• Support your kids in their efforts to make environmental action a part of their everyday lives.

• Become a KEC presenter so that you can work with your kids and other kids to help them learn about their environment, recycling and taking action in their community.

• Help establish KEC training in your children's schools, your place of business, organizations to which you belong, and in your community.

• Contribute trees to the KEC Forests Program.

• Become an active participant in taking environmental action. Use the checklist below as a guide.

Environmental Action Checklist

Save Energy!

• Conduct an energy audit of your home and workplace. Turn off unnecessary lights. Insulate well. Purchase energy-efficient appliances. Install compact fluorescent light bulbs.

• Start an environmental training group in your community center, favorite club or religious home to encourage others to make their homes more energy efficient. You and the group could distribute healthy-environment materials from this web site and other sources, sponsor workshops and help install energy-saving materials in the homes of your friends, colleagues and other people who need assistance.

• Drive less. Carpool or use mass transportation. This saves gas, reduces pollution and cuts down on traffic.

• When you buy a car, select an energy-efficient model.

• Recycle. It is especially important to recycle aluminum.

• Advocate for community, city, state and national recycling programs if your area does not yet have them.

• Support and encourage local energy utilities to promote energy efficiency and increase use of renewable energy. If your utility companies do not offer energy audits and discounts for energy-saving measures, encourage them to do so.

• Support government policies and legislation that promote energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Fight Air Pollution, Acid Rain, and Global Warming!

• Use energy-efficient appliances and heating and cooling systems in your home.

• Encourage energy audits in your businesses, religious institutions, schools, and other locations. Your local utilities may help and may have lists of companies that will refit facilities to be energy efficient.

• Plant trees. A healthy community has 40% tree coverage on its land. How does your community score?

• Keep your car well-maintained and perform regular emissions inspections to reduce pollution and cut gas bills. Encourage your business, community school and other institutions with vehicles to do the same.

• Maintain your lawnmower. Badly maintained lawnmowers are responsible for a significant share of air pollution. If possible, use non-gasoline-powered landscaping and gardening equipment.

• Support mass transit and other alternatives to single-passenger, gasoline-powered cars for commuting in your community and region.

• Reduce junk mail. Producing junk mail uses energy and trees, causes pollution and requires energy to dispose of. Reduce the amount of junk mail you receive by as much as 75%! Request that your name be removed from lists and not be sold to new mailing companies. Send your request to:

Mail Preference Service - U.S., Direct Marketing Association, 11 West 42nd St., PO. Box 3861, New York, NY 10163-3861

Mail Preference Service - Canada, Canadian Direct Marketing Association, 1 Concorde Gate, Suite 607, Don Mills, Ontario N3C 3N6

• Urge the government to invest in the research and use of renewable and non-polluting energy sources.

Ozone Depletion

• Keep your home and automobile air conditioners well maintained . Only service them at repair facilities that recycle CFCs.

• Avoid purchasing products that contain halogenated hydrocarbons (e.g., Halon fire extinguishers, aerosol cleaners for electronic or photographic equipment) and other ozone-destroying chemicals.

• Switch to CFC-free refrigerators and automobile air conditioners when they are available.

• Write elected representatives and relevant U.S. government officials know that you want production of all ozone-damaging products ended.

Water

• Used reduced-flow showers, faucets and toilets in your home and encourage their use at your business and at other institutions you frequent. Fix leaks promptly and eliminate unnecessary water use.

• Check water quality in your community and in your home. Be sure that places you visit have tested for lead and other harmful pollutants in drinking water. And, make sure that steps are taken to correct problems that are found--especially in your own home.

• Use non-toxic and biodegradable cleaning agents. Dispose of toxic materials correctly. Do not pour them into drains. Encourage your community to sponsor hazardous disposal pick-up days. You can support the effort by donating the use of a business or institution parking lot for a day.

• Support the protection and restoration of wetlands, which act as natural water pollution filters and provide a habitat for wildlife.

• Contribute to international relief efforts to provide clean drinking water in developing countries.

Extinction of Plant and Animal Species

• Support efforts to preserve natural habitats in the United States. Find out which species in your area may be endangered. Contact local chapters of the National Audubon Society or the U.S. Fish and wildlife Service office in your state.

