the trashbasher

New materials being accepted at Coon Rapids Recycling Center

2012-01-02T21:40:00.003-06:00

I know you all are going to be especially excited about this one: Styrofoam cups, plates, bowls, take-out containers, egg cartons!

Other new materials:
carpet
CDs, DVDs
packing peanuts (for reuse)
fire extinguishers
propane tanks

Read all the details here.

One-sort recycling pilot rollin' right along

2011-12-15T18:12:00.008-06:00

Three months into the one-sort recycling pilot programs in the East Calhoun and Willard Hay neighborhoods, and residents are loving the programs and setting out lots of material.

Not uncommon to see the carts filled to the brim.

Can't recycle pizza boxes, though you can compost them, which is what this resident could be doing since East Calhoun has curbside composting service through the city.

For the first time, I got to go with the truck to dump its load of recyclables at Allied Waste's MRF in north Minneapolis.

Single-sort recyclables go here. Two-sort and multi-sort materials go elsewhere at the facility.

Here's the pit where it all gets dumped. Then a back hoe moves stuff to the sorting areas.

Keiko's zero-waste Christmas party

2011-12-13T05:48:00.004-06:00

Meet Green Goddess Keiko. She's every bit as waste-reduction conscious as I am (she's responsible for getting the Linden Hills Festival to go zero-waste), and even more environmentally conscious. We went to her holiday party this year, and it was a nice change of pace to be attending an event without having to worry about the waste! No trash-digging for me tonight.

Her waste station.

Love that she taped examples next to the organics recycling sign!

Bins for plastic and glass

Next to the punch bowl: "Did you know ... these cups are compostable?? (they're made from corn)"

Moonshine made by her husband, Chance! Thanks for a wonderful zero-waste party, you two!

Home recycling consultation

2011-12-10T15:23:00.006-06:00

Fellow Fulton resident Kathy was kind enough to bid on a home recycling consultation from me at the Fulton Festival's silent auction, so I went over to check out her set-up. Here's what she wrote me ahead of my visit: Currently, all we're recycling formally is cans, glass, plastic, newspaper and batteries. I'd definitely like to start recycling all mail/paper and as much food waste as possible in the back yard.

Her adorable elderly pup slept through most of the consultation.

Her collection set-up for metal, plastic and glass. We discussed using small bins rather than using a lot of paper bags, which yes, are recyclable and renewable, but if you can use as few of them as possible, that's fewer resources consumed.

Here's where boxes and mail get tossed before getting separated. I've heard anecdotally that a lot of people toss everything into one pile and then separate it the night before recycling day -- another reason for moving to single-sort or dual-sort recycling for the whole city. The convenience for residents would be much welcomed!

The newspaper collection area.

We sorted through her kitchen trash, pulling out all the recyclable paper, plastic bags and food waste. This was all that was left.

And here's where she'll put a compost pile in her back yard. Good southern exposure. And because it's right on the alley, her neighbors will see her composting, and maybe that'll spur them to consider doing it, too.

Free-range Christmas tree

2011-12-06T19:05:00.010-06:00

We got our tree this year, as we do most years, at Mother Earth Gardens. We were delighted to find "organic free-range" trees this year. Ours was $20 for a cute 5-foot-tall tree with a skinny base.

The tag reads: Celebrate Christmas with an elegant, fragrant north woods Balsam fir, and you will be helping to protect our old-growth white pine forests from wildfire. Polar explorer Will Steger and author Jeff Forester have teamed up to offer these unique, pesticide-free trees. Northern Minnesota conifer forests are clogged with an understory of balsam fir that provide easy fuel for wildfires. By removing the smaller trees, we not only reduce fuel load but create openings for red and white pine seedlings. Proceeds from the sale of this tree will go toward replanting our native red and white pine forest.

Multi-sort recycling in Minneapolis

2011-12-03T00:05:00.007-06:00

Those of us who live in Minneapolis have probably seen the compartmentalized recycling truck on our street, but what does picking up all that separated material involve? To do some research for a comparison of two-sort and single-sort recycling, I did a ridealong, and I have one word for you: strenuous.

I went with Pat, who also does the collecting for the two-sort recycling pilot program in the Seward neighborhood.

Don't set your recyclables out in plastic bags -- they get all tangled up in the machines at the recycling facility.

Why is multi-sort collection strenuous? Glass. Heavy glass.

Brown, green and clear glass bottles get separated by hand by the recycling collector.

The other strenuous part: paper. Also heavy. See how Pat is throwing the paper way over his head? He does that more than 100 times a day. And the panels on the sides of the truck raise as the paper compartment gets fuller and fuller, so the opening for throwing paper in becomes smaller and smaller.

Pat stomping on the paper to compress it in the compartment.

Lots of bending and lifting.

