2014 April Pender Post
This month’s movie trivia subject is the 1967 movie, The Graduate. The movie starred a very young Dustin Hoffman who played Benjamin Braddock, a new graduate. At the graduation party his parents hosted, one of the business-executive-type guests gave Benjamin one word of career advice. “Plastics”. The field of plastics, he said, was about to boom, ensuring success for anyone smart enough to get in on the ground floor. Sadly, in many ways the advice was right, and we are now up to our ears in plastic. Key parts made of long-lasting and durable metal, as well as glass bottles and jars have been overwhelmingly replaced with time-limited plastic.
On that theme, I tip my hat to Eugene Oregon, that just declared itself bottled-water free, the first place to make plastic water bottles unlawful. Americans are consuming water from disposable plastic bottles at a rate of more than 70 million bottles each day. Each day! I keep hoping that the Eugene Oregon strategy will spread but, in the meantime, let’s keep refilling our own reusable water bottles.
April finally has arrived, and the daffodils didn’t have to drill their way up through the snow after all. We can now confirm that our gardens are roughly where we last saw them before the snows arrived, so now we can resume with our spring garden plan. The first step of a yard and garden plan should be to reserve the Recycling Depot truck to bring back a load of whatever material one needs . . . manure, topsoil, wood chips. The Recycling Depot backhaul rates are excellent, and the backhaul income helps to maintain the viability of our recycling operation. Book now. Speak to any recycling staff member for further information.
Our gardens appreciate the warmth now evident in the April sun, and composters and food digesters start processing faster. Do you have a composter? Do you need another? The same questions apply for food digesters. In recent years the Pender Island Recycling Depot has been participating in a program to test the viability of food digesters. Unlike a regular composter, the digesters take rotting foods, cooked food scraps and even chicken bones. The materials are naturally “processed” and returned to the earth. Properly installed, digesters do wonders and do not attract rodents and other unwelcome little critters. The Recycling Depot has literature on composter and digesters, as well as time limited, special reduced prices on both items. The special price is strictly on a first come, first served basis. Do yourself and your island a favour. Start composting and “digesting” today.
Under the heading important dates, please mark Wednesday, May 28, 7:00 pm, Community Hall on your calendar. That is the date, time and location of the Pender Island Recycling Society’s Annual General Meeting. Also note that May is Tire Collection Month at the depot. Unwanted tires (maximum 4 tires per household, no rims) can be dropped off at the recycling depot at no charge throughout the month of May.
Now that the snow has gone, and the warm sun’s rays are now evident, more people will agree that they’re all good days on Pender.