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Group Events

Each One Teach One Recycling

• Saturday, January 25, 10-11:30 a.m.
  Orange County Solid Waste Management Administrative Office (1207 Eubanks Rd., Chapel Hill; map)
• Thursday, January 30, 7-8:30 p.m.
  Orange County Public Library, Main Library (137 W. Margaret Ln., Hillsborough; map)

An invitation from Orange County Solid Waste Management that we are happy to forward:

Are you passionate about recycling? Do you take pride in and share your knowledge about the practices of reuse, composting and other waste reduction principles? Want to meet others who share your passion and activism? We invite YOU, Orange County Sierra Club members, to join US, Orange County Solid Waste Management Department (OCSWM) staff, to supercharge those efforts and convert that energy and intelligence into ACTION! OCSWM will be offering two free workshops--locations and times listed above.

You can learn even more about Orange County's solid waste and recycling program: how it works, where it goes, how it is paid for, the local and statewide imperative, what can be diverted from landfill disposal (now hauled 100 miles away) through recycling and reuse, what can't and WHY NOT. Bring your questions and ideas! Challenge the staff and learn more! We want to rev up recycling activism, and these workshops will empower us all to influence others to reduce their environmental footprint through solid waste reduction.

Sign up using this Doodle Poll! Send questions or comments to Muriel Williman, muriel "at" orangecountync.gov or (919) 968-2788.

New Developments on Solar Energy in the Piedmont

Time and place to be announced

Hear what's going on locally with the fight to increase solar energy, including new projects to "solarize" our towns.

2nd Wednesday Winter Hike Series

Wednesday, February 12, 4-5:15 p.m.

Enjoy a 3-mile, fast-paced hike on footpaths through meadows and hilly woodlands. We will trek through a former golf course green given back to nature and stop to see a wonderful bird blind built by local birding enthusiasts. We start promptly at 4 p.m. so we can finish before sunset. Group size is limited to 12 participants. Sorry, no pets. Advance registration required. For more information and to register, contact Jae at SeeingTrees@gmail.com.

Is the State Doing Enough to Protect Your Water?

Thursday, February 13, 7-9 p.m.

Durham County Library, South Regional Branch (4505 S. Alston Ave., Durham)

This is a meeting of the newly revived Headwaters Sierra Club group in Durham.

Over the last three years, DENR staff monitoring water quality has been cut by 25%. At the same time, the water quality section of DENR has been reorganized and merged with the Division of Water Resources. The Department has become greatly politicized with a large expansion of at-will jobs. Last year DENR issued a new mission statement that calls into question the department's willingness to apply science to protect our water quality and also rejected two EPA grants totaling almost $600,000. The Sierra Club Headwaters groups will present experts and former DENR employees to address these questions and more.

More information.

Executive Committee Meetings

Fourth Tuesday of each month, 7 p.m.

Carolina Meadows

All members are welcome to join the Executive Committee in the discussion of issues and projects. Contact Judith Ferster (see below) for further information.

Welcome to Our New Outings Chair

Jae Furman has volunteered to become OCG's new Outings Chair. We're excited to have him involved!

Consider Bookmarking this Web Page for Local Outdoors Information

The next time you are thinking of spending time outdoors, check out a great web resource put together by our new Outings Chair. Click on Local Trips to find links to useful websites and mobile phone apps sure to delight the tech-savvy nature enthusiasts out there! Also on the website is a link for following Tweets that are chock-full of links to interesting nature-related information.

Executive Committee Election Results

May Becker, Max Felsher, and Melissa McCullough were re-elected to two-year terms on the Orange-Chatham Group's Executive Committee. Their terms last until December 31, 2015.

An Exploration of Local Food Initiatives

by Judith Ferster, Orange-Chatham Group Conservation Chair

A paradox: The U.S. wastes over 36 million tons of food each year. According to Jonathan Bloom's American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), the country wastes 40 percent of the food it produces. At the same time, North Carolina is among the ten worst states in the percentage of children under 18 lacking food on regular basis. Along with Louisiana, we lead the nation in the percentage of children under 5 who are regularly food insecure [2010 data from ncfoodbanks.org].

Complicating this contrast are the many people who do not go hungry but eat food that's industrially produced by large corporations using synthetic fertilizers, weed-killers, and pesticides that harm farmland and the people it feeds. Much of it is stripped of nutrients and has too much sugar and fat. The four speakers at our November 13, 2013, meeting addressed some problems of this multi-faceted foodshed.

• Blair Pollock, Orange County Solid Waste Planner, talked about food waste and efforts to keep organic waste out of the landfill. Orange County contracts with Brooks Composting to collect organic waste from large institutions (e.g., restaurants, the university) and return compost that the county can sell. Brooks makes 35 stops in the town and collects 2000 tons of waste per year. The compost it returns is used to improve the soil, which then needs less fertilizing and has a greater capacity to hold moisture. The county also gives classes to teach residents the basics of indoor composting using worms and outdoor composting using a variety of containers and techniques. But there are 58,000 households in the county. Those that do not compost individually add organic waste to the water supply by grinding it in disposals or send it to the distant landfill the county now uses.
• Justin Senkbeil is the cofounder (2010) and CEO of Compost Now, which started by collecting and composting food scraps just from friends and family. Today the service provides weekly pick-ups to households throughout the Triangle and Asheville and has helped divert over 100,000 pounds from landfills.
• Ben Greene is the inventor and founder of The Farmery, a growing (in both senses of the word) retail system designed to provide locally grown food in urban neighborhoods. It uses shipping containers both to grow and to sell vegetables and fish, reducing transportation costs and spoilage.
• Chef Njathi Wa Kabui is a celebrated organic chef, urban farmer, and food activist based in Durham. The organization he founded, Organics & Sounds, plans dinners that combine food and music to connect sustainably grown local food, art, and community one diner at a time.

Orange-Chatham Group Leaders

Executive Committee Members

Note: Each member's term ends in December of the year in parentheses.

• May Becker (2015) Group Co-chair tomatocutter "at" yahoo.com 969-7439
• Olga Grlic (2014) Group Co-chair and Calendar Sales Representative olgagrl "at" duke.edu 968-4318
• Dave Keesee (2014) Treasurer dskeesee "at" bellsouth.net 933-4879
• Melissa McCullough (2015) Secretary melissamccnc "at" gmail.com
• Judith Ferster (2014) Conservation Chair judith_ferster "at" ncsu.edu 929-6648
• Max Felsher (2015) Newsletter/Web/Listserv max.felsher "at" gmail.com 617-599-0669
• Jason Baker (2014) jason "at" jasonbaker.us 442-8278

Other Group Leaders

• Jae Furman Outings SeeingTrees "at" gmail.com
• Loren Hintz Transportation Chair ldhintz "at" bellsouth.net 933-8987

Note: All phone numbers are in the 919 area code unless specifically indicated.