called sustainable princeton and she has really created this little hands right along there and it's been going for a ride seven years and i have to tell you there's just so much for us to learn and  thousand and nine after there were two community meetings of about one hundred people each believe it or not deciding what do we think sustainability is a town and what kind of areas would we like to address within recycling everything everything was in that report and when i was hired in two thousand and nine i was handed that report and said ok good luck oh yes so here we are in polo right now so they were so at that point we were  two part time staff members actually a part time staff member and in turn and now we are two full time staff members with a budget of about one hundred sixty five thousand dollars so we're a growing nonprofit and we've we've done a lot in those years with a lot of help from volunteers it's amazing when you find volunteers who are interested in your cause i have come on so strongly and are wonderful on i have one who keeps after me because i know well it's also a wonderful because both men and women can get totally involved and it takes a certain amount of strength and knowledge and people i mean i must admit i spend a great  u time with the my newspaper and articles about recycling and what we can do to make our community more sustainable because we really are a mess yeah well as a as a as a world i think we need to  bottle to you with regard to energy water all the usage that the transportation then we drink sales right then we drink it rebuy it and then we drink it throw it away and then then a truck comes and takes it it goes to a recycling facility so that one single use bottle takes up so much energy and money stick out there and so there are certain things i talk about that believe it or not my new thing is where fuse think there's there is a movement out there to really yes create change in that direction but it is about habits clearly right and i do wonder when i see people at the supermarket buying these huge cases of think what in the world is going to happen to all those bottles i know and they're all single bottles i mean if there's going to be a storm we can get a giant pile that wherever it is but my own mug because i like drinking out of my own mug and i have a lot of meetings there and realized recently that every time i bought a coffee i thought well they're coffee so inexpensive they give me a half price cup of coffee if i bring i must admit if ever i am buying coffee i ask to go so that i can take it and use it at home get a lot of people do that and it and it's just fine but there we're working on a zero waste what to do when you're holding an event ok and you want to try to make it zero waste and then one of the things is when you're working on a contract with whoever is coming in to be to help  you that you actually identify in that contract the things that you don't want them to bring or to use and so there's an education of this wonderful you know they're out there educating as you go and we've been doing zero waste events at the library now for two and a half years and we've worked with a lot we only use local caterers but the local caterers now know what it means to be zero waste and for instance jessica during that small world coffee put all these beautiful parfaits for us in yogurt parfaits in glass it was gorgeous it was a lovely way to to eat and it was such a treat it took a little more time for her but in the end it was it was a real you know it was a real plus because there was an education going then it is a tax should add that the municipality is engaging in zero waste events and so we're learning what you know instead of a paper claw plastic claws of idea is we have a dishwasher for an event but use real silverware because those plastic utensils even if they're compostable they don't come post in less you're in an industrial facility and we don't have an industrial the care and talk about it and say oh you mustn't do that it's wonderful yeah it's really wonderful yeah well i'm mostly who are we think here but then also we're thinking of the world and how tragic so that is mars letting people know how they can better take care of their environment yeah the great example of that is obviously everybody's always interested in recycling and rist the recycling industry is pretty complicated and it's based on the market and so if there's a market for cardboard then maybe six dollars a ton then we can recycle cardboard plastics maybe is different maybe it goes up and down with the market and so once we pick up the recycling the town or the hall or and it goes to a facility gets separated out and goes to the different areas that potentially are going to be able to recycle those items there are still a lot of items left in this one so there's a lot of items that are sitting in a warehouse and then the other is if these different items let's say plastic water bottles and there's not a market here they're put in big cargo ships and sent to china or someplace else to be recycled while china and some of those zero places are saying no more stuff so they're calling it the green wall and they're putting up a green wall they don't want any more of those items so let's hire interesting yeah i've kind of come to the decision after working here for six years that i think we have to focus on reduction and make a choice not not not to buy the things that are so easily thrown away or even what we think might be recycled  buy things they say that this is been recycled so we're working on a recycle pressure because you're not the only one to ask that question you can believe it we get that question a lot and i don't play it i understand that too so we have  it's it's it's a it's a real it's called recycling recycle pressure but we're looking at composting we're looking at recycling we're looking at what goes in the trash and it's an eight to z list and i agree that lots of time working on it our recycling corner here in town and two outs one of our board members and an outside funder who have been really working through how do we present this information in a way that makes super easy for th for people to understand what goes where and i'll tell you it's not easy some items may be taken out all use the example of medical waste yes ok so some people need to use syringes or need they're a diabetic for instance so you can go back and go into the trash but we ask that you put it in a plastic bottle your wrath and tape and you do a lot of different things to it so that it doesn't any of the haulers the individuals who are long rocks the hospital also takes them