Green Star Chair

Text Box: Recycling at Bear Valley Bear Valley students and staff continue to recycle mixed paper, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and inkjet cartridges. The Green Paw student/parent committee encourages you to recycle at home as well. If you are new to recycling, start easy with newspaper and/or aluminum cans. These are collected at many sites throughout Anchorage including the back corner of the parking lot at the Carrs store on Huffman. If you already recycle some items, have a look at the ALPAR Flyer (pick it up across from the school office) to see if there is something you could add. Recycling at school as well as at home teaches our kids the importance of taking responsibility for the health of the world in which we all live.

Text Box: Trim the Holiday Wasteline Americans throw away 25% more trash during the holiday period than any other time of the year. Here are a few ideas to reduce waste along with some enlightening facts. Plan your shopping in advance. Consolidating your shopping trips saves fuel (and aggravation). Give homemade food or something you’ve made yourself from reused items. Donate unwanted gifts, along with last year’s gifts that the kids have outgrown, to charity. Did you know?…that 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high? Send e-greetings to family, friends and business associates who are on-line. Save yourself time, money, and hard feelings between friends – and reduce mail volume – by updating and paring down your holiday mailing list. Did you know?… if every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet? Reuse packing cartons and shipping materials such as peanuts, wood shavings, shredded newspaper and bubble wrap. Drop off extra packing peanuts at local private mailing centers (such The UPS Store). Wrap gifts in old maps, newspapers, Sunday comics or reusable gift bags.

Text Box: Green Star Program Green Star is a non-profit organization that encourages businesses and schools to recycle and to reduce energy, trash and hazardous waste. They give awards to schools that meet 12 out of 18 set standards. Bear Valley is working to meet these standards and has recently sent in an application for the award. To view a copy of the application, please go to the Bear Valley website and click on the Bear Valley Green Paws link at - www.asdk12.org/schools/bearvalley/pages/. To learn more about Green Star, check out their website, www.greenstarinc.org.

Text Box: Curbside Recycling Does recycling sound like a good idea, but you could use a hand actually getting the items to the Recycle Center? The two companies below offer curbside collection for recyclables. Please check with them for pricing information. New Moon Recycling, Inc Newmoonrecycling@netscape.net 868-1512 Girmscheid Enterprises Suzygirmscheid@netscape.net 770-1720 1-877-749-3307

Green Star Chair

Erin Borowski

344-4033

erininak@gci.net

Green Star Committee Members:

Annette Funk

Suasn Heyroth

Lisa May

Melissa Pinnell

Linda Stamm

Jennifer Williams