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DIY CLEANING SOLUTIONS

Instead of buying harmful chemicals in plastic bottles, try these make at home cleaning products

https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/green-living/natural-cleaning-recipes

https://wellnessmama.com/6244/natural-cleaning/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/12-homemade-cleaning-products-that-really-really-work_n_57853926e4b0e05f0523a9db

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“ BRING YOUR OWN “ KIT

Our Club made Bring Your Own kits, to take with you when you go out so that you can say no to single use plastics and use your own. (just put the used items in your BYO bag to bring home to wash, and reuse again and again and again and again and again

Scrap fabric Reusable Cutlery Reusable Straw Reusable Cup

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Thank you International Friends Dinner for using compostable tableware and reusable silverware ! 

Think about all of the plastic waste that was avoiding and all of the rich soil we will be creating from composting food waste and compostable dinnerware.

We hope that this event inspires parents to make choices that reduce waste. Thank you to our volunteers!

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For our November club meeting, we talked about plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways. 

Have you read about the prediction that there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish??? SCARY!

What can we do? USE LESS PLASTIC

DO you need that plastic bag? Plastic water bottle? Plastic straw? Plastic cup? plastic egg carton? If you are shopping, bring your own bags and containers, make purchases with less plastic packaging, skip a produce bag, buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of pre packaged ones. Bring your own cutlery and take out containers with you so that you don’t need to use plastic when you are eating out.

Share your tips with your friends and family and us! Add a comment to this post!

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COMPOST NOW TOUR

TODAY we visited @compostnowga to see what happens to our school’s compost. We got to learn about the process of nutrient recycling (ie compositing ) and observe the differences in each stage of this process (which takes about 8-10 months!) 

The food waste (and compostable waste) that we have saved from landfills (so far 32,000 lbs!!!!!) is being “recycled” into nutrient rich soil that we use in our thriving school garden.  The kids loved climbing the mountains of compost and identifying and pulling out contaminants (plastic bags, foil, a toothbrush, produce stickers). They even found a stack of trays from our cafeteria!

Thank you COMPOST NOW GA for hosting us and working with us to recycle nutrients and keep our compostable waste out of landfills !

Cloud Dukes, our Compost Now connection, hanging with the kids/

Compost that has just arrived, we found contaminates in this bin : plastic gloves, plastic wrap, and a plastic to go cup top. 

This is the nutrient rich soil, the result of composting - compost!

We found a stack of our compostable cafeteria trays!

Foil contamination!

More contamination the kids pulled out - a toothbrush, plastic wrapper, milk carton, plastic cup - did you know that the compost now team pulls out, by hand, items that cannot be composted ? That is a lot of work - we could help them out by keeping these items out of our bins!

Steam from the pile - steam is the byproduct of organisms breaking down organic matter (food and compostable waste) !

Examining the final product - compost, nutrient rich soil!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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This is a great story about the challenges and the victories of making changes to our habits.

If we had all the resources and options that made it easy to be zero waste we’d all be doing it. Do what you can, be conscious, take baby steps, celebrate small changes.

Together we can make a difference

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This is a great podcast ! We love this episode - find out more about why plastic straws are not necessary, and why they are harmful.

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This is our new sustainability logo for school. We are a group of parents who have initiated sustainability programs collaborating with the county, students, teachers, custodial and administrative staff and parents and community partners.

We encourage Fernbank to create environmentally sustainable practices and habits and to be mindful of the environment, at school, in our community and the world.

To find out more: https://www.fernbankelementary.com/fernbank-sustainability-initiative

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GO GREEN CLUB MEETING OCTOBER 2019

Our focus was COMPOST: what it is, why it’s important, and how we can use composting to keep waste out of our landfills & to give back nutrients to the planet-

1. Betsy took the kids to the meadow to pick wild flowers to make an equinox bouquet

(”The meadow is a thriving ecosystem bursting with color during the drought (because of drought resistant plantings) and humming with activity. The kids took notice of the number of plants flowers and trees, as well as the number of butterflies dragon flies and bees busy around it. - Betsy's reminder: we always have a choice, we can choose to create a beautiful, thriving, native meadow where we might normally plant grass - which would not provide the activity there is now” )

2. Emily and Justine worked with the kids to plant Radish and Carrot seeds directly in our very own Go Green garden bedAs well as planting cold weather seeds in a biodegradable mesh bag that your child brought home.

We talked to the kids about composting and soil, what grows well when, and how to care for your plants.

3. Robin started filming the kids for our upcoming GO Green Educational Compost video that we will be sharing with our school and the county. (stay tuned)

We want to shout out our  local fav Compost Now - who donated the little bags of compost that the kids brought home. This is the company that Fernbank is using to process our lunch waste and then return to us in the form of awesome, nutrient rich compost that we use in our school gardens.

They do residential pickup too, and it’s a great way to participate in composting without having to manage a pile at home.

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This is pretty amazing.

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At the end of this article, there are suggestions for limiting your interaction with plastics,  we have added it here:

“The obvious solution to avoiding plastic toxicity is to avoid plastics, which, in a world awash in plastic, is pretty difficult. In the absence of this, it makes sense to limit your close encounters with plastic as best as you can.

Never heat or microwave your food in plastic containers, which increases the leaching of chemicals.

Avoid contact with BPA by avoiding plastic wrap (use wax or parchment paper, or aluminum foil), plastic food containers (use metal or glass containers), and disposable water bottles (use reusable non-plastic or BPA-free bottles).

Look for BPA-free on the label of products (while this is not a guarantee of safety, it at least limits BPA exposure). Use metal and wooden eating and cooking utensils instead of plastic utensils.

Find food and water containers that are BPA-free. Avoid phthalates by primarily avoiding PVC products (labeled as #3 plastic).

Look for phthalates-free labels.

When possible, air new plastic products like blowup mattresses, synthetic-fiber rugs, tablecloths, and toys outside for a few hours to let the VOCs disperse.

Avoid plastics numbered #6 and #7 whenever possible.”

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WHAT is a CARBON FOOTPRINT? How can you reduce yours?

Carbon footprints relate to the amount of carbon dioxide, or greenhouse gases, produced as a result of daily lifestyle activities. If, for example, you have a small family, live in a large home and drive a car daily, your carbon footprint would be much larger than if you live in a modest home or apartment and generally walk or cycle.

Check out this activity to figure out your carbon footprint and find ways to reduce it

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REDUCE RE-USE  REFUSE RECYCLE

Here is a little activity you can do to Write a list under each category - what can you REDUCE? maybe the amount of purchases you make with too much packaging? What can you reuse? Lunch containers, a canvas bag, a water bottle What can you REFUSE - a straw, plastic cutlery What can you RECYCLE - this the last step, when you can’t refuse or reuse or reduce