Volunteering - PRC Hard to Recycle Event

I finally got the opportunity to volunteer again at one of Pennsylvania Resources Council's (PRC's) collection events. This event was one of the Hard to Recycle drop-off opportunities for the communities south of Pittsburgh. It was held at an elementary school, which had a good route for traffic that didn't end up blocking the road.

The event went very smoothly, other than the participant's truck that broke down in line! Luckily, he was still able to drop off his unwanted items for recycling, but he had to call a tow truck to remove his vehicle 😢

I highly recommend volunteering for these types of events. PRC takes good care of volunteers, providing drinks, snacks, and a portable restroom. The participants are friendly and thankful. I was able to volunteer for just the second half of the event, which was convenient for me.

I can't recall any unusual items being dropped off, but I was surprised by how many people dropped off multiple TVs...one person had six!

Here are some pictures from the event: 

Line of vehicles coming in

My job was to check what the participant brought in and tally the cost

 

Messy volunteer station at the end of the day!

Refuse sorting station

Eco Scouts: Waste and Watersheds

Today was the last Eco Scouts session! 

Participants who attended all the sessions received certificates of completion, and there was cake for everyone as well.

This session focused on watersheds. We learned about where drinking water comes from in our area, how it is processed, and where water goes when it goes down the pipe or the stormwater grate.

Our first exercise was to guess where our water comes from and where it goes. I was a bit embarrassed that I have been living in Pittsburgh for ten years, and I wasn't 100% certain about the details. I could tell you a lot about water in Arizona, however.

In my drawing, I guessed that my water comes from the main rivers in Pittsburgh (Monongahela or Allegheny), and my wastewater is processed by a local treatment plant I have seen that is connected to a small stream (they are called "runs" here). I assume they discharge the treated water there. Here's my drawing:

What I found out is that my water actually comes from the Youghiogheny River, which feeds into the Monongahela River. We learned about the history of that river, which had a polluted past, and how the water from that river is treated so it is safe to drink.

Another exercise we did was to visualize how all water is connected. We wrote a personal connection to water on a piece of paper (like our cup of coffee in the morning) and used string to show how our touching of that water is connected to the environment and others' uses of water. This was connected to learning about the water cycle and how water moves through the environment and back into our water system.

Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County was the main presenter for this last session of Eco Scouts. They brought some swag, and we also got a few additional items for our last day of Eco Scouts, like a branded bandana, our remaining patches, and some leftover sewing kits.

Eco Scouts was a great experience. It was nice to connect with people in the community, and the Eco Scouts organizers, Laura and Lauren, went above and beyond to deliver an engaging and fun program for adults. I encourage anyone in the Pittsburgh area to attend the next time they put this together!

Eco Scouts: Recycling Deep Dive

 I missed the Repair and Reuse session of Eco Scouts, because I was out of town 😞. I heard they got little sewing kits to take home and got to sew their badges onto something.

I was able to attend Recycling Deep Dive, however, so here's what that was all about...

Agenda!

The first thing we did was watch a video of a material recovery facility (MRF). This is where our unsorted recyclables go to get sorted for recycling. We learned about why municipalities make some of the rules they do about what can go in the recycling bin and in what condition.

One important thing I learned is that there is misinformation going around in the media that less than 10% of plastics get recycled. I have heard this disheartening figure. It was clarified that this percentage is related to the entire U.S. economy. Rest assured, if you put the appropriate plastics in your recycling bin, they are very likely to get recycled. The issue is how much plastic in the economy is going straight to landfills without the opportunity to be recycled.

The activities for this session of Eco Scouts were a waste audit and a life cycle system boundary draft for a discarded product.

Waste to sort for the waste audit

Waste audit sorting and documentation

Working on a system boundary for a router

These activities got us thinking about what people throw out and what materials things are made of.

The last Eco Scouts session is coming up! I will provide my overall thoughts on Eco Scouts in that post.

Eco Scouts: How to Organize a Litter Clean-up

 Did you know you can organize your own litter cleanup? And you don't necessarily have to provide any of your own supplies! That's what I learned at this week's Eco Scouts session on litter cleanups. We learned how to conduct a litter cleanup efficiently and safely, what supplies we would need, and what organizations can provide those supplies. 

