School News You Can Use – March, 2015
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
March – In like a lion, out like a lamb……Please??
- CLUB News – Welcome Leland & Gray
- CLUB Conference Update – Wanted: NOMINATIONS
- In The News – WILD NH Day- April 18
- EPA & NHDES News – “Don’t Flush That” Video
- Activity – Twig Pencils
- Green Calendar
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CLUB NEWS
Welcome New Member
Leland & Gray Union Middle & High School
The CLUB welcomes new member Leland & Gray Union Middle & High School of Townshend, VT. We look forward to hearing more from their L.E.A.F. Club and seeing their projects in future newsletters!
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CONFERENCE NEWS
Award Winning Entertainer Set for
Conference Awards Luncheon!
Jack Golden – Garbage Is My Bag
The School CLUB is very excited to announce that we have confirmed that Jack Golden, an exceptional and award winning environmental entertainer, will present at the Awards Luncheon on June 9. Jack offers an inspiring, educational and hilarious performance called “Garbage Is My Bag.”
For more information about Jack’s many programs, visit: http://garbageismybag.com/
WANTED: Your Award Nominations for the 6th Annual School Recycling Conference
This year’s Conference theme is “Real Challenges-Real Solutions.” We have a challenge and we’re hoping you have a solution.
Does your school have an individual, program or event that deserves special recognition for outstanding work in recycling? These are just some of the award categories to be considered:
Choose one of the above, or come up with your own award idea!
Winners will be announced and recognized at our Conference Awards Luncheon on June 9.
Please follow this link to the nomination form. Deadline for nominations is April 1, 2015.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION COMING SOON: Be sure to watch for conference registration details as well, you won’t want to miss this year’s fun filled School CLUB Conference!!
Would you like to host a TOLD, Garbage Guerillas or another Workshop at your school? Let the CLUB Help!
- Improves academic performance, especially in science and math
- Can lead to financial savings for schools
- Decreases the school’s carbon footprint through practical solutions that reduce energy and water consumption
- Reduces school waste and conserves natural resources
- Encourages student environmental awareness and stewardship
- Increases parental involvement
- Helps students and teachers develop stronger relationships with their communities
Previous EPA EE-funded research at over 200 New England schools completed by the NRRA School Recycling CLUB (the CLUB) found that the single most challenging area for school recycling programs was in providing curriculum integrations that brought recycling and sustainability into classrooms to be used as the subject matter for meeting state and local curriculum standards. The intention of the CLUB programs is to address just that issue in schools across all six New England states. Our goal is to use the CLUB’s workshops and technical assistance programs, all experiential and hands on, as a tool for educating K-12 students about consumption, proper diversion of waste, the resulting impacts on climate change and what they can do to change it. Through these offerings, we are also afforded the opportunity to link these priorities to curriculum standards. In addition, these workshops will model, for educators or community leaders, exemplary ways of teaching in creative, effective, and efficient methods about human health threats from environmental pollution as well as how to minimize human exposure to preserve good health. Click here to learn more or contact us at [email protected] or call 1.603.736.4401 ext. 19
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IN THE NEWS
Discover WILD New Hampshire Day
Set for Saturday, April 18, 2015
CONCORD, N.H. – You might be surrounded by mountains of snow, but spring is on the way, and so is Discover WILD New Hampshire Day. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department’s biggest community event of the year is set for Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the grounds of the Fish and Game Department at 11 Hazen Drive in Concord, N.H.
The event will be extra special this 
year, as Fish and Game celebrates its 150th anniversary. New attractions for 2015 include an entire tent devoted to hunting and fishing exhibitors.
Discover WILD New Hampshire Day is a fun way for the whole family to explore New Hampshire’s wildlife resources and legacy of outdoor traditions. Come browse exhibits from environmental and conservation organizations throughout the state. See live animals, big fish and trained falcons. Try your hand at archery, casting, fly-tying and B-B gun shooting. Watch retriever dogs in action. Get creative with hands-on craft activities for the kids. N.H. Department of Environmental Services staff will be on hand to help you discover new trends in recycling, environmental protection and energy-efficient hybrid vehicles.
Discover WILD New Hampshire Day is hosted by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and sponsored in part by the Wildlife Heritage Foundation of New Hampshire, Fish and Game’s nonprofit partner (nhwildlifeheritage.org). Watch for more details about Discover WILD New Hampshire Day at wildnh.com.
