Green Initiative Articles

August 2009

August 2 - A GREEN DINING ROOM at  our FESTIVAL
For our festival, Resurrection has been granted permission to use cornstarch-based, bio-plastic bags to line our dining room collection cans by the Dubuque Metro Area Solid Waste Agency (DMASWA).  These compostable liners, donated by DMASWA, are a pilot one-year demonstration project to help us manage 3000 meals and be green at the same time. No other church festival has ever done this before, so kudos to Res! Dining room volunteers will simply sweep all leftover food scraps, compostable plates, hot cups, napkins and place mats into the collection cans in one fell swoop, roll to the dumpster outside.  Dittmer Recycling will haul the load to the DMASWA Compost Facility to eventually be used in Dubuque gardens.  A cautionary note:  These trial-test, corn-based, compostable bags are NOT the same as store plastic bags  which are /recyclable and (mostly) reusable. And these bags are NOT the same as household trash bags which are NEITHER recyclable or compostable.
- Environmental Stewardship Committee

August 9 - GREEN GROUNDS at FESTIVAL

“Going Green” is our stewardship theme for our festival grounds next weekend. Look for the following ways to keep us clean and green:

 

• Two-sided special event recycling units, loaned by Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency. One side has a clear liner and  a blue lid is to collect plastic bottles and aluminum cans.  The other black side is for trash only.  Please “pitch-in” accurately. Coordinated by Tim Moothart and the Boy Scouts.

 

• Yellow recycling bins, provided by the City of Dubuque. “Pitch-in” clean cardboard, paper, and glass. Please, no trash or garbage. Coordinated by John Stierman and the Res Green Team.

 

• Welcome signs “Going Green.”  Look for the “sandwich boards” at the entrance of the grounds. Provided by Welu Printing/Dave Welu.

 

• Water Station for fresh Dubuque tap water. Buy a reusable water bottle, and get refills all day. Coordinated by Laurie Ready and the Youth Group.

August 16 - WE MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT!

As we pitch in today with green initiatives at our festival, it's heartening to read what Pope Benedict is up to these days. Solar panels have been installed on Vatican buildings in the past couple of years; now the Pope's home in Bavaria will become a solar-power generator. Photovoltaic solar panels are being installed on the house's rooftop; the

panels will generate about 5,800 kilowatt hours of energy a year, which is more than his house requires. The excess electricity from his home will be put back into the grid and the proceeds of $3500 per year will be donated to offer job training to disadvantaged youth. Materials for the project were donated and installed by volunteers.

The Witness, Aug. 9, 2009, CNS, "Residence is energy efficient," by Carol Glatz

August 30 - GREEN NOTES FROM PAUL AND JOHN

John Stierman, Resurrection School maintenance and Green Team member, looks back on the festival: “The last few years the dumpster has been overflowing at the end of

the festival. This year the yellow composting dumpster was less than half-full of compostable food scraps and dinnerware and our trash haul to the landfill was 75 percent less this year compared to previous festivals. Meantime, the recycling dumpster was overflowing and Dittmer took three loads to be recycled. (In previous festivals, cardboard was thrown into the trash/landfill rather than recycled.) Everyone who picked through the trash really made a difference and need to pat themselves on the back!”

 

Paul Schultz, City of Dubuque resource management coordinator, comments about the festival: “Recycling and composting are small acts — like paying back some rent for the privilege of living on this wonderful earth and taking a  share in its declining bounty. The composting and recycling created from this one event will offset a carbon footprint greater than that of all of the vehicle miles generated by Resurrection's parishioners over a week.”