WATER BOTTLE AWARENESS & RECYCLING EFFORT 2010

WasteWise
A fundamental part of our commitment to the environment includes participation in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) innovative WasteWise program, the country's first national voluntary solid waste reduction program. WasteWise encourages organizations to reduce municipal solid waste through waste prevention, recycling, and buying or manufacturing recycled products. WasteWise partners have saved thousands, even millions of dollars in purchasing costs and waste disposal fees by reducing, reusing, and recycling solid waste materials.

As a WasteWise member, we are required to establish three new waste prevention activities, expand or improve our current recycling efforts, and purchase and/or manufacture additional products with recycled content. The programs we initiate, as part of our participation in WasteWise will build on the successes of our established waste prevention and recycling efforts. A major thrust of WasteWise is waste prevention—actions that minimize or eliminate the generation of waste before it is created—with the goal of decreasing the amount of material that must be recycled or thrown away.

According to M. Grace Sielaff "Through WasteWise we plan to recruit, train and support a network of volunteers who will work together to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Through various environmental service projects, we can all help to protect our water, clean our air, restore our land and save energy!

Each year our team is looking for volunteers to help pick littered plastic bottles from the city's parks, beaches, and place them in blue recycling bags, so they may be recycled by the City of Chicago. By doing so, we are eliminating trash, which has a negative effect on the environment and on our quality of life. Our team has collected plastic water bottles in the thousands, along with plastic soda pop bottles discarded all around North Ave Beach for the past three years during the Chicago Air and Water Show. We provided t-shirts and gloves to the team, and we also ask people to please put their trash into the blue recycling bins. This year we are going to need 50 volunteers during the Taste of Chicago Summer 2010.

Recycling is one of the easiest things we can do to protect our environment. The majority of Americans think recycling is the right thing to do, and as depicted above at one of our sorting centers, Chicago is committed to doing the right thing. By recycling, we turn trash into reusable materials, we help create jobs in Illinois, and we conserve natural resources.

Bottled water is the nation's fastest growing beverage - over alcohol, juices, and soft drinks. Per capital consumption has more than doubled over the last decade, from 10.5 gallons in 1993 to 22.6 in 2003, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. The growth has been even more impressive in terms of water bottles sold: from 3.3 billion in 1997to 15 billion in 2002.

We need volunteers for the 2010 Taste of Chicago. It will be held in Grand Park in Downtown Chicago. 300 South Columbus Drive.
The Taste is presented by Chicago’s Mayor’s Office of Special Events.

With your help, we can make a difference by nurturing our city, conserving our natural resources, and protecting the environment!

Participation in WasteWise has helped or will help us reduce costs and demonstrate M. Grace Design's commitment to preserve natural resources and protect the environment."

The WasteWise program has a broad and varied membership that reflects the makeup of corporate America. More than 1,100 organizations have joined WasteWise since 1994, demonstrating their leadership in finding cost-effective ways to reduce waste. WasteWise partners include many of the country's leading manufacturers, retailers, and service firms, spanning more than 50 different industry sectors. The program also services federal, state and local governments, tribes, and other non-corporate institutions.

Joining WasteWise is another example of M. Grace Design's continued commitment to improving our environment. For more information on our WasteWise plans, contact us at 312-842-0800 or email M. Grace Sielaff at mgracedesigns@sbcglobal.net

M. Grace Sielaff is a Chicago Conservation Corp Leader through the Chicago Department of Environment and the City of Chicago.