Tag: compost

A Man Wears His Trash

Avoid plastic, fill your glass or metal bottles with water or other liquid
Avoid plastic, fill your glass or metal bottles with water or other liquid.
Bring you own bag
Bring you own bag

Enjoy this video, as an individual makes a statement on our consumerism. Each American(USA) consumes 4 1/2 pounds of trash a day.  As I shop at grocery stores and Menards, I am overwhelmed by the amount of packaging and waste that goes into our purchases.

What can you do to reduce that 4 1/2 pounds a day?   I have just returned from a bus zero waste food coop shopping trip, filling my own bottles, and using only packaging that can be composted(paper not plastic).  I work everyday to be a climatarian. You don’t need to be as extreme as I am, just become aware! How can we consume less?

Use reusable cotton sacks or paper bags
Use reusable cotton sacks or paper bags
Please recycle plastic bags at grocery stores!
Please recycle plastic bags at grocery stores!

 

Backyard Compost Collection
Backyard Compost Collection

 

Minneapolis Goes for Organics!

What is organics? Organics recycling includes collecting fruits, vegetables, bones,

Food Scraps Turned Into Compost
Food Scraps Turned Into Compost

meat, breads, eggshells, non-recyclable and food-soiled paper, and more for composting. The new organics recycling program is an easy way for residents to reduce waste.  The trucks haul this waste to the compost site where it is turned and heated and it turns into valuable compost to be used for gardening.

Please come to the event below to learn about Minneapolis’s new program and how to participate in this great program!

The Tangletown and Lynnhurst Neighborhood Associations are co-hosting a celebration of Minneapolis’ new organics recycling program on Saturday March 19th from 10am-1pm at the Lynnhurst Community Center (1345 W Minnehaha Parkway). Enjoy free pizza, games, children’s activities, and demonstrations. Stop by briefly or stay to catch a workshop at 10:30am or 11:45am.

Get your questions answered, sign up to be a volunteer Compost Captain, and enter to win a door prize. The first 200 attendees can also pick up free compostable bags. More info (and RSVP) at https://www.facebook.com/events/550666345107610/ Hope to see you there!

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/solid-waste/organics/index.htm

http://www.ehow.com/facts_4926119_what-compost-used.html

Ready for City Composting?

Backyard Compost Collection
Backyard Compost Collection  This is now frozen and covered by snow.

http://www.startribune.com/four-things-to-know-before-you-get-your-new-minneapolis-organics-bin/366901451/

Food waste composes about 30% of our landfill waste. If left to rot in landfills it can create green house gases, and if it is burned, it pollutes the air. We can change food waste into a new healthy material for our gardens and plants. The end result of food waste is compost. No fertilizer or chemicals needed with compost!
I am thrilled my city, Minneapolis, is beginning to collect food waste for composting. You need to sign up for a cart by February 1, 2016.
Below is a great video about commercial composting:

What do you use to collect food waste?
What do you use to collect food waste?

If you have participated in commercial composting in your city, give us some tips to help us learn about it.

Resolutions to help You and our Planet to Better Health

“If everyone does a little bit, it adds up to a whole lot!” health4earth

What can you do?
What can you do?

We all need to take some personal responsibility to make ourselves and our planet healthier. Below are some of the things I work for everyday, and I hope you will add a few of them to your 2016 agenda. Please respond with your clean climate ideas.

My series #31daysoflesswaste continues:

1. Buy less stuff, reuse, reuse and reuse the things you have.

2. Stop idling your car, bundle your car trips together to drive less, and carpool more!  Or take the bus!

3. How can I use less electricity?

4. How can I prepare for drought and inundation? Save water run-off by planning and building a rain garden with native plants. http://bluethumb.org/raingardens/

5. Compost food scraps and strive to be a Climatarian. https://health4earth.com/2015/12/28/climatarian-a-new-resolution/

6. Recycle and donate your unwanted stuff “More and more people understand that there is no “away” in the finite system that is planet Earth and that we can’t keep using our precious air, water and land to dump the stuff we no longer want. If something can’t be reused, repaired, refurbished or otherwise repurposed, the next best thing is to recycle it.” David Suzuki  www.earth911.com or donate to your local donation non-profit

7. How can I reduce single-use consumption of plastic bottles/containers, and reduce my consumption of plastic bags?

What do you do for our planet and yourself to be healthier?

