Today's Topics:
America Recycles Day letter to Al Gore
America Recycles Day letter to Al Gore (with junk mail attachment)
Introducing vermicomposting idea to Al Gore (America Recycles Day)
Worms Going Wild on the World Wide Web
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Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 19:26:59 -0400
From: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com (Mary Appelhof)
Subject: America Recycles Day letter to Al Gore
=46lowerfield Enterprises/Flower Press
10332 Shaver Road
Kalamazoo, MI 49024 USA
616-327-0108 FAX 616-327-7009
email: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com
WEB site: http://www.wormwoman.com
Albert Gore
America Recycles Day
Old Executive Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Gore,
Thank you for supporting recycling through you involvement with
America Recycles Day. I am pleased that you are willing to lend your
stature and the visibility of your office to further goals of reducing
waste and enhancing the use of limited resources.
We can go beyond paper and glass and plastic and steel when it
comes to recycling. I know this because I recycle my food waste with worms.
They consume food discards, turning them into nutrient-rich humus to feed
my garden. In fact, I wrote the book on the subject, Worms Eat My
Garbage-how to set up and maintain a worm composting system. Recycling
food wastes on-site not only helps grow healthier plants without need for
synthetic fertilizers, it reduces the need for hauling and for centralized
systems to process these wastes (resources).
The original edition (1982) of Worms Eat My Garbage sold over
100,000 copies. Perhaps as many as a million people compost their garbage
with worms and recycle their food waste on- site because they had access to
my book.
I thought you might be interested to learn of a couple ways that a
small business like mine can impact the demand-side for recycled materials.
=46irst, I print my books on recycled paper. For the 10,000 copies just
printed, that is nearly two tons of recycled paper. Over twelve tons for
the 100,000 copies of the first edition! Not bad for a tiny business with
just 1 1/2 employees besides me! My last flyers were printed on 100 percent
recycled, chlorine-free paper, but the de-inking mill that produced it has
since been closed because of insufficient demand. I'm willing to spec its
use, but what happens when availability dries up? What an atrocious
situtation!
Secondly, I invented an aerated plastic worm bin called the
Worm-a-way=AE. I insist that the bins be produced from a high percentage
(over 25%) postconsumer plastic, thereby creating a market for
post-consumer plastic.
I chose November 15 to be the publication date of the second
edition of Worms Eat My Garbage to support the concept and awareness of
America Recycles Day. On that day I will be in Hendersonville, North
Carolina, spreading the word about how important it is for all of us to
find ways to recycle everything we can and to use our buying power to
select goods to purchase based upon their use of recycled materials. I
will be doing this at the Carolina Farm Sustainable Ag conference and while
autographing books and reaching out further at the Mountain Lore
Bookstore.
Sincerely, cc Fran McPoland
Mary Appelhof
Mary Appelhof
=46lowerfield Enterprises
10332 Shaver Road
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49024USA
Phone: 616-327-0108 FAX 616-327-7009
Email: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com
See a baby worm hatch from its cocoon at
http://www.wormwoman.com
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 19:28:29 -0400
From: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com (Mary Appelhof)
Subject: America Recycles Day letter to Al Gore (with junk mail attachment)
Mary Appelhof
8117 East "O" Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
Albert Gore
America Recycles Day
Old Executive Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Gore,
I applaud your efforts in recycling. I appreciate your willingness to lend
the visibility only you can provide to further the awareness of the need
for completing the recycling loop by purchasing products made from recycled
feedstock through America Recycles Day.
As a citizen I try very hard to recycle everything I can. Today I dropped
off styrofoam, plastic milk jugs, glass bottles, tin cans and aluminum pie
plates, newspaper, corrugated cardboard, and mixed paper at the recycling
center. I can drop off more materials at the recycling center than
curbside recycling provides, so I am willing to make the extra effort to
deliver them myself.
I am frustrated, however, but the number of things I cannot recycle, such
as this plastic enclosed cardboard mailer for a computer disk. I have
removed the disk and reformatted it, so at least it will get used. But the
plastic wrapping is a problem for me to recycle. And it mounts up. It's
presence makes other components of the package unrecyclable because they
are contaminated with the plastic.
Please continue to promote recycling. Do what you can to encourage
businesses to make their decisions on what is best for the environment, not
just on what is best for the bottom line. Try to get them to adopt a Zero
Waste position--to view all materials as resources, and to know that
anything which must go to a landfill is an unnecessary waste, both
economically and environmentally. Encourage businesses to create products
and advertising gimmics that support, not destroy, the environment.
Help us all work towards the elimination of ALL waste.
Sincerely,
Mary Appelhof
President
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 19:25:47 -0400
From: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com (Mary Appelhof)
Subject: Introducing vermicomposting idea to Al Gore (America Recycles Day)
=46lowerfield Enterprises/Flower Press
10332 Shaver Road
Kalamazoo, MI 49024 USA
616-327-0108 FAX 616-327-7009
email: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com
WEB site: http://www.wormwoman.com
Albert Gore
America Recycles Day
Old Executive Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Gore,
Thank you for supporting recycling through you involvement with
America Recycles Day. I am pleased that you are willing to lend your
stature and the visibility of your office to further goals of reducing
waste and enhancing the use of limited resources.
