Kilowatt Ours is a timely, solutions-oriented look at one of America’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Award-winning film Kilowatt Ours: A Plan to Re-Energize America is a timely, solutions-oriented look at one of America’s most pressing environmental challenges: energy.

Filmmaker Jeff Barrie offers hope as he turns the camera on himself and asks, “How can I make a difference?” In his journey Barrie explores the source of our electricity and the problems caused by energy production including mountain top removal, childhood asthma and global warming. Along the way he encounters individuals, businesses, organizations, and communities who are leading the way, using energy conservation, efficiency and renewable, green power all while saving money and the environment.

We can solve the climate crisis

Climate change is real. And it's happening much faster than was predicted just a few years ago. The good news is that we can solve this crisis. We can switch 100% of America's electricity to clean energy sources - within 10 years. To make the switch, empowering America must be a priority for our leaders. If leaders know you care, they will take action. Join us today and be a voice for solutions.

http://www.wecansolveit.org/

You are what you eat!

When you eat or drink things that are stored in plastic, taste it, smell it, wear it, sit on it, and so on, plastic is incorporated into you. In fact, the plastic gets into the food and food gets into the plastic and you. So, quite literally, you are what you eat[1]. . . drink. . . and breathe plastic! These plastics are called "Food Contact Substances" by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but until April 2002, they were called "Indirect Food Additives."[2] The new name is cleansed of the implication that plastic gets into your food. In spite of this semantic deception, migration is a key assumption of the FDA.

by Paul Goettlich 3aug2005

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Plasticizers/Out-Of-Diet-PG5nov03.htm

Wal-Mart, Nalgene Move Away From Bisphenol A

Popular plastic water bottles, sippy cups and baby bottles made with a chemical called bisphenol A may be on their way out.

Two big signs in this morning’s papers: Wal-Mart says it’s going to stop selling BPA baby bottles early next year, and the company that makes Nalgene water bottles says it will stop using the chemical as well.

BPA is good for making hard, clear, nearly unbreakable plastic containers — just what you want on the trail or in the nursery. But concerns have been floating around for a while that the chemical could present long-term cancer risks, especially to infants.

While the data are still unclear, a few key dominoes fell this week: Canada moved toward declaring the chemical a dangerous substance, and a draft version of a U.S. government report said BPA might present risks.

by Jacob Goldstein

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/04/18/wal-mart-nalgene-move-away-from-bisphenol-a/?mod=WSJBlog

Say No! - to Plastic Bags By V.KRISHNA MOORTH WHAT ARE PLASTICS?

Plastics are synthetic substances produced by chemical reactions. Almost all plastics are made from petroleum, except a few experimental resins derived from corn and other organic substances.

http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in/comcom/plasticbags.htm

Trashing the Oceans

One brilliant summer morning in 2000, the small private research vessel Alguita discovered a 10-mile-wide flotilla of the disposable sacks, an estimated 6 million of them destined for Taco Bells around the country, bobbing more than 1,000 miles west of the Ventura store. We were out in the middle of the Pacific, where you would think the ocean would be pristine, recalls the Alguitas captain, Charles Moore. And instead, we get the Exxon Valdez of plastic-bag spills.

THOMAS HAYDEN / U.S. News & World Report 4nov02

A. 1990 Running shoes spill

B. 2002 Garbage strip

C. 2000 Plastic bag spill

D. Shoes found

E. Eastern Garbage Patch
At the eye of the gyre, plastic reaches concentrations of a million pieces per square mile. Researchers have mapped a giant spill of bags and a mile-long strip of wind-driven garbage.

F. Caught in a gyre
Some of the plastic drifting in the North Pacific is swept to shore, like the thousands of Nike shoes that washed up in the Pacific Northwest. But much is trapped by calm winds and sluggish water within the North Pacific's loop of currents.

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Trashing-Oceans-Plastic4nov02.htm

Trashed - Across the Pacific Ocean, Plastics, Plastics, Everywhere

Bottle caps and other plastic objects are visible inside the decomposed carcass of this Laysan albatross on Kure Atoll, which lies in a remote and virtually uninhabited region of the North Pacific. The bird probably mistook the plastics for food and ingested them while foraging for prey.

