Sustainable Business tax credit in the works!

Philadelphia City Council's Finance Committee recently approved an amendment to Bill No. 090119

introduced by Councilman Kenney to create tax incentives for certified sustainable businesses located in the City of Philadelphia

This legislation is well timed as it coincides with unprecedented investment in the green economy from the federal level, and supports the city’s goal to “Double the Number of Low- and High-Skill Green Jobs” it set for itself in Target 14 of Greenworks Philadelphia

. By creating a more supportive climate for green businesses in Philadelphia, the city is working to grow local businesses so they will be here to hire the graduates of all the new federally-funded training programs that will come online in 2010.

City Council is expected to vote on the amendment early this week. You can let them know that passing this legislation is important to you by emailing them today

.

GRINCH outreach at Jenks School for America Recycles Day!

To highlight America Recycles Day, November 15th, GRINCH (GReenInChestnutHill) organized a Three R's assembly for students of the Jenks School in Chestnut Hill. Principal Mary Lynskey was excited about the outreach program and facilitated the assembly organization. GRINCH leaders Ann King-Musza and Jennifer Reed spoke to grades K-5 and 6-8 on Friday November 13th about the three R's of waste--Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. Ann and Jennifer showed the students videos explaining where most of our waste goes and how we can divert much of our garbage from landfills to new products. An Australian video focused on student's efforts, Down Under, to reduce their impact on global warming. They collect used cell phones to refurbish, plant veggie gardens and consume the veggies for afternoon snacks. They raise awareness about energy reduction around the school by turning off lights and computers when classrooms are not in use. After the videos, the Jenks students were eager to participate in a skit performed by Jen and Ann in which they needed to choose how to best dispose a variety of items. Jen held up items that may have been thrown away but instead diverted to boxes marked "donations", "electronics", "recycling". Students shouted out where they thought the TV and the used sweater ought to go. The participation and excitement nearly shook the building showing appreciation and an eagerness to participate in solving environmental challenges.

Photo credit- Alix Rabin

E-Waste Recycling

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html
Follow this url to see a disturbing video shown on FrontLine.

On the outskirts of Ghana's biggest city sits a smoldering wasteland, a slum carved into the banks of the Korle Lagoon, one of the most polluted bodies of water on earth. The locals call it Sodom and Gomorrah.

Correspondent Peter Klein and a group of graduate journalism students from the University of British Columbia have come here as part of a global investigation -- to track a shadowy industry.

“I'm trying to get some ownership labels,” Anane tells reporters. “I'm collecting them because you need them as evidence. You need to tell the world where these things are coming from. You have to prove it. Now, just look,” he says, pointing to an old computer with the label: “School District of Philadelphia.”

This is why we need E-Waste Recycling here, on a regular basis

Weird Waste Day

GRINCH's huge WEIRD WASTE DAY success in Chestnut Hill last Saturday collected nearly 5 tons of E-Waste! People came from all over the city and suburbs including a couple from South Philly who came in their Philly Car Share car!
Proceeds will benefit The Jenks School and GRINCH.
IRN (Institutional Recycling Network) was hired to collect the electronics for responsible reuse and recycling. A big thanks to the Chestnut Hill Parking Foundation for use of the Highland Ave. parking lot!

NW Philly Community Cafe

MARCHinG for Change, a Northwest Phila group that emerged from the Obama campaign, invites you to a NW Phila Community Cafe. This will be an opportunity to find out what’s going on, share information, and get involved. The Cafe will be held at the Sedgwick Theatre, 7137 Germantown Ave, on Sunday, November 15, from 2:30-5PM.

The format of the Café will be informal. First, help yourself to a cup of coffee or tea, chat with neighbors and browse through literature about what’s going on in the neighborhood. Then the program will start, consisting of repeating workshops on health care, city service and budget challenges, recycling, composting, weatherization, and public safety. A resource person will be present to present information and facilitate a discussion.

But the best thing will be rebuilding the great community and spirit of engagement that the Obama campaign brought out in so many of us. Let's renew our ties and refresh our vision at the first ever Northwest Phila Community Cafe on November 15.

For more information or to RSVP, please go to the Organizing for America Website: Community Cafe: Learn, Share, & Energize

How Weird is your Waste?