EVENTS CALENDAR SHORT:
Discover WILD New Hampshire Day. Saturday, April 18, 2015. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the N.H. Fish and Game Department, 11 Hazen Drive, Concord, N.H. Fun family day features live animals, big fish, hands-on activities, exhibits by outdoor and environmental groups. Help Fish and Game celebrate 150 years conserving fish and wildlife. Free admission. Visit wildnh.com.
Going Green at the Pond Hockey Tournament
We hope that some of you were able to attend and even participate in the 6th Annual New England Pond Hockey
The CLUB’s Can Cage being put to good use at the Pond Hockey Tournament
Tournament held in Meredith, NH on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. One of our astute members was able to put the CLUB’s Can Cage to good use.
Remember, the Can Cage is available to CLUB members at no cost as a fundraiser.
We have two Can Cages and they are generally loaned out for six months at a time, or for a big event. Don’t hesitate to get on our waiting list.
For an application, go to: Can Cage Application
Recycle Your Old Hockey Gear
Our Non-Profit Partner
Restore Hockey is the Official Non-Profit partner of the Pond Hockey Classic. Dedicated to promoting the sport of hockey, Restore Hockey provides access to our great sport for children, families and organization who are unable to play due to the financial burden associsted with the sport. Through the sale of their hockey inspired products, the collections of used equipment and financial donations Restore Hockey is successfully carrying out its mission. The Pond Hockey Classic is proud to be a supporter of this great cause.
We are the Salvation Army of Hockey
What do we do? We collect used equipment and also facilitate equipment swaps across the country. The equipment we collect, we clean, refurbish, sanitize, repair and RESTORE it before donating it back to children, families and organizations who are in need.
We do not sell the equipment, we donate it, just as generous people did to us! Help us to Recycle the Game, donate your used equipment today!
Donate your used gear today!
To learn more, go to: www.restorehockey.org
A Chat About The Environment With Mike Richter
2015 January 28,
Mike Richter, champion on the ice and environmental champion off the ice.
Q: Some people might not see an obvious nexus between sports and the environment. What do you think the connection or common thread is between sports and the environment?
A: As an athlete, I’ve been called an unlikely environmentalist but I think the environment is actually particularly relevant to athletes. Performance in sport is directly related to one’s health. The environment in which we live profoundly affects our health.
When it comes to global warming, the roots of my sport are far more affected than some other sports. The frozen ponds and lakes of North America where the sport was born freeze later and melt earlier lessening the opportunity to participate. The “free ice” which is truly free – being able to bring your skates and just walk up and play – is going away. The great history of this old sport of kids skating down the St. Lawrence River or having a pond in their backyard where they didn’t need to pay to play because this was their arena is going away. It is a shame.
Of course, so many aspects of our society are affected by pollution. But there is a direct connection with sports.
All sports started outside in a fundamental way. Sport in its basic and best sense is a challenge with yourself. You don’t have to be on a team or in an aerobics class. You can actually go up a mountain and see if you can make it to the top. That is an athletic feat. That is an athletic endeavor. But if you don’t have the trails and you don’t have the clean water or the non-polluted air, you just don’t participate as much in sports. Worse, if the local environment is compromised by pollution, it may actually be a hazard to your health.
A: I don’t remember thinking of myself as an environmentalist. It was just on one level practical-don’t waste anything-food money, time. On another, the concept fairness and social justice.
I grew up in Northwest Philadelphia in the city – it wasn’t an urban environment, it was more suburban but every adventure I had in the small woods behind my house or local farms, it might as well have been in the Grand Tetons. It was incredible. We had sleep outs and tree forts, we found minnows and broke ice in the winter in the little creek behind my house. It is such an enormously important part of life.
I do remember there was dioxin in the river that we used to play in and they would say you really can’t eat the fish out of there. Nothing lived. All from a photo-processing plant upriver. And so it is not theoretical even for little kids. It is practical. It means that you can’t play in certain areas. It is taking away quality of life. There is an enormous injustice in that which has always bothered me.
In my life, I also lived on the Upper West Side in New York and admired the West River. The fact you can’t take a fish out of there is a sad thing. And it doesn’t have to be that way. There have been great efforts to clean up the Hudson and it’s come a long, long way. But any 5 year old can tell you that throwing one’s garbage on another person’s house is just plain old wrong. It is no different when people, corporations, or communities externalize their cost on another and pollute.
Being called an environmentalist is a funny thing. It has been politicized and it shouldn’t be a political thing. I have friends who are conservative, liberal and everything in between. And they all want clean and functioning resources and healthy children and good health for themselves.
