Going Green Our Village government has been involved in the “Green” movement long before it became popular to do so. We were one of the first communities in Northeast Dade County to begin a curbside residential recycling program which began back in 1989. This program has been expanded to include commercial buildings, condos and apartment buildings, and schools such as Doctors Charter School. We also provide curb side recycling to our neighbors in Biscayne Park through a contract arrangement. Our program removes hundreds of tons of recyclable materials annually out of the waste stream. This recyclable material which consists of glass, plastic, newspaper, aluminum, and steel cans is taken to Waste Services of Florida INC ( WSI ) who have contracts to process and reuse the material at facilities such as Estrotegic for glass products, ALCOA for aluminum, several mills domestically and some imported to China for newspaper, and KW Plastic for plastic material. In addition to the curbside recycling program the Village has always purchased the most cost efficient energy saving air conditioning systems for our various Village Buildings. Most recently we replaced the air conditioning system in the south half of our community center with a much more energy efficient system that will pay us back in energy saving costs within the next several years. As more and more “Green Products” become available we adapt our Village purchasing policies to take advantage of the most cost effective products. The list below reflects some of the other measures the Village has taken towards “Going Green”; • We now run biodiesel in all of our diesel powered trucks and equipment • We have instituted a no idle policy for our non Police vehicle fleet • Most of our hand towels and toilet paper is made from recycled material • A turn out the lights policy has been adopted for all Village offices • Our maintenance employees that use lawn chemicals have received training on the proper application of these pesticides • We have an office paper recycling program in our Village buildings • Whenever possible we purchase “Green” chemicals for janitorial applications • We are exploring the LEED certification program for our new Public Works Motor Pool building that is in the design phase • Whenever possible light bulbs in our buildings are changed to Compact Florescent Lights • All of our small batteries at Public Works are recycled • When our truck fleet is washed the dirty water is contained and collected and properly disposed of to prevent it from entering the aquifer. • Our used motor oil is properly collected, stored, and recycled • Our parts washer solvent is now filtered and reused instead of purchasing new solvent. • Our Police Department recycles all of their spent shell casings used for target practice and purchases reloads instead of new ammunition for training purposes. • Most of our landscaped medians have been converted to well water to save on drinking water. • Any new drainage system that we install has a baffle system that collects the large particles of debris to prevent them from entering Biscayne Bay • During Hurricane clean up all of the tree limbs that we collect after the storm are mulched for reuse instead of disposing them in a land fill • We are look for Stimulus package monies to pay for Solar Panels for our Motor Pool building and the energy retro fitting of our Municipal buildings. As you can see we have a lot of environmentally friendly programs in place and are always looking for additional ways to help our environment while operating within our given budget parameters.