Kevin Krueger, MLAKAMLOOPS - NORTH THOMPSON

9 - 111 Oriole RoadKamloops, BC, V2C 4N6

Toll Free • 1-888-299-0805314-6031 for calls from Darfi eld to Kamloops

“Here to Help You”

Recycle Today for

Tomorrow’s World.

1 GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008

TH

E

NORTH THOMPSON

TH

E

NONORTRTHH TTHOMOMPSPSON

TimesWhere does our recycling go?

When we recycle, we reduce the amount of garbage going to our local landfills and turn our waste into new products like boxes, tissues or shampoo bottles – and uses less energy, too!

The materials collected at our new recy-cling depots are sorted with the help of con-veyor belts, screens and human hands at the Metro Waste Paper Recovery Plant in Kel-owna. These materials are then sold to mills and manufacturers to be made into new prod-ucts. Some of the rev-enue from the sale of these materials is put back into the program to help offset the costs to provide the ser-vice.

Most of our paper, cardboard, metal and plastic is shipped to mills right here in BC. Newspaper goes to Catalyst Paper in Port Coquitlam and is made into more newspa-per. Boxboard and cardboard go to Noram-

pac in Burnaby and is made into new boxes. Plastic is sent to Merlin Plastics in Delta and is recycled into non-food plastic containers such as soap or shampoo bottles. Recycled plastics are also used for fleece clothing, as well as some carpets. Our tin and aluminum

goes to ABC Recycling in Burnaby and is melted into re-bar and o t h e r m e t a l p r o d -ucts.

O f -fice pa-per and

glass are both shipped out of prov-ince. Office paper is sent to Harman Associates in Oregon and used for tissue paper. Glass is sent to Vitreous Glass outside of Calgary and made into fiberglass insulation. Recycled glass can also be used in reflective paints and sandblasting.

The bottom line – recycling works! It closes the loop – turning our waste into a valuable resource instead of filling up pre-cious space in our landfills.

Most of our paper, cardboard, metal and plastic is shipped to mills right here in BC.

"The materials collected at our new recycling depots are sorted with the help of con-veyor belts, screens and human hands at the Metro Waste Paper Recovery Plant in Kelowna."

Recycle Today

for

Tommorrow's World

Going Green

2 GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008

Did you know that in a lifetime, the average North American will throw away 600 times his adult weight in garbage? Needless to say that Waste Reduction Week held in Canada from October 19 to 25 plays an important role in raising awareness about all those things that we throw away and which are too good to waste!

How can we do our share to minimize waste? The first step would be to adopt the 3-R approach: reduce, reuse and recycle. The best waste is the waste we don’t produce. What a good reason to buy less, to ask ourselves if we re-ally need something before

actually buying it and to avoid buying overpackaged products. We should also reuse products, thus giving them a second life. Among other things, that means re-pairing objects instead of throwing them away, buy-ing secondhand items and giving homemade gifts. Finally, we should recycle as much as we can to mini-mize the use of natural re-sources, keeping in mind, for instance, that it takes 95% less energy to pro-duce new aluminium from discarded aluminium pop cans than it does from raw materials.

During Waste Reduc-tion Week, individuals, as well as municipalities,

businesses and schools are asked to make an effort, because every segment of our society can make a difference in the amount of waste that is produced across Canada. Municipali-ties should lead their com-munities in that matter by proclaiming Waste Reduc-tion Week from October 19 to 25 and by organizing activities that will encour-age children and adults to contribute solutions for waste-free living. And re-member, every small ges-ture counts!

Too Good to Waste!

Depot BagLady Enterprises

4365 Borthwick Ave. • Barriere

672-2123

Your #1 Locally Owned Recycling Facility

Recycling Beverage Containers In the Community, For the Community!

Now recycling milk & milk substitute containers.Plastic, polycoat, and aseptic

No deposit paid & no deposit returned = no milk containers in the landfi llPlease remove caps, rinse, fl atten, & package separately.

Do the Right Thing...Do the Right Thing...Do the Right Thing...Do the Right Thing...Rechargeable Battery and Cell Phone Recycling Program Guidelines

RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES:If it’s rechargeable, it’s recyclable! Look for the Seal! When you see any of theses seals or the abbreviations Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, Li-ion or Pb* imprinted on a battery pack, it means that the battery can be recycled.

