One Person Can Make a Difference

My friend Kim Giles is moving away, and I will miss her. Even if you don't know her, you will miss her too, because she did so much for Montgomery Township. Kim Giles was on the Environmental Commission and she chaired their subcommittee, the Steering Committee for the Sustainable Montgomery Initiative. She was an incredibly devoted volunteer, keeping us all organized and on track and doing all sorts of work behind the scenes. She also hosted most of the meetings and provided lovely refreshments.

Here is a picture of Kim recycling in the town where she now lives.

Kim was especially inspired by the issue of recycling, which became a focus of a lot of the work of our subcommittee. We all had stories about businesses that didn't recycle, but it turns out that recycling is required for all businesses in New Jersey. In Somerset County some small businesses have been able to get permission to use the County's recycling pickup, but other businesses must arrange recycling with their private waste haulers. They are then required to report to Montgomery Township how many tons of materials they recycle each year. Hardly any businesses reported this information, and the municipal employee in charge was too busy to pursue the matter because that office was shortstaffed (to keep taxes down, Township employees who leave are not being replaced). Kim discovered that towns receive money (state funds distributed by the county), proportional to the tonnage that they report is annually recycled by businesses. This gave her a great incentive to investigate recycling at businesses and work out a procedure for the municipal Recycling Coordinator to get the tonnage reports from the haulers instead of the businesses, and report the results to Somerset County. The procedure that she started has made many thousands of dollars for Montgomery Township, and proved that becoming more sustainable doesn't have to cost money; it can make money!

Kim also organized the Steering Committee in various fun activities involving recycling: we visited the Somerset County Recycling facility; we arranged for mixed plastics recycling at the Public Works Facility on Harlingen Road for a few months; and we produced an exhibit on recycling that has been seen at the Mary Jacobs Library, the Montgomery Township Schools, and the Hillsborough Library. We also attended films on sustainability.

Kim worked with the High School Environmental Science classes and the teachers and administrators in their efforts to become more sustainable. She gave talks at the Otto Kaufmann Senior Center on various aspects of sustainability.

As our Steering Committee worked together, we shared our successes and failures, frustrations and motivations. We became friends, and when Kim announced that she and her husband were moving out of town to pursue new jobs, we all felt bereft. Kim, our loss is Connecticut's gain. We hope you will visit often and continue to inspire us with stories of your recycling exploits.