The name of this proposal is Go the Park Way.

In this city every drop of water is collected and used for many of our water needs. This city, which acts like a sponge is called Pourouscity.

Don't forget kids! send me your ideas! together, we can think about how to make our cities and our world more Green, more ecological! ____ Sprout

2008/09 Recycling Numbers

November Recycling Numbers

Fall Festival

I hope to see you at the Clemson Elementary fall festival. You'll find my banner over the go green table and my picture on the aprons of the go green team (I'm blushing...). Stop by and build along with our cardboard castle project, put a suggestion in the box, or just say hello.
Check out the new links over on the side while you're here...