CELL PHONES:Any cellular phone is accepted in the Call2RecycleTM program. We will accept any size, make, model, digital or analog, with or without battery or charger.

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Communications CentreTM

Recycle Now and Reduce your Waste

The new “Recycle Now” program is made up of two parts, a new blue bag recy-cling service and a “pay as you throw” garbage service. Here are some important questions and answers about the new program.

When does it start?The new program will

officially start on January 1st, 2009. The TNRD has opened four more recycling depots to help residents and businesses recycle and re-duce their waste. These new facilities have opened at Clearwater, Sun Peaks and Merritt, and Pritchard, and are in addition to the sites at Logan Lake, Clinton and Lytton where the program was first pilot tested earlier this year. Fees for garbage will also be required in Jan-uary and you’ll be able to start buying your eco-cards at convenient retail loca-tions starting in December.

What can I recycle?You can recycle as much

of the following materials as you like at no charge: tin and aluminum cans, mixed paper, plastics numbered 1-7, boxboard and heavy pa-per. Simply keep recycling separate from your garbage in blue or see-through bags and dump them into the re-cycling bins provided – you can also reuse your bags. There will be two other bins for glass food and beverage containers and corrugated cardboard that need to be kept separate.

What does “pay as you throw” mean?

Each bag of garbage for disposal will cost $1 and just like many other utilities such as electricity or gas, the less you use the service the less you will pay. Under the “pay as you throw” program, you’ll have more control of

your garbage disposal costs. By recycling, composting or smart shopping you’ll create less waste and pay less

at the transfer stations and landfills.

I already pay for solid waste on my taxes, isn’t this an extra charge?

While costs to operate all of our transfer stations and landfills are already on our taxes, there is not enough to cover the increasing cost for waste collection. Rather than continue to increase costs for everyone, the new program will give you more control over your garbage. The new ‘Recycle More’ program will provide an in-centive for people to recycle rather than throwing every-thing in the garbage. The more you recycle, the less you pay, rather than raising rates for everyone.

What’s an Eco-Card?Instead of paying for

your garbage at the transfer station each time you go, you’ll be able to purchase punchcards called Eco-Cards from convenient municipal and retail locations through-out the TNRD. These cards will be available in various amounts such as $5, $10 and more. You simply present your card to the attendant at the transfer station to punch out the number equal to the number of bags or quantity of waste you have for dis-posal.

Will there be changes at the transfer stations?

As part of the changes to provide recycling, and to re-duce waste and abuse at the transfer stations, these sites will be fenced and open set hours with an attendant on site, similar to those in the Columbia Shuswap Region-al District.

Is this program more dif-

ficult for low income and large families?

As with other utilities and services, the less you use, the less you pay. All households will have the same opportunities to re-duce their waste by using re-cycling, composting or cre-ating less waste with good buying practices.

Could “pay as you throw” cause an increase in illegal dumping?

While some communities do see a small increase in il-legal dumping shortly after a “pay as you throw” pro-gram is implemented, they also note a decline again as people get used to the pro-gram. In the short term, the TNRD is setting up an ille-gal dumping program that includes:

A hotline for the public to observe record and report illegal dumping.

Work with Provincial Conservation Officers to monitor the situation and patrol “hot spots”

Establish a community clean up program where lo-cal residents can get bags, gloves and free landfill tip-ping fees when they clean up litter or an illegal dump site on public property

Where can I get more in-formation?

This is just the initial an-nouncement and we’ll pro-vide more updates this fall as the launch of the program gets closer. In the meantime, for more information, visit our website at www.tnrd.bc.ca or email us at recycle-now@tnrd.bc.ca.

GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008 3

Residential & Commercial Garbage Collection. Containers available for construction sites,

yard clean-up, industrial sites etc.

JAGER GARBAGEJAGER GARBAGE

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Our Environment, Our Home. Please Recycle.Our Environment, Our Home. Please Recycle.

STARTING Monday NOVEMBER 3rdSTARTING Monday NOVEMBER 3rd

BLUE BAG PICKUP WILL BEGIN FOR BLUE BAG PICKUP WILL BEGIN FOR

ALL GARBAGE CUSTOMERS!ALL GARBAGE CUSTOMERS!

