September 2007 E-newsletter

On October 27th, 2007 650 volunteers from 17 Greater Cincinnati communities collected 15,000 pounds of trash, planted 13,500 flowers and perennials and distributed 500 trees during Keep Cincinnati Beautiful's Make a Difference Day.

Make a Difference Day is the nation's largest day of citizen volunteerism. As part of Make a Difference Day, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful sponsored cleanup and beautification events throughout the city today.

Tri-State volunteers beautified parks and recreation areas, installed painted panels on abandoned buildings, picked up litter in Halloween costumes, removed scrap tires, and planted thousands of flowers.

Saturday Highlights included:

• As part of the Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP) in Northside, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, BlockWatch 45223, Notre Dame Mission Volunteer AmeriCorps, and Northside Community Council beautified several previously blighted areas and installed original painted panels on boarded up buildings. Research shows that community art promotes a clean and safe environment.
• 100 UC, XU and other volunteers worked with KCB and the Cincinnati Park Board planting 4,000 trees and other perennials at the corner of Martin Luther King Dr and Vine St.
• 120 volunteers mulched and pruned trees at the Presidential Grove in Eden Park. Fall Releaf volunteers distributed 500 trees provided by Duke Energy to help change the quality of air in Cincinnati.

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful would like to thank the following local groups for their support: The Cincinnati Park Board, H.J. Benken Florist & Greenhouse, Duke Energy, BlockWatch 45223, AmeriCorps, Northside Community Council, Mount Notre Dame HS, Moeller HS, Purcell Marian HS, JobCorps Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati, Xavier University Women's Soccer Team, InReturn, Mercy Hospital, and The Cincinnati Zoo.

"Recycling is a great way to make our community a healthier place to live. Cincinnati does a good job of recycling, but I know we can do better. Recycling is essential, and we need to make it a part of our everyday lives." -Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory

Mayor Mark Mallory, Vice Mayor David Crowley, and Cincinnati City Council Members Chris Bortz, Jeff Berding and Laketa Cole launched an initiative to increase recycling in Cincinnati on Thursday October 10. The Green Cincinnati Recycling Plan aims to increase recycling in Cincinnati by 50% over the next 4 years. At Thursday's press conference, the Mayor revealed 4 new downtown recycling drop-off locations, a new webpage where citizens can sign up for recycling, and a recycling program at tailgating before Bengals home games. The press conference was held at the Public Library Downtown, home of one of the new drop-off locations.

Currently, Cincinnati recycles about 9.19% of its total waste, which equals less trash in the landfill. By increasing recycling to 15%, the City of Cincinnati will increase the rebate that it receives from the Hamilton County Solid Waste District, which will reduce the cost of the City's recycling program. Cincinnati currently receives a rebate of $26 per ton of recycling. The rebate increases to $30 per ton, if the city increases its recycling to 10%, which is the goal by the end of the year. The rebate will increase to $34 per ton by recycling 15% of the city's waste.

This announcement is the 1st phase of the Mayor's Green Cincinnati Recycling Plan. New efforts will be announced later this year. The recycling plan is part of the City's efforts to protect the climate, improve the health of our city, and become more energy efficiency.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital, the Christ Hospital, the University of Cincinnati, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, and the Hamilton County Solid Waste Management District have partnered together to create the Go Green Challenge.

The mission of the Go Green Challenge is to encourage organizations, both large and small, to reduce their environmental impact.

Children's Hospital, Christ Hospital, and the University of Cincinnati have all initiated major environmental projects, such as facility-wide recycling or constructing LEED-certified green buildings. These organizations are leading by example and want to challenge your organization to implement environmental practices.

• Go Green Challenge Overview

There is a growing national commitment to restoring and preserving our environment, and this goal has become a priority in business planning in our city.

The companies that make up the barge and towing industry have a reputation for a strong environmental stewardship and are dedicated to improving the compatibility of their operations with the environment in an effort to reduce environmental incidents to an absolute minimum. Pollution control, protection and enhancement of the environment, and maintenance of the ecological balance have long been major concerns of the waterway industry.

• Barges are the most fuel efficient and have the lowest emission levels compared to the other major modes of transportation: rail, highway, and pipeline.
• Low Transportation costs of barges have expanded the markets for some regional natural resources. Many producers of coal, aggregates, and forestry products could not compete for distant markets without barge service.
• Barge Transportation carries 20% of all the coal shipped in the United States. That is enough to produce 10% of all the electricity used in the United States annually!

KCB welcomes Cincinnati Bulk Terminals as a Project Sponsor.

The City of Madeira is the top recycler in Hamilton County for the first six months of 2007, recycling 465 tons of materials. Madeira's recycling rate of 25.59% is the highest among 47 other cities, townships and municipalities in the County.

A key to Madeira's successful recycling rates stem from their Volume Based Solid Waste Collection Program, or commonly referred to as a "Pay as You Throw" Program. The City of Madeira is the only community in Hamilton County who operates this type of garbage collection program. It encourages recycling by charging residents for the amount of garbage thrown away. Each resident is given a 35 gallon trash container to use weekly at no charge. Any trash that is produced that does not fit into the container must have a sticker. Stickers cost $.75 each. Thus, the more a resident recycles, the less they throw away and the less they have to pay for stickers.

To learn more about the City of Madeira's successful Volume Based Solid Waste Collection and Recycling Programs, click here or call Thomas Moeller at 561-7226.

During the second week in October, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and ArtWork's MuralWorks installed 21 movable murals in Over-The-Rhine.

The murals were painted by students in the MuralWorks program this past summer, while they were working on 7 large murals throughout the City. Installed on boarded up buildings, the artwork brightens the street and brings joy to local residents.

The murals can be seen along Race Street between 13th & 14th and along Vine Street between 13 & 15th. KCB, OTR Chamber of Commerce, Kroger and ArtWorks provided funding for the movable murals and their installation.

How to get involved:

If you would like to Paint a mural or Get a mural in your neighborhood call us at 352-4380.

* $25 Individual

* $40 Group/Organization

* $100 Sponsor

* $500 Corporate

It's easy to donate! Visit our website and click on "Make a Donation". From there, you can designate your sponsorship level - simply write it in under "comments". You can also send a check or money order to: Keep Cincinnati Beautiful c/o Friends 801 Plum Street, Room 16 Cincinnati, OH 45202.

Thanks for being a friend to Keep Cincinnati Beautiful!

10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD RECYCLE
Remember: it all starts with a little RRR: Reduce, Reuse, Recyle!

What about those things that you have lurking in your basement because you have no idea when to recycle them? Well, we have a list of some items that can finally rest in peace (Have a Happy Halloween!):

Foam packing (including those peanuts): Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept foam peanuts for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: (800) 828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the National Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, (410) 451-8340

Click here to see the rest of the list.

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