I don't know whether this has been discussed much, but how can USMS support "going green," promoting and/or being supportive of being environmentally responsible for clean water to swim in as well as to drink?
Open Water swims, of course, are the perfect venues to remind us all to keep our waters clean for swimming. The Boston swim focuses on this; do other Open Water swims promote cleaner water? What do they do?
Can pool Masters swimmers, clubs, LMSCs promote being "greener"? Encouraging people to take shorter showers is one way. What are other ways?
I think it is a fine idea and good opportunity for USMS to promote this particular aspect of the environment. By the way, all the Great Lakes are down several inches, except for Lake Superior (where, at the moment, we don't have Open Water swims...but who knows, in the future???).
Jennifer Parks, Michigan Masters
In our city we have alleys. I frequently walk our dog in the alleys so I get to see what people discard. The city provides us with rollaway trash bins (50-60 gallons or so). We (a family of three) rarely fill it up to one-third full unless we have some big project around the house that generates a lot of waste. Some families in our neighborhood (nobody has more than three or four kids) fill up two of these big bins every single week. Many families have one bin that is full or overflowing every single week as well. We sacrifice (pay more than the cost of disposing of our modest amount of garbage). Others probably pay much less than the true cost to dispose of their garbage.
Thought you might be interested in the system in our town. We have a Pay As You Throw (PAYT) system. You pay by the barrel (by affixing a pre-paid tag to your can). You can throw out as many barrels as you want, as long as you pay for them. The price is somewhere around $5 per standard trash can. Recycling is free.
In our city we have alleys. I frequently walk our dog in the alleys so I get to see what people discard. The city provides us with rollaway trash bins (50-60 gallons or so). We (a family of three) rarely fill it up to one-third full unless we have some big project around the house that generates a lot of waste. Some families in our neighborhood (nobody has more than three or four kids) fill up two of these big bins every single week. Many families have one bin that is full or overflowing every single week as well. We sacrifice (pay more than the cost of disposing of our modest amount of garbage). Others probably pay much less than the true cost to dispose of their garbage.
Thought you might be interested in the system in our town. We have a Pay As You Throw (PAYT) system. You pay by the barrel (by affixing a pre-paid tag to your can). You can throw out as many barrels as you want, as long as you pay for them. The price is somewhere around $5 per standard trash can. Recycling is free.