Happy 2016!

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Climatarian, A New Resolution!

Lentil Stew for Meatless Monday
Lentil Stew for Meatless Monday (lentils from Montana, carrots and onions grown in Minnesota)

My series on reducing waste continues, #31daysoflesswaste

What is a Climatarian?

A Climatarian diet involves choosing what you eat based on the carbon footprint of the food, and using your power as a consumer to drive down the production of beef and lamb which have the biggest impact on our climate.  A climatarian is about eating local food to reduce transportation and reducing food waste.

Climatarian defined in NYT’s top food words 2015: http://nyti.ms/1SZ0jFc see http://bit.ly/goclimatarian for more info

What on Earth is a climatarian?

http://www.climates.network/climatarian

https://health4earth.com/meatless-mondays/

My easy suggestions to become a Climatarian

  • Celebrate Meatless Monday, and a few other days also
  • Shop food co-ops and eat locally grown foods.  Even in December I can find foods  grown in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
  • Walk or take the bus shopping, and grow and preserve your own food
  • Eliminate beef and reduce cheese consumption
  • Compost all food waste

 

Zero Waste, Is it Possible?

Bulk purchasing exactly the amount needed for zerowaste
Bulk purchasing exactly the amount needed for zero waste

I have just spent the morning in a seminar learning about the new organic compost program in Minneapolis. With an obsession for reducing trash I work on this daily, but just can’t see how to get to zero waste. We purchase in bulk using compostable paper bags, and refill every bottle with items that are available.
One woman, Bea Johnson, has been able to accomplish zero waste. What is the most amazing of all, she and her husband have two sons!

Here are Bea Johnson’s 10 easy steps to zero waste living:

Some co-ops have fabulous selections of soaps and lotions for bottle refills.
Some co-ops have fabulous selections of soaps and lotions for bottle refills.

Refuse

  1. Fight junk mail. It’s not just a waste of resources, but also of time. Register to receive less at org,optoutprescreen.org and catalogchoice.org.
  2. Turn down freebies from conferences, fairs and parties. Every time you take one, you create a demand to make more. Do you really need another “free” pen?

Reduce

  1. Declutter your home, and donate to your local thrift shop. You’ll lighten your load and make precious resources available to those looking to buy secondhand.
  2. Reduce your shopping trips and keep a shopping list. The less you bring home, the less waste you’ll have to deal with.

Reuse

  1. Swap disposables for reusables (start using handkerchiefs, refillable bottles, shopping totes, cloth napkins, rags, etc.). You might find that you don’t miss your paper towels, but rather enjoy the savings
  2. Avoid grocery shopping waste: Bring reusable totes, cloth bags (for bulk aisles), and jars (for wet items like cheese and deli foods) to the store and farmers market.

Recycle

  1. Know your city’s recycling policies and locations—but think of recycling as a last resort. Have you refused, reduced or reused first? Question the need and life-cycle of your purchases. Shopping is voting.
  2. Buy primarily in bulk or secondhand, but if you must buy new, choose glass, metal or cardboard.Avoid plastic: Much of it gets shipped across the world for recycling and often ends up in the landfill (or worse yet, the ocean).

Rot

  1. Find a compost system that works for your home and get to know what it will digest (dryer lint, hair, and nails are all compostable).
  • Turn your home kitchen trash can into one large compost receptacle. The bigger the compost receptacle, the more likely you’ll be to use it freely.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/03/10/bea-johnsoon-zero-waste-guru/

What do you do to reduce your waste?

Business Recycling Grants Available

Duluth, MN, Business Recycling
Duluth, MN, Business Recycling

 

Hennepin County Grants,

Deadline June 15, and October 15
Apply Now!
A newly elected Minneapolis City Council is finally committed to enforcing city recycling rules. On Earth Day, April 2015, Minneapolis restaurants will be required to use recyclable/compostable take-out containers, and offer on site recycling.

Hennepin County has grants to help businesses with these changes:

Apply for these grants, or call about questions:
http://www.hennepin.us/businessrecycling
or call 612 543 1316, for composting call 612 348 5893

 

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/260496151.html  To-go has to go!

http://www.startribune.com/local/260862031.html  Recycling bins head to work

Business Recycling in Little Rock, AK
Business Recycling in Little Rock, AK