September 10, 2009
· Filed under Colorado, Green Citizen, Recycling, Steps You Can Take
I love the Aveda school in Denver on the 16th St Mall. It is a great place to get a haircut or other salon or spa treatment for a greatly reduced price – and now it is a great place to drop off the pesky plastic bottle caps that most recycling programs won’t accept. More details are below:
Aveda found that a majority of plastic bottle caps do not get recycled today. Often these caps end up as litter or trash, ending up in landfills and beaches or migrating into our rivers and oceans. Birds and other marine creatures mistake them for food with tragic results. The magnitude of this pollution problem is devastating to our oceans and wildlife. You can be part of the solution by joining Recycle Caps with Aveda.
Aveda is announcing a new recycling initiative that helps extend the current boundaries of recycling and elicit participation from all corners of our community. With the help of our network of salons and stores, in partnership with community schools, we are building a new recycling program for plastic bottle caps in which caps are collected at stores and schools and then sent by Aveda to our recycler where the material is recycled into new caps and containers. Aveda has been able to work closely with our suppliers to develop ways to make new caps and containers from the recycled caps. We hope to ship new products using this reworked, environmentally-friendly material later this year.
What type of caps do we collect? The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter. Excluded from collection are pharmaceutical lids and non rigid lids such as yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), and screw on lids that are not rigid. If you can bend or break the lid with your bare hands, then it does not meet the rigid plastic definition. Please do not include any metal lids or plastic pumps or sprayers. Unfortunately, too much of the wrong types of materials can contaminate the recycling process. We appreciate your efforts in keeping it clean!
Bring your plastic caps into an Aveda Store and feel great knowing that they will be repurposed into new Aveda packaging and kept from entering our waterways and harming wildlife.
July 14, 2009
· Filed under Food, Frugal Tip · Tagged garden, recipe, zucchini
Colorado has had a more rainy and overcast summer so far than what we have become accustomed to over the past few years. Because of this most of the plants in the garden outside my window are just now starting to produce tasty vegetables. I expect that I should have to wait for the zucchini and then I will be overwhelmed with them. This year instead I’m going find a way to enjoy my zucchini plants now, before they produce squash, while simultaneously reducing their yield: eat the squash blossoms!
Not only are you reducing the amount of zucchini you will need to foist off on your neighbors, but you are getting a delicacy that you would pay big bucks for at a restaurant or even your local farmers’ market. Here is a recipe for their most common method of preparation: fried squash blossoms. Bon appetit!
July 13, 2009
· Filed under Neat Link · Tagged Girl Scouts, Recycling
Here is a story of a Girl Scout who organized and ran a year-long recycling project at her high school. In the fall, after she graduates, the Board of Health will be donating permanent bins for the school to use as they continue the bottle and can recycling project that DuComb started.
Like this project, it is another example of Girl Scouts doing a service project where the benefits to the environment will outlast her membership in the community.
July 10, 2009
· Filed under Frugal Tip, Happy Hour Tip · Tagged blueberries, fruit, garden, liquor
This time of year gardeners may be overwhelmed with the fruits of their labor. Ever since I read that it was possible to grow blueberries in Colorado, I’ve had fruit plants on my mind too.
Normally when the garden yields too many fruits, I think of making jam or pies with the berries. I might just plan to freeze the remainder whole – saving them for the winter, when prices for berries at the grocery store are sky high! But I had a brainstorm this week – why not use them to make a green summer cocktail? Either muddle your berries or cook them into a sweet syrup, then add your favorite liquor and you are ready to enjoy the weekend!
July 9, 2009
· Filed under Colorado, Neat Link, Water · Tagged Denver, water quality, Wheat Ridge
It seems that residents in Wheat Ridge dodged a water quality bullet when an RV owner dumped his raw sewage into a storm sewer inlet that ran into the detention pond at Wheat Ridge High School, rather than one that ran directly into a creek or other water source. The school district is have to do major clean up work as a result, but water quality for area resident has not been affected. I hope that the man who dumped his sewage is caught as a result of the media attention.
