Green Living Fair Host to Ample Recycling, Educational Opportunities

By: Amy Alderman | 03/12/2012

Organizers of Saturday's Green Living Fair in Libertyville are hoping the event's plethora of recycling opportunities will attract people who want to learn more about sustainable living.

"People save certain things until they know there's an opportunity (to recycle them)," said Cathy O'Brien, the fair's chairperson. "I think that will draw people in to see the educational things. I think that people are looking not only to educate themselves, but also their families."

Abt electronics will be at the Libertyville Civic Center to take in electronics and packing Styrofoam, said the fair's chairperson, Cathy O'Brien. Visitors will also be able to recycle tennis shoes, corks, plastic bags, crayons and tape dispensers, she said.

Organizers are also collecting used pots for the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and bicycles donations for the Chicago-based non-profit Working Bikes, which provides bikes to charities in Chicago and to the Gulf Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Angola, Cuba, Guatemala, and Peru.

The fair will showcase 38 tables on living green and all but one booth will be solely educational, O'Brien said. Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit fair trade retailer, will be the only booth where products will be sold, she said.

"It's not a trade show… It's all educational," O'Brien said.

A children's section features opportunities for young gardeners to try their hands at repotting seedlings. They'll also be able to build things out of recycled items.

Adults will have dozens of opportunities to learn more about sustainable living from gardening, composting to bee keeping, O'Brien said, noting bees will not be brought to the fair.

As the event has grown over the years, the fair, hosted by the Lake County Green Congregations Green Team, transplanted from hosting events at one of the group's eight churches each year to the Libertyville Civic Center, 135 West Church Street, last year. This year's fair is free and runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

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