Do you know what I love about Louisville? It goes by many names that invoke progress, community, and tradition: Derby City, River City, City of Possibilities, The Place to Live, Work and Play, The Gateway to the South, The ‘Ville, Falls City and Kentuckiana.
I also love that Louisville is a place where people stick together. As we move into 2009, I wonder what new challenges will lie ahead. How will we overcome? I invite you to think about how to Live United in the New Year. Sign up for payroll deduction, volunteer your free time or find your voice on important issue affecting the community. Get some friends to help at a local school, non-profit agency or just at your neighbor’s house.
Here’s the newest idea I have seen that speaks to the post-holiday season – Recycle your old cell phone or donate it to an organization that will reuse it such as The Center for Women and Families.
Why recycle or reuse old cell phones?
- Cell phones contain lead, arsenic, beryllium and other hazardous toxins that leach into our environment through our landfills.
- One cell phone, if thrown away, can pollute 40,000 gallons of ground water.
- Continued recycling and reuse of cell phones substantially reduces the number of phones manufactured globally every year.
- The most eco-friendly thing you can do with an old phone is to reuse it.
- Recycling cell phones reduces the demand for precious metals collected through environmentally destructive mineral mining.
- Recycling the phones ensures that the toxic materials in cell phones don’t end up in our landfills.
Santa did not bring me an iPhone, but if you upgraded during the holiday season consider doing something great with your old one.
Advocacy, Giving
Giving, Louisville, recycling, The Center for Women and Families
A new year brings new commitment, new ideas and new opportunities to grow and give back. As an organization, Metro United Way is focused on giving back to the community. I feel that we do this work with great passion for our community. Over the last few months I have also discovered that a great deal of our staff have a passion and love for the environment.
It was with this new knowledge of our staff’s concerns about Metro United Way’s imprint on the environment that the “Green Team” was formed. We were able to meet and discuss several opportunities for us to be more responsible stewards of the planet that has been loaned to us. Some of the immediate “fixes” the Central Services department is currently working on implementing are making reusable plastic cups available for MUW personnel, adjusting thermostats during on and off hours, and increasing staff awareness. There were so many great ideas offered up and I am looking forward to working with this team to find ways of implementing them. I also look forward to sharing those ideas with you over the next few months.
Now, here is the “Ask” as we like to say around here. I am looking for your feedback and ideas/tips you have used at home or in the office that have helped you decrease your impact on the environment. I am open to any suggestions. I have to admit this is a relatively new “environment” (pardon the pun) for us to move in, but it certainly falls in line with living united. Not only with each other, but with all that makes this such a wonderful region to live in.
And now the challenge: if you haven’t thought about what type of imprint you are having on the environment, perhaps January of 2009 is a great time for you to begin doing so. There are so many small ways we can contribute to saving this planet. I recently heard a radio commentator state, and I am paraphrasing, “We do not own the planet on which we live; it is on loan from our children.” - Something to think about, right?
- John Sands, Central Services
Education, General, Health
Community, environment, green, recycling