back so you could also do that and so there is one kind of example now another example would be if you've got a lot of  vegetable i knew you were good you're a vegetarian right that waste can go in the curbside organics program and that is the program that was started by our recycling court nater about in our brochure it says here's the green bin here's what goes in it here's what doesn't go in it so pizza boxes can go in mom's can go in all sorts of vegetables and and waste weeds can go in but you can't put recycling items in there right you can't put anything that's not alive had been alive at one point so so we have the recycling we have the compost bin we have a new program called the a b c s program ask first  bring your own and collect and we've collate you've seen those white bins around town the kind of like a box yes green symbol yes here so you take your plastic bag single use plastic bags in plastic film bring them to those boxes they get collected by mccaffrey's sent to trucks lumber they're turned into decking and we actually because we we gave them so many plastic bags the first six months of the program we have been awarded a little bench made out of the plastic bags that will be at the pool this summer wonderful so princeton in the first six months that program diverted seven tons of plastic from  the landfill she i think this is a very interesting in and the more people know this the better because frankly it's it's important if you know really important and i think princeton cares a lot and i think that we need to find ways to make it easier to do some of these ideas too and that's what the recycle brochure is about it gives shows the options gives you a sense of where you might take different things and you know hopefully gives people direction that they need and it will be bailed out to all homes hopefully in the next couple months and hopefully people will put it on their refrigerator right in their drawer near the phone right saw as i met you do i was down in texas and there was a whole foods store and they divided so clearly and told you how many tons of plastic and had been saved and not put in way and fill and it was it was so clear you knew exactly they had three sections and you did that as well and you put all of your water a mineral water all of your plastic in one and you did you another i mean it was yeah it's and i think that's the key as to make it as simple as possible employer a busy busy right now and you might want to fly through and put something in here but if if you see the pictures yes what's to go in there it'll stop you for a minute and i think it's just about being more mindful about where these items know and knowing that when you're good to have supermarket or to a market that you can take it with you you can take and then recycle it i mean sometimes you you know what and we're not we never kind of go like you're took the wrong thing ever that's not the approach we take and we live we never will but we're more about engaging the community in a discussion to figure out how as a community yes we can really address issues that are going to shape the next you know ten years twenty years in our union and and eventually the world you know please please but you know i think also so much of it is educational and you should err children being careful yeah as well as you did i loved your story about your sister for they present gave you napkins did and this meant that you that going to have people napkins to throw all over the place and there was such a great idea and you can just pass that along and the more we can do things a better or the better i think mean it's  choices at home yes to that haven't in yasin so when my sister gave me those three it's amazing you remember that story forty napkins on my fortieth birthday and she made beautiful cloth napkins i still have a couple i'm no longer forty or fifty and but i still have a couple left and my kids used to say mom mom don't bring that bag with you to the store i'll get we'll get our own bags now they say mom where'd wear the badge you don't have a back with you so they are you know six years of the work i've been doing and six years older i just think this next population is much more aware of the kinds of things we should be doing to help the environment still is more there's more talk that we can yes here is i mean we all have meals and you know when you get them all together and what we're doing with afterwards and before and who as you say have a bag you're all comes in the kitchen with a bag in a bag and then can be reciting that's right and compost after dinner combos dog food and all those simple things that actually become a habit now you don't think about it you know it's true but it's not just although i believe strongly in individual change it really does need legislation as well or help of course help or you know kind of political will to encourage this and i think our council has adopted the idea of a climate climate action plan  broad plan to look at goals regarding energy and waste at least they want to look into whether or not our community should be doing that and more specifically maybe actually have some goals that we'd be reaching towards around that idea and i think that would be helpful as a community then we would i would think of the united way for mom or we would actually say visibly see the difference then biking you know recycling composting all those things were for having a market and we are moving along and for sure so i'm thrilled and i think it speaks very well for our town and the more we can promote community and as we do this from program called connect putting is all together so that we better understand what can happen right and we're right because if we know we're bound to be foolish right and i think sustainability have always loved working in this field because it's a bridge it doesn't matter what political persuasion you are it doesn't matter at about ethnicity anything like that because  the office of sustainability at the university and we work closely with the municipal staff and we have a number of businessmen on our board and women on our board and so i think  really how best we can represent the community and on our board of elsewhere is such a wise thing to do and they're scattered all around to isn't jim is just one neighborhood although it is certain point it's very nice to know that each neighborhood thing and well i can't thank you enough well thank you wonderful you so much diane and has been our guest and she's just really been wonderful about smartening is up about sustainability and all the ways that we can and i look forward to seeing you next