We had 272 vehicles come through - a "record turnout" for the approximately ten years that I have been involved with this event. Those residents dropped off:
- 6,060 pounds of paper which was shredded and will later be bundled and sent to be recycled at a Georgia Pacific Company toilet tissue factory in Savannah, Georgia.
- Recycled paper is proven to save trees and other resources: using less tree fiber, less fresh water, less energy, and producing less waste than traditional virgin fiber paper. One ton of magazine paper made from virgin fiber requires fifteen trees. Those trees can remain in the ground if we widely and effectively increase our use of recycled paper.
- 6,060 pounds of recycled paper can save approximately 51 trees, 1,140 gallons of oil, six cubic yards of landfill space, 12,000 kilowatts of energy, and 21,000 gallons of water. This represents a 192% energy savings, a 174% water savings, and 180 pounds less air pollution!
- 41.5 pounds of medications, which is a lot of chemical stuff that won’t be flushed down the toilet and end up in wastewater discharge, lakes, and rivers where it could be dangerous for fish, birds, and other wildlife.
The North Chatham Volunteer Fire Department provided important fire safety information for residents. For those who brought their rechargeable extinguishers, they checked the pressure gauge on top to assure it was in the green safe zone, and loosened any content that had settled on the bottom by using a hard rubber mallet to pound on the bottom of the extinguisher, and explained how to use the extinguisher to put out a fire.
The department is not equipped to recharge, refill, and tag any extinguishers and explained that as long as the gauge is in the green zone and the content is loosened, no recharging of a private home's extinguisher is required by NC fire code. Annual recharging is required only for buildings where there is group assembly, group educational, group institutional, residential care and long term care facilities, and hotels/motels.
I suspect that the blast email alert that our FHA Communications Director sent out to the entire community earlier that week played a very positive role in the impressive turnout numbers.
Some might also credit the increased participation to the friendly, welcoming demeanor of the parking lot "Greeters" Jon Darling, Marilyn Racine, Wendy Snodgrass. And we thank Amy Ghiloni, ReMax United Realty, who donated the seed packets that were given out to each attendee.
Obviously, the success of this event depended primarily on the dedicated efforts of the volunteers who put in the HOURS of effort to make it happen. The other volunteers included: Gene Rogers, Maggie Tunstall, Maarten Simon Thomas, Mike Petruska, Cheri Derosia, Phil Ghiloni. THANK YOU, once again, for your time and talents ! And CONGRATULATIONS on a job well done !
Planning ahead, consider circling the third Saturday in October 2023 (October 21, 2023) on your calendar, which is when we will have the opportunity to replicate or surpass our recent efforts.
Sincerely,
Jason Welsch, Moderator
Fearrington Green Scene