Recycling in North Thompson communities just keeps on rolling out! With more recycling facili-ties being introduced to our area all the time, households are able to recycle closer to home making recycling a re-ality in all households.

With the District of Clearwater being added to the Thompson-Nicola Re-gional District’s (TNRD) blue bag recycling program, and the upcoming introduc-tion of the District of Bar-riere’s recycling program, area residents are taking an active role in reducing the amount of waste that is go-ing to our regional landfills.

This preferred method of recycling is helping area residents to recycle a large variety of household materi-als including plastics #1-7, tin cans and aluminum foil,

all clean paper products, boxboard, cardboard and glass. Blue bag recycling is an easy and cost effective recycling program available to residents of the TNRD. Area residents simply place all dry, clean recyclable ma-terials in a clear blue plastic bag available at local gro-cery stores. Once full, the bag can then be deposited in the large green bins at your local TNRD recycling depot for free. The recyclables are then processed and shipped to businesses that turn dis-carded materials into new products, demonstrating the recycler’s motto of “clos-ing the loop”. Most of these businesses are located in southwest British Columbia while a few are located in Washington and Oregon.

The blue bag recycling system was selected by the

TNRD because it offers a full suite of recyclable ma-terials to be collected in a convenient single blue bag container within the home. With the exception of glass and large amounts of cor-rugated cardboard, all other recyclable material may be placed in the blue bags.

At TNRD recycling de-pots, large green bins are used to collect the blue bag recyclables. By collecting large amounts of recyclables in one bin rather than mul-tiple bins the costs related to the handling and trans-porting of the recyclables is reduced and decreases emissions as well. This re-cycling program will also allow the TNRD to use their existing infrastructure to collect recyclable materials, which cuts down on addi-tional costs.

What’s in the Bag?

Almost every home is loaded down with elec-tronics these days. Be-tween one or more com-puters, games and various other pieces of equipment we are pulling power to places unknown not many years ago.

Make sure all new equipment carries the Energy Star label which indicates more efficient power use. Also, use the ‘sleep mode’ on your computer if it's not con-venient to turn it off when not in use. It is an urban myth that computers are damaged if restarted nu-merous times a day.

Unless you are using you printer all day long, turn it off as well. If you need a printer through-out the day, you can use

a plug-in timer which will automatically turn the unit off, or invest in a model that automatically powers down when not in use.

Between mobile phones, cell phones, re-charging batteries, mi-crowave ovens, coffee makers, etc., our homes are pulling power even when equipment is idle. Unplug everything not in use because ‘phantom power’ – electricity used by the item just by being plugged in – can add up to significant money an-nually.

What to do with your home office equipment when the time comes to upgrade? It is estimated a staggering three-quarters of all computers pur-

chased are still stashed in basements and attics, which is a serious prob-lem.

If your computer or printer is still viable, an idea would be to check with local schools, library or charity shop and offer to donate your equipment. If your gear is not usable, your local recycling de-pot may accept electron-ics. If you are unsure of where to dispose of used equipment, please don’t put in the garbage or take it to the landfill, as elec-tronics contain signifi-cant amounts of lead and heavy metals which need to be handled properly. Take the time to phone your local government of-fice and ask for advice.

Enviro: Electronics

A whole lot of good reasons to buy from

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4 GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008

Coming Soon: Waste Web site

and Recycling DirectoryEver wonder what to do with old batter-

ies, light bulbs, paint or motor oil? Starting this month, the answers will be an easy click away. The TNRD is launching a new Solid Waste Management web site that brings all the information about recycling, garbage programs and landfills together on one con-venient web site.

The new site will include an easy to use Recycling Directory that provides info about

where to recycle, reuse and safely dispose of materials and more.

Give or Get Free Stuff! The new site will also link to the TNRD Reuses website at www.tnrdreuses.com that provides an online listing of items, like furniture or ap-pliances for swap or sale – instead of send-ing it to the local landfill or transfer station. Watch for details at www.tnrd.bc.ca.

Make Compost, not Landfi llBack for 2008 was the ever

popular TNRD backyard com-post program. This program allows area residents to take advantage of composting yard and household organics in a composting container that is available through the regional district. Composting allows households to work with na-ture to turn yard, garden and kitchen scraps into rich, dark soil, called humus. Finished compost is an excellent condi-tioner for your soil, increasing the amount of air and moisture reaching the roots for larger, healthier, plants. Composting is also an easy and effective way to reduce household gar-bage by as much as 50%.

