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Making a Difference in Chicago

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Day 361 – Chicago has its fair share of problems. Crime, unethical politicians and the current state of our sports teams, are just a few of the challenges that residents face. Thankfully, their are plenty of amazing and wonderful things happening in the city as well. In today’s post I wanted to share information on a few organizations that are making a positive influence on the people of Chicago and the planet as a whole.

Plant Chicago

“We equip people and businesses with the tools to live more sustainably through community-driven, hands-on programs and innovative research projects. We are now in the process of renovating an abandoned firehouse as a center for circular economy programming in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago.” – Plant Chicago

CCRX

Creative Chicago Reuse Exchange is a nonprofit organization committed to the creative reuse and redistribution of surplus materials for arts, non-profit, education in the Chicago-area.

Community Glue Workshop

“Inspired the repair cafe movement in Amsterdam, Community Glue Workshop’s goals are to divert repairable items from the waste stream (or repurpose them if need be), encourage critical thinking, debunk the relentless myth that newer is better and foster community.” Community Glue Workshop

The Chicago Tool Library

“The Chicago Tool Library opened in fall of 2019. Located on the southwest side of Chicago, in the Bridgeport neighborhood, our non-profit lending library houses over 2,500 items that range from basic hand tools and table saws to ice cream makers and camping equipment. We are a forward-thinking organization hoping to help our city reshape its relationship to ownership, consumption, and creativity.” – The Tool Library

Chicago Green Theater Alliance

“The Chicago Green Theatre Alliance was founded in 2014 with a mission to encourage, educate, and motivate theatres and theatre professionals to work together to adopt more environmentally-friendly practices.” – Chicago Green Theater Alliance

The Chicago Green Theater routinely hosts events that help the environment. They host textile and e-waste recycling drives, along with helping the theater industry adopt more sustainable practices.

There are so many more people doing great things in your community. Make it point to seek them out and support them any way you can.

Tomorrow, inspiring the youth to make a difference.

Give Back Box

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Day 350 – If you have an empty box and things you no longer want and would like to donate, then Give Back Box is exactly what you need. This time of year we all have plenty of shipping boxes being delivered. Instead of breaking those boxes down and having them recycled, you can load them up with items to donate.

You can either download a free shipping label or pay $15 and choose a charity of your choice.

“The purpose of Give Back Box® is to provide an effortless and convenient method of donating your used household items. Give Back Box not only provides an easy way to be part of a truly good cause, it gives a secondary use to corrugated boxes and guarantees they will be recycled.. So this is an all-round CSR & Sustainability solution.” – Give Back Box

This holiday season give your cardboard boxes a new life and help others while you’re doing it.

Tomorrow, an interesting location for solar panels.

Madagascar Needs Our Help

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Day 308 – I am a big fan of World New Tonight with David Muir. I tune in everyday to watch. If I’m busy the DVR is ready to record the episode for later viewing. My family doesn’t quite understand why I watch. They believe it’s all bad news. Sadly, they are right. There is not too much good news being shared. Thankfully, the last segment is always a feel good story. Getting through all the negative news to hear the good news is well worth it.

At the beginning of the week David Muir shared a story about Madagascar. Unfortunately, this was not the last story of the show. It was not the feel good story, but just the opposite. The current conditions being experienced on the island of Madagascar are extremely dangerous and it is threatening the people, the wildlife and the land.

“Southern Madagascar is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, making the land here too arid to farm and leading to crop failure. For the past four years, the severe lack of rain has led to depleted food sources and dried-up rivers. Climate change has also led to sandstorms affecting these lands, covering formerly arable land and rendering it infertile. The situation has led to widespread malnutrition affecting more than 1 million people, and pockets of what the United Nations classifies “catastrophic” food insecurity signaling deepening hunger.” – World News Tonight

So, why should we care about Madagascar?

“Madagascar is one of the world’s highest priority countries for biodiversity conservation due to its exceptional species richness, high number of unique plant and animal species; and the magnitude of threats facing these ecologically, culturally, and economically valuable resources. There are more unique species of plants and animals living in Madagascar than on the entire African continent and more than eighty percent of its species can be found nowhere else on Earth. Because of this exceptional uniqueness of species, the loss of one hectare of forest in this country can have a larger effect on global biodiversity than forest loss anywhere else on Earth, making Madagascar arguably the highest biodiversity priority on the planet.” – USAID

Madagascar has produced 0.01 percent of the world’s annual carbon emissions in the last eight decades, but it is suffering some of the worst effects. The people of Madagascar are suffering due to the carelessness of so many other countries. If their story doesn’t convince the world that we need to start reversing the effects of climate change now, then we are destined to experience the same conditions.

