Earth Day on Walnut

Pulp, April 22, 2004

With the Bush administration spending much of the last year apparently trying to get the country to look like Isengard in Lord of the Rings -- easing environmental safeguards and public participation requirements to promote logging in national forests and oil and gas drilling on pristine public lands, loosening restrictions on the release of inadequately treated sewage into waterways, rejecting tough new mercury standards in favor of a plan that would allow nearly seven times as much mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants, creating an unstoppable army of orcs...

Well, maybe that's going too far. At any rate, for all these degradations of our air and water, it's good to celebrate the day that commemorates why there are environmental laws for the Bush administration to roll back in the first place.

Thirty-five years ago, when the state of the environment was a non-issue in U.S. politics, Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson had an idea for an event to propel environmental issues into the political mainstream. By that time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and "teach-ins" had spread to colleges all over the country. Nelson decided to try the same tactic to protest what he perceived to be happening to the environment. In September 1969, he called for a nationwide teach-in for the spring of the following year, and on April 22, 1970 the first "Earth Day" was held.

It was an instant success almost from the moment of Nelson first announced it. More than 20 million people participated at thousands of locations across the country. Later that year, the Environmental Protection Agency was established, the Clean Air Act was signed into law and the President's Council on Environmental Quality was established to oversee implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires an analysis of the environmental impacts of federal actions. In the next three years, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act were passed. These landmark environmental statutes were signed into law by President Richard Nixon, helping to make him one of this country's greatest environmental presidents.

Nelson wrote later, "Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself."

Thirty-four years later, communities are still organizing events on a grass-roots level, but the idea of Earth Day is not nearly as radical as it once was; even commercial districts are sponsoring events. In Pittsburgh this Saturday, the Shadyside Chamber of Commerce is holding its second annual Earth Day on Walnut.

"We're hoping to raise awareness about environmental issues affecting the community on a local level, like recycling and litter," says Andrea London, who owns a photography studio in Shadyside and is a co-chair of the Chamber of Commerce committee that is organizing Earth Day on Walnut. "And hopefully we can raise the consciousness of other vendors and make visitors aware of what we're doing in terms of the environment."

Last year on Earth Day, the committee unveiled a partnership with the National Soft Drink Association to begin a pilot program of placing "big bottle" receptacles for recycling bottles and cans near trashcans around the neighborhood. London says that over the past year they have collected one ton of recyclable material. The Shadyside big bottle program was done in conjunction with a six-month pilot program sponsored by the Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC), through which the big bottles were placed at large venues like Kennywood and the Pittsburgh Zoo and bright billboards were placed around the city, advertising recycling with somewhat cryptic slogans like "Cans to Pans."

This Saturday's Earth Day on Walnut events start at seven a.m., with an all-volunteer cleanup of the neighborhood. At 11:30, Agents of Change Recycling will be available to collect recyclable items that the city doesn't take, including cardboard, mixed paper, newspaper and telephone books and used printer cartridges. There will also be cell-phone recycling to benefit the Women's Center and Shelter of Pittsburgh.

"Last year people were literally bringing trunks full of old magazines and bags and bags of junk mail," says London.

In the afternoon, Jane Nugent, host of a gardening call-in show on WPTT 1360, will be broadcasting her show live from Walnut Street. From noon to three p.m., there will be an art show by Salvage Artists Linking Venues and Opportunities (SALVO). SALVO, whose gallery and performance space is located at Construction Junction in Point Breeze, creates unique pieces of art out of recycled building materials. SALVO will also be helping people make their own lawn ornaments for free out of recycled building materials donated by Construction Junction.

Proceeds from the sale of SALVO's art will benefit the PRC. Founded in 1939, PRC is the oldest citizen action environmental organization in the state. One of PRC's most famous contributions to environmental awareness in the state is the litterbug icon and the "Don't be a litterbug" slogan, which the group created in 1952.

"We work mainly on waste reduction, recycling and anti-litter programs," says Dave Mazza, PRC's regional director. The group was consulted to develop a recycling program for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and sponsors an annual household hazardous waste collection program. Last year's collection was the first countywide collection of hazardous household waste in 25 years.

"Last year on one day at Heinz Field we collected 180,000 pounds of hazardous materials. Mainly paints, solvents, automobile fluids, cleaners, pesticides. One guy even brought in a little bottle of cyanide," says Mazza.

The PRC is involved in four Earth Day events in the area. Besides Earth Day on Walnut, the group is co-sponsoring events at the Pittsburgh Zoo, a cleanup of Negley Run Boulevard in East Liberty and an Earth Day event in Westmoreland County at St. Vincent's College.

Earth Day on Walnut organizers are aware that some people do their best environmental activism perched on a bar stool, so they're capping the day's agenda with a Happy Earth Happy Hour from four to seven p.m. A portion of the proceeds from participating bars and restaurants -- they'll have the Earth Day on Walnut logo in their windows -- will benefit the PRC as well.

Organizers hope that this event in Shadyside will show how a commercial area can demonstrate an environmental conscience. "We're about more than people coming to shop at the Gap," says London. "We're a group of people and merchants who really care about the environment."