Composting is a simple process, well suited to the amount of time and energy you are willing to devote to your compost project. It’s a unique way to return organics to the soil, nurturing your lo-cal environment; right in your own backyard.

By composting your or-ganic materials you are also helping to reduce the pressure that household waste puts on regional landfills. When we landfill our organics, valuable space is taken up and green-house gases are created which contribute to global warming. Like many of our materials

that we dispose of as garbage, organic materials can be eas-ily handled in more environ-mentally responsible ways.

By composting, chipping, and mulching we can turn kitchen and yard waste that can easily be composted in our backyards into nutrient rich soil that is ideal for gardens and lawns. Paper and card-board are not only recyclable;

they are also great materials for composting as a dry ad-ditive. A nicely functioning compost bin uses oxygen to decompose materials. Instead of creating greenhouse gases, compost helps to retain mois-ture and returns needed nutri-ents to depleted soil, which is an added bonus in the dry environment of the Southern Interior.

www.districtofclearwater.com

District ofDistrict of

...and dedicated to making a difference.

132 Station Road132 Station RoadClearwater, B.C. Clearwater, B.C.

Offi ce hours: Offi ce hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 - 4:30Monday - Friday 8:30 - 4:30

We Are HERE

The District of Clearwater signed onto the British Columbia Climate Action

Charter at the Oct 21st Regular Council meeting.

The Council of the District of Clearwater agrees to undertake policies and initiatives towards (1) becoming carbon neutral

in respect of their operations by 2012, (2) measuring and reporting on the community’s green house gas (GHG) emissions

pro le, and (3) creating a complete, compact, more energy ef cient rural community; and authorizes Mayor Harwood to

sign “The British Columbia Climate Action Charter” on behalf of the District Council.

Phone # 250 674-2257 Phone # 250 674-2257 Fax # 250 674-2173Fax # 250 674-2173Email admin@Email admin@districtofclearwater.comdistrictofclearwater.com

Proud Supporters of the New BLUE BAG

System

GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008 5

BUYER OF ALL TYPES OF SCRAP METAL

KamloopsKamloops Scrap IronScrap IronRecycling ~ It’s Our Business

955 Ord Road, Kamloops

1-866-797-2727www.kamscrap.com

After a sound, func-tional roof and wall sid-ing, one of the most ef-ficient ways of keeping your family warm and your energy costs down is to make sure your insula-tion is up to scratch.

If you have a crawl-space, take a deep breath and shimmy under the house to check that the in-sulation is still firmly in place and the plastic on the ground is still pliable and sealed. While you are under the house, check any water pipes snaking around and cover with foam insulating pipe or wrap with insulation. A cold January morning is no time to be scrambling around trying to thaw fro-zen pipes!

Work your way up, inspecting windows and doors for air leaks by us-ing an incense stick or candle to check for drafts. If you have air leaks use caulking and weather stripping to help trap heat

inside.If you have inefficient

windows and/or glass doors you can buy a little time by using shrink-film. Directions are on the package and require a hair dryer to pull the film taut and create an air pocket. Make sure you close your drapes at night to add an-other layer of protection.

Check pipes, air ducts, vents – anything that goes through the shell of the house – and close gaps with caulk or insulation.

If you don’t have in-sulated electrical plugs, install foam insulators behind the plate of each outlet.

Finally, climb into the attic and check the insulation. Heat rises, so this is the last stop to

contain warmth and com-fort through the winter months. If you use batt-type insulation know that it is only as good as the installation, so make sure every gap is filled completely and evenly. Products with increased density generally achieve higher insulating value.

When checking insu-lation throughout the house, make sure insulation around plumbing and wiring is not compressed as this reduces the effectiveness.

Enviro: Insulation

A cold January morning is no time to be scrambling around trying to thaw frozen

pipes!

4936 Barriere Town Road(Barriere Ridge Elementary)Box 219 Barriere, BC V0E 1E0

Blue Bag Recycling is soon to arrive in Barriere. Waste reduction in the North Thompson is about to take on a whole new look at our Barriere Landfi ll.