Click here to help families in Madagascar.

Your donation will go a long way.

  • $7 provides a month of school meals for a child in need
  • $15 provides a month’s worth of lifesaving nutrition to small-scale farmers
  • $25 provides 50 mothers with nutritious meals$50 provides a child with a year of school meals
  • $75 feeds a family of 5 for one month, providing staples like rice, vegetable oil, sugar, salt, flour, beans, and lentils
  • $1,000 can feed a family of 5 for one year.

Tomorrow, a farm in a major league baseball park.

World Rivers Day

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Day 269 – World Rivers Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of September. It began back in 2005 and over 100 countries participate in festivities commemorating the day.

“It highlights the many values of rivers and strives to increase public awareness and encourages the improved stewardship of rivers around the world.” – World Rivers Day

Friends of the Chicago River gives many ways in which you can help protect the river.

  1. Make water conservation part of your daily life Check out these easy ways to conserve water.
  2. Help keep stormwater and wastewater out of our waterways by signing up for. Overflow Action Days alerts.
  3. Be the eyes and ears of the river: Know “Who to Call” when you see pollution in the river.
  4. Plant native plants like milkweed and prairie grasses with long root systems to help filter and trap rainwater.
  5. Consider a planting a raingarden, especially in the low points of your property. This helps keep water out of your basement too.
  6. Choose permiable pavers when renovating your landscaping to allow water to seep into the ground where it falls and keep it out of overloaded storm drains.
  7. Install a rainbarrel or other innovative ideas on trapping stormwater.
  8. Test your soil before fertilizing. Get the beautiful lawn you want by applying only the nutrients needed, keeping the excess out of our waterways. It saves time and money.

On this World Rivers Day, find the protectors of your local rivers and make sure to support their efforts.

AmpleHarvest.org: Connecting Gardeners with Local Food Pantries

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Day 266 – AmpleHarvest.org has created a way to connect home and community gardeners with local food pantries. Instead of letting unused food go to waste, it is given to those in need of it most. AmpleHarvest.org is a free, opt-in, nationwide registry that enables gardeners who’ve grown too much food to easily find food pantries in their area.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Food Pantries tell AmpleHarvest.org the days and times they want to receive fresh food.
  2. Gardeners find pantries on AmpleHarvest.org, and bring their surplus of locally grown, fresh food.
  3. People in need have healthier food options available to them.
  4. Food is not wasted.

Click HERE if you want to find a pantry to donate to.

Click HERE if you would like to register a pantry.

Click HERE if you are in need of food.

There are 7,974 food pantries listed on AmpleHarvest.org. Produce donations have increased from 8.6% to 23.1% at food pantries around the country, since AmpleHarvest.org was founded.

It’s a perfect partnership!

Tomorrow, organizations working to create a more sustainable and equitable world.

Recycling Car Seats

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Day 254 – On average, one child will go through three car seats. That ends up being a lot of car seats that need disposal. Over 12 million car seats are disposed of each year in the U.S.

Earth911 has taken the mystery out of recycling your car seat.

Reasons why you would need to dispose of a car seat:

  • The car seat has been recalled for safety reasons.
  • Children have outgrown their car seats.
  • The car seat has expired.
  • The car seat has been in an accident.

If a car seat hasn’t been recalled, expired, or been in an accident and is still in good shape, donating it to someone who can use it is the best choice. The website safeconvertiblecarseats.com has a list of organizations in all 50 states that accept used, non-expired car seats for donation. The listed organizations include children’s hospitals, shelters for families in crisis, and agencies supporting foster families.

Some retailers will take your car seat and recycle it. Target held a two-week car seat recycling event in April 2021. Hopefully, they will continue the program in 2022.

One mail-in option is Clek’s car seat recycling program. They accept any brand of car seat for recycling for a fee. The fees range from roughly $35-50 per car seat. They do offer 10% off of a future purchase of their products. If you’re going to buy one of their car seats anyway, that discount can offset the recycling fee.

Another mail-in option, if you have a Century brand car seat, is TerraCycle’s Century Baby Gear Recycling Program. Although this program is free of charge, only Century brand car seats are eligible.

