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This is the last issue on which I have collaborated in a major way with most of the content, proofreading and design.
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Campus California
Together we can make a difference, one shirt at a time!
Summer 2011
We would like to thank all our site hosts, donors and supporters for
the year of 2010 and a great start of 2011. Campus California has,
during this time, collected 5,318 tons! That has meant that 10,000,000
pounds of clothes have been collected for reuse, a number of jobs
have been created, natural resources saved and money generated to
support important development work done across the globe. We
believe this to be a big victory not only for us and for our supported
programs, but also for all of us and, certainly, for our planet; By
keeping a number of toxic chemicals from being released into the
environment during the making of new products and green house
gases from being emitted into the atmosphere if the textiles would
have ended in the landfills.
We look forward to your continued support in this important effort.
Our planet deserves it. The need for transforming our old habits into
new ones, to liberate ourselves from our fossil fuel dependency and
create sustainable development across the globe is, without a doubt, a
growing one; and it requires us to act now.
Once more: a warm thank you from us, and all our supported
programs. We look forward to much more.
We all share one home, our planet; we must all take part and consider the impact our actions have for the future.
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Summer 2011In this issue:
Page 3
Page 4
Page 6
Page 7
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
An activist university
degree
Good earth
New city ordinance in
Richmond.
Our effort to get books
to schools continues…
pg. 3
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Page 2 Campus California has
started operations in
Phoenix
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For our planet and its people
Campus California July 2011
2
Campus California has started a new operation in Phoenix
The average American throws
away 68 pounds of textiles each
year. If Valley residents follow
this trend, they will throw out
around 300 million pounds of
textiles in 2011. Until April 2011
Valley residents had the chance
to donate textiles for reuse at
manned donation centers, or at
drop-boxes. These drop boxes
are few and widely spread.
Donation of unwanted textiles
was not convenient unless you
had transport and the time to
travel a reasonable distance from
where you live. We estimate that
at most 25% of unwanted
textiles in the Valley are
currently donated each year, the
rest ending up in the landfill.
According to the website of the
City of Phoenix over half a
million tons of solid waste from
individuals ends up in the
Phoenix area landfills each year
– and an academic study
Giving many more people a convenient opportunity to recycle
commissioned by them in 1998
showed that over 50% of
Phoenix garbage was recyclable.
As a result, the city offers a
comprehensive curbside
recycling program (but not the
chance to recycle textiles).
There is no doubt that there is a
need for a much more
convenient opportunity, where
people can easily recycle textiles
in the Valley.
From April 2011 Campus
California has started to try to
meet this need, by providing
drop boxes accessible 24/7
throughout the Valley. We are
likely to have a box within one
or two miles from most
businesses and homes, meaning
they are convenient for all.
They are located on the
neighborhood grocery store, gas
station, auto repair, etc. You
can find the box closest to you
by visiting our web site,
www.campus-california.org.
If you have a large donation or
cannot physically get to our
drop-box we may be able to
make a house pickup from you
if you call us.
Campus California July 2011
3
The 3 R’s: Reduce,
Reuse, and Recycle. We hear
the term over and over, almost
like a mantra, how important it
is to do these things, and about
what happens if we don’t. One
of the most common
perceptions is that when we talk
about the 3R’s, we are talking
about solutions for what to do
with solid waste, or in other
words “garbage”. Perhaps it
would be more appropriate to
consider them as components,
stepping stones towards a more
responsible and sustainable
lifestyle instead.
Reduce – In most people’s
everyday life, this concept could
simply mean: If you don’t need
it, don’t buy it! Do you really
need a 28 pack of 16 oz. water
bottles for your home, or can
you just get (the same brand,
same water) a 5 gallons
container? It will probably take
up less space in your fridge
anyway… and it’s cheaper as
well! Product packaging is
generally one of the areas
mentioned a lot for its
wastefulness, but you can also
just reduce your need to buy
things, for example by making
or growing them yourself. A
small vegetable garden is a
perfect sustainability project for
almost anybody, growing your
own food is fun and rewarding
and you don’t even have to
own a lot of land to do it.
There are a number of options
like simple large pots or planter
boxes you can keep on your
balcony or patio, and there are
an increasing number of urban
garden projects in many cities
where you can get involved.
These programs often provide
hands-on training as well!
