Volunteers who made a difference...Water Bottle Awareness & Recycling Effort

Volunteers made a difference on a wonderful sunny day at the Taste of Chicago on July 1, 2010. With their help, they made an impact by nurturing our city, conserving our natural resources, and protecting the environment!

Each year our team is looking for volunteers who can help spread awareness about placing plastic bottles from beaches, parks and other public areas, in the proper 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.  The purpose of this cause is to ensure that recyclable products such as plastic bottles, including cans, be put in the proper recycling bins, and not end up in trash.

As you all know, in Chicago our tap water is pure, sufficiently clean high quality.

Water bottle comes from tap water, plain and simple. Bottled water is really just tap water in a bottle. You, as a citizen, however, have the most important role to play in ensuring the protection of public water and ecological health, including spreading awareness that water is free and it should never be privatized.

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; 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 2004, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. The growth has been even more impressive in terms of water bottles sold: from 3.3 billion in 1997 to 15 billion in 2002. Doubled between 1999 and 2004, reaching 41 billion gallons (154 billion liters) annually. Bottled water is often no healthier than tap water, but it can be 10,000 times more expensive, says Emily Arnold, a researcher with the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit.

The volunteers helped encourage thousands of people at the Taste of Chicago to spread awareness about placing plastic bottles in the proper recycling bins, so that they may be recycled by the City of Chicago. By doing so, we were able to eliminating trash, which has a negative effect on the environment and on our quality of life.  The purpose of this cause is to ensure that recyclable products such as plastic bottles, including cans, be put in the proper recycling bins, and not end up in trash.

Individuals who participated in this event were involved and took action. Many individual including Richard McGinnis President of Mindful Metropolis, whom I met at The Green Festival at Roosevelt University during Earth Day made a difference.  I also caught up with Mary Slowik, Office Administration and David Adams, Operations Manager with the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, City of Chicago.  Industry partners who participated were Teri Tito, former publisher of i4design magazine and Teri Tito Media Group, and Nationwide Janitorial Services for the Taste of Chicago.

Other important participants in the industry helped and volunteered for this event included Kevin Hansen; Service Coordinator and Professor at the Mount Carmel High School, Charles Welch, President of Modern Millwork Inc, John Finn Senior Project Manager of Titan Electric; Christopher Frederick, President Organic Looms, Ted Mitchell President of Chicago Arts Exchange and Alex Avellaneda; key volunteer; Lastly Britt Wiley, Explorer Track Coordinator WRD Environment Consultant for the Chicago Conservation Corps, Chicago Department of Environment.