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Howard’s Earth Day celebration includes paper-shredding event
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Columbia (Map, News) - Give them your used floppy disks, your masses of credit card bills, your piles of receipts, yearning to be recycled.
All are welcome at a free shredding event April 21 to kick off Howard County’s Earth Day celebration.
“People keep credit card bills in bags because they are scared of identity theft,” said Laura Miller, Howard’s recycling coordinator.
The county held a shredding event last October, and even without a lot of publicity, roughly 160 cars flooded the event, she said.
This time, if it’s a nice day, a few hundred residents could come out with their bags of paper. Residents are each allowed three bags or boxes of paper documents. They can also bring electronic storage devices, which will be taken off-site to be recycled, Miller said.
The county’s Earth Day celebration also will include environmental exhibits and entertainment.
At West Friendship Park, residents can join in planting trees to help reforest the area. This will be the fifth year for the Earth Day tree-planting event and the third year at this park, said Ann Combs, volunteer coordinator at the county’s Department of Recreation and Parks.
“It’s sort of giving back to Mother Earth,” Combs said.
About 50 to 100 people are expected to come out and plant some 400 trees, she said. Volunteers can also help with tree sheltering, which protects young trees from deer.
The Earth Day festivities kick off the county’s Discover Howard County Government Week, with the theme of protecting our environment. As a part of the week, the county will join the rest of the country for Bring Your Child to Work Day, where the sons and daughters of county employees can get a glimpse of public service.
A look at ...
37 years of Earth Day
Twenty million Americans participated in the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970. “It was a time when cities were buried under their own smog and polluted rivers caught fire. Now Earth Day is celebrated around the globe,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — which was created by President Richard Nixon the same year.
Key dates in the history of
environmental protection
1971 » Congress restricts use of lead-based paint.
1972 » EPA bans DDT, a cancer-causing pesticide, and requires extensive review of all pesticides.
1972 » Congress passes the Clean Water Act, limiting pollutants flowing into rivers, lakes and streams.
1973 » EPA begins phasing out leaded gasoline.
1974 » Congress passes the Safe Drinking Water Act, allowing EPA to regulate the quality of drinking water.
1975 » Congress sets fuel economy and tail-pipe emission standards for cars, resulting in the introduction of catalytic converters.
1978 » Residents discover that Love Canal, N.Y., is contaminated by leaking buried chemical containers.
1979 » Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident near Harrisburg, Pa., increases awareness and discussion of nuclear power safety.
1983 » Cleanup actions begin to rid the Chesapeake Bay of pollution stemming from sewage treatment plants, urban runoff and farm waste.
1985 » Scientists report that a giant hole in the earth’s ozone layer opens each spring over Antarctica.
1987 » Medical and other waste washes up on shores, closing beaches in New York and New Jersey.
1988 » Congress bans ocean dumping of sewage sludge and industrial waste.
1989 » Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of crude oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
1993 » EPA reports secondhand smoke contaminates indoor air, posing serious health risks to nonsmokers.
1996 » EPA requires that home buyers and renters be informed about lead-based paint hazards.
For more information go online to www.epa.gov/earthday, www.earth
day.gov/govtsites.htm.
Source: EPA
IF YOU GO ...
What: Howard’s Earth Day shredding event
When: April 21, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Dorsey Building, 9250 Bendix Road, Columbia
smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com
Comments from Examiner Readers
1:00 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 28, 2008 re: "O’Malley stays green, signs new measures"
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12:41 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 25, 2008
re: "O’Malley stays green, signs new measures"
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8:15 AM MST on Fri., Apr. 25, 2008
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6:32 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008
re: "Can the Chesapeake Bay survive the garbage choking Maryland's rivers?"
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7:29 PM MST on Tue., Apr. 22, 2008
re: "Can the Chesapeake Bay survive the garbage choking Maryland's rivers?"
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2:23 PM MST on Tue., Apr. 22, 2008
re: "Can the Chesapeake Bay survive the garbage choking Maryland's rivers?"
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11:10 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 22, 2008
re: "Can the Chesapeake Bay survive the garbage choking Maryland's rivers?"
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10:55 AM MST on Tue., Apr. 22, 2008
re: "Can the Chesapeake Bay survive the garbage choking Maryland's rivers?"
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Examiner Reader said:
How about charging these people that live on the water some more money called taxes? I cant get near the water everyday like they do and catch those crabs free because no one is watching there piers. Yea. how about charging them boat owners some more money with them polluting the water with there gas mowers. I lucky I can find a nice spot to fish and I have to pay for my licence. Charge them for the filty/dirty bay.
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Examiner Reader said:
Whip Allan Kittleman says it will cost the rate payers more. So it might, buig deal, i'd rather pay a little more than pay huge expenses down the road to clean all the crap up thats left behing from power plants. Stuff like coal tar is nasty and i'm sure there are worse by products. Lets just ticket those littering? and if it's your responsibility to clear snow from your sidewalk in the einter, than so be it trash during the rest of the year.
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Examiner Reader said:
A bottle bill will do nothing to fix the ignorant masses that have absolutely no qualms about littering whatsoever. One of the things that flabbergasted me when I moved here from out west in 1991 was how cavalier people are with garbage and cigarette butts. I was speaking to a lady from Ethiopia not long ago who told me that she gets embarrassed when her family visits her from there and comments about how dirty this city is. That says volumes to me. I am not always a Sheila fan, but I do respect that she is trying to address this problem.
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Examiner Reader said:
Maybe we can pass the Bottle Bill next year so that there is a greater incentive for people to pick up litter and then the streams wouldn't look so bad...
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Examiner Reader said:
Thanks for raising public awareness of the problems of our streams and Patapsco River, as well as the rest of the Chesapeake Bay watershed! And thanks for getting the facts correct! Betsy McMillion, Stream Watch Director Friends of Patapsco Valley & Heritage Greenway
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A giraffe dies said:
To a large extent a part of the problem is the residents' attitude towards littering and illegal dumping. I believe there is a state law against littering with fines attached, however I do not think the police is enforcing it in Baltimore City. Not a day goes by where I don't see at least one car window roll down and a bag of fast food trash is dumped on the street or see alleys with bags of trash piled. If the city really wants to increase revenues, a law should be passed making littering a crime with a $500 penalty for each occurence. Then, instead of setting up traffic traps all over town, the police can just issue littering tickets. If the problem doesn't stop, at least Baltimore's finances will be in the positive without taxing everyone exorbitantly.
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Reader said:
What ever you say 10:55, You are the man!
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Tammy Newcomer said:
Thanks for such a comprehensive piece on the complex issues surrounding water quality in the Bay region. The statistics at the end are particularly enlightening; Our population size has not increased as dramatically as the opulence of our lifestyles. The American Dream of a big house in the suburbs (with easy access to roads and strip malls) is having a detrimental affect on water quality and general quality of life. More and more former forests and farmlands are being paved over and as a result the waterways are being eroded and citizens are wasting more time sitting in traffic. I hope this article will serve as food for thought on changing the way we grow. We need to curtail sprawl fueled by roads like the planned ICC and instead, focus on improving pre-existing urban areas so they are safer, more attractive places to live. Urban redevelopment is an important strategy for protecting the headwater forests that protect the water quality of everyone living within our watersheds.
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