Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool. ]]> http://www.youthenergysummit.org/winter-workshop-survey/feed/ 0 http://www.youthenergysummit.org/yes-collects-over-one-tonne-of-holiday-lights/ http://www.youthenergysummit.org/yes-collects-over-one-tonne-of-holiday-lights/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:39:22 +0000 Becca http://www.youthenergysummit.org/?p=2079 The final count is in! Over 2,000 pounds collected by YES! teams.

As compared to last year’s haul of 1,972.6 pounds, this year’s teams collected 2,449.9 pounds of Holiday Lights as a part of the now annual “Recycle Your Holidays” campaign. Hosted by the Recycling Association of Minnesota, Recycle Your Holidays is a statewide initiative to recycle old holiday lights properly.  As a part of the program, disabled adults are given work as they disassemble the into recyclable and non-recyclable materials.

Sleepy Eye led the collection with a total of 557 pounds gathered. Minnewaska and Litchfield were close behind with a combined total of 850 pounds.  Springfield challenged us all by gathering 492.4 pounds (bettering their last year’s record).  Cedar Mountain added a hefty 43.5 lbs. along with GFW’s ~60 lbs., rounding out the record-breaking collection.

To learn more about this program, please visit recycleminnesota.org.

The Northfield YES! Team in front of one of their recycling bin prototypes

The Northfield YES! Team/Transition Youth group, a group of high school students from Northfield High School and ARTech, has been working to build several recycling bin prototypes.  Once they have been approved, these recycling bins will be permanently installed in the downtown Northfield area and surrounding parks.

Their goal is to design and build 16 recycling bins for downtown Northfield.  In doing so, they intend to reduce waste and maintain the aesthetic appearance required in historic downtown Northfield.

The Northfield YES! Team working to build a recycling bin

These students have been working hard to implement this project, which has involved creating multiple prototypes.

They are very close to finishing up 2 prototypes to share with the city for approval.  One bin is composed of cedar and the other is made from an old bed frame (a great example of reuse!).

For more information on Transition Northfield activities, visit transitionnorthfield.org

Image from Recycle More Minnesota

At the end of a recent basketball tournament I attended I was shocked to find a garbage can half filled with plastic bottles while a mere 10 feet away sat a distinctive plastics recycling bin. Why? Consider your actions – at the end of a game you may be busy talking to people and simply want to dispose of your garbage instead of carrying around and because you’re busy chatting, you don’t want to look around for a place to throw them. So unfortunately what I witnessed is an all too common case of well-intentioned folks tossing their garbage in the first bin they see – in most cases, the trash can.

What simple step could we make to encourage recycling in this situation?

Move the recycling bin next to the trash instead of the crucial 10 steps away.

New London-Spicer YES! team constructed these outdoor bins last year, which connect the trash and recycling receptacles.

We did just that, and moved the plastic bottle recycling bin next to the trash at the beginning of the next round of basketball games.  Instead of a trash bin half full of plastic bottles, we found that only a quarter of it was full with the popcorn boxes and a couple bottles while a majority of bottles went to recycling!

Take a moment to to note where the recycling bins are in relation to the trash cans. If they are not side-by-side, take a moment to move them, or ask your custodial staff if they can help you with this change. Consider your actions when disposing of waste. Do you typically walk to the far side of the gym? Then perhaps this is not the best location for a bin. Do you have to stop and read the instructions on the side of bin? Make sure they’re clearly marked so people can more easily sort their wast. These are simple steps that have long been noted on lists of recycling best practices, but it is crucial (as I recently witnessed) that we don’t forget about it!

Find similar recycling best practices here.

Litchfield's lights fill car.

While you could claim its a small car, this is the SECOND collection of lights this season from the Litchfield YES! team. Way to go Litchfield! Just think – all those lights are NOT going to a landfill this season.

A view from the inside!

Read more here!

Make sure to also stay up-to-date with other YES! teams with their own websites too, by clicking on their links on the Current YES! Teams page.

Sleepy Eye YES! students have a little fun collecting old holiday lights to be recycled.

