[OKC] Don't forget to register for America Recycles Day prizes by Nov. 19 (prizes described below)!

[Susie Shields]

Please pass it on . . .

Oklahoma Celebrates America Recycles Day with Environmentally-Friendly
Prizes - November 19 Deadline Set for Entering Drawing 

The Oklahoma Recycling Association (OKRA) encourages Oklahomans to sign a
pledge to do more recycling at home, school or work as part of this year's
Oklahoma Celebrates America Recycles Day Contest. Pledges may be made on the
OKRA website at: www.recycleok.org (Click on "Oklahoma Celebrates America
Recycles Day" and scroll down to bottom for link to online pledge). Other
than the five (5) $100 gift certificates from Dell and five (5) $100 savings
bonds from Devon, ARD prizes have an environmental perspective.

Grand Prize for the 2006 Oklahoma Celebrates America Recycles Day is an eGo
Cycle, the electric scooter with moxie, donated by Shields Pipe Corporation
and SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America.  Contest coordinator,
Susie Shields, says "the eGo Cycle is often called the little bike that
could, and is touted for getting you where you need to go at a running cost
of a penny per mile."  The built-in 5-amp charger takes the battery from
empty to a full charge in only 4-6 hours. The eGo Cycle will move 20-25
miles an hour at 17 mph on its "Go Far' setting and on "Go Fast" setting, it
will travel 15-20 miles at 23 mph.  (Note: This prize will be displayed at
Trattoria il Centro, a green restaurant, at 500 W. Main in Oklahoma City
this week-end, Nov. 9-13. This will also be accepting registrations for the
drawing. Staples and Backwoods in OKC and Norman will also be collecting
regsitrations and the Sierra Club will collect them at the Peace Festival
Saturday.)

Electric scooters and bikes are environmentally friendly because their
motors produce no emissions. Some pollution can be attributed to power
stations that burn natural gas and coal to produce electricity used to
re-charge your battery, but in Oklahoma, we are fortunate to have optional
windpower in many areas.  Electric bikes or scooters (when used instead of
automobiles) can help reduce air pollution and our nation's dependence on
imported oil.  

OGE Energy Corp generously donated two Black & Decker cordless electric
lawnmowers to the Oklahoma ARD prizes. Electric mowers are quiet and
inexpensive to operate-about $5 per year for electricity; easy to
maintain-no costly engine tune-ups or messy oil changes; and clean-no
spilled oil or gasoline, no exhaust fumes, significantly reduced air
pollution.  They are much better for the environment than gasoline-powered
lawn equipment that accounts for more than 4% of our urban air pollution.

Natural Evolution, Inc., an electronics recycling company in Tulsa, donated
a gift pack of recycled items including a business card case, pair of
earrings and clipboard made from recycled circuit boards as well as a clock
made from a recycled compact disk. Telephones, radios, TVs, computers, PDAs
and cell phones make up the bulk of electronics that threaten the
environment because of the dangerous elements in them. Reuse and recycling
prevents electronic items from reaching landfills, creating less waste and
pollution and recaptures valuable resources. 

Oklahoma Environmental Management Authority (OEMA), a public trust authority
that operates a landfill (and much more), purchased a set of three handmade
recycled metal thatched bowls for the drawing. OEMA pulls scrap metal from
the trash that is dumped in their landfill, so they decided these bowls were
a good match as their donation.  Every ton of steel packaging recycled makes
the following environmental savings: 1.5 tons of iron ore, 0.5 tons of coal,
40% of the water required in production, 75% of the energy needed to make
steel from virgin material, reduction of air emissions by 86% and reduction
of water pollution by 76%.

Midland Recycling Company purchased a 4-place setting of recycled glass
dinnerware, ordered for the ARD prize drawing.  Since glass is one off the
products collected by Midland, they know the benefits of glass recycling.
Manufacturing glass uses energy in the extraction, transportation and
processing of materials that have to be heated together at a very high
temperature. Large amounts of fuel are used to produce this energy and the
combustion of these fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas.
If recycled glass is used to make new bottles and jars, the energy needed in
the furnace is greatly reduced. After accounting for the transport and
processing needed, 315kg of CO2 is saved per ton of glass melted.  Using
recycled glass in manufacturing also reduces the demand for raw materials.
For every ton of recycled glass used, 1.2 tons of raw materials are
preserved.