The plastics compartment is the last one in the trailer.

Two steering wheels!

Recycling in Millbrae, CA

2011-11-30T21:34:00.006-06:00

I was at my mom's on recycling day, so I took some pics of Millbrae's collection service. The city does a 2-sort system, as you can see on this cart, which has a divider in the middle.

Then the recycling truck came by. Millbrae is serviced by SSF Scavenger.

And I was surprised to see the automated arm dump the cart's contents into one hopper ...

Maybe there's a divider in the hopper that keeps the bottles and cans separate from the paper? But if not ... why have residents sort their recyclables only to have them dumped all together?

The cul-de-sac seemed to be a real challenge.

Recycling at the BART station

2011-11-27T20:28:00.004-06:00

Call me a skeptic, but I was surprised there were actually RECYCLABLES in the recycling bin at the Millbrae BART station because the recycling bin was a few feet away from the trash can rather than right next to it. But hey, I was happy to see it! And it was so great to see a recycling bin out in a public area -- traditionally the worst spots in terms of people throwing trash in with the recyclables.

Re-use water station at SFO

2011-11-26T18:04:00.001-06:00

I went to the San Francisco Bay Area recently, so you know what that means: I came back with pictures of recycling and waste reduction to share with you. These were taken at San Francisco International Airport. Cool, huh? Empty out your bottle pre-security, then once you're through security you can refill it.

This is my water bottle, which I managed to remember to empty before I got to the airport.

Make-your-own recycled grocery tote

2011-11-22T20:48:00.005-06:00

My friend and co-worker Sunny sewed this fabulous reusable bag at the Green Gifts Fair last weekend at Midtown Global Market. The bag is nice and roomy, and a super example of reuse!

Here are the instructions, if you want to make your own.

Organics recycling comes to Hennepin's northern schools

2011-11-21T06:50:00.011-06:00

Check out this snazzy sorting station at Champlin-Brooklyn Park Academy (CBPA)! The Anoka-Hennepin School District got a Waste Abatement Incentive Fund grant from Hennepin County for its three schools in Hennepin County: CBPA, Jackson Middle School and Oxbow Creek Elementary. The organics programs rolled out at CBPA and Jackson Middle, so John and I went to check them out. The schools' curriculum integrators put in a lot of work to get the programs off to a great start.

They used magnets to display the actual items that go in each bin.

The school uses reusable trays and utensils, which really cuts down on waste.

The set-up in the Jackson cafeteria, which has 2,000 kids going through its doors every day.

We were told that the kids are doing pretty well with sorting. The schools have an environmental focus, so the organics program and waste-reduction messages fit in nicely.

Blue Q bags: so cool lookin' and so green

2011-11-19T11:48:00.005-06:00

I love Blue Q's designs! Very cool and fun, often irreverent. The bags come in a variety of sizes, and they're made with 95% recycled polypropylene (yogurt-cup plastic). Blue Q sells other funky gifts like breath sprays, magnets, tins and soaps, but I love their bags the best.

Recycle your worn-out soles

2011-11-04T19:45:00.003-05:00

What to do with those shoes that can no longer be worn? Take 'em to the REI stores in Bloomington or Maple Grove. They'll be reused if they can be, or recycled into absorbent kits for oil spills. For details, click here and here.

What life is like for Mr. Trashbasher

2011-11-02T20:35:00.004-05:00

Mr. Trashbasher came home with a smoothie from Jamba Juice, which caught my eye because it comes in a foam cup, which isn't recyclable locally. But I said nothing. Because I didn't need to ...

Mister: I agonized over this pumpkin smoothie.

Me: You should've told them you were hesitating to buy it, and you wanted compostable packaging.

Mister: I did, but the space-cadet chick didn't care. And I didn't want to get the straw either, but I didn't know how I'd drink it in the car ...

Zero-wasting the Monster Dash

2011-10-30T21:34:00.006-05:00

I was contacted in September by Lindsay, a lead volunteer with Team Ortho, organizers of the Monster Dash 5K at Lake Harriet. She was looking for help with setting up recycling and composting to reduce the amount of waste at the race. Lindsay, Felicity and I traded lots of e-mails back and forth talking about logistics in the weeks leading up to the race Oct. 29, and then I was there on race day to help out.

The race had 3,000 participants -- and 250 dogs registered! It was a really nice day, and everyone looked so festive in their costumes.

An awesome waste-station volunteer.

Lindsay, left, is the champion behind the race's first recycling/composting effort. After working so hard at the YWCA triathlon, I was so grateful to just be a regular volunteer while Lindsay was in charge of all the zero-waste logistics!

I cringed when I saw all the food for the racers was in plastic bags, but we did capture a good portion of the bags for recycling.

And they're off!
Chip bags, which I'll send to TerraCycle for recycling.