We can go beyond paper and glass and plastic and steel when it
comes to recycling. I know this because I recycle my food waste with worms.
They consume food discards, turning them into nutrient-rich humus to feed
my garden. In fact, I wrote the book on the subject, Worms Eat My
Garbage-how to set up and maintain a worm composting system. Recycling
food wastes on-site not only helps grow healthier plants without need for
synthetic fertilizers, it reduces the need for hauling and for centralized
systems to process these wastes (resources).
The original edition (1982) of Worms Eat My Garbage sold over
100,000 copies. Perhaps as many as a million people compost their garbage
with worms and recycle their food waste on- site because they had access to
my book.
I thought you might be interested to learn of a couple ways that a
small business like mine can impact the demand-side for recycled materials.
=46irst, I print my books on recycled paper. For the 10,000 copies just
printed, that is nearly two tons of recycled paper. Over twelve tons for
the 100,000 copies of the first edition! Not bad for a tiny business with
just 1 1/2 employees besides me! My last flyers were printed on 100 percent
recycled, chlorine-free paper, but the de-inking mill that produced it has
since been closed because of insufficient demand. I'm willing to spec its
use, but what happens when availability dries up? What an atrocious
situtation!
Secondly, I invented an aerated plastic worm bin called the
Worm-a-way=AE. I insist that the bins be produced from a high percentage
(over 25%) postconsumer plastic, thereby creating a market for
post-consumer plastic.
I chose November 15 to be the publication date of the second
edition of Worms Eat My Garbage to support the concept and awareness of
America Recycles Day. On that day I will be in Hendersonville, North
Carolina, spreading the word about how important it is for all of us to
find ways to recycle everything we can and to use our buying power to
select goods to purchase based upon their use of recycled materials. I
will be doing this at the Carolina Farm Sustainable Ag conference and while
autographing books and reaching out further at the Mountain Lore
Bookstore.
Sincerely,
Mary Appelhof
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 15:43:02 -0400
From: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com (Mary Appelhof)
Subject: Worms Going Wild on the World Wide Web
>
>Memo from: Mary Appelhof,
> Flowerfield Enterprises, 10332 Shaver Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49024
> Phone: 616-327-0108 FAX: 616-327-7009 http://www.wormwoman.com
>
>
>Worms Going Wild on the World Wide Web
>
>Do you have any idea how much active interest there is in worm composting
>on the World Wide Web? A quick HotBot search brought up 584 matches for
>vermicomposting and or worm composting. Some sites have page after page
>of links to other worm composting sites.
>
>One of my favorite sites is the Vermicomposting Forum at:
>
>http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/wwwboard/vermi/
>
> -Vermicomposting is specifically the practice of producing compost
>using
> a high concentration of earthworms. The end product consists primarily
> of worm castings (excrement) as well as some bacterialogically
>composted vermiculture come in the form of an
>end-product which is rapidly
> produced and of a higher nutrient quality than traditional compost.
> Maybe your worms are trying to escape (or they've already left!), or
> one day you find that your bin has been taken over by writhing
> maggots, or the material is turning to smelly slime! Not to worry,
> there are plenty of people out there willing to offer suggestions on
> the way of the worm and how to put them to work for you!
> Introduction to the Vermicomposting Forum
>
>Administered by Chris Palmieri (on a volunteer basis), people from all
>over the world are posting questions which get responses within hours. It
>has so many entries the site administrator has archived 12 separate
>sections to record all of the activity.
>
> An August article in U.S. News and World Report mentioned the now
>pretty-much-defunct International Worm Growers Association as if it were a
>viable organization. As Forum participants tried to find out more about
>it, they recognized a need for such an organization, particularly if the
>prior one (or inactive one) was no longer viable. Within weeks of initial
>discussion, an ambitious, enthusiastic group of worm lovers got Chris to
>set up a separate WEBsite to post discussions related to an organization.
>This led to developing the capability of accessing a chat room (many hours
>and behind the scene efforts on this by several of the forum
>participants). Find this discussion at:
>
>http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/wwwboard/vermigroup/index.html
>
>Kelly Slocum from Clark County, Washington, has taken on the rather
>overwhelming role of serving as chair/facilitator up to this point, aided
>by some participants who have years of experience with communications,
>computers, and systems stuff that I don't understand.
>
>I recognize the need for a cohesive organization related to vermiculture.
>I would like to see such an organization be available to people who don't
>have access to computers, the internet, and the WorldWideWeb. I'm sending
>you this summary of what has happened so far. Take a look and see if you
>think this developing organization might be something that you would like
>to get involved with. If you have any input, please submit it to
>
> Kelly Slocum,
> 7605 NE 57th Ct,
> Vancouver, WA 98661
> phone: 360-693-2868, FAX: 360-750-9008, email: kslocum@e-z.net.
>
>
>
Mary Appelhof
Flowerfield Enterprises
10332 Shaver Road
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49024USA
Phone: 616-327-0108 FAX 616-327-7009
Email: mappelho@madison.tdsnet.com
See a baby worm hatch from its cocoon at
http://www.wormwoman.com
------------------------------
End of GreenYes Digest V97 #263
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