Montclair’s designation by the U.S. EPA as a Climate Showcase Community has initiated a town-wide campaign aimed at helping residents, businesses, institutions, and the municipal offices to save money by saving energy in our homes, offices, stores, schools, houses of worship, and on the road. The campaign is called “It’s In Our Power”.

One successful example is that our federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant was put to good use as leverage to gain additional funding from the Board of Public Utilities’ (BPU) “Direct Install” Program. We were able to complete a $150,000 energy upgrade for five municipal buildings; 60% of the cost ($90,000) was covered by the BPU, and our 40% portion ($60,000) was paid using our EECBG funds.

On Saturday, September 24, Montclair's office of Environmental Affairs organized a paper shredding recycling event, as part of our “It's In Our Power” climate campaign, linked arm-in-arm with an international climate event called “Moving Planet” (www.350.org).

The climate/recycling connection was highlighted in our Montclair Times’ Planet Montclair column that week, in which we noted, “...recycling not only saves money, it saves energy. Products manufactured from recycled materials require much less energy to make than products made from virgin materials. Wasted energy is responsible for emitting unnecessary greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change.”

The event was an overwhelming success. Over two hundred cars drove in, lined up, and dropped off more than 12,000 lbs. (over 6 tons) of recyclable paper, avoiding the tipping fees from disposal at the Essex Incinerator, and capturing the recyclable material for sale. We provided Montclair taxpayers with a joyously-welcomed service while saving them some money. We also handed out pledge flyers from the “It's In Our Power” campaign to every car!

Scores of people told me how much “lighter” they felt after cleaning out all their boxes of personal documents, and many of them said how great it was to reclaim an entire room; surely this is the cheapest addition to a home any resident could obtain!

And the money-savings are real: Montclair's Mixed Paper recyclables are a valuable commodity, earning us around $100 per ton. But when thrown out as garbage, paper costs us over $80 per ton to get hauled to the Essex Incinerator. That means we’re actually burning our own money!

Plus, everyone who joined the movement to save money and energy by recycling more, who moved their stored documents out of their homes and got moving down to the “Montclair Shred-Fest!” was not alone in taking action on this “Moving Planet” day.

We thought you might want to take 2 minutes to watch a short video of some of the actions that took place around the world simultaneously with our local recycling effort. To view these wonderful images, go to: www.350.org/moving-together.