Compostables
Lindsay standing by two big bags of plastic bags collected for recycling.

Composting and recycling carts lined up to be picked up by the city of Minneapolis. Here're the stats:

bottles and cans: 21.2 lbs

plastic bags/film: 15.8 lbs

chip bags/candy wrappers: 2.9 lbs

cardboard/paper: 122 lbs

compostables: 134.5 lbs

trash: 33.1 lbs

for a diversion rate of 90 percent!

Atomic Recycling

2011-10-25T21:19:00.006-05:00

As part of the fall Master Recycler/Composter class, the new MRCs toured Atomic Recycling, which handles construction and demolition waste. They are able to separate out and recycle an average of 72% of the materials in every dumpster. Atomic's MRF (materials recovery facility) is in north Minneapolis.

It's very dusty in the facility, so most of us wore masks and goggles.

Hosing down the materials as they're dumped to lessen the dust.

Materials being gathered for sorting.

One of two sorting lines. Materials such as wood, metals and cardboard are separated into hoppers next to the conveyer belt. Click here for a list of what Atomic can and can't recycle.

Dusty!
Down the chute to the scrap-metal pile.

Bunkers for wood and cardboard.

Changes coming for #1-7 plastics recycling

2011-10-23T21:25:00.004-05:00

I didn't blog about this news when it came out last month because I figured you all would know about it already, but then I thought I better mention it just in case: Waste Management and Allied Waste are both going to start accepting a wider variety of plastics for recycling curbside starting this January. Both were waiting to make announcements, but the story got leaked to the Star Tribune. Read the story here. The reporter got some facts wrong: neither recycler will be taking garden hoses! Allied will take #1-7 and Waste will take #1-5.

Eureka now recycling pizza boxes

2011-10-20T07:01:00.004-05:00

New from Eureka Recycling: You can now recycle the non-food-soiled portion of your cardboard pizza boxes (in those cities that Eureka services). Click here for details.

Collecting organics at the RAM conference

2011-10-18T17:53:00.004-05:00

I attended the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM) conference last week at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and was happy to see them offering the ability to recycle our organics.

One of their recycling stations.

Anne Ludvik of SET (on the right) collecting the organics to bring to her processing facility.

The utensils were compostable, and the Convention Center used reusable coffee mugs, water glasses and dessert plates.

A new crop of MRCs

2011-10-17T20:32:00.008-05:00

The fall Master Recycler/Composter training classes are well underway, and Carolyn's gotten some good feedback -- people are finding the sessions interesting and informative. She asked me to help out by putting together a recycling sorting activity two weeks ago, and I threw in some tricks. Want to test your knowledge? Scroll to the bottom.

A full house

Consulting their MRC manuals ...

I think the range of ages is awesome.

MRC recycling activity

Which of these items can’t be recycled/composted at home? And if they can’t be recycled at home, can they be recycled elsewhere? Where?

1. plastic bottle caps

2. metal bottle caps

3. aluminum foil

4. pizza boxes

5. #1-7 plastics

6. foam foodware/blocks

7. boxboard vs. freezer/fridge boxes

8. film plastic (bread bags, chip bags, Ziplocs, paper towel wrappers, ice bags)

9. electronic media (DVDs, computer disks, cassette tapes)

10. natural cork

11. aseptic/gable-top containers (juice boxes, tofu boxes/milk cartons, juice cartons)

12. paper (windows in envelopes, spiral notebooks, toilet paper rolls)

13. chip bags, cookie packaging, granola bar wrappers, candy wrappers

14. rags/linens

ANSWERS

1. Plastic bottle caps (made out of polypropylene, PP, or #5 plastic) will be recycled as long as they’re left ON the bottles – this is a fairly recent development. If they’re loose in your recycling bin, once they arrive at the materials recovery facility (MRF) their small size means they fall through the screening machines. After the bottles (made out of polyethylene, PETE, or #1 plastic) are sent to a processor, they’re shredded. The now-separated bottle caps are collected separately, and those are then recycled, too.

2. Metal bottle caps will be recycled if they’re put into a metal can and the top is squeezed shut. Otherwise if they’re loose in your recycling bin, once they arrive at the materials recovery facility (MRF) their small size means they fall through the screening machines.

3. Aluminum foil must be free of food. Aluminum foil that is recycled with aluminum cans tends to turn to ash because of its thinness and smaller volume compared with cans. Foil has a better chance of being recycled if the foil is in larger pieces. Aluminum pans that are fairly clean can be recycled with cans.

4. Pizza boxes are recyclable in cities that use Eureka Recycling. This is a new program for Eureka. Pizza boxes are traditionally not recyclable because the oils soak into the paper, but pizza boxes have always been compostable. Galactic Pizza in Minneapolis uses their pizza boxes as a coupon – bring them back to the restaurant for $1 off and Galactic composts the pizza box.

