Ridgefield Action Committee for the Environment

Sponsored by the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE) these BYOB videos are being used as a social media campaign to remind folks bring your own bags. CCE is working to reduce all disposable bag pollution stating citing the EPA's claim that Americans alone throw away over 100 billion bags a year. They go on to state that:

"CCE supports efforts to increase public education to change consumer practices, phasing out disposable bag use, providing in-store recycling of plastic bags, and promoting reusable bags by prominently displaying reminders in and outside of stores. You can help by contacting your elected officials and telling them you support disposable bag reduction programs."

To watch some of the videos click here.  Then share them!
To find out more about CCE, go to their website: http://www.citizenscampaign.org/

For upcoming info and local upcoming events, webinars and meetings on trash reduction, check out the  "Reduce/Reuse/Recycle" bulletin board at the CT Dept of Environmental Protection's (DEEP) website. It is updated weekly.

Starting July 11th, 2011, residents will no long need to sort most of their recycling at the Ridgefield Recycling Center. All commodities such as office paper and junk mail, newspaper, magazines, cardboard, aseptic containers, glass, aluminum and tin, and plastics # 1-7 canl be dumped in a single stream dumpster inside the recycling center. Of course, those who wish may still donate their deposit cans and plastic bottles to ScoutsCAN in the bins just outside the recycling center. See the press release about this.

Beginning tomorrow, June 1st, people will be able to dispose of unwanted medications easily in three Fairfield County towns. A secure drop box will be placed onsite at local police department headquarters in Greenwich, New Canaan and Ridgefield. A fourth drop box will be added soon in Wilton. Residents may walk in and discard their unneeded medications in the secure drop box at any time; there will be no questions and no forms to complete.  See the complete story from the Ridgefield Patch.

What happens to your garbage after it's picked up at your curbside or you drop it off yourself at the Ridgefield Transfer Station?  Many people think it goes to a landfill but in most of Connecticut it is actually incinerated.  Ridgefield's garbage is hauled to Wheelabrator Technologies in Bridgeport, a waste-to-energy plant that processes up to 2,250 tons per day of municipal solid waste.  Wheelabrator Bridgeport has an electric generating capacity of 67,000 kilowatts; the equivalent of supplying the electrical needs of 83,000 Connecticut homes. 

Ridgefield has contracted with Wheelabrator to process our trash as one of eleven towns in The Housatonic Resources Recovery Authority. HRRA  is a regional, governmental, waste management and recycling authority  in western Connecticut serving a population of over 225,000 people. 

Reducing your trash by recycling because it costs more to process solid waste than it does to recycle it.  It costs even less if you don't generate as much trash in the first place, either by using fewer disposable products and composting.