Beginning in Mid-November, residents of Barriere will be able to recycle using the easy and convenient blue bag recycling program.

The Blue Bag Program will give residents of Barriere the opportunity to do their part in:

Energy ConservationPollution Reduction, and

Overall Waste Management

Let’s take responsibility for the environment together….

Grab your stacks of paper, load up your plastics and help turn old materials into new products.

Go GREEN By Going BLUE!

It’s simple – place your recyclables in one bag and leave your bag on the curb for pick up on your garbage collection day.

Good news – The Barriere Landfi ll will have three large bins available for residents to drop off their recyclables. One of them will be for glass, one for corrugated cardboard and the other for general recyclables.

Watch for more details as they become available, in your local paper.

Just a reminder: The District of Barriere still has Composters available for sale at the District Offi ce.

What CAN go in the Blue Bag?· plastics #1-7· clean paper products· aluminum foil· tin cans (labels and lids OK)

What should NOT go in the Blue Bag?· Bubble Wrap· Diapers· Plastic Film or Styrofoam· Un-rinsed food containers· Toxic items (batteries, paint cans, aerosol cans)· Electronic items or small appliances· Glass· Corrugated Cardboard

Phone: 250.672.9751Email: inquiry@districtofbarriere.com

www.districtofbarriere.com

6 GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008

Recycling ALL Metals: Including all e-waste (TVs, Computers, Stereo Equipment etc.)

All Appliances Large & Small, Electrical Cords & Wire etc.Also Old Cardboard, Newsprint, Offi ce Paper etc.

Fee for pick-up/drop off by arrangement for free

Rubbish Removal:

single item or small load service

or Mini Roll-Off Bin Rentals 6 to 15 yards (from $220)

RECYCLING & GARBAGE CLEAN UP

Call Rick: 250-672-9895Reliable Services Since 1981

Why I RecycleBy Rick WeikApart from the obvious reason of try-

ing to make part of my living in salvage & recycling I have been concerned about pollution since before starting in business in 1981. The big “green” buzz is about global warming & though I am not sure we aren’t dealing with normal cycles in climate (over the 20th century several alarms were raised both about warming & cooling - even worry about a new “ice age”) I think there is no argument that pollution is bad.

One of the worst way we pollute is waste & one of the best ways to reduce waste is recycling. The TNRD, Provincial Government & Recycling Council of B. C. all are concerned about waste manage-ment, costs & reducing waste. There is much talk of achieving “zero waste” even though that may not be literally possible. But with some serious re-thinking & ef-fort on the individual level we should be able to vastly reduce our inputs into land-fills. It is probably too costly & impracti-cal to just take all garbage mixed to a cen-tral processing station & hire people to sort through it into various categories of recycling, reusing & composting etc. (For one thing there are & would be issues of cross contamination.) It will most likely take following the example of a lady in Seattle. I saw this story probably 20 years ago about how she had reduced landfill

garbage for her household to one small bag per week. She did this by rinsing all cans & glass containers, soaking or strip-ping paper labels & sorting it all before putting it out for collection. This along with newspaper & cardboard recycling eliminated most of her true garbage.

I adopted & adapted the same method for my household way back then & usu-ally took 3 weeks before I had enough garbage to put on the curb. As individuals we have or will soon have depots or bins to which we can take most paper, contain-ers & cardboard in reasonable household quantities. Many larger items & larger quantities can be dropped off to me or picked up by me (see last paragraph). Our individual efforts & concerns can make a big difference to our environment.

In 27 years of business I have always tried to encourage customers to keep re-cyclables separate from landfill trash. Now that I am “older” & have suffered some of the ravages of age I don’t do so much landscaping & outside maintenance (I don’t want to climb ladders anymore) I concentrate on recycling & waste man-agement. I will pick up recycling mate-rial for a fee & offer free drop off (by arrangement) of any metal (including e-waste appliances, large & small, light fixtures, electrical wire etc.) & newsprint & cardboard. I also do rubbish removal, including u-load roll-off bins.

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Environmental entrepreneur Rick Weik and faithful companion Rosie.

Pine Cone Bird Feeders Are Fun To Make

By Elli KohnertMaking pine cone birdfeeders is like

catching two birds with one idea. It is a practical, and environmentally friendly method to feed birds in winter, engaging families in a creative activity at the same time.