We also got to hear from a local community member who cleaned up a public lot and got the city to provide permanent garbage cans for the lot.

At the end, we got our own litter cleanup kit to get us started.

Check out our badge for this session, along with some basic safety tips.

Eco Scouts - Backyard Composting and Food Waste

The second session of Eco Scouts was last week. That session focused on food waste. Have you noticed that a lot of recipes only use part of the plant you are cooking with? We end up throwing away stems, peels, and sometimes leaves when cooking. At this session, we got a couple of recipes that try to use the whole plant -- whole kale and stems and whole celery, including the leaves. 

Low-waste recipes

Next, we learned some shocking facts about food waste. There is so much of it from the farm, to the distributor, and the restaurant or home. We learned about the Flashfood app that allows you to get food from grocery stores near its best-by date for a discount; this prevents the grocery store from throwing the food away. We also got some information about the McKeesport Community Garden.

Lastly, we learned about Bokashi composting and got our own starter kit to compost at home! Bokashi composting is interesting because it is actually an anaerobic fermentation method. Bokashi composting is done in a sealed bucket, and once the fermentation is complete, you bury the compost in the ground.

Inside our Bokashi bucket

We also got our first badge at this session! Check it out! Can you tell what it is?

Eco Scouts - Summary and Orientation

To my American readers, do you remember Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts as a kid? Not everyone participated, but it's certainly a distinctly American experience. I participated in Brownies, which is Girl Scouts for girls in the second and third grades. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts is meant to teach kids practical skills in a fun way that memorializes their achievements with badges they can display on their uniforms.

Well, some creative minds have created a nostalgic program for adults to help them shore up their personal and community sustainability skills with Eco Scouts. I signed up and attended the orientation. There will be six sessions in total:

1. Orientation

2. Backyard Composting and Food Waste 

3. How to Organize a Litter Clean-Up 

4. Repair and Reuse

5. Recycling Deep Dive 

6. Waste and Watersheds 

Here are some photos from Orientation:

Making name badges from discarded craft supplies

My name badge

Orientation presentation

Orientation activity

Free metal cup for drinks

PRC Hard-to-Recycle Collection Event

 Every municipality has a different way to keep hazardous and valuable items out of landfills and incinerators. For better or worse, here in Pittsburgh, a non-profit organization is the major force in the area for collecting these items and making sure they are disposed of properly. This organization is Pennsylvania Resource Council, PRC, and they operate across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

This last weekend, I participated in one of their hard-to-recyle events. This event focuses on collecting electronics and tires mainly, but they collect a lot more. The items I had to turn in included a broken vacuum cleaner, keyboard, mouse, batteries, light bulbs, and a few other miscellaneous items.

When I participated in the past, the process went quickly, but not this time around. We waited in line in our car for one hour and fifteen minutes to drop off our stuff. I was not super surprised, though. I had volunteered with them in the past and saw a similar experience then. Also, we picked the Noon appointment slot, which goes slower than having an appointment first thing in the morning. Here are some pictures from the event and an explanation of the process, including why I think it took so long. This type of situation is not ideal for the environment due to the automobile idling emissions.

A map showing the line of cars and the checkpoints for the event

Beginning of the line

Making our way through the line

They check what we are dropping off, so they can see how much we owe.

Volunteers at one of the checkpoints

Volunteers working on collecting items from people's cars

People dropped off lots of monitors and TVs

One of the reasons the line of cars moved so slowly is because they had to narrow it down to one line of cars at the end, rather than having multiple lines. They would start unloading around six cars at once, but that group of cars could not leave until everyone was unloaded. Apparently, the municipality wouldn't allow them to use more than one lane, because they wanted to keep it open to through traffic.

Well, it wasn't fun spending an hour and fifteen minutes moving slowly in a line of cars, and not the best thing for air quality, but I'm glad we were able to drop off our broken items! The volunteers and staff are amazing. I volunteered at one of these events many years ago, and it is hard work! I plan to volunteer again this year, if possible, and will report back if I do so.