Alice Ferguson Foundation

Trash Free Resource Library

This library will be updated periodically with new information we find that can help our community reduce waste from entering our beautiful Potomac River Watershed.

Recycling Programs

Recycling programs are different depending on where you live. Check out these links to research and learn how to recycle properly in your community. 

• Prince George’s County, Maryland
• Charles County, Maryland
• Calvert County, Maryland
• Montgomery County, Maryland
• Baltimore County, Maryland
• Washington, DC
• Fairfax County, Virginia
• City of Alexandria, Virginia
• Arlington County, Virginia
• Prince William County, Virginia

Activities

• • Can you take on these fun Trash Challenges? Play Earth bingo with us and Accokeek Foundation
    • Alice Ferguson Foundation Bingo Card Image | PDF
    • Accokeek Foundation Bingo Card Image | PDF
    • For completing the Bingo Challenge’s here is our Earth Hero Badge.
  • Click for more family and kid-friendly activities here.
  • Join a cleanup in your neighborhood, city or park.
  • Turn Milk into Plastic – Video
  • Watch our Talkin’ Trash Webinar
  • DIY out of something you would throw away
    • Check out Pinterest for YouTube or some really good ideas
    • DIY Face Mask – No-sew out of old t-shirts!
    • 15 Best Ideas To Reuse Old Bed-sheets, Curtains & Towels
      • Fun fact – Sam from Alice Ferguson Foundation made curtains out of old bedsheets!
  • Make your own Compost Bin
  • Create an at Home Hazardous Waste Bins
    • Batteries, Chemicals, Light Bulbs, Electronics (wires, phones, computers)
      • All of these items should be taken to a facility that can depose of them properly. They should not be thrown into your at-home trash bins. By creating these bins you are collecting these items to be taken to a proper facility when you are able. 

Resources:

• So what’s the difference? Learn about the different types of Plastics
  • Encounter Edu – Seven Different Types of Plastic
• Bioplastics
  • National Geographic – What you need to know about plant-based plastics
  • National Geographic – Biodegradable shopping bags buried for three years still work
    • Impacts of Discarded Plastic Bags on Marine Assemblages and Ecosystem Functioning

• Microplastics
  • STOP(motion) Microplastics
  • NOAA – What are microplastics?
  • Washington Post – You’re literally eating microplastics. How you can cut down exposure to them.

• Reduce Paper Waste
  • Research bidets
  • Try audio or electronic books
  • Check out Rocketbook

• Reduce Food Waste
  • EPA – Reducing food waste at home
  • NPR – 5 Ways to reduce food waste

• Product Stewardship Institute – Plastic Reduction tools for Businesses and Communities

Documentary Suggestions:

• The Plastic Problem  
• Plastic Wars 
• Mission Blue
• Environmental Film Festival
• No More Plastic: In Search of a Sustainable Future – Part 1: Clearing Plastic from the Ocean 
• No More Plastic: In Search of a Sustainable Future – Part 2: Frontlines of Global Business
• The Story of Plastic

Decomposition Rates:

• Decomposition Rates and other fun activities from our partners at NOAA Marine Debris Program

Reading Suggestions:

• Unstoppable by Bill Nye
• The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
• How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson
• Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
• Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
• One Plastic Bag: Isatou Ceesay and the Recycling Women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul
• The Nature Principle by Richard Louv
• The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony