SUSTAINABLE SESSIONS

Sustainable Sessions 27 July 2009 Sustainable No Comment

This last week I was awakened to how fortunate I am to live in California, a progressive and forward thinking state when it comes to sustainability and our environment.  A little over a week ago I departed LAX for my annual family vacation in a small town called Chetek, in northwest Wisconsin.  Its a vacation town that sits around a chain of lakes and hosts numerous cabin filled resorts.  My family has been going for just shy of 40 years, and myself since the day I was born.  Only this last week did I realize something strange about this little town of Chetek. THEY DONT RECYCLE!

I was shocked! How is there a place in this country that doesn’t have a recycling program? The owners of the resort we stay at only collect and recycle aluminum cans (for obvious reasons). The first two days of vacation I insisted my parents save their recyclables until I could discover what to do with them. On Monday morning I immediately phoned Waste Management whose bright logo covered the face of the garbage dumpster.  I was told that they don’t have a home recycling program for Chetek, or a collection site, and suggested that I call the city.  So I did. I looked up the number and called Chetek City Hall and asked for the Public Works Department. I spoke with the head of Public Works and I was informed that there is indeed no city wide resident recycling program. However, there was a central collection site near the City of Chetek Sewage Treatment Facility.

So its hard to get 40+ people (forgot to mention I have a large extended family) to get the message about saving all their recycables, but I at least tried. I asked everyone to save their plastics and glass and told them I would pick it up on Friday to take to the recycling site. At the end of the week I collected all the goods. Most came from my immediate family as they felt the pressure the most (and probably did it to shut me up). But, I was able to collect some more from the rest of my family. It wasn’t as much as I expected, but hey, I still diverted 4 bags of recyclables from heading to the landfill.  Next year, I’ll double it!

I always try to find new ways to be more sustainable. Here are a few tips I’ve been doing or discovered this week while on vacation!

• When the water quality is poor, buy the largest jug of water possible and continuously refill your SIGG.
• Those little worm containers can be used again. Next fishing outing buy the larger container and refill the small ones. Or just drop off the small containers back at the bait shops!
• When traveling, bring your EMPTY SIGG to the airport. After you get through security walk into one of the restauarants and fill your bottle with water from the the pop (yes, pop, not soda) dispensers.