Poon Dal Be “RES ‘Sah P Bal se: FSS! “SSI, a 4, k = £1 Per sor 3 - Friday, May 26, 1989 - North Shore News WEST VANCOUVER WOMAN ADDRESSES RECYCLING Local urges others to ‘repair Mother Earth’ ALTHOUGH SHE uses humor in her recycling in- formation talks, the message Andrea Miller delivers is deadly serious. By PEGGY TRENDELL-WHITTAKER News Reporter “We have to get together and repair Mother Earth together,”’ she emphasizes. ‘‘And we don’t have much time to do it.” Miller is the West Vancouver woman who has become well- known for her recycling coffee parties, which are attended by friends, neighbors and anyone else interested in finding out how to reduce, reuse and recycle common household goods. Miller is a recent convert to the recycling movement: ‘‘It was as though I was asleep for 15 years,” she says now. But when she finally did become aware of the imminent ecological dangers facing ‘he world, she found little information to help individuals tackle the prob- Iem. There must have been other people in her position, because her informative coffee parties were immediately popular. Since mid- January, she has hosted an average of two per week, and given be- tween 30 and 40 talks at schools, churches and special interest group meetings. She emphasizes, however, that she is not acting alone, and points to many other people who have worked on raising the public’s en- vironmental consciousness for years. Miller subscribes to the theory of *‘think gicbally, act locally." “*That’s all we can do is change ourselves, and if we're lucky our mates, families or neighbors,’ she says. Guests to her coffee parties are offered a range of environmental : | NEWS photo Tom Burley WEST VANCOUVER’S Andrea Miller (third from right) has found that the best way to share information on recycling and other environmental concerns is by word of mouth. Since January, she has hosted nearly twice-weekly coffee parties at her home to discuss how individuals can take action to safeguard the environment. Here she poses with a few of the people who attended a recent recycling coffee party. literature, listen to numerous energy and resource-saving tips, and are given a tour of Miller's home recycling set-up and her compost pile. Separating home garbage is not difficult, she says, and often becomes 8 family-oriented activity: “If you let your kids in on this, they’re like your conscience. They got us to wear seatbelts and stop smoking, and they can get us tecycling."* One of Miller's special concerns is the amount of packaging thrown out, which she says accounts for 40 per cent of the waste stream. Ac- Everyone can reduce, recycle ‘“REDUCE, REUSE and recycle’’ has become the catch- phrase in the movement to cut down on the huge amounts of waste put out for pick-up on garbage days — material that clogs landfills, pollutes air and water supplies, and wastes Canada’s natural resources. The following tips are some ways in which individuals can do their part to reduce, reuse and recycle. ¢ Tin and aluminum cans and foil can be taken to the recycling depot across from Gleneagles School in Horseshoe Bay (underneath the overpass). Peel the label off the cans and wipe the foil. @ Beer and pop bottles can be returned for deposit, while other glass can be taken to the recycling depot. Labels need not be remov- ed, but any metal or plastic trimm- ings must be. © Larger metals, such as stoves, and cardboard can be taken to the transfer station on Riverside Drive. e Put out your newspapers for curbside pick-up on the day of your regular garbage pick-up, or take them to International Paper Industries at 132 Riverside Dr. Cardboard can also be dropped off there. ® Other types of paper, such as of- fice paper and cardboard, can be recycled. Paperboard Industries, at 85 West First Ave. in Vancouver, will accept all grades of paper from individuals. They will also pick up large amounts of paper from office buildings. Call 875- 1635 for details. e Try not to purchase items with non-recyclable packaging. Avoid styrofoam, plastic and waxed milk and juice cartons. Instead, look for paper, glass and metal packag- ing. * Avoid purchasing plastic whenever possible. Plastic can take hundreds of years to break down in a landfill. © Take your own shopping bags to the store with you. Reuse the plastic bags you have as often as you can. : ® Use cotton diapers instead of disposable diapers. ® Take used auto oil to Mohawk service stations, or see if your local garage will recycle it. Oil can be used repeatedly if it’s cleaned and the additives are repiaced. © Purchase products made with recycled paper. Currently, Van- couver’ Paper Choice (253-4611) is the only company that specializes in selling high-quality recycled of- fice paper. * Compost any organic wastes ex- cept meats, bones or fats. © When taking lunches to school or work, avoid using plastic wrap. Store food in containers that can be reused. © Take turns with friends carting recyclable materials to depots. ¢ Take along a coffee mug any- where you might be offered a styrofoam cup. cordingly, she encourages shoppers to purchase products which utilize minimal or recyclable — not plastic — packaging material. Another one of her goals is to have West Vancouver become the first disposable diaper-free zone in North America. Jerri Mercer of West Vancouver, who has written articles on the threat posed by disposable diapers, says each baby goes through one- half tonne of disposables in its diapering years, and these approx- imately 7,400 diapers take between 300 and 500 years to decompose. Not oniy that, she writes, the Environmental Protection Agency warns that intestinal viruses can remain alive in the diapers for up to two weeks and leach into un- derground water supplics. As Miller's interests range from preserving B.C. and Brazilian forests to replacing toxic house- hold cleansers with less-harmful substitutes, it would not be sur- prising if she found the issues overwhelming at times. However, she is a firm believer in an individual’s ability to make a difference, and quotes David Suzuki: ‘I have faith that people will eventually listen to reason.” The first step is finding informa- tion and sharing it with others. ‘We have been taught to be con- sumers,’’ says Miller. ‘‘Let’s teach ourselves to be conservers of the world's resources.’’ Miller was one of the organizers of the Indisposable Mother’s Day Picnic held in Stanley Park. Everyone was welcome to join in, the only stipulation being that no disposable items -- plastic wrap, paper plates or napkins — were allowed. One purpose of the event was to protest the trucking of Lower Mainland garbage to Cache Creek. HEWS photo Keil Lucente SALUTING THE 1989 inaugural run of the Royal Hudson steam train is RCMP Cst. Rick Brown. The popular train, which runs annually between North Vancouver and Squamish from mid-May to mid- September, steamed into its 16th season May 21 with a host of passengers, special geests and media aboard. Auto............2.22..25 Classified Ads..........28 Doug Collins........... 9 Editorial Page.......... 6 Home & Garden.........19 What's Going On........16 Second Class Registration Number 3885 Friday, cloudy with showers. Saturday, mostly cloudy with Showers. Highs near 15°C.