5. Plastics #1-7 are recyclable at Eastside Food Co-op. Their parking lot is the drop-off site on Thursdays and Saturdays. They also accept plastic bags (aka plastic film). These #1-7 plastic tubs and containers differ from #1 and #2 bottles that are accepted curbside because of the way the plastics are molded. Bottles use a blow-molded process while tubs and other containers use an injection-molded process. There are strong markets for #1 and #2 blow-molded bottles. See below for more info:

For containers with a neck -- that is to say bottles -- they are produced through a blow-mold process, where the melted resin is blown like a balloon in to a mold. To make a stretchy balloon resin you need really long chains of plastic. On the other hand, tubs are produced by injecting the melted resin into a mold, so the chains need to be short so as to squish into all parts of the mold. So the yogurt tub is made of short HDPE, and the detergent bottle is made of long HDPE.
· Injection molding makes solid parts, like a Frisbee®, while blow molding makes hollow parts, like a soap dispenser.
· Blow molding, by its nature, makes parts whose wall thickness will vary from place to place, based on how much the material has to stretch as it is being blown. An injection-molded part's thickness is determined by the mold and core relationship.
Allied and Waste Management will begin collecting #1-7 plastics curbside in January 2012.

6. Foam (expanded polystyrene) foodware isn’t recyclable in Hennepin County despite the #6 symbol on the bottom. Packing peanuts can be taken to a UPS store for reuse. Foam blocks are not recyclable in Hennepin County, but are recyclable at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center (Anoka County).

7. Fridge/freezer boxes are not recyclable with paper products. The paper used for boxes intended for refrigerated and frozen foods contains a wet-strength chemical to help the fibers resist tearing if they get wet. Fridge/freezer boxes ARE compostable.

8. Many types of film plastic (usually LDPE #4 or HDPE #2) are recyclable through the It’s In The Bag program, which has drop-off boxes at many grocery stores and Target stores. Plastic must be clean and dry with no food residue.

9. Electronic media are accepted for recycling at Hennepin County Recycling Drop-off facilities and at Best Buy, although some materials are accepted at county facilities and not at Best Buy and vice versa.

10. Cork (natural, not synthetic) is recyclable at Whole Foods through the Cork ReHarvest program, which turns cork into flooring.

11. Aseptic/gable top containers (juice boxes, tofu boxes, milk cartons, juice cartons) are recyclable in cities that use Eureka Recycling. These containers contain valuable virgin paper fiber but must be processed separately from other paper to separate the plastic coating from the paper fiber.

12. paper: windows in envelopes, spiral notebooks, staples, toilet paper rolls: all recyclable at home.

13. Chip bags, cookie packaging, granola bar wrappers, candy wrappers are recyclable through TerraCycle. You must sign up on their website (terracycle.net), they pay for shipping and give money to the non-profit of your choice in return for you sending packaging to them for recycling.

14. rags/linens: UsAgain will accept clean clothing that is no longer wearable to be recycled.

Bread & Pickle composting update

2011-10-16T08:18:00.008-05:00

Unfortunately those signs that Felicity and I made seem to be having little impact on the composting situation at Bread & Pickle, which closed for the season last weekend.

Here's a composting bin.
Here is a trash bin. Everything I can see at the top of the bin is compostable.

Plus 3 of the 5 signs have disappeared. Oh well ...

2011 Recycler of the Year Award

2011-10-15T22:47:00.007-05:00

I dedicate this to my friends, supporters and fellow recycling enthusiasts, especially those of you who've helped me at events, helped me deliver or pick up recyclables, encouraged me when I've been frustrated and discouraged and cheered me on in my quest to turn my passion into a career. I couldn't have done it without you all! And most of all, thanks to my awesome and VERY tolerant husband, Mr. Trashbasher!

I received this award this past week at a Recycling Association of Minnesota awards dinner. My friends Madalyn, Felicity and John nominated me, and they tricked me into thinking I was one of several finalists ("come to the dinner to see if you won!") when in fact I was THE finalist. So it was a nice surprise. And in reading their nomination, they were so effusive that I think I would've picked me, too! So thanks for writing such an awesome nomination and being such great pals, you three!

Finally recycled my Styrofoam cups!

2011-10-12T09:17:00.008-05:00

I've had 12 large bags of foam cups, plates, trays and clamshell take-out containers sitting in our garage for about three years, most of them from my co-workers. I was determined to get these recycled before this winter. So I called DiversiFoam in Rockford, Minn., where I'd taken foam serviceware (as plates, cups, etc. are called) once before to be recycled. Nope, we don't want them, they said. So I called the nearest Dart Container recycling facility (in Illinois, unfortunately) to see if I could ship my foam there. This super-nice woman called and said sure, we'll take it, but I checked around your area and found a place that will accept your foam, I talked to the guy and here's his name and number. Skeptical (usually people don't want post-consumer foam for recycling because of food debris), I called, and sure enough, operations manager Jon Vikse said he could take my foam ("It's clean, right?" "Yup, sure is. You can look at it, and if you don't think it's clean enough, I'll take it away." "OK.") . So I called the Dart Container woman back and thanked her profusely.