To me, if you live on this Earth, you are an environmentalist. If you’re breathing, you want clean air and water. I think the questions is more “When did people stop identifying themselves as ‘pro-environment’?”
A: Most importantly, educate yourself. Ignorance of the issues is the real villain here. Become educated on the problems and available solutions, then implement them in your own life as much as possible. Take public transportation, recycle, and purchase local food. When these many excellent green sport programs are unveiled, show your team that it matters to you. Finally, demand it of their teams, players as well as themselves. Like any consumer, fans can reward those who move toward sustainability.
A: People want clean water and clean air, clean energy, and sustainable alternatives to conventional products. They just don’t want to pay more, have inferior performance, and more difficulty in making it happen. When you go to an arena with 60,000 people in it and there are only two recycling cans on the other side of an acre-long walkway, the fan may not make the effort to recycle the bottle. It has to be easier.
Now, we see teams starting to understand environmental efforts. We have a long way to go, but they’ve come an enormous distance. You look at the recycling programs and public service announcements at games. Athletes are also starting to get more involved. We’re in a different place that we were even a decade ago in terms of the acceptance and acknowledgement of it and possible solutions. Arenas and teams are realizing that there is a more effective and efficient ways of running things. And as any person who runs a business knows, you can never be too efficient. Where there is waste, you are losing money.
The NHL’s “Rock and Wrap It Up” campaign, where they take food that has been prepared but is unused and donate it is a great example of what the environmental movement should be focusing on. In the end, we are talking about performance-less waste, smarter technology and design.
A: I believe that our problems with resource management are profound but recoverable. We will need government, the capital markets and NGOs combined to address the challenges if we are going to be successful. People are busy and there is a lot of information is out there but they want to do the right thing.
The environmental organizations I’ve worked with are comprised of ordinary people who care about their health, their kids and the future of their planet. They’re not radical. They are very thoughtful and generous. These projects need funding, science and volunteers. I believe very deeply in these organizations. Helping out with these organizations is one of the best gifts you can give back to society because everyone truly benefits from it.
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EPA & NHDES NEWS
EPA Administrator and Winter Sports Industry
Raise Awareness on Climate Change
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy & US Winter Olympian Gretchen Bleiler
2014 was the hottest year on record and the effects of climate change are already being felt in skiing
communities as the winter season is becoming shorter. In communities that depend on skiing and winter tourism, climate risks become economic risks; winter tourism produces billions of dollars annually and that tourism is threatened by a changing climate.
Read an op-ed in Powder Magazine by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and U.S. Winter Olympian and 5-time X-Games Medalist Gretchen Bleiler on how the winter recreation industry is taking action on climate here: http://bit.ly/1vuPX9r
2014 National WasteWise and Food Recovery Challenge
Awards Announced – 6 winners from New England!
Nationally Food Recovery Challenge Participants Diverted 370,000 Tons of Wasted Food from Landfills. WasteWise participants reported preventing and diverting a total of nearly 7.6 million tons of waste from being disposed in landfills or incinerators Nationally in 2013. This amount of waste diversion represents a reduction in greenhouse gases equivalent to taking more than 2.3 million passenger vehicles off the road for one year.
Congratulations to our New England winners! Please note Regional Food Recovery Challenge 2014 awards are still being processed and will be announced in a future email.
New England 2014 Food Recovery Challenge Awardees:
College and University, Winner, Worcester State University
College and University, Honorable Mention, Wellesley College
Other Sector, Facility Honorable Mention, Parkland Medical Center
See all 2014 National Food Recovery Challenge Award winners: http://www.epa.gov/foodrecoverychallenge/2014_awrds.htm
New England 2014 WasteWise Program Awardees:
College/University, Partner of the Year: University of Southern Maine
Non-Profit Organization, Partner of the Year: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Non-Profit Organization, Honorable Mention: Norwalk Hospital
See all National WasteWise Award winners: http://www.epa.gov/waste/conserve/smm/wastewise/events/2014awards.htm
Don’t Flush That!
From NH DES
March-April 2015
A recent “Don’t Flush That” Public Service Announcement that Keene Wastewater Treatment 
Plant worked on with Keene High School’s Film Studies Students is an entertaining way of discovering what can and cannot be flushed!
Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtK0k9Ilelw
Earth Day 2015
From EPA GoGreen Newsletter – March 2015
Earth Day is April 22. If you’re in school, check out these ideas you can use — whichever side of the desk you’re on.