• Go on ecology tour vacations that raise money for groups and countries to preserve habitats and protect endangered species. These trips help people understand in a direct way why there is a need to protect these unique and beautiful habitats.

• Avoid purchasing tropical hardwoods like teak, mahogany, and rosewood, which are cut from rainforests and typically not replaced.

• Support products that sustain non-destructive use of rainforests such as tropical fruits, nuts and rubber. They and other products can be harvested in a sustainable and profitable manner, which will encourage the maintenance of rainforests and support indigenous peoples. For more information on these products, you can write to: Cultural Survival, ATTN: Rainforest Products, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.

• Sponsor native tree planting in rainforests and other parts of the world.

• Urge your representative and senators to vote in favor of a strengthened Endangered Species Act. This law protects plant and animal species threatened with extinction.

Food and Agriculture

• Support international hunger relief efforts and programs to improve agriculture in developing countries.

• Buy certified organic produce to support sustainable agriculture in the United States.

• Plant an organic garden next to your home or school. Encourage community gardening, particularly in poorer urban areas.

• Educate others on the links between agriculture policy and the environment.

• Write to your senators and representatives encouraging increased U.S. government support for sustainable agriculture in the U.S. and in other nations through our foreign aid programs.

Population, Development and Consumption

• Work to change your own and your community's consumption patterns--the ways and types of products purchased.

• Support organizations working to improve economic conditions and the condition of women in developing countries.

• Encourage the government to help poor countries develop their economies in environmentally sustainable ways by designing foreign aid programs that promote new technologies and support local manufacturing instead of the export of raw materials.

Toxic Pollution and Hazardous Waste

• Survey hazardous waste production and disposal in your community. Identify dangerous problems and work for their clean-up.

• Support efforts by low-income communities to address their toxic pollution problems and avoid receiving an unfair share of society's environmental hazards. Work with these communities to address their concerns.

• Learn about the dangers of everyday household products and reduce the damage you do to health and the environment. Educate others on how they can do likewise.

• Promote and educate about efforts to recycle toxic materials in your community If there is no community-based recycling of motor oil or car batteries or similar toxic products. Advocate for their creation.

• Support and work with national organizations that help local communities address toxic pollution and hazardous waste problems.

Environmental Justice

• Work with local conservation groups and community groups to assess environmental problems in local neighborhoods and develop action plans. Sponsor community-wide clean-up programs. Pressure government agencies to address problems.

• Locate the hazardous waste facilities in your area. Contact zoning officials to urge them to consider how their decisions affect minority populations. Consider supporting local coalitions to address these problems. Reach out to such coalitions to develop a formal presence in them.

• Support research and use of alternatives to toxic chemicals, which not only affect minority populations disproportionately, but cause harm to water sources used by the entire community.

Contact your representative and senators and urge them to support environmental justice legislation such as the Environmental Justice Act and the Public Health Equity Act. Encourage them to work for reform of the "Superfund" law to ensure that cleanup programs do not discriminate against poor communities.

KEC Presenters, Mentors and Facilitators

KEC members can take action by helping others learn about the environment, recycling and other issues that are important to making our earth a cleaner, better place to live. There are three ways to do this.

• KEC members can become part of the KEC Presenter Corps. This means learning the KEC message and teaching it to others.

• They can help their friends learn to be good environmental citizens; this is called being a mentor.

• They can help teachers, their parents and other people make changes that will help the planet. This is called being a facilitator.

The KEC Presenter Corps

The KEC Presenter Corps is a group of young people and some adults who have learned about the environment, recycling and a lot of other things that KEC Kids and members need to know. They have learned it so well that they can teach people--kids and adults--all about recycling, the importance of trees, how to keep our air and water clean and many other things.

You don't have to be a particular age. You don't have to be a scientist. You do have to care about our earth.

You also have to like to talk to other people and help them learn. You need to be able to tell people what you know about the environment, conservation and The Kids Ecology Corps.

Once you learn how to be a KEC Presenter, you can teach your friends, your classmates, your family and even people who work in businesses you visit how to be good environmental citizens.

