UK Community Group Spreading Outreaching: Donating Unused Paints To More In Need

It’s always a great feeling when you can donate things you don’t need anymore and make a difference in the lives of others. Community RePaint is helping people do this in the UK and is now expanding too!

Photo courtesy of dexknows.com.

Community RePaint is a non-profit network that collects unused paints from individuals, groups, and companies, and then donates them to those in need such as individuals with economic hardships, community organizations, charities, and public establishments (i.e. schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.).

Community RePaint has now launched a new chapter in Cambridgeshire, adding to its current network of over 50 community-based chapters, including locations in Cornwall, Belfast, and Inverness.

It’s the first new chapter in the network this year. The Cambridgeshire chapter will collect residents’ unwanted paints through six household waste recycling centers run in partnership with the Cambridgeshire County Council and Donarbon, a waste management company.

The Cambridgeshire chapter will then distribute the paints to local charities, community groups, and people in need, according to Nikki DiGiovanni, the chapter’s program manager, who said, “We already have a waiting list of people wanting paint – from schools to play groups, to people who are unemployed and just want to do up their house.”

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New San Francisco Law Will Make Property Owners Pay For Trash Removal

Courtesy of yourgreenfriend.com

SAN FRANCISCO- Already with some of the strongest environmental laws in the country, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has passed a new ordinance that will make it mandatory for all city occupants to separate recyclables, compostables, and regular landfill trash. In addition, they will have to pay for it to be picked up.

Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the Ordinance 081404 last week, according to his office, and it will go into effect in late September of this year.

The ordinance will affect both the residential and commercial sectors of the city, requiring the separation of garbage into blue for recyclables, green for compostables, and black for landfill trash.

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Environmental Groups Set New York State Agenda for Upcoming Earth Day Lobby Day

New York State Wetlands. Photo courtesy of geocities.comALBANY- Environmental advocacy groups from around the state have just finalized the agenda for this year’s annual Earth Day lobbying pilgrimage to Albany on May 5.

“There are a couple of dozen environmental groups that will be taking part in the day. The Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Environmental Advocates of New York, and the New York Public Interest Research Group, just to name a few,” said Bill Mahoney, legislative operations coordinator for the Albany office of NYPIRG.

“All the groups came together to come up with the agenda of what issues we are working on,” he added. The major focus of the groups during the day will be the following four bills:

• Wetlands Protection (A.6363/S.848)
• Global Warming Pollution Control Act (A.7572)
• Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act (A.7571/S/2512)
• Environmental Access to Justice (A.3423/S.1635)

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Sixth Grader Brings Eco-Friendliness Message to a Harlem’s Alain L. Locke School

Hoffer sits with a fourth grader at Alain L. Locke Elementary School offering origami tips on making recyclable Christmas decorations. Photo provided by Peter Trumley.NEW YORK - Spreading the message of eco-friendliness across elementary schools throughout the United States, 12-year-old Riley Hoffer has come to New York this month to visit the Alain L. Locke Elementary School in Harlem.

Young Riley is the spokesperson for CGKidz, the community outreach arm of stainless-steel water bottle maker CynerGreen, Little Rock, Ark.. The Hoffer family-owned company has devoted itself to spreading the word about conservation and environmentally friendly living.

The event opened with a school assembly for the upper grades in which the student listened to a presentation about how they could be more environmentally friendly.

Riley opened the event discussing the three Rs—Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. “I want to talk to you about attitude, the attitude to think green,” she said, adding, “Most of the things that you use today, like light bulbs, newspapers and cardboard boxes can be recycled.

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