News Flash

FIVE THINGS TO DO!

1. Creation Care Day HCCC Recycling Display, April 13 (tomorrow), 9am – 2pm, Fox Hill Central United Methodist Church, 501 Beach Road! Learn more about recycling right. More info at hccc@hampton.gov.
2. Clean & Green Workplaces Committee Meeting, April 16, 3:30pm, Goodwill Community Employment Center, 1911 Saville Row, Room 235, more info at hccc@hampton.gov.
3. Oyster Gardening, April 19, 11am, Sunset Boating Center. 800 South Armistead Avenue, info at causink@hampton.gov.
4. International Children’s Festival Litter-Free Event Volunteers Needed, Mill Point Park and Downtown Hampton, April 20, 10am – 5:00pm, volunteers to clean up throughout the festival area to keep trash out of the river. Sign up at hccc@hampton.gov.
5. Walk Hampton Clean, April 20 - 27 – sign up before April 17th! Pick your day, spot, and time and make your part of Hampton clean and beautiful. We’ll provide cleanup equipment and trash bags. Our goal is to clean up the entire city during Earth Week! Sign up at https://hamptonmarketing.wufoo.com/forms/z1o5pr4p10cibga/. For info, causink@hampton.gov.

Spread the word!  Thanks!

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW!

1. You can check out cleanup equipment from Hampton Public Libraries in the new Check Out & Clean Up program. All you need is your library card! FYI, the litter on your street floats into the storm drain during rain and from there into a creek or the Chesapeake Bay unless YOU pick it up.
2. Most filters are made from cellulose acetate, a type of plastic that either comes from tree fibre, nylon or polyester and is then coated to become durable. The fibres are supposed to absorb some of the chemicals in the tobacco. – Think before you flick — cigarette butts aren't biodegradable, Natalie Nanowski · CBC News FYI, you can protect our local waterways by asking the smokers you know to properly dispose of their cigarette litter.
3. Applications are now being accepted for Curb Appeal, a matching grant program from the city's Community Development Department that helps residents make exterior improvements to their homes at half the cost. Curb Appeal provides up to $5,000 or 50 percent of the cost (whichever is less) for homes in targeted areas of Hampton. The grants are available to all single-family and duplex residential property owners, regardless of income. Target areas are Buckroe, Phoebus, Sussex, Olde Hampton, and Pasture Point. Applications are available online and the deadline is April 30. Projects must be completed within six months. For more information, contact Jasmine Bryson at jbryson@hampton.gov or Marcie Spragan at mspragan@hampton.gov. www.hampton.gov/2112/Curb-Appeal-Matching-Grant-Program. FYI, keeping your neighborhood beautiful will help deter littering behavior.
4. Where does your recycling go? In most places in the U.S., you throw it in a bin, and then it gets carted off to be sorted and cleaned at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). From there, much of it is shipped off to mills, where bales of paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic are pulped or melted into raw materials. Some of these mills are here in the U.S. And once upon a time, many of them were in China.– National Sword, 99% Invisible Podcast, Episode 341.  FYI, Recycling right is important for our city, our recycling vendor TFC Recycling, and the factories that our materials go to. Recycling right makes the whole process more efficient.
5. The average person uses 1.6 straws per day. It’s no wonder they’re among the top ten items collected every year during Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. In fact, volunteers have picked up more than 9 million straws and stirrers from beaches and waterways over the 30+ year history of the International Coastal Cleanup! Unfortunately, many more continue to make their way into our ocean, where they pose a real danger to sea turtles, albatross, fish and other ocean wildlife. – Fighting for Trash Free Seas, The Ocean Conservancy  FYI, you can battle this litter by picking up all litter when you see it and reducing your use of plastic straws. You may properly dispose of straws, but they may escape and become litter during trash disposal.

Feel free to submit good things to know – just back them up with a source, please!