These feeders are a simple project that even young children can help create. It is also a good opportunity to go for a walk in the woods to collect the cones.

Different sizes and types of cones can be used, but it is a good idea to spread them out in a warm place before working with them, so they will open. The opening leaves larger spaces to fill with lard, veg-etable shortening, or peanut butter.

Cover the working surface for making the feeders with old newspaper, because it can be a messy job.

The supplies needed are:• Pine cones• A variety of fat fillings• Birdseed, or oat and cornmeal• A few feet of string, fishing line or

twine

To begin, tie a few feet of string to the top of the pine cone. Next press the short-ening or lard in and around the cone, place it into a shallow dish filled with bird seed and roll it around until it is thickly cov-ered.

You may want to fill some cones with crunchy peanut butter only, some birds like this treat, and resident squirrels es-pecially enjoy helping themselves. It is best to keep the finished product in a cool place to harden before hanging them out-side on tree branches in your yard, or even on some sturdy bushes.

If you have a small to medium spruce tree in your yard, you can use medium sized bird feeder cones as outdoor Christ-mas decorations. It can be a pleasure for families to watch lively little birds flutter like ornaments among the seed filled cones and to know that the little creatures have an easy food supply available that you have provided for them.

If you are itching to do something immediately to help the environment, light-ing is the place to start.

Spending just $100 can make a huge difference on your hydro bill, starting just a few weeks after mak-ing the change.

It is more expensive to buy compact fluorescent bulbs than the standard in-candescent bulb, but here’s the kicker, they last 10 times longer and use 75 per cent less energy, so the return on investment is swift.

Translated into hours of use that means a regular compact fluorescent bulb will last between 7,000 to

10,000 hours and bulbs with ballasts last an amaz-ing 45,000 hours. Money well spent!

Take time to really ana-lyze the job of each light-ing fixture and use the low-est wattage bulb possible. Use task lighting where possible – there is no point lighting the whole room when, for instance, a read-ing lamp does the job.

Much the same as out-side security lights, inside occupancy sensors liter-ally sense the presence of someone in the room and turn on the light. Con-versely, when you leave the room the light goes off. Just think, no more yelling

at the kids! The good news is they don’t require spe-cial wiring. Just replace a standard pole switch.

It’s scary to think Christ-mas is coming, but start thinking about replacing your old Christmas lights with LED strings. LEDs use up to 95 per cent less electricity and last up to 10 times longer. They give off less heat so are very safe and are readily available in all the traditional colours.

Take advantage of the great calculators on the BC Hydro website at www.bc-hydro/powersmart to help make your lighting deci-sions.

Enviro: Lighting

GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008 7

How to wrapthe perfectgift withnewsprint

Wrap the gift in newspaper.one

Cut a fairly wide strip fromthe remaining wrappingpaper long enough to goaround the center of the gift.

two

Fold the edges of thestrip under, wrap itaround the gift and tapethe ends on the back.th

ree

Cut one large square ofnewspaper and one largesquare of wrapping paper andtape them loosely together.

four

Cut a diagonal line, three-fourths of the way up, on eachcorner of the square to createfour triangular-shaped areas.

five

Fold the left-hand corner ofeach triangular-shaped areato the center of the squareand tape loosely to create apinwheel bow.

six

Attach the bow to the centerof the gift, fluff the ends, andvoila, your gift is complete.se

ven

�

Christmas is one of the least environmentally

friendly times of the year. We all love the mo-

ment when we get to unwrap our presents

and fi nd out what’s inside - but with

the amount of excessive packaging

that comes with gifts these days,

we’re left with 545,000 tonnes

of unwanted boxes, decora-

tions and gift wrap a year.

However, it isn’t hard to

make your holiday cel-

ebration a little more

green and help save

the planet. Consider

this.if everyone in

Canada wrapped

just three gifts

in reused paper

or gift bags,

it would save

enough paper

to cover 45,000

hockey rinks.

- News Canada

The TimesNOR TH THOMPSON

250-672-5611 250-674-3343

Have Some Fun Recycling

Your Surplus Clothingby Elli KohnertA group of women in

Vernon came up with the idea of a ‘Clothing Ex-change’ that is not only practical but gives women an opportunity to spend some social time together. There is no cost involved, except to provide some re-freshments for the event, and that would be shared by several of the partici-pants.