If you would like to know more about being a KEC Presenter, email the KEC today.

KEC Mentors

A mentor is someone that people trust to tell the truth. A mentor can be a teacher, just like KEC presenters. But the most important thing a mentor can do is help others. If you are a KEC mentor, you tak\e time to help others learn about the environment and how to help our earth. If you are mentor, you will help others do good environmental deeds.

If you would like to know more about being a KEC mentor, email the KEC today.

KEC Facilitators

A facilitator is someone who makes things easier, someone who helps out. KEC Facilitators help in class, help at home and help in the community. They participate in community clean up days and help younger kids do good environmental deeds. KEC Facilitators help make recycling work in the their schools, at home and in their community.

If you would like to know more about being a KEC Facilitator, email the KEC today.

Help Our Earth Today -- It's Easy to Do!

Recycling

The Kids Ecology Corps teaches the 5 R's --

Rethink

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Renew

Rethinking means thinking about how you use everyday products and figuring out ways you can conserve resources by changing the ways you use those products. Rethinking means figuring out ways you can reuse, renew and recycle products.

• Do you use paper towels to clean with or do you use rags that can be washed are reused?

• Do you take long, hot showers that use lots of water and energy to heat the water or do you take short, smart showers where you wet your body, turn the water off, soap, and then turn the water on to rinse your body? This can save a lot of water.

• Do you leave the water running when you brush your teeth? If you do, you use lots and lots of water. Do you know you can brush your teeth in 2 inches of water? All you have to do is put two inches of water in your cup. Put your toothpaste on your toothbrush and dip it into your cup to wet it. Brush your teeth. Sip water from the cup to rinse your mouth out. You can even rinse again. You should still have enough water to rinse off your toothbrush. Try it. It works--and it saves as much as 3 to 5 gallons of water every time you brush your teeth.

• Do you plant trees and other greenery that will refresh the air and keep our environment cleaner?

• Do you conserve products like paper and plastic and reuse them whenever possible?

• Do you participate in a recycling program at home, school and/or work?  

Buy wisely to reduce your use of resources.

The keys to buying to reduce waste are:

• Purchase products with the least amount of packaging.

• Buy products in recycled and recyclable containers.

• Buy in bulk and use concentrated products.

• Buy only what you can use and use what you buy

• Use refillable containers such as coffee cups and the rmoses.

• Minimize the use of disposable items.

• Think about a product's "lifecycle" before you buy.

If you rethink what you are doing, and learn to reduce, reuse, and recycle materials, you also have to remember to do what it takes to recycle. Remembering is the fifth R!

Finally,

• If your community has a formal recycling program, there are rules about how to separate paper, plastic, glass and other recyclable materials. If you don't know what those rules are, call the office that manages the program and ask for instructions.

• If your community does not have a formal recycling program, find out whether there is a commercial recycling center near you so that you, your family and your friends can recycle on your own.

• Find out which community government office manages waste disposal. Call them and ask about the community's rules for recycling. If recycling is not being done and is not being planned, ask how you should go about proposing that a community-wide recycling program be started.

Community Recycling Rules

Some of the typical rules for recycling are given below. Your community's rules may differ. However, regardless of the rules, they should be followed carefully to avoid contaminating the collections. A collection that is contaminated cannot be recycled and will have to be tossed into the regular trash dump.

Newspapers

• Keep newspaper separate from other recyclable material.

• Wet newspaper can't be recycled. Either cover newspapers on rainy days or until the next recycling day.

• Always remove newspaper from plastic delivery bags before recycling. The bags can be saved and recycled at your grocery store or as part of the plastics recycling collection.

Junk Mail and Mixed Paper

• Some recycling programs handle mixed paper. If your program does, junk mail and mixed paper can be put into the recycling bins for collection.

• If your program does not handle mixed paper, don't include junk mail, cereal boxes, magazines, catalogs and other paper in with your recycIables. However, you may be able to collect them and drop them off elsewhere. Call your city for drop-off locations.