Reuse – every time we have an
item that we are going to
dispose of, we should first look
at it and say: “What could this
still be used for?” Even
seemingly mundane stuff like
yoghurt containers or plastic
disposable can be turned into
things like seedling holders for
tomatoes, cucumbers or any
other vegetables for your little
growing project. Any time we
reuse an item, we save a lot of
resources and energy that would
otherwise be needed to make
something new to fulfill the same
function. Some items, however
we can’t use any more, even
though they are still in a good
condition. Like that cute purple
top you picked up at a sale some
years back, or those cool pants
you love but just can’t see
yourself wearing them anymore.
It is very simple to reuse clothing,
it is meant to be worn, so all we
need to do is to find someone
who will. A clothing donation
box is a perfect way to get your
no longer wanted pieces of
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
We all share one home, our
planet; we must all take part and consider the impact our actions have for the future.
R
Picture from: Jrumchai Singalavanij
Campus California July 2011
4
apparel underway to be useful
again. Campus California
collects this clothing and sends it
on its way to places where used
clothing is often the only
affordable option for the people.
Recycle – The last component of
the 3R’s, recycling refers to
returning no longer usable
products to the industry in the
form of base materials, to be
used to make new products. To
collect bottles and cans to be
melted down and made into new
bottles and cans is where it all
started (for the modern age), but
we have progressed a long way
from there. The nature of
recycling has changed from being
about the few things we remove
from the garbage towards the
garbage itself being only the few
things we don’t know how to
recycle just yet. The ever-
increasing list of items you can
place into your blue recycling
cart is a very good example of
this. The main benefits of
recycling are that it saves energy
(energy=oil, mostly) compared to
using virgin materials to make a
product and we can avoid the
negative environmental effects
associated with mining and
production of raw materials. A
small portion of the textiles
collected in Campus California’s
donation boxes are no longer in a
wearable condition, these usually
end up sold to fiber-makers to be
recycled into threads. These
threads can then be used to make
new clothing or other textile
products, saving a lot of water
and pollution from chemicals
that would normally be used to
grow the cotton and produce
the fabric, including highly
toxic dyes.
When considering the relative
value or importance of the 3R’s,
a rule of thumb is that reuse is
better for the environment than
recycling and that reduce is
better than reuse. That said,
however all three of them have
an indispensable role in our
efforts as a society to change
our lifestyle and our approach
towards planet Earth. We need
to make these changes in order
to satisfy the needs of future
generations.
If you are interested in learning
more about the environmental
impacts of textile recycling,
please visit our website
www.campus-california.org.
Continued
Campus California’s recycling
program has kept from the
landfills 3,554 tons of clothes in
2010 alone. In 2011 we have
further expanded our
operations to Phoenix, AZ.
With the proceeds generated by
our collection activities,
Campus California, now,
supports other non-profit
organizations running programs
that enable young
people to take part in sustainable
development work. In 2012 two
of this institutions will offer a
new program; an activist teacher
training program, with a clear
departure from popular academia
and it prepares you for leading
people into the future; A new
and necessary education for a
rapidly changing world. You
may ask: why teachers? We are
experiencing a time
characterized by fatal decisions
and events that are affecting the
entire globe, crossing all known
borders. It is dawning on more
and more people that life on
our planet, as we know it, will
undergo dramatic changes in
the years and decades to come.
The changes we have
experienced in the past decades
An activist university degree
Campus California July 2011
5
will be minor compared to those
of the future. The young people of
today will be around in the year
2050, and that is the future they
need to be prepared for. We will
be faced with the challenges of
transforming our societies;
from their dependency on fossil
fuel and dealing with the food
crisis following the wake, coping
with the increased numbers of
natural disasters resulting from
global warming, the widening gap
between the rich and poor, and
resolving the political and
economical social crisis that have
the potential to become very
ugly. The world needs teachers
and institutions that will put the
future on the agenda. Present and
future generations need to have
the knowledge, skills, and
practical experiences to cope with
and be a part of creating changes.
We need to take on the
challenges of the future together
which will naturally challenge the
penetrating individualism in our
society. It is only from a
collective effort that we will
produce the impact we need. The
generations of today, and the
future, need to learn and practice
how to create a rich and
productive life, in peace and
cooperation with each other
despite their political, social, and
cultural differences.
Continued
On average, each one of
us produces 4.4 pounds
of solid waste each day.
This adds up to almost a
ton of trash per person,
per year.
