WasteCap of Lincoln’s E-Newsletter

October 2004

 

 

Mobile Environmental Education Center Debuts on November 15th  Nebraska’s first mobile environmental education center is on its way.

 

Participate in America Recycles Day… The City of Lincoln Recycling Office is coordinating a local effort to support America Recycles Day. 

 

Natural Capitalism… Amory Lovins, co-author of Natural Capitalism is coming to Omaha on October 27.

 

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to… environmental activist Wangari Maathai of Kenya.

 

Waste Reduction at WasteCap…. In an effort to reduce office paper waste at your office and ours, WasteCap has moved to an electronic newsletter.  Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any interested parties, but refrain from printing it out in its entirety.  All past e-newsletters can be found on our website under the “Archives” tab.  Thank you! 

 

Check out our website at www.wastecaplnk.org for the latest events, publications, and new member listings for WasteCap of Lincoln.

 

 

 

What’s New for October 2004:

 

¨      WasteCap’s New Member Profile

¨      Archer Daniels Midland

¨      Mobile Environmental Education Center Debuts on November 15th

¨      Lincoln Participates in America Recycles Day

¨      Retrofit Recycling Pick-Up Dates

¨      Amory Lovins in Omaha

¨      Nobel Peace Prize winner

¨      Sustainable Living Practices

 

 

 

WasteCap’s New Member Profile
 

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) is a world leader in agricultural processing.  ADM is one of the world’s largest processors of soybeans, corn, wheat and cocoa.  ADM is also a leader in the production of soy meal and oil, ethanol, corn sweeteners and flour.  In addition, ADM produces value-added food and feed ingredients. 

 

Archer Daniels Midland has its headquarters in Decatur, IL.  The Lincoln location was constructed in the late 1960’s, and is a soybean processing facility.  We extract oil from soybeans and further refine the oil into edible oil products including hydrogenated soybean oil and salad oil.  After the oil is extracted from the soybeans, a high proteing meal remains and is used for livestock feed. 

 

By joining WasteCap of Lincoln, we hope to aid in the City of Lincoln’s recycling efforts.  We currently recycle steel and plan to recycle mixed office paper, cardboard, and miscellaneous plastics. 

 

 

Mobile Environmental Education Center – Debuts on November 15th – America Recycles Day
 

In celebration of America Recycles Day on November 15th, Midland Recycling, in partnership with WasteCap of Lincoln, a program of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, is pleased to announce the Grand Opening of Nebraska’s first mobile environmental education center.  The event will be held outside of the State Office Building at Centennial Mall and “M” Streets with activities beginning at 10:00 a.m. and going until 6:00 p.m.  A ribbon cutting will be held at 10:00 a.m.  Special guests will include Mayor Colleen Seng, Governor and Mrs. Johanns, representatives from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, and other local and state dignitaries.  

 

The Mobile Environmental Education Center is the first of its kind in Nebraska and one of only a few across the nation.  It is the culmination of nearly two-year’s work and planning by several volunteers and organizations from across the state.  The Center will initially travel Southeast Nebraska, representing 77% of the state’s population.  In the first year, the Center will be displayed at a minimum of 20 events.  There is great potential to reach 60,000 – 75,000 visitors each year, with an anticipated reach of 30,000 visitors in the first year. 

 

The Center is designed to educate Nebraska residents about the importance of environmental stewardship.  Education is a key component to successful environmental stewardship programs and is the strongest tool to help create the behavioral and social changes necessary to improve and protect our environment.  Visitors to the Center will learn about solid waste management and recycling in Nebraska as well as resource conservation and pollution prevention practices.  The unique Center will use electronic displays and an environment made from recycled materials to convey an environmental stewardship message.

 

In July 2003, Midland Recycling was awarded grant funding of $111,157 from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality’s (NDEQ) Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentives Grant Program.  The grant funding has been used as seed money to purchase, build and design the education center as well as secure many of the supplies.  Additional trailer construction and development funding is being raised through private donations in a capital campaign drive.

 

For more information, contact Mike Foster with Midland Recycling at 476-8502 or Carrie Hakenkamp with WasteCap at 436-2384. 

