VOLUME 56

 SUSTAINABILITY CONNECTION 

 

Character is much easier kept than recovered.

 -Thomas Paine

  East Tennessee Youngsters Support Recycling

 

                                                        

The Johnson City Press recently reported on a group of young people and their letter writing campaign to support recycling.

 

When it comes to recycling, third-graders at Towne Acres Elementary School have a few things to say.
 

As part of a school lesson on recycling, more than 60 students composed letters to the editor at the Johnson City Press that addressed reasons why people should recycle. 
 

In his letter, Isaiah Neal discussed how recycling can save energy.
 

"Recycling saves energy because the manufacturer does not have to start with new, raw, natural resources," Neal wrote. "So we can use the same material to keep production costs down." 
 

Many of the letters even included statistics related to recycling.
 

"Recycling just half of your annual recyclable household waste saves 2,400 pounds of CO2 being released into the atmosphere," Sadie Beck wrote. "You can recycle paper, glass, rubber and cans that some people usually throw away."
 

Another student, Hannah, noted that Americans disposed of 83 million tons of paper products in 2003.
 

"According to the EPA, by recycling nearly half of that, we saved 705 million trees and 290 billion gallons of fresh water," she added.
 

Brennan said simply that recycling is good for the planet, as well as conserving energy.
"Recycling saves energy because if you recycle one can, that's three hours of T.V," he writes. "That is pretty cool."
 

An observant Hope Roberts started her letter with a big concern about area lakes. 
"I have seen a lot of trash in them. The trash in the lake is making pollution," Roberts noted. "Bottles can be reused into something more useful. Also, I have heard that animals are losing their homes and trees are being replaced by malls. Plus trees give us oxygen and squirrels are losing their homes, which are trees."
 

Lauren Lehrfeld wrote about how reducing the amount of trash can help the environment.
 

"Recycling produces considerably less carbon (dioxide), which reduces the amount of unhealthy greenhouse gas omissions," she wrote.
 

A student named Major pointed out where many recyclables currently end up: in landfills with the rest of the trash.
 

"Landfills with trash take up land. Landfills are very stinky. Nobody wants to live next to a pile of stink," he said. "Landfills take up habitats. Animals might eat trash from landfills. Animals can die from eating trash."
 

Ella Sanchez emphasized the preservation of resources and protection of wildlife through recycling.
 

"Our wildlife is in danger! Animals are getting stuck in our trash! Ducks and fish are getting stuck in can holders. Animals are dying! They need your help!" she wrote.
 

Going a step further from the recycling facts and figures discussed in her school readings and textbooks, Annie sourced a popular animated movie to get her point across.
 

"In Disney Pixar's 'Wall-E' the whole earth was covered in landfills. We would not want Johnson City to be that way," she notes. "We also should recycle paper because a lot of wild animals would lose their homes and we wouldn't have any air to breathe."
 

Letter after letter, the students delivered numerous thought-provoking arguments about recycling, as well as examples on how everyone can make a difference.
 

Perhaps summing it up best, Hansini concluded his letter by writing, "Earth can be clean if we recycle."
 

Tennessee a Top State for Green Jobs

Workers from Antioch-based LightWave Solar install solar panels on the roof of a barn at Bells Bend Neighborhood Farms in Nashville on Nov. 21.
               
The Tennessean recently reported on several projects that put Tennessee as a green job state.

 

A large project to install a solar power generation site in McNairy County has landed Tennessee on a list of the top states creating green energy jobs this year.

 

Environmental Entrepreneurs, a business group with a focus on the green industry, put Tennessee as No. 9 on a list of states that had jobs announced or created between July and September.

 

The report looked at the number of jobs being created for projects across the country. In August, the Tennessee Valley Authority and a North Carolina solar energy firm announced plans to build two 20-megawatt solar energy sites near Selmer.

 

Strata Solar, which is based in Chapel Hill, N.C., plans to start construction on the project sometime between April and June next year, said Blair Schooff, a spokesman for the firm.

"We're just sort of finalizing the development portion of the project," Schooff said.

 

The Strata Solar project will create 350 to 400 jobs during the construction phase next year, he said.

The project, which includes installing more than 160,000 solar panels on more than 300 acres, will be part of TVA's Renewable Standard Offer program, under which the utility buys electricity at market rates.

