Shredathon - protect your identity and the environment - Vancity Walnut Grove Community
Shredathon, Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
Protect Your Privacy
Have records? Concerned about your privacy?
Don’t throw them away!
Shred with us and you can watch as they are shredded!
Saturday May 2, 2009 from 9am to 2pm at the Village at Thunderbird Centre (88th Avenue off 200th Street,Langley) in front of the Vancity in Walnut Grove.
Cost is by Donation (suggested donation is $10 per box)
All proceeds to support Local Drug Prevention Initiatives and Environmental Sustainability Programs.
We will also be providing fee information sessions on "Composting with Worms" puton by the Langley Environmental Partners Society.
Please visit our website at www.shredathon.ca or call Christina at 604-877-2543.
Our Walnut Grove Community Branch is focusing on grassroots Climate Change Activities for 2009, stayed tuned for other stories about how we are doing our part one person at a time.
In honor of Earth Day on
In honor of Earth Day on April 22, we decided to start a little project in our branch. Our staff often go out and pick up lunch from the many venues nearby and bring it back to the lunch room to enjoy. “One” of us over time had observed the amount of recyclable items that would go in the garbage every day, instead of the recycle bin. This was probably an issue stemming from longtime habits and lack of knowledge about what can be recycled.
So… the “One” and a recruited “Other” took some time after work and went around to all the different eateries that our staff frequent and collected the usual containers that inevitably end up in our garbage can. In the process of talking to management of these different establishments we learned a little bit about what their companies were doing to become more socially conscious. A&W had some interesting projects and Starbucks was probably the star of them all.
With the collected items we (the “One” and the “Other”), made a rickety poster as a visual prop to show our fellow staff all the many items that should go in the recycle bin. With this poster and a radical plan we came to work and informed our fellow staff that we wanted them to commit to complete recycling for one week. With that, we took away all garbage cans and replaced them with recycling containers including a compost bucket for the kitchen complete with dirt and worms to compost the food waste throughout the week. YIKES!!WHAT!!
After the shock wore off, objections started to come up. Mostly with the idea of worms and dirt sharing the lunchroom. This is understandable…not everyone thinks worms are cool. One of our fellow staff members even had a nightmare about worms that evening; sorry honey…we didn’t mean too; but… that is kind of funny!? Our intentions were noble and the project was a good idea, but perhaps our mistake was in not giving our friends a choice. A very important personal right and a lesson to be learned. So after some modifications to our project, everyone got on board and we had a great week. We all learned a lot about how much we throw away. It was an eye opener for everyone including the “One “and the “Other”.
Since we were not able to utilize the worms in our project, we would like to share an interesting fact for those people out there who are game and worm friendly. Did you know that worms can eat their own weight in food each day. Organic waste can take up to 20 years to break down in a landfill. Because they are such hungry little munchers… when left to the worms, it becomes garden soil in 3 weeks. Awesome!
Thank you for reading about our little project at branch 54.
Sincerely,
The “One” and the “Other”
p.s. Long live the worms!!!