Jul 1 2008

Charlottesville Recycles!

 


As many of you know, I recently moved from the City of Charlottesville just over the border into Albemarle County. The move brought to the forefront for me some issues that Greater Charlottesville struggles with. The biggest one for me is the lack of curbside recycling outside the City’s limits. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to live in cities since I was 10 years old that had curbside pick-up. From Columbus to Charleston, and even Richmond all had curbside recycling.

 

On closing day, speaking with Harrison Grubbs, my Realtor, I joked that as owner or an eco-shop, I was going to have to do something about this. And 3-weeks later I found it: Sue Battani, founder of Cville Concierge, has started a county curbside recycling program called: My Recycling Club.

 
I met with Sue last week to chat and learn a little more about the program. And it’s pretty simple. All you need is six households to join and you can have pick-up in your neighborhood. Sue said over the past few years, her concierge business has been sorting and collecting recycling for clients and the idea hatched. So far, two communities are in full swing with many more soon to follow.

 
The program is easy, everything the McIntire Recycling Center collects, her program will collect, which is more than what the City picks up. She’ll take cardboard, plastics numbered 1 and 2, glass, aluminum, tin, newspaper, office paper, magazines, junk mail, etc. Preferably separated, "My Recycling Club" picks up every-other week. You can even buy stackable containers for $50 to help sort your recyclables. The program is $20/month.

 
My initial wheels are turning to find a vendor that will help her to also collect plastics above ones and twos, so hopefully "My Recycling Club" will take all plastics in the future. If you are looking for a solution to dragging your recycling to McIntire every week, or are frustrated by watching your neighbor’s glass get dumped into the garbage, check out www.MyRecyclingClub.com and get a program going in your neighborhood.
 
Posted by Paige at 2:10 PM 2 comments
Jul 15 2008

Composting at Millstone of Ivy

Last week I had the opportunity to go and visit the Summer Camp going on at Millstone of Ivy. I saw many familiar faces! Last week the Summer Camp was focusing on going Green and teaching the kids about all the different ways they could be healthy to the environment.

 

Last week’s topics included Recycling, Solar Power, Hybrid Cars, Green Roofs and I presented on Composting. The kids were great! The younger one’s were excited and enjoyed learning what compost was and how to compost. The older kids, ages 5-8 surprised me! Most were familiar with composting and even composted at home. Way to go Charlottesville. Their questions were more in depth, asking about why compost needs air? And, why you couldn’t compost animal waste?

 
I left a compost bin behind for the school to start their own composting program. Look at all the excited faces!

 
 
The Blue Ridge Eco Shop, and I, love getting out into the community, educating and helping you and your children learn how to be healthier for yourselves and the planet. If you are interested in having a speak to your school, church or organization, please contact Paige at paige@blueridgeecoshop.com.
 

 

Posted by Paige at 2:09 PM 1 comment
Jul 22 2008

Cell Phones Towering Near Schools

A customer wrote me today to express her concern about Charlottesville City allowing cell phone towers on school property. Schools would receive payment for the towers, but many parents, like the one below, are concerned about the health effects.

Tonight’s City Council Meeting will have open discussion, please attend to learn more and express your thoughts on the subject.

Below is one City Resident’s, and Blue Ridge Eco Shop customer’s, opinion. I’d love to hear yours!


Fry’s Spring Beach Club and Jackson-Via Elementary may want to put cell phone towers on their properties.

I live in Charlottesville on Monte Vista Avenue. My son is due to enter kindergarden at Jackson-Via in August 2008. We’ve recently learned that both Fry’s Spring Beach Club and Jackson-Via have plans to put cell phone antennas on their properties. The significant amount of money being offered to schools by cell phone companies must be very appealing. However, chronic radio frequency radiation (RFR) exposure is not.

Cell phone towers expose us to involuntary and cumulative radio frequency radiation, which includes microwave radiation. Low levels of RFR have been shown to be associated with changes in cell proliferation and DNA damage. These harmful low levels of radiation can reach as far as a mile away from the cell tower location.

The industry claims cellular antennas are safe because the radiation they produce is not strong enough to cause thermal, or heating effects. However, it is the non-thermal biological effects that experts have also found to be damaging.

They have found:
* Increased cell growth of brain cancer cells
* Increased breaks in double and single stranded DNA, our genetic material
* More childhood leukemia in children exposed to RF
* Changes in sleep patterns and REM type sleep
* Headaches caused by RF exposure
* Neuralgic changes including changes in the blood-brain-barrier
* Decreased memory, attention, and slower reaction time in school children
(References available at http://www.cyburban.com/~lplachta/safeweb2.htm)

Each cell within your body is like an antenna: a very sensitive receiver and transmitter of electro-magnetic radiation. Each cell phone tower emits its signal in "lobes" - a circular "flower petal" pattern with a limited radius spreading 360 degrees around the tower. This circle of radiation around the tower is called a "cell." If you’re in a cell, your phone gets good reception. If you’re not, it doesn’t.

The number of antennas that broadcast the microwave signals have been increasing exponentially. We do not want them near our children, who are even more sensitive because of their thinner skulls and still-developing nervous systems.

Here is a video that shows skull penetration of cell phone radiation in children: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwmpdFJijn8.

And here is where you can watch "Public Exposure: DNA, Democracy, and the Wireless Revolution and Electromagnetic Radiation: A Scientific Overview": http://www.energyfields.org/film_order.html.

Did you know that the telecommunications industry lobbied Congress with $39 million to ensure passage of a law that makes it next to impossible for us to oppose towers based on health reasons? Here’s what the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 USC section 332(c)(7)(B)(iv) includes:

No State or local government or instrumentality thereof may regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with the Commission’s regulations concerning such emissions.


In other words, Verizon could sue the city if our planning commission told them that we don’t want towers on schools because of health reasons, unbelievable as it sounds. By and large, the funding for studies that don’t show harmful effects comes from the telecommunications industry itself. Let’s not forget that R.J. Reynolds advertised “more doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette” in magazines during the 1940’s and ‘50’s. I write this letter so that our Fry’s Spring neighborhood can be informed and educated as to the well-documented effects of radio frequency radiation.

At last month’s City Planning Commission meeting Steven Blaine, an attorney working with Verizon Wireless, asked the City to allow telecommunications towers on residential and school properties, and to be allowed to conceal or camouflage them. On Tuesday, July 22 there will be another meeting at City Hall and this topic will be addressed at 8pm. The public is allowed to speak. I am going and I hope others will too.


The FSBC manager told me to contact Ed Gillaspie, FSBC president: egillaspie@comcast.net. Please feel free to write to him as well, as he is also the Director of Finance for the city schools.

Below are websites that have more information.
www.bioinitiative.orgwww.emrpolicy.orgwww.microwavenews.comwww.energyfields.org
www.emrnetwork.org
www.mountshastaecology.org/17other01cellphones.html
www.cyburban.com/~lplachta/safeweb2.htm
www.members.aol.com/gotemf/emf/schools.htm

To see where antennas are already near you, go to http://www.antennasearch.com/default.asp

Posted by Paige at 3:07 PM 1 comment
Jul 28 2008

Picnic In the Park

Better World Betty and Friends Celebrate Earth-friendliness with Community Picnic

Better World Betty and its friends, including the Blue Ridge Eco Shop. EcoDry Cleaners and Rebecca’s, is hosting a picnic to celebrate earth-friendliness in our community on Sunday, August 3, 2pm-5pm at Pen Park Pavilion #3.

Environmentally-minded citizens are invited to enjoy food, music, eco-games, and prizes with green-sceners of all ages. Bring your picnic foods and reusable beverage bottle or simply partake of light food provided by BWB and Rebecca’s Natural Foods.

Face-painting and games will begin at 2pm, followed by a scavenger hunt through Pen Park’s nature trail at 3pm. The local band Trees on Fire will play an acoustic set at 4pm. People are invited to bring their gently used CDs and books to swap, as well as clothing to be donated to Twice is Nice, a local thrift shop which benefits the Jefferson Area Board of Aging.


Better World Betty is a local grassroots organization dedicated to providing local solutions for a greener life.
 
 

Trees on Fire is a 5-piece group based in the hills of Charlottesville, VA is known around the region for its activist involvement, both in song material and in the events and causes the band champions. The band was recently honored as Greenest Regional Band in Blue Ridge Outdoor magazine’s annual Green Issue.

Posted by Paige at 3:07 PM 0 comments