Happy 'America Recycles Day' readers! Conveniently, this day happens to correlate with waste day of "No Impact" week. (http://noimpactproject.org/experiment/) This week everyone is strongly encouraged to take a magnifying glass to their every day practices and critically analyze if it's worth it or not. Basically, do you really need to accept that throw away cup every day at the coffee shop? Or could you slim down your waste contribution by mindfully toting a mug each day?

As part of the experiment, citizens are encouraged to document the waste they generated for the day. So, I snapped a quick photo of my waste footprint! Hopefully you will observe the dirty napkin, tooth picks and stir stick are all biodegradable. They still have an impact, but at least they recycle readily in my compost bin. The cup is of course reusable but the little red decorative plastic things that adorn my tooth picks? Fail! Luckily, this can be easily remidied if we apply a little pressure on the restaraunt and catering indisutries to abandon such tom foolery. Then I can almost get a perfect score on "America Recycles Day"!!!

Thirsty for more? Check out the radio interview with our very own Bonny Bentizin, Director of Sustainability Practices right here at ASU. http://sustainability.asu.edu/news/gios-news/no-impact-week-encourages-students-to-live-greener

By Jehnifer Niklas

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

-- Vincent Van Gogh