Environment Recycler

Far off of the sandy shores of Virginia Beach, into the deep blue ocean, two Commercial Offshore Wind Energy projects are taking places. This means that into the ocean are 2 wind turbines which use the wind in the air to generate energy to use to power homes along the coast of Virginia Beach. By late 2026, they plan on completing one of the biggest wind energy installation projects. This will mean that there will be a total of 176 wind turbines in the ocean providing 2.6 gigawatts of electricity. This is enough to power at least 650,000 homes.  Credit: AP News

As the Summer continues, a popular tourist destination happen to be the home of beautiful sunset skies and soft rolling waves- beaches. One of the many safety risks and problems at the beach happen to be shark attacks. In 2023, there were 120 alleged human-shark interactions and these numbers continue to rise year by year. Why are shark attack numbers rising? The climate crisis of rising temperatures is pushing sharks towards shore because of the distribution of marine species being changed.  Also causing them to mistake humans for food. This means that the climate crisis caused by humans has as an overall impact to many lives including sharks. 

 Did you know that the penny costs 3 times it's value to make? The US mint spent 707 million dollars making coins last year and almost 60% of coins churned out by the US mint were pennies. Even more importantly, the US mint lost over 72 million dollars making pennies last year. To further think about it, If you lost a $20 bill, would you look for it? You probably answered yes, because $20 can be considered a considerable amount, but if you lost a penny, would you look for it? Most people would answer no, because 1 cent is such a small amount which is rarely used and doesn't really make a difference, but the un-noticed fact is that over time, all those missing penny's can add up to a large total amount of lost money. The average family throws away 68 million dollars worth of coins in a year- meaning, the value of coins, and pennies in particular is not valued. With a 72 million dollar loss and the rare usage and common wastage of a penny, it is questionable whether the penny

       Honestly, for the longest time, I had no idea what Leachate was. Leachate is something that we all don't really no about, but it does play a very important part in our environment and community.      Have you ever felt a sticky substance under your trash bag? That sticky substance is called Leachate. That gooey and dirty liquid is called Leachate. Leachate is formed when rain water filters through the waste in the landfill. After leachate is placed in landfills, leachate ends up mixing up with water bodies near the landfill. This makes our safe drinking water not so safe and instead toxic. In order to stop this problem scientist and engineer had created a liner to cover up the leachate and keep it in the area where it was dumped. Animals such as squirrels started making holes in the liner and to prevent that problem, squirrels were killed.  This leachate problem still continues, but researchers, scientists, and engineers continue to see if there is a way to fix or prevent th

 Here is an amazing info-graphic which shows a lot of fun facts about Recycling. This info-graphic shows how our people can be a little lazy sometimes, but recycling can make a difference in our communities and it is worth it. Recycling doesn't take too much work! It is something we all can take the few minutes out of our day to do to create a better and brighter future for everyone!

  We all know the saying Reduce, Reuse, and Recycling. We commonly take the meaning of it the way that we are simply taught (reduce the use of materials, reuse materials and recycle). But we can take out a bigger meaning. The concept is all about going green, so along the same terms, we can Reduce the Misuse of materials, and other resources. So what can we Reduce the Misuse of? How? Light Everyday, every second somewhere in the world there is a light on even though it doesn't have to be. This is causing us to waste electricity and raise your own electricity bills. It is easy to just click a button to turn the light off when unneeded. Water Everyday, there will be water wasted. Although, water might not be wasted as much as light, it is still a problem. There is less than 1% of drinkable water on Earth. Although that might seem like a lot knowing how much water there is one Earth, we still need to save water. We use extra water by leaving the tap on by accident, taking too long bat

    It was astronaut Robert Thirsk who had stated ,” Earth’s life-support system... relies upon finely tuned interactions amon g land, oceans, atmosphere, the freshwater cycle , flo r a and fauna” It is evident that after discovering even the galaxy, anyone can agree that the whole life-support system of our planet Earth relies on our waters.     And i t was Leonardo De Vinci who had reminded us that, “Water is the driving force of ALL nature .” It is evident that Leonardo De Vinci understood our w etland communities and the importance of keeping the m . Leonardo De Vinci wanted to encourage us to embrace the water .          So, what is so important about our wetlands ? Why should we keep them? What is in it for us? And most of all are wetlands really worth saving? We cannot forget about the wonders that our community wa tershed s are doing . W etlands in our communities are helping us by -    storing and controlling flood water and acting as a floodplain    reducing erosion

  Saving paper at our work, home or even school is important. Saving paper is saving trees! Paper is made from trees. Trees help clean the air for us so that we can breathe. Humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Trees breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Trees do this at night when we are sleeping so in the morning when we wake up, we have fresh oxygen. Here are some amazing ways to save paper everyday: Fill the whole page : Whether you're using lined paper or blank white paper, fill the entire page instead of taking one more extra page.  Use both sides:  When I say fill the whole page, some people might go with just fill one side of the page fully and not remember that there are 2 sides. Use both sides, why else are they there? Do work online when possible:  If you can do something online instead of on paper, do it! Why not? You can easily do it with the same amount of work online and at the same time save some paper! Recycle it:  If you don't n

 This picture shows how you can help Save the Turtles. 