Friday came around, and I loaded up my trusty car and headed north to Anoka. Here's the place.

When I got there and looked around with Jon, I realized Earth First recycles a LOT of foam in addition to electronics and computers. This is 1.5 semi-trailer trucks of polyurethane foam!

This is more than 10 gaylord boxes worth of extruded polystyrene foam. Their baler really packs it in!

Televisions
John had a whole gaylord box filled with plastic cards.

Instapak foam, which I had no idea could be recycled.

Computer mice.

Remotes

Move-in/move-out recycling

2011-10-08T21:13:00.009-05:00

We all know that whenever you move, you generate a lot of waste. Our department is moving to a new building soon, so everyone's cleaning out 19 years' worth of paper from their desks. At my old job, when people moved around and cleaned out their desks, huge 1/2-cubic-yard trash carts would be parked around the room. There were recycling bins, but not near the trash carts and not anywhere as big as the trash carts.

At Environmental Services, it's the opposite: the recycling carts dominate. These are 96-gallon carts; we're filling about 12 of them every couple of days.

Recycling our "technotrash" (VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs, cassette tapes, cords)

We also are donating a ton of materials and supplies for reuse: binders, shelving units, maps, Plexiglass boxes (which I found a home for via the Minnesota Materials Exchange), and office supplies to Companies to Classrooms, ArtStart, ARC's Value Village and Goodwill.

Angie's car loaded up with supplies for ArtStart.

Here's the trash at the end of one day.

Checking in with the one-sort recycling pilot in ECCO

2011-10-05T21:42:00.007-05:00

I wrote about the one-sort recycling pilot programs in the Willard-Hay and East Calhoun (ECCO) neighborhoods in this post. Here're photos from the first ridealong I did a couple weeks ago.

The program is getting great set-out rates.

A 96-gallon cart and still this resident had excess recycling that he/she placed next to the cart.

Blue lids indicate recycling containers, green containers are for organics, black-lidded carts are trash.

Uh, that broom handle isn't recyclable.

This is Bryan -- he is lightning-fast!

This computer records every time a cart gets tipped into the truck.

full to the brim!

Trashbasher invades MPR again

2011-10-04T20:49:00.005-05:00

I wrote a commentary piece for Minnesota Public Radio's website. You can check it out here. Here's the previous piece I wrote and recorded (be sure to click on the Listen button!).

New signs for Bread & Pickle

2011-10-02T10:55:00.002-05:00

Felicity (executive director of Linden Hills Power & Light) and I decided that Bread & Pickle's composting program needed more signs. I blogged about it here.

So a couple weekends ago we repurposed some Vita.mn plastic corrugated signs that I had pulled out of the Star Tribune dumpster some years ago, used some staples and voila!

These are much more visible now, and they have examples of a compostable plastic cup and a paper boat stapled onto them. Hopefully more people will see them and separate their waste accordingly.

Lovely shot with Lake Harriet in the background, Felic!

Composting in Duluth

2011-09-30T08:24:00.005-05:00

Holy cow, I haven't blogged in a long time! I've got some catching up to do!

Recently I was in Duluth with my mom, and we ate at At Sara's Table/Chester Creek Cafe (which still has the old Taran's MarketPlace signage up, so the place essentially has three names). The food was soooo yummy, and, bonus, they strive to use local ingredients and double bonus, they compost! And they're a drop site for residents to bring their compostables! So of course I took pics for you.

Lake Superior whitefish, wild rice and green beans sauteed in garlic and butter.

Pulled pork sandwich with Indian curry veg soup

And then there was the PIE! Oh my ... strawberry rhubarb

Peach/raspberry
Devoured within seconds.

Guest recycler Barbara

2011-09-17T07:00:00.004-05:00

Neighbor Barbara was kind enough to take a huge vanload of Styrofoam to the Coon Rapids Recycling Center for me because she was going to be in the neighborhood. We crammed in as much as we could, leaving just enough room for her two sons. I heard that the morning ride was quite hilarious with the squeaking of the Styrofoam and that everyone laughed the whole time, which is exactly what you want when someone's doing you a huge favor. Barbara then brought home another full vanload, this time egg cartons and chip bags and candy wrappers. What a pal!