CHARLES MOORE / Natural History v.112, n.9, Nov03

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm

Recycling FACTS

child and recycling bin

#1 Reason to Recycle
You will be protecting your health and protecting your environment.

Recycling just one aluminum coke bottle saves enough energy to run a television for 3 hours.

Recycling just 3 feet of newspaper you save a rain forest tree.

Recycling reduces the amount of waste to incinerate or landfill.

Recycling reduces air and water pollution.

Recycling conserves precious natural resources - since less raw materials need to be extracted and processed.

Recycling saves energy - in 1996 the energy savings from recycling in the U.S. equaled the energy used by 4 million households!

Recycling makes us more sustainable because we are borrowing less materials and energy from our children's future.

Recycling Challenge

When we started recycling, we had so many items that we had to call the town to request a third recycling bin. We fill 3 bins a week and usually need to use some brown paper bags as extra collection bins. We have made recycling a family challenge.

Here are some simple changes my family made after watching the documentary "Hawaii message in the waves by BBC." This documentary was a very informative and entertaining look at the serious and harmful results of plastic trash on Hawaii's beaches and sea animals.

1. We no longer pack sandwiches in plastic baggies.

2. We use containers that can be washed and reused to pack our school lunches.

3. We never use plastic bags for groceries. We bring our own bags and/or we request paper-bags. We use the paper-bags to hold recyclables curbside.

4. We check all items we buy, and if they are recyclables, we recycle them curbside. If they are not recyclable we try to find a company that makes that product in a recyclable package for next time.

5. We buy local products, such as fruits, and veggies that are not packaged at all, and we do not use the plastic bag to hold them while we shop. We put all our veggies and fruits in the top bin of the shopping cart. This saves us throwing the small plastic bags away when we unpack the groceries at home.

6. Read labels at the store and buy items that are recyclable. Items that support our growth and survival.

Keep track of how much you recycle at home using your curbside recycling or a drop off program. Take photos and e-mail them to us. You can also snail mail them to 398 Palisado Ave, Windsor, CT 06095 C/o Green Eco Warriors. You may see your photos on our website in the near future!

Recyclable Materials for Windsor Connecticut Curbside Collection

Mixed Paper

ACCEPTABLE ITEMS	UNACCEPTABLE ITEMS
Newspapers	Plastic bags
Cardboard (please flatten boxes and tie larger bundles)	Wax paper
Brown bags	Tissue paper
Magazines	Trash items
All grades of office paper	Food debris
Phone directories
Junk mail
File folders
Chip Board products
Catalogs
Color inserts
School paper
Books(hardcover / soft cover)
Envelopes(with or without cellophane windows)

Bottles, Cans, Plastics

ACCEPTABLE ITEMS	UNACCEPTABLE ITEMS
Clear, brown or green bottles	Ceramic items - cups, plates, dishes
Tin cans	Pyrex ware
Aluminum cans	Plastic bottles - #3 through #7
Aluminum foil - rinsed only, please	Plastic toys, plastic bags
Plastic bottles - #1 & #2 only	Trash items
Aseptic containers(milk or juice)	Un-rinsed containers
Please rinse all items
Lids and caps are OK

Pots and Pans

ACCEPTABLE ITEMS

Metal Pots
Metal Pans

Next steps

Now that you are armed with some new knowledge, you may feel compelled to learn more. Make recycling and saving our planet a family goal. It won't be long before you start to see positive changes.

"We are not tree huggers. We are air breathers. We are Green Eco Warriors." We are compelled to show our strengths and defend what is ours. We have the right and a duty to defend our environment and our planet. We have a calling to learn and teach a gentle and sustainable way of life for the generations that will follow us. We are the Green Eco Warriors.

If you are anything like us, you probably like or even love animals. You will probably want to preserve our planet's natural beauty. You want our rainforests, glaciers, and coral reefs to thrive.

Let's take back our fields, our parks our rivers, and oceans. Lets become ECO-WARRIORS!