How Green Was My Rally?

[Holly]

Actually our Cleanliness Chair and his crew are doing great things. Basin Electric Power Cooperative is donating a 30yd dumpster for our recycling effort. There is a strong push this year for recycling.

Stan and Darin also are having the Boy Scout Troop do a "pass through" clean up on Sunday. I'm sure the Boy Scout Troop or even our Charity the Y.E.S House (Youth Emergency Services) might have a use for some of the items left behind.

Stan and I have been working together on this all year. Stan and Darin have been a great help, doing all the local leg work for me. I can't thank them enough. I'm really looking forward to meeting them f2f next month.

Holly

[Holly]

Thanks for the links, Statdawg and M1Ka.

I had never heard of Kenaf. One of the things I started doing last year was only buying bamboo clothing http://www.bambootique.ca/ rather than cotton, which is a heavy pesticide user. Of course, I still have a zillion cotton t-shirts from 45 years of motorcycling.

I have also switched from using wet wipes to using Towtabs. They are much nicer, biodegradable, and it is so much fun to see the look on people's faces when you wet down a tablet and end up with a facecloth! http://www.towtabs.com/index.html

Holly

[wanderer]

I'm lurking!

Stan Herman
Cleanliness and clean up chair. Recycling also, w/ Holly

By the way, we need a few volunteers to inspect porta potties, restrooms, showers, and general cleanliness of the grounds during the rally. A shift is comprised of a 2 hour morning tour and a 2 hour afternoon tour (likely by golf cart.) Volunteers are not cleaning the facilities, simply inspecting and reporting any problems. We need a woman and a man for each shift for obvious reasons. I can be reached via the volunteer list via email please.

[Bob_M]

A fuel mileage contest might inspire riders to conserve fuel.

[Holly]

A fuel mileage contest might inspire riders to conserve fuel.

Maybe that could be set up for next year, with the people involved giving a seminar on the methods they used. That could be really useful. Thanks for the idea.

Holly

[72598]

A fuel mileage contest might inspire riders to conserve fuel.

If my bike is 6V can I claim double actual mileage because it is challanged electrically?


My packing problems are over as soon as TOWTABS starts making t shirts.

[KRAZO]

Lots of good ideas here. Many are wishful thinking at the present time, though.

Gillette is not Marin Countythe entire state probably has less folks than Marin county. Therefore there are many many miles to go before a critical mass is reached in the amount of recyclable materials to make it worthwhile to recycle. For example, aluminum, steel and copper is efficient to recycle nearly everywhere. At the other end, phone books rarely have a cost effective market, so often end up in the land fills. The miles are too great and the margins too thin for most recycling out here at the present time. Diesel is now approaching $5.00. Most recycling didnt make economic sense when it was $1.50.

The best green products are those which can go into compost; no hauling, compressing, separating, storing. Much glass and plastics get collectedthen taken to the land fill if the market goes south.

And thats just a small dose of reality in the wonderful unpopulated mountain statescarry on!

[Holly]

Lots of good ideas here. Many are wishful thinking at the present time, though.

Gillette is not Marin Countythe entire state probably has less folks than Marin county. Therefore there are many many miles to go before a critical mass is reached in the amount of recyclable materials to make it worthwhile to recycle. For example, aluminum, steel and copper is efficient to recycle nearly everywhere. At the other end, phone books rarely have a cost effective market, so often end up in the land fills. The miles are too great and the margins too thin for most recycling out here at the present time. Diesel is now approaching $5.00. Most recycling didnt make economic sense when it was $1.50.

The best green products are those which can go into compost; no hauling, compressing, separating, storing. Much glass and plastics get collectedthen taken to the land fill if the market goes south.

And thats just a small dose of reality in the wonderful unpopulated mountain statescarry on!

You are correct Krazo, but we did check with Gillette to find out what could be recycled and are making sure we do that much at least. We do a good job already, and some of the ideas presented are things which can be implemented so we can do a better job at the next rally. I drew the line at the greywater, but it does seem a shame to waste water out west where it is so desperately needed.
On the hard reality level, motorcyclists showing concern about the environment could be seen as simply a PR move. The responses to this thread have shown that many of us are truly concerned. Just thinking about what we can do better is a great first step.

Holly

[munchy]

• Choose containers with lids that emphasize the recycling program. For cans, the container should have a small round hole. For paper, use lids with slots. Marking your containers well is critical to improving your recycling results.
  
• Reminders (signs placed around the venue, live stage announcements, flags, messages in event programs) help reinforce the recycling message.
  
• Have lots of containers. The more obvious your program is, the more success you will have. Don't leave it up to people to hunt for. Always place recycling containers alongside trash containers - neither should EVER be alone, since a lone recycling container will just fill up with trash, and visa versa! Lidded containers with restricted openings work best for recycling since this discourages trash.
  
