New Yorkers - Recycling Magazines is Excellent!

I was in New York today, and I saw in one of the subway stations a big ad for a recycling initiative for magazines and catalogs that was recently launched in New York by Mayor Bloomberg. It is called: ReMix- Recycling Magazines is Excellent.

ReMix is a national public education campaign aimed at increasing residential recycling of magazines and catalogs. The campaign conducted pilot programs in Boston, Milwaukee, and Portland. Now the campaign is bringing the need to recycle magazines and catalogs to the attention of the New Yorkers with promotions on buses, taxis, subc\ways, in movie theatres, on cable television, on billboards and in full-page public service advertisements in consumer magazines. The total budget of the campaign in NY is above $3 million.

According to the Environment News Service (ENN), The ReMix campaign began when a study by Time Inc. and Verso Paper found that while 95 percent of all unsold newsstand magazines are recycled by newsstands and publishers, only about 17 percent of sold magazines are recycled. Just for comparison - Verso CEO, Mike Jackson mentioned on the ENN report that today, 53.4 percent - of all paper consumed in the United States is recovered for reuse.

ENN points out correctly that the there's no problem nowadays to recycle glossy paper used from magazines and catalogs. Currently, all community recycling programs accept magazines and catalogs for recycling.

This is great initiative and I hope it will motivate people to take action and significantly increase the magazines and catalogs they recycle. It's relatively easy and it's doing good twice, by keeping this paper out of landfills and by letting companies resuse it instead of virgin paper to make new paper products.

Here's the 2008 ReMix TV spot (from YouTube):



This is also a good opportunity to remind you on a (relatively) new initiative to eliminate in advance the unwanted catalogs you receive on your mail - Catalog Choice, which I wrote about here in the past (and it's a free service!)

Enjoy recycling!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Small steps, big strides

Yesterday the New York Times revealed that Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, is driven 22 blocks by SUV to catch the subway to City Hall. Still, I think the fact he's taking the subway at all is an important example to the people of New York, and though it might be done better, he should be praised (or at least a hug here and there) for his consistent effort. I wish other mayors will follow him.

At the same day, I saw an ad on the Times of PlanYC, Bloomberg's environmental vision and plan for New York's near future. The plan includes targets such as reducing the carbon emissions of the city in 30% by 2030.

The ad I saw was part of a marketing campaign that calls New Yorkers to take an active part in this plan. On their website, it's written that Mayor Bloomberg cannot reach the target of reducing emissions without the New Yorkers, and calls them to make a difference.

There's a list on this page of ten easy tips how to do it. It also emphasize that some of these tips will not only save emissions, but will save you money. For example, tip no. 4: unplug chargers and appliances when not in use.

My favorite is tip no. 10: switch to paperless bank statements and online bill paying. It's a fairly east step and saves many trees and toxic air pollutants! According to the site, if every home in the US viewed and paid bills electronically, the country would save 18.5 million trees and avoid 2.2 billion tons of toxic air pollutants.

The spirit of NYC is definitely the spirit of Eco-Libris - people have the power to make a difference, and the steps they take accumulate and make an impact. Like they say on the GreenYC page: "Each New Yorkers small steps, put together, will add up to big strides".

Here's one of the campaign's videos. Check it out.

Raz