Two Garden Gourmet Compost bins, made from 100% recycled plastic, were
donated as prizes by The Metropolitan Environmental Trust (The M.e.t.) in
Tulsa. Recycling garden and food wastes is important to a good environment
because it is a natural process. Waste can be disposed of by chemical means
(burning) or by largely physical means (landfill), but only when it is
disposed of by biological means (composting) are plant nutrients conserved
by returning wastes to the form in which they can be most efficiently used.

Natural resources are also conserved when the need to use chemical
fertilizers is drastically reduced. Chemical fertilizers, unlike compost,
are manufactured from non-renewable natural resources. Principal among these
resources, especially for the manufacture of ammonia-type fertilizers, is
natural gas. Approximately 2 percent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S.
goes into the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer.  With a finite supply of
natural gas and shortages already occurring, we are spending a rich
inheritance of gas with little thought of future needs.
 
A hammock made from recycled rope manufactured from plastic beverage bottles
(PET) and other post-consumer PET plastic containers was donated by the
Oklahoma Sierra Club. This hammock is hand-woven in the USA featuring
sustainably harvested oak spreader bars.  

David Miller, Hal McKnight, Mack Rose and Sandra Rose donated funds to help
sponsor Wheeler Dealer's Specialized Hard Rock Mountain Bike prize.  The
bicycle is the world's most widely used and efficient transport vehicle.
Worldwide, bicycles outnumber automobiles almost two to one, and their
production outpaces cars three to one. Rush-hour traffic in China is
dominated by human-powered vehicles; even in the wealthy cities of Europe
and Japan, large shares of the populace get around by bike.

Despite its popularity elsewhere, the bicycle gets little use or respect,
except as a plaything, in North America. About 50 million American adults
(and 40 million children) ride bikes at least once each year, but only about
2 million are regular bike commuters. Of all trips in the United States,
just two-thirds of 1 percent are made by bicycle. Similarly, only 1 percent
of Canadian commuters report bicycling as their usual mode of
transportation. Some government agencies have embraced bikes, but they
remain the exception. (Excerpt from John C. Ryan's book, Seven Wonders)

Backwoods outdoor store in Oklahoma City donated a Patagonia Synchilla men's
jacket and Capilene base layer tee-shirt (both items are recycled and
recyclable). In 1993, Patagonia adopted fleece into their product line made
from post consumer recycled plastic soda bottles and were the first outdoor
clothing manufacturer to do so. PCR clothing was a positive step towards a
more sustainable system-one that uses fewer resources, discards less and
better protects people's health. Over the course of 13 years, they have
saved some 86 million soda bottles from the trash heap. That's enough oil to
fill the 40-gallon gas tank of a Chevy Suburban 20,000 times.

Sustainable Tulsa members want to help you make some of the changes in your
life that they have made in theirs.  Their Eco Kit for the home contains:
*	(5) Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) - If you replace 3
frequently used light bulbs with CFLs, you could save up to $60 and 300 lbs.
of carbon dioxide emissions per year.  Energy Star claims that one compact
fluorescent bulb, including initial cost, will save you $14 per year and
over $50 during the bulb's lifetime. 
*	Low-flow showerhead - Since using less water in the shower means
less energy is used to heat the water, using this showerhead could save $150
and 350 lbs. of carbon dioxide per year as well saving water.
*   Recycled tire bucket - The use of recycled tires made into products like
the bucket holding this kit solves part of the huge problem of illegal tire
dumping. Use recycled feedstock in the manufacture of any product saves a
lot of energy needed to make new products.  If you recycle just 50% of your
glass, aluminum, plastic, cardboard and newspapers, you could save natural
resources and up to 2,400 lbs. of carbon dioxide each year. However, we must
also purchase the products made from the items we recycle to close the loop
on the process. 
*   Kitchen counter compost bin - Save your food scraps from the kitchen for
your outdoor compost pile in this compost bin with filters to prevent smell.
Use the wonderful organic soil amendment from your compost bin in your
garden.
*   Plastic bag dryer - Save your plastic food storage bags by washing them
and hanging them on the plastic bag dryer in this kit.
*   Recycled paper towels - A roll of Seventh Generation brown recycled
paper towels is also included.  This is another example of how we can help
close the recycling loop.




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