Welcome to Altona Community Action Network’s new column - AltonaCAN! ACAN is a small group of concerned citizens who reach out to the community to educate and inspire environmentally sustainable practices.  What has that looked like? We have hosted annual Earth Day events on various themes and partnered with town council to bring year-round composting to Altona. It has meant coordinating the community garden and supporting Boomerang Bags Altona to reduce our reliance on single-use plastic bags. We have a newly formed Tree Team that hopes to have some more t rees in the ground around Altona this fall. We were also gearing up to lead some waste reduction efforts at this year’s Sunflower Festival, but sadly that will have to wait for next year. What started as a fireside chat between two friends 5 years ago, has grown to a team of 9 members: Gavin Faurschou, Joanne Wiebe, Marilyn Houser Hamm, Joel Martin, Jack Heppner, Jonah Langelotz, Amy Pankewich, Kelly Skelton and Connie Heppner Muell

ACAN - Altona Community Action Network - Connie H. Mueller   Plastic shopping bags - so convenient, so cheap, so lightweight...and so insidious. In less than a century we’ve gone from happily living without these items to depending on them. 160,000 bags are produced every second worldwide. It’s a number that’s hard to grasp.  Altona/Municipality of Rhineland Landfill Site. Clearing landfill fencing of bags costs taxpayers thousands each year. How many of these bags came from your household? What’s also hard to grasp, or grab rather, is one’s own reusable bags on the way out the door. Local grocery store clerks report less than a quarter of their customers bringing their own bags. Here’s what I often hear with regard to plastic bags: I reuse my plastic bags. Reusing bags doesn’t actually reduce how many bags are produced and released into the world.  I use plastic shopping bags as garbage can liners. Great! How many garbage bags do you need per week? Take only that many from