SAINT LOUIS, MO - Reduce, reuse, recycle has become a mantra for people who want to keep the environment and the planet healthy. Some are living more simply, using the oft-stated "less is more" concept. Some "freecyclers" use the Internet to offer, at no cost, once-treasured possessions to others. People recycle cereal boxes, newspapers and soft-drink cans. Some go a bit further and recycle cell phones, plastic utensils, printer cartridges, compact discs and iPods.Others live in "green" homes or construct green buildings with low-flow toilets, solar water heaters, natural lighting and energy-efficient lights.
Earth Day is Tuesday, a day set aside to increase awareness of and appreciation for the environment and how the actions of humans impact the planet. This year, Earth Day will inspire public celebrations and school activities. For example, the Hazelwood School District will sponsor the Living Green in Watkins Creek Water Festival. The free event enables North County residents, students and families to build awareness of and concern for nature, including clean water, through exhibits and hands-on experiences.
"We'll be studying how to preserve and make water cleaner by calculating water runoff and pollution in the school yard," said Gloria Hardrict-Ewing, who teaches gifted students in grades six, seven and eight at Hazelwood's Southeast Middle School. "Students will use math to calculate the area (of the school and its parking lots) and (write the results) on boards to display at the festival."
Clean water is a precious commodity that can be easily contaminated, sometimes in ways we don't realize. One way that can happen is through cell phones. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 130 million cell phones will be retired this year, but fewer than 20 percent will be recycled by their owners. Cell phones, along with pagers and personal digital assistants (PDAs), may leak lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic and other toxic substances into the water supply.
Vivian Hayes of Hazelwood said she had several cell phones at home. "It just didn't occur to me (to recycle them)," she said. Mary Taylor of Florissant thought the same. "To tell the truth, I didn't know we could recycle," she said. Cell phone manufacturers make recycling easy. Some new phones come packaged with an envelope so the old phone can be returned to the company. Cell phone stores also accept old cell phones for recycling, sending them back to the manufacturer each week. If cell phones polluting the water table is bad, building green is good. At the request of clients, some construction companies now specialize in building green.
Express Scripts, on the University of Missouri-St. Louis' new corporate campus, was built green to minimize its carbon footprint. Reliance upon natural light for every office, a white roof to reflect heat back into the atmosphere, and wind power for electricity have reduced the company's carbon footprint by about 55 tons. "Reducing carbon emissions in cars is good, but it makes hardly a dent in greenhouse gas emissions," said Shelly Beckemeier, project coordinator. "Buildings emit the most carbon."
Alberici's headquarters in Overland is considered one of the nation's greenest buildings. The construction company designed an award-winning, eco-friendly building that has received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, a nationally accepted benchmark for design and construction of high-performance green buildings. Matt Belcher of Belcher Homes builds LEED-certified, environmentally friendly homes in Kirkwood and Wildwood. Building green, he said, enables him to build a better product more efficiently.
"North County is ripe for a green community," said Belcher, who built the first h
Source: North County Journal