When your child outgrows their car seat, consider keeping it out of the landfill by looking into one of these many options.

Tomorrow, innovative solutions to plastic pollution.

Medical Supplies: Donation Options

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Day 252 – It’s not hard to acquire medical supplies that you end up only using for a short time. You are then faced with either storing them away, throwing them out or finding someone else that may be able to use it. Today’s post gives you a few suggestions on donating your surplus medical supplies.

MedShare

MedShare’s recovery efforts save millions of pounds of surplus medical supplies and equipment from landfills and incinerators that, for various regulatory reasons, hospitals and medical companies must discard. They accept donations of unused, unexpired medical surplus supplies and used biomedical equipment through our hospital recovery program and corporate product donations. To see the complete list of accepted items, click HERE.

MedWish

MedWish International is a not-for-profit organization that saves lives and the environment by repurposing discarded medical supplies and equipment to provide humanitarian aid to people in need. To see list of accepted items, click HERE.

Alliance for Smiles

All over the world children born with cleft lip and palate anomalies suffer physically and emotionally. They may become malnourished and are prone to ear infections and hearing loss. Often times, they experience upper-respiratory problems or speech and dental difficulties; many need multiple operations and long-term treatment.   Alliance for Smiles offers these children and families hope for a bright future. To see the complete list of accepted items, click HERE.

American Medical Resource Foundation

The American Medical Resources Foundation’s mission is to improve health care around the world by donating medical equipment and supplies to hospitals that serve the poor in underdeveloped and developing countries of the world. Click HERE for more information on what items are accepted.

Project C.U.R.E

Project C.U.R.E. is the world’s largest distributor of donated medical equipment and supplies to resource-limited communities across the globe, touching the lives of patients, families, and children in more than 135 countries. For more information on donating supplies, click HERE.

Before tossing your unwanted medical supplies, find out if someone else can use it.

Tomorrow, free stuff at HHW.

Recycle Your Electronics & Save the Great Apes

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Day 235 – Eco-Cell collects and recycles electronics and those efforts help save the gorillas and chimpanzees in the Congo.

How you ask? I’ll let Eco-Cell explain.

Electronics are connected to apes via an ore called Coltan (columbite-tantalite\tantalum). Tantalum coats the capacitors inside gadgets which makes them energy efficient. This ore is found in great quantity in the Congo, home to the critically endangered gorilla and chimpanzee. These species are being killed by rebel bands mining Coltan. The U.N. has reported that in the past five years the eastern lowland gorilla population in the Congo has declined 90%. Recycling your cell phones with ECO-CELL helps save these animals by reducing the demand for Coltan and by providing funds for our partners like the Cincinnati Zoo, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund Intl. and the Jane Goodall Institute who are actively engaged in protecting these species.

Eco-Cell collects the following:

  1. cell phones
  2. smartphones
  3. iPods
  4. iPads
  5. tablets
  6. Apple/Android watches
  7. bluetooth
  8. GPS
  9. MP3 players
  10. e-readers
  11. digital cameras
  12. handheld gaming systems & accessories

Eco-Cell would be a great partner for your organization or school’s next fundraiser. The process is very straightforward: collect as many electronic gadgets as possible and send them to ECO-CELL (Don’t worry they pay shipping). When the phones arrive at ECO-CELL, they determine their reuse\resale value. If they can be reused they resell them and pass as much money back to you as possible. If your gadgets are obsolete they recycle them properly and pay you their recycle value. After they process your shipment they follow it up with an itemized statement of your order and a check within 30-45 days.

You can also drop-off your electronics on your next trip to the zoo. Brookfield Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo participate in the program. Check to see if your local zoo is part of the program.

Recycling e-waste, saving the great apes and raising funds for your organization, it’s the trifecta. You just can’t lose.

Tomorrow, bus stops to the rescue to help save the pollinators.

World’s First Second-Hand Mall

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Day 227 – Imagine a mall full of stores offering merchandise that is all second-hand. Aisles and shelves full of items given up by their original owners, but still in good condition and ready to be useful for someone else. The U.S. has stores, like Goodwill, that offer second-hand items for the fraction of their original cost. However, in Sweden, they have created an entire mall dedicated to keeping reusable items out of the landfill.

