EcoBytes - Volume 2, Issue 3 (August 2000)

Welcome to Volume 2, Issue 3 of EcoBytes, the Center for Ecological Technology's (CET) email newsletter. EcoBytes updates you on CET's activities in solid waste, energy, environmental education and sustainable development.

CET's new website is up and running! Come visit us at www.CETONLINE.org to learn more about our programs. You can reach us by email at cet@cetonline.org, or call us in Pittsfield at (413) 445-4556 or in Northampton at (413) 586-7350. For mailing list additions and deletions, please send a message to cet@cetonline.org.

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Teaching Science to Young Earth Stewards
• Spreading Compost Project Results across the Land
• Business Recycling Cooperative Enjoys Award-Winning Growth
• And Two New Co-ops Are Growing
• REAPS Wraps Up Its Fifth Year

Teaching Science To Young Earth Stewards

This spring, CET premiered "Earth Stewards," an after-school program for Pittsfield's elementary and middle-school students. CET staff met with Morningside, Conte and the Pittsfield-at-Dalton Middle School students twice a week over a three-week period. The Earth Stewards focused on four environmental topics: energy, waste, water and air quality. They made recycled paper, built model solar homes and solar electric cars, and constructed a model watershed. CET introduced the students to scientific methods and encouraged them to use a variety of techniques to gather and interpret data. Students weighed objects, took temperature readings, graphed results and reported their findings. Each three-week session began with fun team-building activities to help break down the social barriers that often exist among students from different classrooms and grades. CET looks forward to bringing back "Earth Stewards" for an encore presentation this fall. For more information, contact Nancy Nylen in our Pittsfield office.

Spreading Compost Project Results Across The Land

CET has published a 70-page report entitled "Building a Market-based System of Farm Composting of Commercial Food Waste." The report summarizes the steps taken and lessons learned during a three and one-half year project coordinated by CET to create a market-based infrastructure for farm composting of commercial food and other organic waste in western Massachusetts. Over 70 business locations, including supermarkets, restaurants and institutions, diverted approximately 22,000 tons of organic materials to 7 composting farms, saving valuable disposal capacity and helping the environment. In addition, the project has become a nationally recognized model and it successfully spurred interest and activity in other regions of Massachusetts and across the nation. A free copy of the report is available in PDF form at www.cetonline.org or in print form by contacting Fred Friedman of the USEPA Region 1 RCRA Library via e-mail at friedman.fred@epamail.epa.gov. For more information, contact John Majercak in our Northampton office.

BUsiness Recycling Cooperative Enjoys Award-Winning Growth

In May, the Pittsfield Business Recycling Cooperative received MassRecycle's Year 2000 Commercial Recycling Award at the New England Environmental Expo. This year's award salutes the Cooperative for its outstanding growth during the last two years. Today, over 150 businesses, representing more than 5,000 employees, recycle almost 30 tons of paper monthly. The most recent growth is from small office buildings, where CET assists management companies, landlords and tenants with setting up an easy, efficient and affordable system. The Business Recycling Cooperative is a partnership of the Chamber of Commerce of the Berkshires, the City of Pittsfield, CET, and Cadmus & Cascades Recycling, a local hauler and processor that provides employment to special needs workers. Providing confidential document destruction services has been key to the Cooperative's success. The Cooperative began in 1996 with seed funding from U.S. EPA. This is the second consecutive year that CET has received MassRecycle's Commercial Recycling Award, having won it last year for our composting projects in western Massachusetts (see above for a report on the composting project).

And Two New Co-Ops Are Growing

Based on our success in Pittsfield and with seed funding from WasteCap of Massachusetts and the MA DEP, CET has started two new business recycling cooperatives in North Adams and Springfield. The Northern Berkshire Recycling Partnership, coordinated by CET in partnership with Cadmus & Cascades Recycling and the Northern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, is serving more than 40 businesses in North Adams and is growing daily. In the City of Springfield, over 128 small and medium-sized businesses are recycling mixed offer paper, OCC and containers. For more information about CET's business recycling cooperatives, contact Jamie Cahillane in our Pittsfield Office.

REAPS Wraps Up Its Fifth Year

CET's environmental educators wrapped up a successful fifth year as the western Massachusetts program provider for REAPS (Recycling Education
Assistance for Public Schools). Through four teacher training sessions and 140 classroom presentations, students and teachers learned from CET staff about reducing, reusing, recycling and composting. Hands-on activities included recycled papermaking, environmentally friendly "pretend" birthday parties, trash sorts and the wonders of composting with worms. REAPS is funded by the MA DEP through the Clean Environment Fund and is administered by MassRecycle, our statewide recycling coalition. For more information on REAPS, contact Joy Kirschenbaum in our Pittsfield office.

Coming Next Issue:

The Massachusetts Materials Exchange Goes Online