Green Neighbors' 7-week-long Metal Recycling Challenge reaps over

16 tons of scrap metal!

Green Neighbors’ Spring 2008 Metal Recycling Challenge between the neighboring communities of Carderock Springs and Cabin John in Maryland reaped a great harvest. The two communities managed to recycle over 16 tons of scrap metal over a period of just seven weeks!

The Challenge culminated with a community-wide awards ceremony on April 27, 2008.  The festivities got underway with a parade.  Recycle Man (aka Rich Kepler) was in the thick of it, leading the throng down MacArthur Boulevard from the back of Tom Rojas' pick-up truck. Larry Heflin was sighted on his World War II-era "recycled recycled bicycle" made from recycled parts and given to him by his dad for his 6th birthday.  Local youth Ava and Joe Henderson rode their battery-powered mini VW bug.  Various torch runners passed the "Green Neighbors torch" along the parade path. Councilmember Roger Berliner was seen directing traffic at the final crosswalk.

Over 100 attendees filed in for the awards ceremony. Berliner presided, along with Montgomery County Recycling Chief Eileen Kao, Recycling Coordinator Alan Pultyniewicz, and Ann Humphrey of Representative Chris Van Hollen's office.  When Recycle Man pulled out the envelope Oscars-style, the winner was - Cabin John!  Carderock Springs resident Martha Donnelly jokingly demanded a recount.  Organizers were stunned at the final tally of the amount of scrap metal recycled -- roughly 34,000 pounds!  It was interesting to note that the total pounds of small metal items recycled outweighed large metal items recycled. Over 56% of the metals recycled were small items collected in bins placed in each community during the Challenge.  This is important as the County looks into possibly adding small scrap metals to the curbside recycling program.

Students from five local schools, as well as a local boy scout troop, participated in the challenge, collecting metals and raising awareness within their schools and families.  The children that canvassed over 1,300 homes at the start of the challenge were commended by the County at the ceremony and given water bottles made of 100% recycled plastic.  Two middle school 'Green Kid Ambassadors', Eden Cornelius and Kate Goldberg, gave speeches from which excerpts follow.  Eden: "I want to pass on the message that if we work together, we can make a difference. I appreciate that grownups are working for change because after you are gone, ours and future generations will inherit this Earth."   Kate: "Why are these metal recycling efforts helpful? Because if we recycle the iron and steel we normally would have thrown out, we save the energy it takes to go underground and dig up more metals. We also save many animals' habitats that can be destroyed when we build mines to get new metal ore. Being a Green Neighbor doesn't have to be work.  It just takes thinking differently about throwing things away and using energy."

To conclude the ceremony, the Green Neighbors torch was passed, literally, to residents of Glen Echo, who accepted it in the interest of expanding scrap metal recycling to include their community as well.  Afterwards, folks enjoyed food and beverages donated by neighbors and local vendors, tuned in to the sounds of local band Monet in the 90s, made tin can herb pots & funky junky metal jewelry, had their caricatures drawn, and perused environmental exhibits of local 6th graders and of Bethesda Green, Cool Capital Campaign, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, and PEPCo, who distributed free compact fluorescents.

As a nice follow-up to the celebration, on May 13th, 2008, Montgomery County Councilmembers George Leventhal and Roger Berliner presented a proclamation of recognition to the two communities for their efforts in this Challenge.