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August/September Issue, 2005

“CANTON, Mich. – The UAW, environmental leaders and state officials joined together today in a unique show of supportfor greater automobile fuel-efficiency,” the article begins.

“This unprecedented partnership, known as the Green Machine Tour, showcases a range of vehicles and technologies currently in production or soon to be produced in southeast Michigan. These new technologies, said labor and environmental leaders, are key to enhancing the competitiveness of the region’s automobile industry.”

Anyone who visited the United Auto Workers’ home page on the web on June 24 would’ve found this article posted in the top position, with its stunning headline: New UAW-environmental partnership showcases fuel-efficient vehicle technologies made in southeast Michigan.

Words like unique and unprecedented only begin to describe the partnership that is taking shape between the Ecology Center and the United Auto Workers. What should seem especially gratifying to organizers of the Green Machines Tour -- the Ecology Center Auto Project team of Charles Griffith, Jeff Gearhart, and Claudette Juska -- is reading about it all on the union’s web-site. You can read the story yourself at www.uaw.org but before you do I recommend turning to our report: ‘Green Machines Tour’ Comes Home.

It’s good for the environment and it’s good for the economy. Itwill reduce pollution and it will create jobs. If this idea can bring together groups that were historically at odds, maybe it can motivate the State of Michigan to do something about its policies on recycling (see The (Pathetic) State of Recycling in Michigan)

In perhaps the most comprehensive look ever at recycling activities in the state, the Michigan Recycling Measurement Project concluded from its 1999/2000 study that recycling benefits both the environment and the economy; that even though Michigan’s recycling rate is only 20%, there is still a $2 billion a year industry for processing alone, employing over 5,000 people; and for every job created in the processing of recyclables another job is created elsewhere.

If Governor Jennifer M. Granholm is going to achieve the goal of raising the state’s recycling rate to 40%, she should read our two other articles on recycling. Our lead article, Recycling & Beyond, takes a look at three thriving community not-for profit recycling programs: Eco-Cycle in Boulder, Colo., Eureka Recycling in Saint Paul, Minn., and the Arcata Community Recycling Center in Arcata, California.

While each organization has its own unique character and ways of operating, including some very innovative practices, a few common threads seem to run through their success stories: a commitment to the community and the betterment of the environment, strong outreach and education efforts, financial competence, and a desire for sustainability.

Of course, the governor doesn’t need to look out-of-state to find a recycling success story (see Model Program Puts Community Before Profit). Ann Arbor’s residential recycling rate of 53% is one of the top ten rates in the nation and it’s all due to the efforts of the dedicated folks at Recycle Ann Arbor (Recycle Ann Arbor is a subsidiary of the Ecology Center). The award-winning organization does it all: weekly curbside pickup service, the Drop-Off Station, the Re-Use Center, Environmental House, and the business-oriented Recycle Works. If it can be recycled or re-used, they pretty much got it covered.

Other highlights in this issue include a sunny exposé on another very successful EcoRide, the Ecology Center’s largest annual fundraiser, and a summer report on the activities of the unique collaboration between the Ecology Center and Ann Arbor Public Schools known as GO! Outdoors.

Make sure to mark your calendars now for Thursday, November 10, as the Ecology Center celebrates its 35th anniversary at Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater with a reception, music, and special guest Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

-- Ted Sylvester, Editor

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