At 42 I am finally advanced enough in years to say "when I was a kid we didn't have cell phones or fax machines and we got on just fine!" As an adult, fully engaged in the 21st century, I cannot say that technology doesn't matter. My last business, a boxed lunch delivery service, relied on cell phones and faxed orders. My current business, The Night Kitchen, relies heavily on our website for information and pictures and email for inquiries.
I can also say with a curmudgeony voice " they don't make them like they used to!" Well there is a lot of truth to that. Replacing cell phones every year is now the norm. Upgrading technology on a regular basis is what the younger generation grew up on. My parent's 20 year black and white TV would never fly these days.
With all of this newly needed technology plus burgeoning populations comes lots of toxic waste. What do you do with that dead computer monitor, cell phone or TV? If you put it in the trash it will end up in a landfill and poison the soil or worse a trash heap in a developing country, poisoning their soil and water. Many of these electronics include heavy metals such as lead and mercury making them environmentally hazardous. How can we avoid the landfill?
Companies like Institutional Recycling Network (IRN), a local business, manage surplus for reuse. Things that we might otherwise throw away, are refurbished or reused in other products. They break the items down to reuse, right here in the good old US, creating American jobs.
Following the mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is the best way to meet the challenges of waste. Trash reduction is always better than throwing something into a landfill. There is only so much space on the planet for landfills and they are living up to their name (filled).
To help combat this problem GReenINChestnutHill (GRINCH) and IRN have organized a Weird Waste Day Saturday November 14th from 1-4pm in the Valley Green Bank parking lot on W. Highland. Bring your computers, cell phones, and air conditioners. You pay 39cents per pound and IRN will recycle and reuse all of the dead technology you don't know what do with that is cluttering your basement and attic.
The proceeds will benefit GRINCH and The Jenks Home and School Association.
You declutter your home and feel good about it and your local school and environmental group benefit, too. Win-Win.

Complete list of what they will take:
Monitors- CRT, LCD, Plasma

PCs- Desktop, Laptop

Peripherals-Printers, Scanners

Accessories-Keyboards, Cables, Mice

Handhelds- Flash drives, Phones, PDAs

Equipment-TVs, Cameras, Stereos, Speakers

Flat rate charge of $15.00 for air conditioners (Freon!)

$1.40 for compact fluorescent light bulbs

$0.70 a linear foot for fluorescent lamps

Talk by Farmer Brown

Weavers Way Co-op and Springside School Present Talk by Farmer Brown
Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m

On Thursday, Nov. 5, Weavers Way Co-op and Springside School will be cosponsoring a talk on factory farms by Harold Brown, a.k.a. “Farmer Brown.” This event will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the U.S. Auditorium at Springside School, 8000 Cherokee Street, in Chestnut Hill. The event is free and open to anyone interested in this timely subject.
Brown’s website, www.FarmKind.org, is a resource for farmers who want to make the transition from animal based to plant based agriculture, for consumers to learn a different perspective on how food is produced, to help those who desire to reconnect with the land and become farmers, to support local food production, environmental and social justice issues, the rights of all living beings to be co-cohabitants of this planet, and how these things have everything to do with creating the peaceful world that all beings desire.

WEIRD WASTE DAY

Weird Waste Day
Saturday, Nov. 14th 1-4pm
Celebrate America Recycles Day!!
Empty out your basement and garage of all those old
electronic items you didn’t know what to do with. For 39
cents per pound, your cpu’s, tv’s, printers, faxes, cell
phones etc, will be responsibly dismantled and disposed
of, instead of being thrown in a landfill. This event is being
organized by Green in Chestnut Hill (GRINCH) and the
Home School Assoc. Of Jenk’s Elementary School. For
more information visit

What: Responsible Electronic Waste Recycling
When: Nov 14, 2009
Where: Parking Lot beside 23 W. Highland Ave.
Chestnut Hill, PA
Time: 1 pm-4 pm
Cost: 39 cents per lb, cash or check accepted
$15 flat rate for air conditioners

WEIRD WASTE DAY

Weird Waste Day
Saturday November 14th from 1-4pm
W. Highland St. Parking lot next to Valley Green Bank(next to old WAWA) in Chestnut Hill
Dispose of your electronic waste (computers, cell phones, tv's etc.) responsibly for 39 cents a pound.
More details to come in next week's Local!
This is a GreenInChestnutHill organized event.