Ephrata Wal-Mart holding ecological event

EPHRATA — New signs outside Wal-Mart's Ephrata location declare "no Idling," asking drivers to shut off their engines while parked.

The signs are part of the Wal-Mart Corporation's plans to institute change across its stores, according to Ephrata Wal-Mart Personal Sustainability Project team leader Patty Ackley.

"Wal-Mart's in a mode right now where they're trying to make the world more sustainable," Ackley said. "At each store then, we're trying to come up with a community event so one person at a time, we can make some differences."

The Ephrata store, located at 1399 Southeast Boulevard, kicks off June 23 with such an event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., including information booths and guest speakers.

"Like recycling your plastic bags," Ackley said. "Those things take a thousand years to break down, so we have a way to recycle them. If they would just bring them in, we can sandwich-bale them and recycle them."

The store has had the technology to do so before now, Ackley said, but it was not pushed very strongly.

The store also offers drop-off points for used motor oil, ink cartridges, household batteries, eyeglasses and cell phones.

"Those are things where we're going to try to get people to start using us as a way and means to recycle," Ackley said. "So people are aware we can do that for them, instead of sticking your batteries in the garbage can and send them out to the dump, we have a recycle company who comes in once a month and picks up all our hazardous waste, so why not utilize that and get everybody in on it?"

The cell phones go to New Hope Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Ackley said.

Information booths include organic foods and clothing items, health and fitness, quitting smoking, compact fluorescent bulbs and Ackley plans for a booth using information from the Grant County Public Utilities District indicating how many dollars can be saved in Grant County using these efforts to be sustainable.

Ackley believes the efforts began when one of Wal-Mart's chief executive officer's wives watched the Al Gore documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

"It made such an impression on her, she turned around and got him to meet with one of our CEOs, and that's all it took," she said.

The store is also building new environmentally-friendly trucks for its fleet, she added.

Because of the size of the corporation, Wal-Mart is hoping other companies will feel pressured to follow its lead.

"Even like the toys we buy, the packaging is so huge, they've now gotten them to size it down to actually fit the item," Ackley said. "The thousands of dollars in trees we're saving is unbelievable. They're hoping by doing that, other companies will step in and start doing the same thing."

Each store associate is also coming up with their own personal goal, such as picking up litter each day or losing weight. The store tracks each individual's goals, monitored by the central office, and plans to follow up with them, Ackley said.

Ackley has no idea how many people to expect from the surrounding area community.

"I hope we're just overwhelmed," she said.