Twice in the past few weeks I have seen a Denver Public Works vactor truck (used to vacuum out and clean sewer systems) parked next to a storm sewer inlet. Each time I have been tempted to call and check that these operators are taking water out of the storm sewer and not dumping sewage into the storm sewer, but this reminds that I should be sure to call if I see this again.
July 8, 2009
· Filed under Climate Change, Green Building, Neat Link · Tagged Chicago, LEED, Sears Tower
As you know, I love Chicago, so thanks to Buildaroo.com for detailing plans to retrofit the Sears Tower to be more green:
- Aiming for LEED platinum status – as a LEED A.P. I can appreciate how difficult this will be!
- If all goes as planned, retrofit will result in a 38% energy reduction by 2012, saving 4.4 million dollars a year.
- Some improvements include: Wind turbines on the tower’s rooftops - perfect for the windy city; replacement and glazing of the 16,000 single-pane windows; upgrades to restroom fixtures and water management systems, to conserve 24 million gallons of water; and installation of auto-dimming lighting that is based on the available natural light.
I hope they find sources for the funding they need – I’m sure Chicago could also benefit from the 4,000 jobs this is projected to create!
July 7, 2009
· Filed under Climate Change, Colorado, Neat Link · Tagged renewable energy, wind energy, wind farm
From 5280.com:
Wind is so prevalent on Colorado’s Eastern Plains that North Carolina-based Duke Energy Corp. is going to build a wind farm there to supply electricity for the state’s second-largest power supplier.
This is great news about creating jobs with renewable energy!
June 11, 2009
· Filed under Free, Frugal Tip, Green Citizen, Recycling, Steps You Can Take · Tagged ink cartridge, HP, Hewlett Packard, Canon, Staples
Today, while I was slaving over a hot copy machine, the copier demanded a new ink cartridge. When I reached in to pull the new cartridge from the drawer, I felt guilty at the sight of the other spent cartridges that were waiting there for me to recycle them. I followed the link given in the cartidge installation instructions and was very impressed with what I found.
HP provides free recycling for ink jet and laser jet cartidges, as well as some hardware items. HP surprised me by also offering free recycing of rechargable batteries and large format banners and media.
To recycle my spent ink cartidges, I had a choice whether to drop them off at any area Staples location or print a postage-paid UPS label to ship them back at HP’s expense. I originally thought I would ship them – an easy task when you print their postage-paid label – but when I followed the Staples link, I discovered that I could receive $3 for each cartridge I recycled as a Staples Rewards member. Definitely a win-win proposition! As an added bonus, they will take cartridges from almost any manufacturer, so I don’t have to make separate arrangements for my lonely Canon cartridge.
For comparison, I visited the Canon ink cartidge recycling page as well. Canon does not offer an advertised partnership with any retail outlets and requires you to register with your email address and a password before printing a cartridge return label. One important point the Canon site does make is:
If possible, please return more than one cartridge per shipping label (two or more) to help conserve resources, and reduce energy use and shipping costs. This can be done by retaining several cartridges with boxes, then [shipping all cartidges in one box].
June 8, 2009
· Filed under Climate Change, Global Warming, Neat Link · Tagged Burger King, Climate Change, Global Warming
One Burger King franchisee in Tennessee is proclaiming his disbelief of global warming in a colorful way that is also putting Burger King Corporate in a hot spotlight. Read more here.
June 5, 2009
· Filed under Food, Happy Hour Tip, Neat Link · Tagged beer, Sierra Club
From the Sierra Club: Tap that Keg
The next time you’re craving a brew, ask what’s on tap. Beer from a keg has a lighter impact than beer in bottles or cans. When choosing a brand, look for local and organic varieties. Sierra Nevada and New Belgium breweries have good reputations for sustainable practices. Check out Sierra magazine’s beer taste test to read about their top picks for tasty, ecofriendly ales.