Plastics

• Recycle plastics that have the numbers 1, 2 or 3 surrounded by the recycling arrow symbol on the bottom of the containers or that are labeled "this product can be recycled". Exception: Containers for hazardous chemicals such as oil, paint, cleaning products and medical waste containers should not be placed in recycling bins. Follow community guidelines for disposing of them correctly.

• Flatten plastic containers. Step on them before placing them in the recycling bin. They take less space.

• You can reuse plastic bags or recycle them. Plastic bags are collected at many grocery stores. They are easy to collect and drop off when you go shopping.

Glass

• Recycle clear, brown and green glass bottles. Don't include broken glass, light bulbs, mirrors or ceramics.

• Before placing containers in your recycling bin, remove all caps, lids and labels, and rinse containers free of any residue.

Don't Wrap Your Garbage when recycling. Recyclables that are bagged cannot be sorted for recycling. Keep recyclables loose.

Recycled and Recyclable Products

Plastics

PETE:

Polyofhylene Terephfhalafe 4

Examples: Soft drink, juice, and cough syrup containers.

HDPE:

Hl₆b Denilfy Poly.fhylene 4

Examples: Milk jugs,detergent and shampoo bottles.

'V':

Polyvynyl Chloride 4

Examples: Mouthwash, tonic, and pet shampoo containers

Plastic products labeled with the numbers 1,2, or 3 (on the bottom or side of the container) surrounded by recycling arrows, are recycled along with metal and glass containers and drink boxes.

 

Metal Cans

Steel/Tin

Examples: Soup cans, vegetables and fruit cans, pet food cans, coffee cans.

Aluminum

Examples: Soda, juice and beer cans.

Glass Bottles/Jars

Examples: Pickle jars, baby food jars, salad dressing bottles, syrup bottles, jam and jelly jars.

Products made from recycled materials

Look for the words:

Made from recycled ___% recycled materials and the recycle symbol.

If the package doesn't say "made from recycled materials", it probably isn't.

Packaging

Many companies are using recycled materials in their product packaging. Examples include:

Paperboard

boxes for cereal, cake mix, pasta, cookies & crackers, cakes, powdered laundry detergent, soap pads.

Plastic

bottles for shampoo/conditioner, cleaning products, and liquid detergent.

Paper

toilet paper, paper towels, tissues soap pads, stationery, napkins

If you would like to know more about recycling, call the KEC today, or check out the list of other places you can get information. Surf the internet, too.

Taking Community Action

Do you know about an environmental problem that is not being taken care of? Have you every wanted to do something about it? Well, you can. Here's how.

1. Learn about the problem.

   Take time to be sure you have the right information. If you can't find out what you need to know on your own, find a friend, a teacher, one of your parents, a brother or a sister to help you along the way. Be sure to find out who you need to talk to in your community or school to get action taken.

2. Get a friend or friends involved.

   Get a group of friends together and tell them what you have learned. Get them involved. Divide up the work. Get together often. Decide together how you are going to take care of the problem.

3. Set up a meeting to talk with others (including adults) about the problem.

   Invite other students, teachers, parents, other adults, local officials. Write down what you want to say and what you want to have happen at the end of the meeting. Call people to make sure they know what will be happening. Before the meeting begins, tell people why you think the problem has to be solved, ask for help in finding ways to solve it. Get people to volunteer to help.

   Have a sign up sheet for jobs to do. Plan the next meeting. Be sure to set dates for things to be finished. Make sure you know who to talk to. Get adults to help too, so that you have some extra support!

4. Do any needed follow up investigation.

   This could include getting prices for getting the problem fixed (you might need the help of an adult to do this, depending on the problem.) Find out who approves money being spent. Figure out ways that having the problem solved will help out.

5. Form a coalition.

   A coalition is a group of people and organizations working together to get something done. To get the job done, you have to think about who you are trying to influence and how to get them behind your project. Plan how you will talk to these people. Make sure you keep in touch with people who say they are going to help, and that they really do help.

6. Tell everyone what is happening and how much progress you are making.

   If roadblocks appear, work to get them out of the way. Let people help you take care of them.

7. Be patient. Be persistent. Be positive.

8. Follow up. Make sure everything gets done.

9. Celebrate when you get the problem fixed.

10. Pick your next environmental good deed!