Fulton Festival and Farmers Market

2011-09-11T19:36:00.004-05:00

It was a gorgeous day for Fulton's neighborhood festival and farmers market (above is the lovely display by Patisserie 46), and so many of my wonderful friends turned out to help me by monitoring the waste stations. Thanks to them, it went fantastically! Here are the numbers:

organics/compostables: 147.5 lbs
cans: 10.1
plastic bottles: 5.4
glass: 7.7
plastic film/bags: 2.7 lbs
cardboard: 40.9 lbs
trash: 12.9 lbs

for a total diversion rate of 94%!

It was crucial that we didn't have plastic tablecloths this year, which made up the bulk of our trash last year, and we asked vendors to not give away candy in plastic packaging. And last year we had baked potatoes wrapped in foil (with sour cream and butter in plastic cups), which we eliminated this year. Last year's trash was 22 lbs.

Here're all my disposal monitors, all of them quite green-minded. This is Jon.

Shannon

Here's Madalyn, standing behind Hennepin County's portable recycling units. Also featured are Carolyn's new stickers and signs.

Sandra
Peter
Sharon

Marc and Tinzing
Heather
4 64-gallon carts filled
Trash

Midtown Farmers Market

2011-09-10T17:19:00.004-05:00

I really think our farmers markets are the perfect spot to offer away-from-home organics (compostables) recycling. So much of what's generated there is compostable, and it's a nice way to expose people to the idea of recycling their food waste and non-recyclable paper. That's why whenever I go to a farmers market, I check out their waste situation. I went to the Midtown Farmers Market for the first time last weekend, and it had a great community vibe and nice selection of produce and prepared food.

I was glad to see a recycling bin prominently placed next to the trash can.

Fireroast Mountain Cafe (delicious tamales) collects their organics (see the compostable bag tied to their booth below), and one of their employees also goes through all the market trash at the end, sorting out the organics to take back to the cafe for composting. A fellow dumpster diver/waste diversion enthusiast!

At the market, I saw J.P., who I met when he was an AmeriCorps VISTA member working with Nellie Stone Johnson school. Here he is at the school media composting event back in May.

He now works with Youth Farm and Market Project.

And he made this cool pouch! J.P., the Renaissance man. And I thought only TerraCycle made these ...

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

2011-09-09T09:10:00.004-05:00

Yes, of course I'm going to say it: There is a TON of compostable material at the State Fair. I hadn't been to the fair for at least 5 years, but I went with Carolyn and her family this year and had a great time. Lots of good eats! So far the fair is composting corn cobs/husks and animal bedding, but that's it.

Here is only one of hundreds of trash cans at the fair. I did see recycling bins for bottles and cans, which is great, but they weren't paired with every trash can, unfortunately.

The modern-day 4-Her: texting from her animals' pen.

I LOVE GOATS.

Wrangling kids.

We took home all our compostables, but our party of 5 adults and 1 child did have a number of plastic and Styrofoam cups, too. We brought reusable utensils, napkins and water bottles from home.

Minneapolis' single-sort recycling pilot program

2011-09-08T21:56:00.003-05:00

Here are the carts! Same 96-gallon trash carts but with a bright blue lid and plenty of stickers. ECCO (East Calhoun) and Willard Hay are the two neighborhoods in the single-sort recycling pilot program.

The ideal set-up! Jumbo recycling cart, medium-sized organics (compostables) cart and small trash cart!

Saddle up for the Fulton Fall Festival

2011-08-31T22:23:00.002-05:00

Back in May, I blogged about the Fulton Farmers Market and how I hoped they'd start collecting their organics for recycling soon. Looks like that's not in the cards till next year, but at the upcoming Fulton Fall Festival, which this year is going to be side by side with the farmers market on Sept. 10, I'll be making it low-waste as usual (also hoping for less waste than last year), so the market folks said I could collect organics at the market, too, that day. So I'm lining up volunteers and doing the planning for that. As part of my planning, I scoped out the waste situation at the farmers market last Sat. since I hadn't been there for a while. Here was the waste composition:

organics: 41 lbs. (below is the organics in 4 compostable-plastic bags)

trash: 6 lbs.

bottles and cans: 3.5 lbs.

As you can see, the trash is mostly plastic utensils and cups. This was what was left from 4 overflowing trash cans after the organics were picked out.

A nice-sized crowd.

Yummy, beautiful apples!

When you're there for clean-up, you get to witness fun stuff like this Chef Shack Lady belting out "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Borrow the county's portable recycling units

2011-08-27T20:25:00.002-05:00

Remember I wrote about Carolyn's new stickers? Well last week these hanging signs arrived, so now the county's portable recycling units (PRUs) are fully outfitted with informational signage. You can borrow them for free to green your event -- 40 recycling and 20 organics PRUs are available. (The organics ones are green, with a slit in the lid rather than holes.)