In Eskilstuna, Sweden, a one-of-kind shopping experience is happening at ReTuna. Not only are they selling second-hand merchandise, but also upcyled items, as well. Filled with 14 second-hand shops, a conference space, and an eco-friendly cafe, ReTuna is a shopping space, but also a place of education and inspiration. It houses a design school, where students learn how to incorporate recycled materials into their designs. There are also art installations (made from recycled materials) which fill the space between the boutiques and cafe. Shops in the mall offer fashion, children’s goods, technology and more.

What makes ReTuna different is that it’s located next to the local recycling center, where the goods to be repurposed are collected. The collection station, Returen, receives, sorts through and distributes the goods to the appropriate stores inside the mall according to the assortment description in every shop’s business plan. The shop then sorts through the goods again, and repairs and upcycles things, prices them and puts them up for sale.

In 2018, Retuna sold second-goods worth $1.3 million. If Sweden can do it, there is no reason why this business model couldn’t work everywhere. It’s not only good for business, but it’s good for the planet!

To watch a video about ReTuna, click HERE.

Tomorrow, recycling your mattress just got easier.

World Elephant Day

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Day 224 – When we think of elephants, I know many of us picture them in far off lands, in parts of the world we’ll never have the chance to visit. So, when it comes to saving them, we might think there is no opportunity to help these big, beautiful animals. Thankfully, the organizers of World Elephant Day has shared a list of ways in which we can help protect these magnificent creatures.

  1. Do not buy ivory or other wildlife products. Be an elephant aware consumer. Only 12 states have banned the sale of ivory. In 2016, the U.S. passed a near total ban on commercial trade in African elephant ivory but states regulate commerce within their borders. The U.S. is one of the largest importers of wildlife products, including trophies of animals killed in hunts and products made from skins of endangered species.
  2. Study elephants in their “keystone” role in the environment and interrelationships with plants and other animals because all of nature is interconnected. As the largest of all land mammals, elephants play an important role in balancing natural ecosystems. They trample forests and dense grasslands, making room for smaller species to co-exist. Elephants also create water holes used by other wildlife as they dig dry riverbeds when rainfall is low. Herds travel over vast rangelands, and they disperse seeds in their dung, which helps generate new green growth.
  3. Learn about and support organizations that are working to protect habitat for wild elephants and finding solutions for human-elephant conflict. Elephants are increasingly being crowded out of their habitats. Humans are encroaching these lands for farming and infrastructural development, which leaves elephants with small patches of disconnected land.
  4. Support organizations that are working to stop the illegal poaching and trade of elephant ivory and other wildlife products. Few people know that 96 elephants are poached each day. At this rate they will be extinct in the wild within a decade. Losing these important ecosystem engineers will be of extreme detriment to the environment and beyond. If the elephants go extinct, entire ecosystems could follow.
  5. Support organizations that are building natural sanctuaries and alternative habitat for domesticated elephants to live freely. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee provide captive elephants with individualized care, the companionship of a herd, and the opportunity to live out their lives in a safe haven dedicated to their well-being.
  6. Support healthy, alternative, sustainable livelihoods for people who have traditionally relied on elephants, wild animals and natural resources. Learn about indigenous cultures that have traditionally lived in harmony with elephants.
  7. Visit elephants in countries where they live in the wild – tourism benefits the economy, provides needed jobs, deters poachers and abuse, and gives you the opportunity to experience the beauty, intelligence, and emotional capacity of these magnificent giants. Here is a list of the 10 best places to see elephants. I
  8. f you wish to experience elephants in their natural environment, choose eco-tourism operators who support local elephant conservation projects and who treat elephants with respect and dignity.
  9. Be aware of elephant habitat. Do not buy coffee that is not fair-trade or shade-grown, nor products with unsustainable palm-oil. These commercial crops are grown in plantations that have decimated elephant habitats. Only buy wood products that have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, which promotes responsible management of the world’s forests – the natural habitat for elephants and other wildlife.
  10. Use your love of elephants and World Elephant Day, August 12, to start a conversation with the next person you meet.

We can not all be like Kelly Lyee Chigumbura, a member of the all female wildlife ranger group, called Akashinga, ‘the Brave Ones’ in Shona. Chigumbura now spends her days protecting her country’s most vulnerable citizens: the wildlife. “When I manage to stop poachers, I feel accomplished,” she says. “I want to spend my whole life here on this job, arresting poachers and protecting animals.”

So, on this World Elephant Day, consider helping these precious Pachyderms.

Tomorrow, Clorox wipes that are good for the planet.