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Written by Joanna Hoang   
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Thursday, 27 January 2011

Community Service

Community service is a great way for people to give back to their community while supporting causes near and dear to them. It is also a great way to meet other like-minded individuals. Sometimes community service is a job or school requirement, and in such cases it is best to get involved in something you are truly passionate about so it is personally fulfilling as well! Doing community service can be very rewarding if you put in your time and energy towards a cause you choose and actually strongly or even passionately believe in. One of the fastest growing areas for community service is environmental preservation, with programs focusing on sustainability, maintaining biodiversity, and protecting our planet’s ecosystems and wildlife.

There are many well established organizations as well as a great multitude of grassroots organizations today that are working towards protecting out natural environment. You can start looking for these opportunities in your community on various bulletin boards or through your local city volunteer program. A great resource for finding local volunteer organizations is: volunteermatch.org.

There are some programs that are offered most nearly everywhere. If a program does not exist in your community, take the initiative to start it! It can be a rewarding process.

Plant Trees: Try looking for your local tree planting organization! These groups are organized in almost every city, and aim to plant more local trees with the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions while greening their city. The Arbor Day Foundation is a great resource to find your local tree planters! If you happen to live in the San Francisco Bay area, I suggest working with Ulistac Natural Area Restoration, which is a Santa Clara University project. Their volunteers plant trees every weekend and offer field trip opportunities to local schools. I personally volunteered there as a high school student as a part of our environmental club.

Children Plant Tree 1


Conservation Corps: Want to make a little money and dedicate a significant amount of time to the United States? Then join the Conservation Corps! This program is a part of AmeriCorps. The Conservation Corps work on a variety of projects. Depending on where you are stationed you can be working on restoration of local trails, educating youth on sustainability issues, or installing energy saving measures on buildings.2 Some benefits of joining the corps is the monthly living allowance, an educational award, training in technical work skills, and leadership skills!3

http://www.backdoorjobs.com/sccorps/green-corps.jpg 4


Recycling Program with Your Local City: Many if not all cities today have a citywide recycling program. Look into working with them by calling your local city offices. Or use this GreeniacsGuide on Recycling to find out more about your local recycling resources! If your city does not yet have a recycling program, start one yourself such as a smaller scale program on your block! I have participated in starting a recycling program at a school—you just need a group of dedicated people, a truck, and persistence ☺ We got most of our equipment from our city, as they provided us with a variety of bins and then we received a small monetary grant for other equipment. The bins were placed in all school offices and classrooms and collected at the end of the day by a group of student volunteers with shopping carts donated from local markets. The key is to make connections to gather the equipment needed. The recyclables such as paper were collected by the local recycling company and the bottles and cans at a local bottle and can recycling center. The funds earned from the cans and bottles go back into the program for outreach activities and more equipment!

Recycle 5


Organize a Local Swap Meet! Not only can you practice recycling, you can also practice reducing and reusing! Organize a swap meet in your local community. Exchange things you do not want for things you do want or need! Another person’s trash is another person’s treasure after all. Or you can sell your items there if there is nothing you want to swap for. Also, if you need to make a purchase, first check the swap meet. You can often purchase items for a lot cheaper from people who no longer need them and just want to get rid of them. I purchased my succulent plants here for about $1-$5! It’s not hard to organize a swap meet. Just put up flyers around your block and spread the details by word of mouth. Perhaps find a sponsor or a local organization or business to host it. You can always hold a swap meet from your garage if necessary. By holding a swap meet you are facilitating the process of reducing and reusing, the most important of the three R’s!

For more ideas, check out: "Volunteering Opportunities to Help the Environment"

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1http://top-10-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Plant-Tree.jpg
2http://www.conservationcorps.org/content/americorps-opportunities-0
3Id.
4http://www.backdoorjobs.com/sccorps/green-corps.jpg
5http://www.co.kandiyohi.mn.us/depts/recycle/images/recycle-logo.jpg




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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 February 2011 )

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Green Facts

  • The World Health Organization estimates that 2 million people die prematurely worldwide every year due to air pollution.

  • In the United States, automobiles produce over 20 percent of total carbon emissions. Walk or bike and you'll save one pound of carbon for every mile you travel.

  • Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months

  • One recycled aluminum can will save enough energy to run a 100-watt bulb for 20 hours, a computer for 3 hours, or a TV for 2 hours.

  • It takes 6,000,000 trees to make 1 year's worth of tissues for the world.

  • Americans throw away more than 120 million cell phones each year, which contribute 60,000 tons of waste to landfills annually.

  • Rainforests are being cut down at the rate of 100 acres per minute.

  • For every 38,000 bills consumers pay online instead of by mail, 5,058 pounds of greenhouse gases are avoided and two tons of trees are preserved.

  • Turning off the tap when brushing your teeth can save as much as 10 gallons a day per person.

  • You will save 300 pounds of carbon dioxide for every 10,000 miles you drive if you always keep your car’s tires fully inflated.

  • Washing your clothes in cold or warm instead of hot water saves 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year, and drying your clothes on a clothesline six months out of the year would save another 700 pounds.

  • Due to tiger poaching, habitat destruction, and other human-tiger conflicts, tigers now number around 3,200—a decrease in population by about 70% from 100 years ago.

  • 77% of people who commute to work by car drive alone.

  • 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from burning fossil fuels.

  • Bamboo absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than equivalent stands of trees.

  • Recycling 1 million laptop computers can save the amount of energy used by 3,657 homes in the U.S. over the course of a year.

  • A tree that provides a home with shade from the sun can reduce the energy required to run the air conditioner and save an additional 200 to 2,000 pounds of carbon over its lifetime.

  • Glass can be recycled over and over again without ever wearing down.

  • You will save 100 pounds of carbon for each incandescent bulb that you replace with a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL), over the life of the bulb.

  • Recycling for one year at Stanford University saved the equivalent of 33,913 trees and the need for 636 tons of iron ore, coal, and limestone.

  • Refrigerators built in 1975 used 4 times more energy than current models.

  • Recycling 100 million cell phones can save enough energy to power 18,500 homes in the U.S. for a year.

  • You’ll save two pounds of carbon for every 20 glass bottles that you recycle.

  • States with bottle deposit laws have 35-40% less litter by volume.

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  • Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year.

  • If every U.S. household turned the thermostat down by 10 degrees for seven hours each night during the cold months, and seven hours each weekday, it would prevent nearly gas emissions.

  • Recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy used to make the material from scratch.

  • Nudge your thermostat up two degrees in the summer and down two degrees in the winter to prevent 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.

  • Every week about 20 species of plants and animals become extinct.

  • Americans use 100 million tin and steel cans every day.

  • An aluminum can that is thrown away instead of recycled will still be a can 500 years from now!

  • A laptop consumes five times less electricity than a desktop computer.

  • American workers spend an average of 47 hours per year commuting through rush hour traffic. This adds up to 23 billion gallons of gas wasted in traffic each year.

  • Current sea ice levels are at least 47% lower than they were in 1979.

  • Shaving 10 miles off of your weekly driving pattern can eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year.

  • A single quart of motor oil, if disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000,000 gallons of fresh water.

  • A steel mill using recycled scrap reduces related water pollution, air pollution, and mining wastes by about 70%.

  • Less than 1% of electricity in the United States is generated from solar power.