WELCOME to The Loop, Issue 24 Nov/Dec 2003 A Bimonthly Newsletter for Friends of Close the Loop® This month's issue includes... 'Tis the Season for Regifting America Recycles Day, November 15, 2003 Spotlight on non-profit: ReCycle North in VT Mad in the U.S.A. WHAT'S YOUR OPINION? Marketplace: Exceptional Products New items this month! Propose an Article In the News: September 16, 2003 Close the Loop awarded the 2003 NATIONAL RECYCLING COALITION "Best Use of Recycled Products" Tis the Season for Regifting With the holidays coming up, this is a great time to start making the rounds and setting up your own regifting center. Doesn't it seem crazy to go buy gifts when you have resources right there in your own home? It's never a good idea to increase your credit card balance for gift giving, but this year when we have need to be concerned about the economy, it is the perfect time to cut back and be more sensible. If you exchange gifts with a group of friends, suggest a white elephant gift, where everyone is regifting! My very dearest friends and I have made an agreement not to buy each other gifts anymore. We realize that our friendship is more valuable than anything we could purchase, so we make the time to have a special birthday lunch or Christmas brunch to catch up on our lives. Years from now we won't remember what someone bought us, but we will remember the kindness they showed to us. Ralph Waldo Emerson had it right when he penned, "The greatest gift is a portion of thyself." Copyright 2003 Joyce Moseley Pierce http://www.emersonpublications.com/Articles/Regifting.htm America Recycles Day, Nov. 15, 2003 Americans are dedicated to protecting our land, ensuring that our air is clean, and preserving the purity of our water. To help fulfill these responsibilities, government, businesses, community organizations, and every citizen must work together to serve as good stewards of all of our natural resources. On America Recycles Day, we renew our commitment to preserving our resources by recycling and using products made with recycled materials. For more information on holding an event or to enter the contest to win a 2004 Ford Focus PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle), 5 bikes & a spa vacation package, please visit: www.americarecyclesday.org Another resource is the guide: Innovation, Leadership, Stewardship available online at: www.stopwaste.org/ilsr.pdf This booklet highlights the many innovative, and risk-taking programs for waste reduction and recycling that can be easily replicated. Topics include Leading by Example, Source Reduction, Reuse Programs, Construction & Demolition, Green Building & Education and Outreach experience has shown that often residents and businesses want to reduce, reuse or recycled discarded materials, but don't know how. Written by The Alameda County Waste Management Authority & The Alameda County Source Reduction and Recycling Board published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. For more information, please visit: www.stopwaste.org Spotlight on non-profit: ReCycle North in VT Dedicated to reuse, job skill training and poverty relief, ReCycle North's mission is to reduce the amount of reusable materials dumped in landfills, provide individuals in transition, including people who are homeless, valuable job skills and a second opportunity at life, and relieve poverty by making vital household goods available to the poor . Value-minded shoppers and socially responsible donors love ReCycle North because of its magical combination of funk, practicality, and essential-ness, all while helping the environment, providing training opportunities to individuals who are trying to get ahead, and providing the necessary revenue that allows the organization to give away annually over $50,000 worth of essential household goods and building materials to individuals and families in crisis. ReCycle North has provided this unique mix of reuse and social service since 1991. For more information, please visit: http://recyclenorth.org Mad in the U.S.A. More than 1,000 people attended a rally a few weeks ago in Connecticut to demand fair trade and denounce the sweatshop buying habits of big retailers like Wal-Mart. It was organized by an alliance of small and mid-sized manufacturers. "The major retailers and big manufacturers are doing us in," explained rally-organizer Fred Tedesco, owner of Pa-Ted Spring Co. in Bristol. "They're destroying small- and medium-sized businesses. They're destroying jobs. They're destroying the middle class. . . That's the dirty secret of this whole thing." The [major retailers and big manufacturer's] cost-cutting strategies have precipitated 34 consecutive months of U.S. manufacturing job losses and an unprecedented crisis among thousands of small firms, like Tedesco's, which make parts for large companies that have abandoned their domestic operations. Tedesco believes job losses will accelerate over the next year as corporate decisions made this year cascade through the economy. Next on the chopping block, he says, are more white-collar jobs in computer programming, insurance, and accounting. What's needed is enough backbone to stand-up to corporate America and its campaign contributions, and a strong small business platform. Written by Stacy Mitchell of The Institute for Local Self-Reliance To get involved or read more about this, please visit: http://www.ilsr.org/columns/2003/090803.html Opinion Poll - Submit your answer to this month's Close the Loop® Poll about what product you would like to see made from recycled plastics? To make your opinion count, click here. Marketplace: Exceptional Products We are excited to announce two new products to our recycled & environmentally-friendly offerings · Beautiful recycled plastic post & rail fencing in a rustic brown color affordable, will never rot. · Biodegradable foodservice products, made primarily from abundant limestone and renewable starch & glucose and are 100% biodegradable and compostable. Please check out our ASTMI tested rubber mulch & rubber pavers for playground safety surfacing, horse arenas & many other uses. When planning your gifts for co-workers, family & friends this Holiday Season, please consider supporting many of the local artists that we feature on www.closetheloop.com. There are many affordable, high quality recycled products that would make excellent gifts & show your commitment to real change for the better in this world. It all has to start with you making a changebuy recycled & made (by small businesses) in the U.S.A. For more information on any of these products, please visit: www.closetheloop.com or call us at 866.629.8414. Inspirational Quote: "If we can't reuse it, recycle it, or compost it, industry shouldn't be making it. We need better industrial design for the 21st century." Professor Paul Connett, St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY Your Friends at Close the Loop...teach them to care |