Someone who has a fairly spacious home could be the host of a clothing exchange event that is reminiscent of a Tupperware party, without the pur-chasing component. Invitations would be sent to a number of women, preferably in the neighborhood, so most ‘guests’ can walk or bicycle to it. Those who participate bring their contributions a day in advance, so that time is available for sorting gar-ments by type, etc. The idea can be expanded by also offering sewing ma-terials and yarns that often

clutter-up storage areas.There are many varia-

tions on the theme of an ex-change; it may be seasonal, or any type of specialty, it is left to the imagination of the organizers.

How about having a rec-ipe trade at the same time? Bring some cookies to sample, and make copies of the recipes to take home? It is an opportunity to be creative and an innovative recycler.

What to do with items not taken? No problem, they will be bagged and can be dropped off to area thrift stores. A Cloth-ing Exchange takes only a small amount of effort to organize. It promises good fun, and the satisfaction to have taken part in recycling and reusing, a great way to be part of today’s Green Movement.

We are blessed in Brit-ish Columbia with beauti-ful clean water to drink, but water is finite and we shouldn’t take this gift for granted.

In the not too distant future, many municipali-ties will require water meters to be installed to register how much water is used in the home, and residents will be charged for total usage.

Now is the time to be-come aware of how this gift is utilized and put in place systems to use it wisely.

One of the easiest is to install a low-flow shower head. Showers can use up to 190 litres of water using a standard shower head, but this can be cut in half, without losing water pressure, with the low-flow.

Another easy fix is in-stalling faucet aerators, which work by pushing the water through small

openings, creating the feel of standard water flow, much like low-flow shower heads. The added bonus of installing these units throughout the house is a significant en-ergy saving of around 15 per cent.

An ultra-low volume toilet, with a six-litre flush saves an amaz-ing 66 per cent of water used per flush. This is the ideal, but there are things you can do to start saving water, and money, imme-diately until it is time to

replace the toilet.Install a water dam in

the standard toilet tank. Dams fit in the bottom of the tank and spring out to seal against the sides reducing water volume without reducing flush pressure. A low-tech so-lution is to fill a plastic bottle, or bag, with water and hang inside the tank; this displaces the water the same way as a water dam. Don’t use a build-ing brick as it can disinte-grate over time and create further problems.

Enviro: Showers,

faucets and toilets

Any opening to your home forms part of the thermal envelope and it is essential choices are made to minimize heat loss and increase the comfort level, especially in winter.

Doors share many of the problems and solutions as your windows – conduc-tion, infiltration and radi-ant losses.

Most of us have wooden

doors, hopefully solid, as hollow wood doors score very low on the R-value scale. Wooden doors are more energy efficient if they are coupled with a storm door in winter. A tight fitting storm door works by creating an in-sulating air space between itself and your wooden ex-terior door.

A great choice is an in-sulated or thermal door. An insulated metal door has an R-value of between 4 and 8, which is excel-lent. Insulated metal doors do not react to temperature or hu-midity changes, and don’t warp or swell so they can be fitted much tighter than wooden doors and have an added secu-rity bonus.

Glass is often used in an outside door, most often in the front door for esthetic or security reasons. Doors made of glass other than the frame, only carry an R-Value of .09 for single pane and 2.0 for double pane, so the heat loss is very sig-nificant. Glass use should be avoided but, if neces-sary, double paned Low-E should be used, and as little as possible.

An air-lock vestibule or mudroom is especially valuable in colder climates because of the ability to access the home while pre-venting gusts of cold air entering the house. Those of you with kids, who for some reason need to go in and out constantly, will find this especially attrac-tive!

Enviro: Doors

8 GOING GREEN, Monday, October 27, 2008

What’s New in the TNRD?What’s New in the TNRD?Regional Solid Waste Management PlanRegional Solid Waste Management Plan

Mosquito Control ProgramMosquito Control Program

Noxious Weeds ProgramNoxious Weeds Program

Blue Bag Recycling ProgramWaste Reduction & Smart Shopper Info

Backyard & Worm Composting WorkshopsElectrical Waste Roundups