Here are 3 things that you can keep in mind to save our environment everyday: 1 . Don't Litter Remember to throw away your trash in the trash bin and not leave it on the floor or outside for it to decompose in a million years.  2. Help the Plants thrive! Don't step on the plants or kick on them to end their life. Trees and plants play an important role in stopping air pollution! Bees are good pollinators helping plants survive and do their job, so don't bother the bees! 3. Buy sustainable products!  At this point, there are so many companies which sell sustainable items which support our environment and communities! Why not get them when they double the job!?

      Making your household Zero Waste is not easy, neither is it popular. This guide will help you understand what a Zero Waste household looks like and what you can do to go Zero Waste! What does it mean to go Zero Waste? Going Zero Waste means that instead of throwing off your waste, you use the compost bin and recycling bin. No trash/waste any more! What does a Zero Waste household look like? A Zero Waste house hold looks like a home with barely any trash in their trash bin, but lot's of compost and recycling instead.  How can I go Zero Waste? 1. When you go to stores, pay attention to the packing. Can you get a recyclable packing? 2. Instead of throwing extra food or fruit peels off, put them in a compost bin or use them with your plants.  3. Sort out your recycling and drop it at your local recycling center regularly! 4. Don't forget to avoid getting as much trash as possible.  5. Encourage your neighbors to join you on your Zero Waste Mission!

 A lot of us might not understand this or even agree, but it is indeed true that Recycling helps us stay sustainable every day. This video talks about sustainability and how an aluminum can is actually a great item to recycle. 

      Energy conservation is a big topic related to our environment and animals. There are 2 types of energy- Renewable and Non Renewable.       Renewable energy is energy that can be replaced/replenished in a matter of a lifetime. A few Renewable energy examples are Hydroelectric, Wind, Waves, Tides, Geothermal and Solar. These Renewable energy sources can power our homes just like Non Renewable energy sources and Fossil Fuels. Renewable energy presents itself with a few problems at the same time. Renewable energy is expensive and not available at all locations and times. For example, in order to use Solar Energy, you need solar panels. Solar Panels are expensive to buy and get placed on your roof. The solar energy (light) will not be present as much in the winter. Renewable Energy is great.       Non Renewable energy is energy that cannot be replaced/replenished in the matter of a lifetime. Fossil Fuels are included in the dangers of Non Renewable energy. Fossil Fuels are created fro

Over the years, it has been found that Earth's axis is changing. A study ran by the Geophysical Research Letters in 2023 found that between the year 1993 and 2010, earth's axis has shifted about 1.7 inches per year. The cause for this shift is believed to be human activity, particularly due to the extraction of ground water. It is estimated that this has contributed to the rise of sea level by 2.6 feet. This proves that human activity truly does effect more than just global warming. 

Recycling Myths fill the internet and of the myths, many are false.  1. Plastic Bags are recyclable 2. Recycled Products are worse 3. Materials can only be recycled once  4. Recyclables should be bagged 5. Only white paper can be recycled 

 This picture shows how you can help Save the Turtles. 

      Many of us have not noticed this, but our storm drains are playing an important part in our environment. They were made to take our rain to water bodies so that they wouldn't flood our communities. That was working out just great until our trash started making it into the water bodies. When it rained, our litter and trash that was just lying around on the streets was pulled into the storm drains along with the storm water. Similar to Microplastics, the trash is eaten by water creatures and other animals that live in an ocean habitat.  You all have probably heard or seen a 'Save the Turtles' campaign. These campaigns are caused to be created because of the turtles death. The death of these turtles are directly connected to Microplastics and those storm drain littering problems. For Turtles in particular, we are most aware of the plastic straw problem where turtles are eating straws. Similar to that other big plastic bottles are being eaten by turtles, fish, and etc.  T

Everyday, people try to recycle several things all over the world. But, almost all of the people who recycle are making one big mistake. We all know that we can recycle paper, glass and plastic, but not all items made from paper, glass or plastic can be recycled, e.g. grocery bags, bread bags, plastic shrink wrap packaging (such as the wrap on bulk paper towel bags), plastic wrap, diapers, chains and cables, small scrap metal, paper shreds, ALL glass and collection bags (eg. can liners).  The ADS , American Disposal Services say that the plastic films and grocery bags wrap around the large rotating gears in the recycling sorting machinery and cause the entire American Recycling Center to shut down until the bags and films are removed. Next time, instead of putting those grocery bags in the recycling bin, try going to a bag drop off location. Bag drop off locations can be found in your neighborhood grocery store, Walmart OR Target.  Some people also recycle diapers. Diapers no matte