Our sixth meeting - recyling

Recycling was the theme of this months meeting and I had a special treat lined up with the topic!

After the standard opening club handshake I started by sharing some observations from a recent vacation we took to Minneapolis.  We noticed first of all that there was no sign of any recycling going on at the hotel we stayed at.  We weren't impressed.  We discussed how we absolutely loved shopping and eating at Whole Foods.  We just can't wait for them to start spreading across Canada!  I also handed out a bunch of cards we found at the zoo which indicates which fish are better to eat than others from an ecological impact perspective.  The kids appreciated the cards and also the fair trade chocolate I shared with them ;-)

Before moving on to the news portion of the meeting, I shared with them my experience at the Xavier Rudd concert.  It not only was entertaining and moving (this guy is awesome) but resonated a lot with the principles of the club.  Stretched across the top of the stage was a Sea Shepards flag, obviously showing his support of Captain Watson and his crew.  I took the opportunity to talk about Sea Shepards and also using stage time and a fan base in order to educate people about the environment.

News items this meeting included that scientists found ice on Mercury (who would have thought!), that the acidification of the oceans due to increased CO2 in the atmosphere is slowly weakening the shells of seas life, and a discovery that some flowers attract and feed ants because the ants chase away insects that would be bad for the flowers - cool cooperation.

Today was a field trip day to a local store owner who took it upon himself to become a recycling depot  for items such as CDs, batteries, electronics, and even bottle caps!  He collects all of these items and stores them until he has enough to bring in and sell as scrap metal.  He was just around the corner so we headed out of for a quick walk to pay Steve a visit.

Steve showed up the various bins he had set up and then brought us to the back where the most interesting part of his work was.  He takes used electronics and strips them of they're various recyclable components such as plastic, metal, and glass.  He demonstrated how he takes apart a computer monitor in a few minutes, all the while speaking to the security precautions he takes because of all of the heavy metals involved.  The kids were enthralled the entire time!  At the end of the demonstration we gave him 3 hip-hip-horrays for doing this and left inspired by someone who was working to better the planet even though it was not profitable for him to do so.  Steve, a local eco-hero!