A typical family
consumes 182 gallons of
soda, 29 gallons of juice,
104 gallons of milk, and
26 gallons of bottled
water a year. That's a lot
of containers -- make sure
they're recycled!
The teacher transfers ethical and moral values to the children and to the
community with his words
as well as with his deeds
Rainforests are being cut
down at the rate of 100
acres per minute!
A single quart of motor
oil, if disposed of
improperly, can
contaminate up to
2,000,000 gallons of fresh
water
The world is in need of
teachers with the
ambition of creating
change for the better.
Campus California July 2011
6
Good Earth We would like to use this occasion to praise one of our donation box hosts for their efforts
to preserve the Earth and its natural resources.
Here is a quote from the
Good Earth Natural Foods
store in Fairfax, Marin
County, California:
“You won't find us listed on
the New York Stock
Exchange, nor are we going
to open a store in
neighborhoods all over the
Planet. We simply want to
sell our customers foods
grown and processed using
the radical but ancient
concept, care. Often care
takes a back seat to the
pursuit of the almighty dollar.
We feel that this is wrong and
shortsighted. We offer foods
grown and prepared using a
minimum of processing and
no chemical pesticides or
food additives. If we cannot
meet this ideal with a certain
food item, we get as close as
we can and make as much noise
as we can to change it for the
better. We always endeavor to
remember that food contains
spirit.”
Besides only selling organic and
pesticide free products, Good
Earth Natural Food is also
special in other ways:
Most of the products are
produced locally, which means
they are fresh and that they are
free of the costly, energy
consuming and polluting long
distance transport.
There are no limits for what you
can buy in bulk at Good Earth
Natural Foods. You can bring
your own container for
practically anything, get it
weighed when you enter the
store, fill it up with what you
need and weigh it out again by
the cashier. We are not only
talking about grains and the
like, but also about olive oil,
vinegar, honey, a variety of
spices, the lists goes on.
So instead of having to dispose
of the bottle each time it is
empty, you bring it again and
again to the store and fill it up.
No waste dumped in the
landfill. No energy used for
recycling of the bottle or
resources used in making a
new one. The principle of
Reuse practiced at its best
sense.
We very much would like to
thank Good Earth Natural
Food for their dedication to the
care of our planet, its habitat
and natural resources and at
last but not least for having one
of our clothes collection boxes
at their store!
Campus California July 2011
7
Richmond, for several years now the
hometown of Campus California, recently
became the latest city to change their zoning
ordinance to allow the placement of clothing
collection boxes on commercial properties.
The city council approved the zoning
amendments in May this year and after the
necessary administrative process to implement
the changes was completed, several collection
boxes have already been installed throughout
the city. The reaction of the residents was very
positive; we estimate that up to a thousand
people have donated clothes to the boxes
during the first month.
The city of Richmond has been on a steady path
towards greater sustainability under the current
mayor and we have nothing but praise for the city
staff; for the high level of professionalism and the
very much open minded approach as we were
working out the conditions for safe and
responsible operation of a collection box program.
As a part of our ongoing Books for Schools
initiative, Stege Elementary was the first of
Richmond’s public schools to receive a donation
of children’s books. As a part of this program
schools are given between 5-600 used books at
one time to supplement and replenish the school
library. We are
hoping to
continue this
support to other
schools as more
books become
available.
7
New Ordinance in the city of Richmond
Our effort to get books to schools continues… We continue with our book donation program. Every day the need for resources at our local schools
grows, with budget cuts, it gets harder and harder to keep the standard in education and have enough
personnel and resources available for each student. Most recently Burckhalter elementary in Oakland,
Stage elementary in Richmond and Friends of the library - a parent group in San Carlos, CA,
received several hundred children’s books each.
b k h l i
15501 San Pablo Ave #323
Richmond, CA, 94806
Campus California is a non-profit organization. Our purpose is to work
towards the humanization of mankind and for the care of the planet and all
its species and plants.
This objective is pursued through initiating, running, assisting and
promoting activities aimed at protecting the environment, education,
international development, cooperation and fighting shoulder to shoulder
with the poorest of the world.
Campus California collects and sells used clothing, an activity with a very
strong environmental focus. The proceeds generated by this activity are used to
support the training of international volunteers to work with
sustainable development in the poorest parts of the world.
A non-profit organization, sections 501(C)(3), Federal ID 94-337-1033
State organization number 2238562
www.campus-california.org
Campus California
Campus California Newsletter
Together we can make a difference, one shirt at a time!
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