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EnvironmentThe
Environment page contains the following articles: ·
Available to BMGCA
Members Only! ·
Saying "NO" to Styrofoam and
'Disposable' Plastic Cutlery ·
South March Highlands Conservation
Forest ·
Solar Hot Water Heater - New Incentives! Briarbrook
Morgan’s Grant residents are invited to take an important step in reducing
household waste that ends up in the City of Ottawa landfill – start
composting at home! And start using
rainwater for your lawn and plants! With
your $10 BMGCA annual membership, you get a $20
discount purchase voucher to purchase a backyard compost bin at Trudel Home
Hardware. And while you're at it, you
can get a second $20 voucher for a rain barrel. A limited number of $20 discount vouchers (for
the purchase of a SoilSaver composter or Flatbacked rain barrel) are
available to BMGCA members with active memberships – don’t delay! Available
for existing members, renewed members and new BMGCA members! ·
Pick up your vouchers from Sarah Dehler
at (613) 592-5832. ·
Learn the basics of how easy it is to compost at home. ·
Why should all Ottawa residents divert more from the
landfill? ·
How does Ottawa compare to other cities in Canada on waste reduction? Thank you to our sponsors for supporting the BMGCA Waste Reduction
Initiative:
BMGCA
would like to recognize the efforts of the Kanata March Horticultural Society
(KMHS) for its tremendous achievement in revitalizing and expanding the
beautiful Molly Wilson Garden at the Old Town Hall. The
work of the KMHS over the years has made the community a more enjoyable place
to live. BMGCA congratulates this long-standing community group of dedicated
gardeners. The
garden at the Old Town Hall was started in 1983 as an Ontario Bicentennial
project. On May 15, 1988, the garden was officially named and dedicated in
honour of Molly Wilson, a long standing and active member of the KMHS. In
2008, the City of Ottawa and the KMHS completed the improvements to the Molly
Wilson Memorial Garden, and a rededication ceremony was held on September
13th, 2008. Here
are some photos from the dedication ceremony: ·
Flowers ·
Bench For
more information on the KMHS, please visit www.kanata-horticultural.com. Thanks
to all community members for cleaning up area parks and roadways during the
Fall Cleaning Up the Capital campaign. In
addition to keeping our community free from litter and graffiti, residents
are asked to be on the lookout for nuisance weeds and invasive plant species
that threaten our natural environments in Kanata. Plant species to be aware
of are: ·
Tartarian
Honeysuckle (Lonicera tartarica) ·
Black Buckthorn (Rhamnus
cathartica) ·
Glossy Buckthorn (Rhamnus
frangula) ·
Garlic
Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) ·
Manitoba Maple (Acer
negundo) ·
Dog-strangling Vine (Cynanchum
rossicum) ·
Common Burdock (Arctium
minus) Please
contact the BMGCA Parks and Recreation team if you want to become involved
with keeping the area parks free of litter, graffiti and invasive plants. Learn more about a plant that has been identified as one of the
greatest threats to the ecosystem in the South March Highlands Conservation
Forest – Dog Strangling Vine. Learn more about the Adopt-a-Park and Adopt-a-Road community
programs. The
City of Ottawa will implement its city-wide organics composting program in
late 2009. Community associations and other community groups in Kanata can
aid in the success of the green bin program’s launch by helping to raise
awareness on the importance of everyone’s role in reducing what ends up in
the landfill. “RETHINK
GARBAGE” is the City’s slogan to inspire all of us to do just that: actually
reconsider what we treat as garbage. At grass-roots levels, community groups
are initiating simple programs that follow the spirit of City’s theme, and
dovetail into the upcoming green bin program. ORGANIC COMPOSTING COMPANIONSIn
areas of the City where homes have at least a postage stamp-sized lot, a
backyard composter complements the upcoming curb-side green bin program.