The bags are clear, so people can easily tell what goes in each container. Make sure you have something to weigh these down if your event takes place on a windy day.

Demos by Marc
and Andy
Shenanigans with Mark and Andy

Before the pilots, the waste sorts

2011-08-26T13:02:00.002-05:00

As many of you already know, the city of Mpls is conducting a single-sort recycling pilot program in the Willard-Hay and East Calhoun (ECCO) neighborhoods. Here are some links to news stories: Star Tribune, MPR, the Southwest Journal and the city's website. Those two programs just started, so we did 2 waste sorts to gather baseline data. If you make recycling simpler, will people recycle more? That is the question.

The first sort two weeks ago was Willard-Hay, and it was the worst one I've ever done (my fourth). The smells were overwhelming, and OH THE MAGGOTS. Holy buckets o' maggots. I took no pictures from that sort (uncharacteristic of me, I know), but you don't need pictures, I'm guessing. This was the first time we did a sort using the NetWork for Better Futures (normally we use county staff and volunteers), and those guys did not relish their assignment. Half of them actually left the site after about half an hour. That was a long day.

Last week was the ECCO sort, and that one was a lot better. We had a great crew from the NetWork who just buckled down and did the job. There were also a lot fewer maggots.

Our supervisor, Paul, is on the left. Thanks for helping out, Paul!

This is kind of an intimidating sight: all the garbage carts waiting to be sorted.

Yes, this is all the garbage carts we got through at the end of the day. Lots, huh?

We finished sorting all the garbage carts that day, but not the recycling carts, so on Thursday Andre, Carolyn and I finished that off. Since we sorted the garbage on Tuesday, then left the recycling carts inside the building until Thursday, there were lots and lots of flies once we opened the doors. Andre, having sorted trash and recycling four times in the past two weeks, is quite sick of waste sorts thankyouverymuch. We'll do another sort halfway through the one-year pilot, and then another after the pilot program is over.

You have to really get in there to reach the stuff at the bottom of the cart.

The trash from about 35 recycling carts. People really want to recycle all their plastics.

Car-seat recycling

2011-08-19T13:37:00.004-05:00

New at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center is child car seat recycling. $10 per car seat. Here's more info:

The Coon Rapids Recycling Center has paired with the Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM), Carver County and the Adult Training & Habilitations Center’s (ATHC) Eco-Site to create a solution for safely and securely recycling all old or unwanted child safety seats. This program is the first of its kind in Minnesota. We often get calls from residents who do not want to throw their car seats away, so we decided to do something about it.

All of the materials (plastic, metal, textiles) are recycled. The plastic is recycled in Minneapolis and made into landscape tiles, the straps are reused for purses and other new textile artwork, and the metal is recycled into new metal. Car seats should never be left on the curb to be thrown away because someone could take it and reuse it. This is a bad thing because car seats have an expiration date -- the plastic over time (or in the case of an accident) gets to the point where it is no longer safe to withstand an accident or any trauma and may cause the seat to fail. Children can get injured or killed if people try to reuse car seats or keep them beyond their expiration.

And here are some photos of plastic caps to be recycled by Aveda. I included these just because I think they're cool!

Tri-umph!

2011-08-15T21:44:00.012-05:00

Low-waste efforts at this year's YWCA triathlon at Lake Nokomis went great!!! Here are the numbers!

organics: 536 pounds
cardboard: 104.4 pounds
bottles and cans: 42.1 pounds
non-bottle plastic containers: 19.6 pounds
plastic film/bags: 8 pounds
trash: 57.6 pounds

for a diversion rate of 92 percent!

There were 1,000 racers, 300+ volunteers and hundreds of spectators, and they produced 57 pounds of trash -- mostly plastic Starbucks and Caribou cups, diapers, energy bar wrappers and other plastic food containers. After my efforts at last year's Tri bombed, I was determined to fix things for this year's race. And I'm so happy to say I did!

Lessons learned:
1. Reduce packaging on the front end.
2. Go ahead of time to check out the site. I knew the site from last year, but this year I did partial set-up the day before the race, which helped a ton.
3. Have enough volunteers to man the disposal stations.
4. Move the Parks Department's trash barrels yourself.

5. Rent enough organics carts. This year we rented nine; last year's three weren't anywhere near enough.
6. Tape your signs on the day before because all your containers are covered with dew at 5 a.m.

This post will have a ton of pictures, since I want to acknowledge everyone who played a part in this big effort!
My early morning crew of volunteers. GreenCorps member Will Dolezal provided excellent, knowledgable assistance.

Lisa
Heather
Virginia (who helped me both Sat. and Sun.)

and Kris. Don't they look incredibly cheerful considering they started at 5 a.m.?

Yeah, the beach looks empty now, but ...

here was the scene just before the start.