 

Environmental Entrepreneurs has been tracking green industry jobs since 2011 and produces its reports quarterly. The list of job announcements was topped by California and Nevada, which respectively had 2,467 and 2,081 jobs created.

 

During the third quarter of this year, companies announced more than 15,000 green industry jobs in 30 states, according to the report.

 

In recent years, green job creation in Tennessee has been driven primarily by electric vehicle manufacturing and construction of solar energy generation sites.

 

Despite the Strata project, conservation groups and solar power firms say much of the economic activity around solar energy has slowed in Tennessee in the past year.

 

TVA sets a cap on how much power it will buy from small-scale solar power generators. Those smaller projects make up the bulk of the demand for new solar installations, said Steve Johnson, president at Antioch-based solar panel installation firm LightWave Solar.

 

  Cycling in Chattanooga

 

 

Artist conception of what the Broad Street protected bike lane will look like when it's complete. The city has proposed removing the third lane of traffic to add the bike lane.
The Times Free Press recently wrote an article about the possibility of bike lanes in Chattanooga. 

 

If Chattanooga is awarded a new state grant next year, officials will narrow Broad Street to build the first protected bike lane in the city from M.L. King Boulevard to the road's end at the Tennessee Aquarium.

 

A second project would create a new walking and bike path to run parallel with St. Elmo Avenue, a stretch of road that mainly is used as parking for residents.

City Transportation Director Blythe Bailey said both ideas give alternative means of transportation for residents, and officials hope the Broad Street project will encourage bikers now afraid to share the road with cars to bike downtown.

 

"It encourages people to move around in different ways," he said.

The city now has shared bike lanes within the city limits, along popular roads such as Market and Main streets.

 

But national research shows many bicyclists are afraid to use those lanes because of safety concerns, Bailey said.

 

This proposal is to narrow Broad Street from three to two lanes on both sides of the road.

The road will shift, and the bicycle lane will be built where the on-street parking now is and run parallel with the sidewalk that also will be widened. The on-street parking will be built in the eliminated lane, Bailey said, and won't eliminate any parking spots.

 

One business owner said as long as the city doesn't take away the already limited parking on Broad Street, she is OK with the proposal.

 

"I think people like to ride bikes; it's a good thing," said Polly Henry, owner of All Books Inc. on the corner of Fourth Street. "But bike lanes won't help bring in customers; we just need more parking."

Bailey said the Transportation Department estimates that 8,000 to 10,000 cars drive on Broad Street each day, and the road could handle three times that amount. So he doesn't believe narrowing the road will increase traffic downtown.

 

Officials won't know until mid-February or March if they will receive the Tennessee Department of Transportation grant. If so, the city will match both grants. The City Council approved the payment, which hasn't yet been determined, in early December.

 

As for the St. Elmo greenway project planned for Virginia Avenue, the idea was mapped out during a citywide cycle workshop earlier this fall.

 

The plan would include repaving, installing new lighting along the road and adding traffic-calming techniques such as speed bumps at the crossing of St. Elmo Avenue at Ochs Highway. The plan also includes a bike and pedestrian path to the Incline Railway to connect eventually with the Riverwalk extension.

 

Multiple St. Elmo residents approved of the plan and sent letters of support last week to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency. Residents said this project offers an alternative that doesn't now exist -- a safe, well-lit path for the community, which could eventually have an economic impact.

 

"This is a fantastic idea," said Jeffrey Cross, a St. Elmo resident who runs a neighborhoodwide email list.

 

"As close as we are to town, we have still always been somewhat "off the beaten path," Cross wrote in support of the project. "We have the potential to become an outdoor crossroads, business destination, and an example for others demonstrating how a neighborhood can function multimodally."

 

In another letter of support, a resident highlighted how the project could relieve residents of some of the challenges that exist on the busy throughway that runs to the Georgia state line.

 

"Given the dangerous and scary pedestrian experience on Tennessee and St. Elmo avenues, which the state and others refuse to address, having a pedestrian/bike priority greenway that sits in between them would give back some of what St. Elmo loses," wrote Noel Weichbrodt.

 

      

                        

 

 

January is National Radon Action Month.

 

Click on the picture for more information from the EPA

 

 

 

Did You Know?
Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words that we use today.
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This newsletter was published by the TDEC Office of Sustainable Practices. If you have any suggestions for content please submit your information to this address.
 
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TDEC Office of Sustainable Practices