The Natural Step Monona’s third annual Earth Day clean up of Schluter Park set for Saturday, April 25 was cancelled by Mother Nature.

Butts Out

At previous clean ups we’ve found hundreds and hundreds of cigarette filters. Surely not everyone who tosses cigarette butts does so with indifference to the environment or to the cleanliness of our city. It could mean people don’t understand what happens to those butts. Some must believe they are made of cotton and will naturally decompose. But cigarette filters are made of around 12,000 fibers of cellulose acetate (a plastic) and are not bio-degradable. They take ten to fifteen years to break down. The butts pose a hazard to birds and other wildlife when they are mistaken for food. And cigarette butts contain chemicals that can kill some critical, tiny animals in aquatic communities.

According to the Ocean Conservancy, during their 2006 Annual International Coastal Cleanup, cigarette butts were the most littered item on roadways, beaches, and sidewalks, representing 35% of items collected.

Litter Happens

Would you throw trash directly into Lake Monona? In effect that’s what people are doing if they toss something on the sidewalk or out the car window. Everything that lands on pavement – leaves, cigarette butts, sticks, dog poop, cups, candy wrappers – ends up in our lakes unless someone picks it up before the next rain. When the rains come they wash all that debris into the storm sewers and the storm sewers feed directly into our lakes.

My home is not too far from the high school. The darling Hansels and Gretels heading to and from school are leaving a trail as they pass. In the spring, it is a special gift of ugliness. As the snow melts and the snow piles shrink, each day brings a new discovery of plastic straws, lids, candy wrappers, fast food cups, and those ubiquitous cigarette butts. Revealed to have been deposited and held over the course of the winter, the trash presents itself like an Antarctic archeological dig.

I doubt many youngsters and teens read this column, but parents and grandparents do, and I urge them to educate the younger people about this. They’re probably not getting anti-littering public-service announcements like the Iron Eyes Cody “Keep America Beautiful” message that so impressed earlier generations, including mine.

Blue Cart Recycling

At the request of Helen Hift, here is a reminder of what can and cannot be put in our recycling carts (from the Green Valley website):

• Aluminum
Cans and foil – rinse clean
NO LICENSE PLATES

• Glass
Clear, green, brown – bottles and jars, rinse clean
NO LIDS, NO WINDOW GLASS

• Plastic
All plastic containers marked #1 through #7; 5 gal pails, wire handles removed; rinse clean; drain automotive containers well
NO PLASTIC BAGS OR STYROFOAM

• Cardboard and Mixed Paper
Corrugated cardboard – flattened; newspapers, paper-board, phone books, post-it notes, typing paper, white letterhead, writing paper, beverage cases, adding machine tape, carbonless forms, cereal boxes, colored paper, computer paper, copy paper, envelopes, windowed envelopes, fax paper, file folders, magazines, manila folders.
NO NAPKINS, PAPER TOWELS, TISSUE, PAPER PLATES OR WAXED MATERIAL

Recycling Non-Cart Items

Ideally, plastic shopping bags cease to exist as everyone shifts to reusable bags. But until everyone does, shopping bags and other thin films can be taken to Copps grocery for recycling. There is a container to the east of the doors.

Styrofoam is really bad stuff. The packaging peanuts can be saved and reused. Larger pieces, such as those that often come with appliance packaging and the like, can be taken to Home Concepts where they have a device that turns big pieces into smaller ones that are used for packaging. (Home Concepts is at 2134 W. Beltline Hwy.; 271-4663; Go around to the back.) Be an extra good steward of the environment and when you buy a product packaged in Styrofoam, call the company and ask them to please change that practice.

Paper napkins, towels, tissue, and plates are wasteful and unnecessary. Reusable cloth napkins and towels, hankies, and ceramic or metal plates are the better alternatives. But if you do use paper items, look for unbleached and bio-degradable varieties that you can put in your home composter when you’re through.

Remember that while recycling is important, it is a downstream approach and not a perfect solution. A better way is reducing waste upstream—significantly lessening our consumption of resources and goods, especially those that are packaged.