Minutes (way too long) of the October 22, 2019 Meeting

The meeting of the Zero Waste Lancaster group on October 22nd began with eggplant parmesan, because that's what I happened to have a lot of at the time.

The topic for the meeting was "How to get things out of the house".    We talked about this in two parts:  first, sharing things that "could be useful someday" (and getting them to be useful now); and secondly, getting rid of things that nobody wants anymore (that is, trash).   We had a bit of a show on the computer, and added to it as we went along.  The notes are below.

Our next meetings will be 

• November 19 (with luck, we'll get to talk about Lancaster's Climate Action plan and our city's water use)
• December 17 (how to avoid bringing stuff into our home in the first place).

If you know someone who'd like to be on the Zero Waste Lancaster mailing list (getting two emails each month!), please have them send their email addresses my way!

- Annalisa

Notes:  

OVERVIEW:

1.  Storage/Duplication as Waste

(vs. storing things “in the cloud”)

·     Person-to-person

·     Person to organization

·     Via intermediaries

2. The 3 R’s (or the 7 R’s) of Zero Waste,

with special focus (today) on

·     Rot,

·     Reuse, and

·     Recycle

Terracycle, the video

Starting at 1.

Storage/Duplication as Waste

Re-framing “this could be useful someday” as

     “this could be useful to someone right now”

Recognizing (over) abundance in the world

and (excessive) ease of acquisition

Developing a willingness to consider shared ownership,

temporary ownership, and/or

“storing things in the cloud”

Person-to-Person donation

·    Freecycle

·    “FREE” signs at the curb

·    Craigslist

·    Ebay

·    Yard Sale

·    Church bulletin boards

·    Nextdoor.com

Person-to-organization donations

·    Church World Services (for recently arrived refugees)

·    Water Street Rescue Mission

·    Central PA food bank

·    Milagro House

·    Humane Society (uses towels and sheets)

·    F&M Animal labs (newspaper)

·    Off the Streets now

·    Lancaster food hub

  

Donations involving intermediaries

(helpful hint: keep an “unshopping” list with hours/addresses)

·    Goodwill, Salvation Army, Community Aid

·    Consignment shops

·    Library ReSort

·    Little Free Libraries

·    Habitat Restore

·    Lancaster Creative Reuse

·    Common Wheel

·    Purple Heart

But what about stuff that nobody can use?  Welcome to the R’s of Zero Waste philosophy:

1.                Refuse

2.                Reduce/ShaRe

3.                Reuse

4.                Repair

5.                Repurpose      (did you see my chandeliers???)

6.                Recycle

7.                Rot

Maybe “return”???

(Give trash back to the people who gave it to you?)

Terracycle video (13 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHqwd-LBp5c

Rot:  Compost tips (share your favorites!)

·    Using the freezer

·    F&M compost dumpsters

·    chicken-wire fencing w/ binder clips

·     

Curbside recycling

·    Corrugated cardboard

·    Unbroken glass bottles

·    Metal food cans

·    Plastic bottles with necks

City Recycling Drop-off Center

850 New Holland Ave.

– Mixed office paper
– Newspaper
– Magazines
– Corrugated cardboard  
– Chipboard (cardboard)
– Soft cover and hard cover books
– Shredded paper
– Plastic bottles and jugs with a neck
– Steel/tin/aluminum cans
– Glass bottles and jars

PLEASE SEPARATE PAPER, & everything should be clean

Hazardous Waste Facility (Harrisburg Pike)

• Adhesives
• Automotive fluids (max. 5 gallons per container)
• Batteries, including automotive and household
• Chemistry sets
• Cooking and frying oils (max. 5 gallons per container)
• Fire extinguishers
• Floor and furniture polish
• Fuel, including kerosene, gasoline and propane
• Household cleaners
• Lawn treatments, including herbicides and pesticides
• Mercury containing items (max of 30 per month), including ballasts, fluorescent bulbs, thermostats and thermometers
• Paint, rust inhibitors, stains, turpentine and thinners
• Photographic and pool chemicals

Ideas for:

Scrap Metal:

·    Columbia metals (if you have a LOT)

·    Freecycle

Styrofoam^:

·    Dart Container, 110 Pitney Road, Lancaster, PA

Plastic grocery bags:

·    Power packs can use them·     

Dirty cardboard (for example, pizza boxes, ice cream containers)

·     compost, if you can

Next meetings:

November 19,(tentative) the Lancaster City Municipal Operations Climate Action Plan

     With (maybe) Doug Smith, Senior Planner for the City of Lancaster

     "If you reduce your water use, you reduce waste water volume,

and you save energy in the process.  So you get a double return on it."

December 17