 

 

Lincoln Participates in America Recycles Day


Businesses that are interested in participating in America Recycles Day should contatct the City Recycling Office.  The City will be providing businesses with pledge cards, pledge boxes and posters to display. People completing a pledge card to recycle or buy recycled content products will be entered into local and national drawings.  There will be prizes awarded to both adults and children.

 

 Local prizes for adults include: One year's worth of Free Curbside Recycling Service (courtesy of Recycling Enterprises); 100 scratch lottery tickets (Courtesy of Nebraska Lottery); 50 scratch lottery ticktets (Courtesy of Nebraska Lottery).  Local prizes for children include:  $100 Gift Certificate to Best Buy (Courtesy of Von Busch and Sons Refuse); $75 Gift Certificate to Wal-Mart (Courtesy of Wal-Mart).  The National prizes are a 2005 Ford Escape Car for adults and a Trek 24 speed Mountain Bike for children.

 

Businesses interested in participating should contact

 

Kurt Elder 441-8215 or e-mail recycling@lincoln.ne.us

 

 

 

Retrofit Recycling Pick-Up Dates
 

Reminder that WasteCap of Lincoln members do receive discounted fluorescent lamp, ballast, electronic and battery recycling services through Retrofit Recycling (800-274-1309) and Environmental Compliance Enterprises (466-2268).  Please let us know if you need an updated price sheet.

 

October:

28th & 29th

 

November:

4th & 5th

18th & 19th

 

Amory Lovins, Co-Author of Natural Capitalism, Comes to Omaha
 

Amory Lovins, President and CEO of The Rocky Mountain Institute, is making his way to the Nebraska to speak about the energy industry and his recommendations on how to get the U.S. completely off oil.  Lovins co-authored the book Natural Capitalism with Paul Hawken and L. Hunter Lovins.  It has served as a ‘road map’ for business strategies that find profitable ways to solve environmental problems by productive use of natural resources.  His new book, Winning the Oil Endgame, addresses the highly controversial issue of U.S. dependence on oil.  Lovins discusses the dangers and hidden costs to oil dependence and shows alternatives to oil that will work better and cost less.  Lovins will be in Omaha, NE, October 27, 2004 at the Scott Conference Center – UNO Campus.  The lecture will begin at 6:30 and costs $5.  For more information go to www.aiaomaha.org

 

 

 

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Environmentalist Wangari Maathai
 

Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement of Kenya, has been awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.  Maathai is the first woman from Africa to win the Nobel Peace prize and the first to win the prize for work done in the environmental field.  She has been awarded the prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.  The Green Belt Movement has been in action since 1977.  Emphasizing education, family planning, nutrition and the fight against corruption the GBM has accomplished the planting of over 20 million trees, by women in Kenya. By combining science, social commitment and active politics, Maathai strives to secure and strengthen the basis of ecological sustainability.  In 2003, Maathai was appointed Assistant Minister of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife and has recently been named ‘Elder of the Burning Spear’, by president Mwai Kibaki.  To find out more about the accomplishments and goals of Wangari Maathai, check out the sites below.

 

http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/press.html

www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2004/173/.

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/08/dabelko-maathai/

 

 

Sustainable Living Practices


If you are looking for ways to improve your personal or business environmental practices, there is a great
website full of tips and information for creating a better future.  The goal of A Better Future’s website is to increase awareness of the public about sustainable development, environmental, economic and societal health issues as well as influence change at a grassroots level. The site work arose from the National Council for Science and the Environment’s 2003 conference and its partner organization is the Center for Respect of Life and Environment.  Interest subjects including environment, health, business, politics, etc. divide the site, so that you may go directly to the information that is most suitable to your needs. “This site offers a portal to information you will need in order to recognize the many connected issues in our world and how the kinds of choices we make based upon this understanding will affect the consequences of our actions (the 3 Cs). We are not trying to tell you how to live, but rather providing you with enough information so you can make your own, well-informed decisions about how you conduct your life in relationship to sustainability
.”