• Make sure ample recycling containers are placed near high volume areas: bars, kitchens, food bussing areas, food stalls, etc.
  
• Make sure trash cans are emptied regularly and donÔÇÖt overflow ÔÇô this can cause guests and staff to start using the available recycling containers for trash.

http://www.recyclingadvocates.org/pdf/pubs/events.pdf

--Doug

[Holly]

Thanks for the list and the link, Doug. You are so right about never having the trash and recycling containers alone.

Thanks,
Holly

[ben721364]

I always heard green and motorcycles are bad luck. (this superstition goes back to the 20s) I knew one guy that was so superstious that he licensed his bike in Wyoming rather than put a green Colorado tag on his bike. same guy would not ride with anyone on a green bike or wearing green (even fatigues), lotta fun on St Pats day. I know that that is not what you ment by green but its 7 in the morn and I haven't had coffee YET.

And speaking of green Last year I bought a three pack of the energy saving bulbs. (on sale they were $9.99) They were too big to fit in fixtures in all but two rooms. Two of the bulbs lasted less than a week, one lasted almost a year. (cheap ass regular bulbs , $0.99 for four, last me about 6 months for 100 watt and 9 months for 40) They claim to be as bright as a100 watt bulb but a 40 watt throws more light. (I could not read with these pieces of crap) They may save energy but in the long run cost a lot more money.

We need to use more electricity anyway, this is clean energy as opposed to burning petrol. All I hear about is conserve electricity and most hydro-electric plants sit idle more than 3/4 of the time and never run at full (I guess this is to drive up prices like gas) One plant I know of has three generators but hasn't had them fired togeather since the early 80s (except for quarterly testing of about 1 hour) and usually only run one at a time and that one under full capacity. Another dam was created to produce electricity and is set up to do so except the generator was never installed, everything is there, except generator, to produce electricity. (water diversion pents stock, cement footings for generator, even power lines were installed but never used)

Suggestions: allow only beverages sold in aluminum cans or returnable bottles to be sold at rally site. Have aluminum recycling bins. (if possible glass and plastic too, probably not possible in Gillette) No bottled water or bottled beer sold on site. (unless returnable deposit bottles, if recycle bins unavail.) All coffee sold should be paper, not foam cups. Have vendors use paper rather than foam containers. Have free ice water available to discourage bottled water use. Acoustical music? Have oil change and collection area.

I like Sue's idea about rally cups, perhaps a discount for those using/reusing their own cup/bottle. (refill price rather than full price)

"We need to use more electricity anyway, this is clean energy as opposed to burning petrol. "

Explain please.

[knary]

Continue to encourage attendees to use their rally mugs for all beverages.

Suggest bringing collapsible coolers instead of throw-away Styrofoam coolers.

A clever vendor would sell/rent coolers and chairs on site.

$10 to buy a chair or cooler with $5 or whatever of that as a deposit. Or whatever.

[knary]

p.s. never mind that we're all burning thousands of gallons of fuel just to attend.

If we ride, on average, 500 miles to a rally, that means that in total we might see something like 4,000,000 miles covered by rally attendees. Average that out to around 50 mpg (to be generous - these are longhaul miles after all), and we're burning 80,000 gallons!

80k miles =
> $320,000 in fuel
1,600,000 lbs CO2

But, yes, we should recycle those soda cans.

(the above was written by a good PDX bicycle riding tree hugging recycling greenie )

[Holly]

p.s. never mind that we're all burning thousands of gallons of fuel just to attend.

If we ride, on average, 500 miles to a rally, that means that in total we might see something like 4,000,000 miles covered by rally attendees. Average that out to around 50 mpg (to be generous - these are longhaul miles after all), and we're burning 80,000 gallons!

80k miles =
> $320,000 in fuel
1,600,000 lbs CO2

But, yes, we should recycle those soda cans.

(the above was written by a good PDX bicycle riding tree hugging recycling greenie )

Plus some of us are thinking of riding vintage motorcycles. They are even worse polluters. How many cans do I need to recycle to make up for that?

I was fortunate enough to be on the first student trip to Antarctica. The kids, of course, pointed out the enormous amounts of carbon fuel we burned just to get there. They now plant trees to offset their trip.

Holly

[knary]

Plus some of us are thinking of riding vintage motorcycles. They are even worse polluters. How many cans do I need to recycle to make up for that?

I was fortunate enough to be on the first student trip to Antarctica. The kids, of course, pointed out the enormous amounts of carbon fuel we burned just to get there. They now plant trees to offset their trip.

Holly

Very very cool.

My bike will produce, roughly, 1,200 lbs. of CO2 on my trip to and from the rally. If I want to offset that this year, I'll need to plant/maintain 80 trees. Eeks. Think I can do it on my 5,000 sq.ft. lot?