The
Merry Weather Garden Club met on Thursday, April 16, 2015 at Strickland’s Store
joining the Concord Garden Club for its 17th Annual Lunch and Learn. Garden club members from numerous Redbud
District clubs joined the Concord club as well as many local gardening
enthusiasts.
The
program for 2015 was Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse and after the convincing
argument put forth by speaker Anne Evans, the audience left invigorated with
news ideas of how to fill our landfills with less.
Evans
pointed out that 74 percent of our garbage is recyclable. True trash is made up
of those items that cannot be composted or recycled. One local example of
reducing was that the city of Williamson partnered with Dependable Waste to
pick up recyclables. Two cans-one for trash and one for recyclables-are now picked
up. No sorting of recyclables is required, and the city also keeps dumpsters
for recycling. Dependable Waste is saving taxpayers because there is less for
them to pay that goes in a landfill.
Evans
mentioned the sad fact that Pike County trash goes to Lamar County (Atlanta
trash comes to Meriwether) and worse that 500 tons comes from household garbage
yet only 100 tons from industrial sources.
Households definitely need to do more to recycle.
State
garden clubs are initiating a “Ban the Bag” to be made into a state law.
Plastic bags which are so convenient are a major hazard to our environment and
are a rotten legacy for our children. Less than three percent of bags are
recycled and Evans showed a number of ways to reuse them. Most ingenious was a crocheted bag made of
hundreds of ordinary plastic bags. The
sad fact about our plastic bags or “Urban Tumbleweed” whose use began in 1982 is
that they really are not necessary, and they are harmful. Plastics affect birds
and their egg production, and the BPAs in plastic affect learning in children.
Sadly there are documented cases of plastics that get dumped in waterways
choking turtles and drowning dolphins.
Statistics
show a four person family can bring home up to 150 bags per month or 1800 a
year. Changing our habits concerning plastic can happen: we don’t question the
lack of bags when we shop at Sam’s. Ireland placed a five cent tax on plastic
bags, and today no bags can be found.
Health food stores give shoppers a ten per cent credit if they bring
their own bags. Retraining and reeducating ourselves is the key to getting rid
of plastic bags.
The
Concord club had a variety of cleverly recycled items on display: Sleeveless
tee shirts sewn across the bottom and the sleeves cut off to make a lightweight
colorful bag. Waterproof bags made from a heavyweight dog food sacks were
charming. An apron made from blue jeans was practical, useful, and pretty.
Bleach
bottles were another source of unlimited ideas: cutting off the top made a
useful funnel. The bottom was used for a berry bowl with ribbon for a handle woven
through holes punched around the rim. A common feed scoop for dog, cat, horse,
and chicken food was made from a bleach bottle. Instead of buying plastic
protectors, a bleach bottle bottom can be used to keep potted plants from
seeping water onto rugs and floors.
Instead
of going to a landfill old flower pots are reused as were metal buckets to pot
plants in a rustic arrangement. The prongs on a silver fork were bent to form a
decorative easel to display pictures. The headboard of a twin bed instead of
discarded became the backdrop of a planter. Drawers from old dressers were
colorfully painted and stacked to hold items or become a planter. Instead of trashing
a man’s worn suit, a seamstress sewed the pieces along with lace and beading
into a decorative pin.
A
two liter plastic soda bottle makes a wonderful bird feeder as well as
carpenter bee trap. Evans recommended
saving anything of glass like wine bottles for rooting plants. A most effective
centerpiece lining each dining table was a small plastic soda bottle inverted
and anchored into a slice of wood that held on it securely wherever placed. The top of the bottle was punched with holes
to simulate a grid for plants to be positioned in an arrangement. The
centerpieces were artfully filled with magnificent fiery orange blooming wild
honeysuckle, snowballs, and hydrangeas with wisps of vinca periwinkle and
boxwood adding to the greenery filler.