• Teachers lesson plan ideas: http://www.epa.gov/students/teachers.html
• Student homework resources: http://www.epa.gov/students/homework.html
• Community projects: http://www.epa.gov/students/communityservice.html
EPA’s REDUCING WASTED FOOD & PACKAGING
PILOT PROGRAM AND WEBINAR SERIES
EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management Web Academy is hosting a free 
four-part webinar series to guide users through the waste assessment and reduction process presented in the Reducing Wasted Food & Packaging Toolkit. All are welcome to participate in the webinar series! The schedule and links to register are listed below.
“A Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting a Food Waste Assessment with the Reducing Wasted Food & Packaging Toolkit”
Milestone 1: Preparing for a Food Waste Assessment and Establishing a Baseline
Thursday, January 29, 2015, 1:00pm—3:00pm EST – SORRY, ALREADY DONE.
Slide presentation available at: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/smm/web-academy/index.htm
Milestone 2: Data Analysis, Creating and Implementing Waste Reduction Strategies
Thursday, February 26, 2015, 1:00pm—3:00pm EST – SORRY, ALREADY DONE.
Slide presentation available at: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/smm/web-academy/index.htm
Milestone 3: Tracking Progress
Thursday, March 26, 2015, 1:00pm—3:00pm EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/100000000064935206
Milestone 4: Measuring Impact
Thursday, April 23, 2015, 1:00pm—3:00pm EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/100000000064935220
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ACTIVITY
How to make twig pencils
By Robert J. Settich for Boys Life Magazine
Twig pencils are fun, easy and cheap to make. And the expressions on your friends’ faces when you start scribbling with a stick will be writetious!
YOU’LL NEED
• Pruning clippers
• Drill and 3⁄32-inch bit
• Clamp
• Scratch awl or nail
• White glue
• 2mm-diameter drafting lead, 2B grade (at art or office supply stores)
• Utility knife or pocketknife
• Adult permission or supervision
STEP 1: Find a twig. Look for one with interesting color, texture or with a forked shape. (The length of the twig, though, must be straight.) Hold the twig as you would a pencil to find the right size. Use pruning clippers to trim away unwanted parts. Check the twig for bugs (you don’t want any).
STEP 2: Clamp the twig to the edge of a workbench or piece of plywood. Be careful! Too much pressure can crush the twig.
STEP 3: Use a scratch awl or the point of a nail to make a dent at the center of the twig’s end. The dent will become the starting point for the drill bit.
STEP 4: Drill to a depth of 1 to 1 1⁄4 inches. Make sure to keep both hands on the tool !As you drill, you may need to back out the bit to clear wood chips from the drill’s flutes (its spiral grooves). To do this, stop the drill and scrub the bit with an old toothbrush.
STEP 5: Squirt a small puddle of glue on a scrap of wood or cardboard. Roll the end of the lead in the glue, then work it back and forth in the hole to spread the adhesive.
STEP 6: Trim the lead by breaking it sideways against the twig. Let the glue dry overnight.
STEP 7: Sharpen the pencil with a sharp utility knife or pocketknife. Whittle away from your body, removing thin shavings as you work around the pencil. Use your imagination to personalize your pencil, or simply enjoy the colors and textures that nature provides.
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GREEN CALENDAR
03/17/15 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day from The CLUB!
03/22/15 – World Water Day – To plan your event, see future newsletters and visit www.unwater.org.
04/07/15 – National Healthy Schools Day – To plan your event, see future newsletters and visit http://www.nationalhealthyschoolsday.org.
04/18/15 – Discover WILD NH Day – To plan your event, visit www.wildnh.org.
04/22/15 – Earth Day – To plan your event, see future newsletters and visit www.earthday.org.
04/24/15 – Arbor Day – To plan your event, see future newsletters and visit www.arborday.org.
06/05/15 – World Environment Day – To plan your event, see future newsletters and visit www.unep.org.
06/08/15 – World Oceans Day – To plan your event, see future newsletters and visit www.worldoceansday.org.
06/09/15 – NRRA School CLUB Conference – The conference within the conference celebrates schools and students with activities and awards. It will be held at the Radisson in Manchester, NH. See our Conference page for details.
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WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL CLUB UP TO? The NRRA School CLUB always loves to hear what its members and other schools are doing to recycle and help the environment so we can share it through our newsletter. There are so many different things being done, and you are our best source of information about what is working in your school. It can be a new program, a long-term project that’s been proven over time, a field trip, etc. Always feel free to contact me or submit something and you may see it in the next School News You Can Use! – Gwen Erley, [email protected] 1.603.736.4401 ext 19