Recycling
2) Susan recently attended a Main Street Business Association meeting.
The few attending small business owners said that they did not generate
enough volume to warrant additional pick-up costs. Instead, they
take their recyclables off site. Locating a ClearStream stand inside
their store did not seem feasible considering there are people who
throw away cans that are half full of soda -- the sticky liquid would
attract ants and not smell good while waiting for enough recycling to
accumulate to take it to a dumpster. Only businesses that generate
enough cans and bottles to fill a bag every day would be likely candidates.
Ambler Gold Star & Green Ribbon Awards
Discussion of a nomination process, formal award presentation, and other
procedures for the award process ensued. Criteria needs to be determined.
All agreed it would be a good idea to make the
website user-friendly for making nominations
and recognizing businesses.
Matthias recounted his recycling interview with Pure Spa and suggested they
would be a likely business for nomination.
Chris enlightened us on the Ambler Theater's green practices. He went
on to say that given a little more time he desires to implement more green
practices. Daniel suggested: at that time nominating the theater for a green
award would be in order.
Website Upgrades
4) The status of the website was revisited. It was noted the following
areas are under constant updating: the committee's meeting minutes; the U.S.
Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement; Educational Materials for the
Public, Schools, Professional Associations, Businesses and Industry;
and the Ambler Gold Star & Green Ribbon Awards.
An effort will be made to develop the Awards section of the website and
encourage viewer interactivity, business nominations and gaining committee
volunteers. It was noted that there has been some success in this area
including Janice Truskey's Online Fine Art Gallery and Chocolate Bytes.
Chris suggested linking to greenyour.org. Susan suggested links to
Ambler's page at AmericanTowns and www.Recycle.dpw.dc.gov
Chris inquired about obtaining a unique domain name for the green website.
Bike Racks
Plastic Bag Free Ambler
Plastic bag free Wales (UK) was suggested as an example. Differentiating
between reusable, non-degradable, degradable, oxo-biodegradable,
hydro-biodegradable and compostable bagging might be a good place to start.
Daniel explained using plastic bags in "windowsill recyclable bottle
gardens".
Besides being an entertaining idea for the adults at the meeting, school
science class participation was encouraged. (Some examples are located at
http://internetu.org/health/diet/biofeedback_farm/ )
Monday December 1, 2008
Ambler Main Street Green Committee Meeting Minutes
1) Ron was unable to attend. Susan mentioned his initiatives
-- welcome packages for new businesses/homeowners, existing locations
of recycling dumpsters, and Mascaro's answer to hosting new dumpsters
for recyclables. Neither Mascaro nor Allied Waste were favorable toward
providing recycling dumpsters for free or low cost. A recent
economic drop in commodity prices for cardboard and aluminum makes
the situation more difficult.
The Waste System Authority of Eastern Montgomery County
offered an update on the
economics of recycling.
3) Susan interviewed Verde, and verbally reported the green practices --
mostly in wall paint, materials bought, reusing and restoring furniture,
soaps and candles, buying from local artists, and bagging in 100%
post-consumer bags. Ideally, businesses such as Verde would be given an
entire page on our website to recognize their green efforts.
5) The combined effort of the Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC)
and Ambler Green to provide one or more bike racks was discussed.
Attempts had been made to contact SEPTA for permission to site a rack.
Currently, the known bicycle racks are at the library, YMCA and under
the roof of the north bound SEPTA station. Additional locations under
consideration include the Post Office and the Municipal Parking Lot at
Cavalier Street.
6) Sigi's Plastic Bag Free Ambler proposal write-up was passed out and
reviewed. Questions were raised about the best approach to gain business
participation, as well as, whether the amount of damage caused to
environment is as great as stated.