Sleepy Eye YES! team recently went caroling for lights, where they went door to door to collect old holiday lights people wanted to recycle.  They have collected 400lbs so far, and they are still going!

They plan to continue to collect lights now through next week at their schools.  If you still have a bag of lights you’d like to recycle drop them off at either the Sleepy Eye High School or St. Mary’s Catholic School soon!

Other YES! teams collecting lights include:

• Litchfield High School
• Minnewaska High School (Glenwood)
• Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City High School (Grove City)
• GFW High School (Winthrop)
• Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School (Westbrook)
• Springfield High School, (Springfield)
• Redwood Valley High School (Redwood Falls)

All teams are weighing their lights to help calculate how much they’re keeping out of the landfills.  Lights will be recycled at Willmar’s West Central Industries where adults with developmental disabilities are employed to help recycle the lights. Learn more about the Recycle Your Holidays campaign here.

The Windom YES! team is just wrapping up their shower competition.  Earlier this semester the team handed out shower logs to over 70 of their peers to record the length of their showers.  Students are now turning them in to the team for a chance to win an iTunes gift card. After a successful first semester in the High School they may soon bring this to the elementary school!

Learn a little more about you can conserve water too:

• Shortening your shower to about 5 minutes or less helps conserve water and the energy it takes to heat that water. Set a timer, or play a song to help let you know when you’ve reached that 5 minute mark.
• Calculate your water savings with the EPA Water Conservation Plan Guidelines benchmarking document.
• Set a 2qt. saucepan on the floor of the shower and position it in the middle of the shower stream. With shower on full, count how many seconds it takes to fill the pan. If it takes fewer than 12 seconds, you could use a low-flow shower head (2).
• Alternatively, check on your shower head for a label of how many gallons per minute (gpm) it streams. A ‘low-flow’ shower head will read 2.5 gpm or less.
• Wasting Water is Weird
• Save Water Today

1 http://www.epa.gov/watersense/our_water/water_use_today.html
2 http://eartheasy.com/live_lowflow_aerators.htm

YES! students discuss challenging questions with Bruce Tiffany during World Cafe session.

More than 125 students from throughout southern and central Minnesota gathered at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter Nov. 9 for the fifth annual YES! Fall Summit.  Participating students were charged with saying “yes” to each other throughout the day as they explored information and resources to support energy conservation and renewable energy projects in their communities.

Rotating through four break-out session, students witnessed what has helped experienced YES! teams be successful; learned how to take energy efficiency to the next level; tapped into their entrepreneurial spirit; and tried their hand at maximizing their use of resources through an interactive game.  These sessions were specifically designed to engage students and equip them with useful information for the season.

Students maximise their resources in a friendly competative game.

Participants also heard what teams have worked on in the past before moving into the afternoon session. Students and their coaches alike participated in this final session of the day, titled the ‘World Cafe’ where they sat down with on of 26 Minnesota business and organization leaders to learn about their work and to explore questions “that matter” in energy conservation and sustainability. Ranging from plastic spoons to water conservation, these discussions crossed generation and geographic hurdles and reinforced the value of saying yes to one another.

Rothsay YES! team and YES! coordinator, Shelli-Kae, are still all smiles at the end of the Summit. the

Teams left filled with energy, inspiration and ideas for projects to tackle during this school year.  When asked for feedback on some of their discussion points, one group wrote, “You have the power of choice, you can do something…you can make a difference.”

• Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (ACGC) High School (Grove City)
• Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop High School (Winthrop)
• Litchfield High School
• Minnewaska High School
• Redwood Valley High School (Redwood Falls)
• Sleepy Eye Public High School and St. Mary’s Catholic school (Sleepy Eye)
• Springfield High School
• Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School (Westbrook)

If you do not live nearby any of those teams listed, check out the Recycling Association of Minnesota website for a more extensive list of businesses and organizations that are also serving as collection sites.

The lights collected by YES! teams will be taken to West Central Industries in Willmar, where all parts of the lights are recycled – glass, copper, and plastic coating.