Residents in the Morgan’s Grant and Briarbrook community who are members of
the BMGCA can purchase backyard composters at a discount at Trudel Home
Hardware in October and November. Backyard composters provide home owners
great benefits: organic nutrients for top-dressing trees, shrubs, or flower
gardens; and an excellent organic compost resource for the ultimate local
food trend – the home vegetable garden. The municipal green bin program will
augment what backyard composters can handle and will allow residents to
divert much of their household waste from the landfill. Winter composting with its snowdrift
challenges will be easier. Items that cannot be composted safely in backyard
composter: meats, dairy products and paper products with food residues such
as soiled pizza boxes, sugar, flour and potato bags can go into the municipal
green bins. Additionally, as more compostable, biodegradable food packaging
products come onto the market to replace traditional polystyrene plastics,
the bioplastics can also go into the City green bins for composting. In
June, BMGCA sponsored a small Waste Reduction Initiative with financial
support from the City of Ottawa’s Community Environmental Projects Grant
Program (CEPGP) and Trudel Home Hardware. One element of the program is the
offer of discounted prices for backyard composters. The “rethink” element of
the community group’s program was an innovation in organizing the group’s
social events – using compostable plates and cutlery and green bin organic
composting of all left-over food. The
result of saying “NO” to Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) and ‘disposable’
plastic cutlery during the group’s summer Multicultural Festival was that one
small bag of garbage ended up in the City’s Trail Road landfill following the
150-person event. Reclaimed for its value and diverted from the landfill
were: 360 litres of organic waste (biodegradable plates, potato starch
cutlery and food), 5 residential black recycling bins of cardboard, and 5
residential blue recycling bins of plastics, aluminum, and juice tetra packs. Waste-free community picnics, children’s birthday parties, and school dinnersThe use
of Styrofoam plates and plastic cutlery is a prime example of a real “waste”
of valuable resources. But, with industrial-level composting, which is
available today in Ottawa through commercial waste management companies and
which will be available to the majority of the City’s homes by the end of
2009, events can be virtually waste-free. When organizing a school community
dinner for approximately 330 parents and young children in early 2008, the
école élémentaire publique Kanata assessed the best route to reduce its
waste. The school’s parent council compared the cost of reusable durable
dinner ware to the cost of compostable plates, cups and bioplastic cutlery,
plus the services of a waste management company for the green bin pick up and
composting. The costs of the complete organics composting method resulted in
an additional $1.00 for every guest and suited the casual format of the
school dinner. The cost of using durables, rented from a party supply
company, plus the commercial organics composting of left-over food would have
cost closer to $2.50 per person. Once the municipal program is in place,
costs for similar events will be even less. Schools can start to look at new
ways for waste-free school lunches. Party hosts can have clean environmental
consciences as well as easy clean up. Are all bioplastics and compostables created equal?Compostable
bioplastics are showing up more and more. Many stores now offer biodegradable
bioplastic bags for purchases. Clear PLA bioplastic (Polylactic Acid) cups
are available at some of the largest retailers in Ottawa. The plates chosen
for the waste reduction programs in Kanata are those made of sugar cane fibre
that is a by-product of the sugar refining process. Diverting this bagasse
into usable products eliminates the need to use wood fibre. According to some
internet sites, its use offers an additional environmental benefit in the
fact that sugar cane bagasse is traditionally burned, creating air pollution.
The bioplastic utensils are made of 80% potato starch and 20% vegetable oil.
They are sturdy enough to be reusable and suitable for hot foods up to 220°
F. Information from the manufacturer says they will biodegrade within 180
days in a commercial composting facility. Being alert for "Real Garbage" is one of the keys to successFor
many people, old habits are hard to break. Organizers of these waste
reduction programs have implemented a few measures to help people adapt to
the new methods of dealing with waste. Special attention needs to be paid to:
clear communications and signage prior to and during events; identification
of "real garbage" and specific containers for non-compostables and
non-recyclables; and, having as few “garbage” cans as possible. Giving people
easy access to the old crutch of the garbage can is a sure-fire means of letting
people carry on with wasteful ways. The
South March Highlands Conservation Forest is a 400 hectare parcel of land
owned by the people of the City of Ottawa. This beautiful forested land
represents one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the City's
boundaries. The City has begun the process of developing a management plan
for this area. Please see the report on
the Conservation Forest presented in May 2008. Any questions can be directed
to David Miller (david.miller@ottawa.ca). The
Kanata Environmental Network (KEN) recently hosted a seminar about domestic
solar hot-water systems and an exciting new initiative called Solar H2Ottawa.
The aim
of Solar H2Ottawa is to install 250 domestic solar hot-water systems in the
Ottawa area by 2010 with great financial incentives for homeowners. Solar
H2Ottawa is a joint project of Sustainable Ottawa and Seventh Generation
Community Projects. Visit H2Ottawa
or KEN
to learn more. BMGCA
has been asked to address the issue of construction waste at the corner of
Woliston and Palton Crescent. Residents were concerned that the site was
unsightly and dangerous. BMGCA, the City of Ottawa and Braebury Homes have
reached an agreement on this matter. Braebury Homes has assured the BMGCA of
its intent to act as a good neighbour and will remove the wood pile and
dumped debris, trim weeds and overgrowth, and will better organize the site. In the same spirit of being a good
neighbour, please note that it is illegal and unacceptable for residents to
dump materials at this site. Web site hosting and domain names donated
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