One important consideration for this year's waste was reducing the amount of packaging for the race food. Last year the sandwich wraps came on plastic trays with plastic lids, and there were hundreds of single-serving chip bags and granola bar wrappers. This year's food-packaging situation was MUCH different. Head food procurer Kelli Klein went the extra mile to get sandwich wraps from D. Brian's on reusable steel trays.

Kelli also did not buy any single-serving packages of food for the race. For budget reasons, she shopped at Costco, which as many of you know is top-heavy in the packaging department. So there really was no way of getting around the plastic containers from Costco.

It was Kelli's idea to do a trail mix-type offering, which was a great way of avoiding single-serving packaging.

Carts Kelli borrowed from D. Brian's to hold the sandwich wraps.

A water station. No plastic water bottles provided to racers.

My late-morning crew of volunteers. Post-race was very busy because everyone was eating and re-fueling.

Here's Will again, still energetic hours after arriving!

Angela

Sara

Dominic, Nicky and Sofie

The massive food tent

Compostable cups, plates and napkins

My clean-up crew. Josh, in the yellow shirt, was particularly awesome and conscientious. And there's Will in the middle, in it for the long haul! Will volunteered with me from 5 a.m. until 2 p.m.

We PACKED the nine organics carts the YWCA rented from the city of Mpls.

536 pounds of organics squished into nine 64-gallon carts.

The trash from our 9-hour event.

The key YWCA people without whom the low-waste effort wouldn't've been possible:

Race director Nicole Cueno was the driving force behind the green initiatives. She really wanted to make the race environmentally friendly, and did the legwork that comes with making that happen. Nicole was just fantastic to work with!

Head food procurer Kelli Klein, who was such a great partner in reducing the amount of packaging for this year's race. From Kelli: "I'm a sucker for numbers and scores. I'm already wondering how I can get us to 99% [diversion] next year!"

Volunteer coordinator Sarah Raser, who got me all my volunteers, without whom the effort would've failed!
And Christine Sharpe (in sunglasses), who dove right in just when I needed her and helped me separate organics from trash when 3 unmanned bins were overflowing.

The race bags were 40% post-consumer and 60% pre-consumer recycled polypropylene. Other green initiatives undertaken by the Tri: online-only registrations, information on carpooling, busing and biking to the event on the race's Web page, a bike valet, shoe recycling offered at packet pickup, race shirts made of recycled polyester, and half as many postcards were printed as last year, and those were printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks. I'll be documenting our efforts for FitPlanet's Pledge of Sustainability.

Ahhhh, much better!

2011-08-14T21:15:00.002-05:00

Waste diversion and recycling efforts at today's triathlon went very well! I'm so glad! More details soon!

Recycling stickers get a makeover

2011-08-14T20:43:00.004-05:00

Carolyn was so happy when her new event recycling stickers arrived. It was cute to see her giddy over these, and she immediately began applying them to the lids of the portable recycling units. New stickers that are easy to understand with good images: that's all it takes to make us green geeks happy.

Can low-waste succeed at this year's Tri?

2011-08-11T23:02:00.008-05:00

This Sunday is the YWCA triathlon, and I will again be lead volunteer of the Green Team. Will the attempt to collect organics for recycling go better than last year, or will things go terribly awry again? I've tried to correct and plan for all the things that went wrong last year ... we'll see!

Bashing trash Up North

2011-08-03T23:16:00.002-05:00

After three days at the Lodge of Whispering Pines spent kayaking,

playing Bananagrams,

swimming to and from the island,

boating,

nightly card games,

and making and eating lots and lots of food ...

blueberry oatmeal muffin! mmmmmmm

... the trash you see on the right is three days' worth for 12-15 people. That's 114 meals. On the left is our compostables. Everyone embraced the idea of separating our food waste, which made me very happy because I wasn't sure how it would be received ("geez, that crazy recycling nut can't even give it a rest while on vacation, and now she's making us do it, too!")

Our recyclables.

There were mice, so I froze the organics until it was time to go home. Made for a more pleasant drive, too.

Tyvek envelope recycling

2011-07-26T23:24:00.004-05:00

Ever since I learned that DuPont recycles its Tyvek envelopes, I've been saving them. After thinking for several years, "I should mail these in already," I finally packed them up. There're probably 200 or so envelopes in this package, and they're quite heavy. Let's see how much postage is.

This reminds me that I just discovered 3M no longer recycles its polyester transparencies. I called, and was told the company that did the recycling went out of business. Now I'll have to throw away the box of transparencies at work. Not good.

Update: I forgot to mention that I mailed all the Tyvek envelopes in a Tyvek envelope turned inside out. Efficient packaging! The weight was 7 lbs., 8 ounces, and postage was $12.17.

Eatin' good in the neighborhood

2011-07-24T14:06:00.008-05:00

One word to describe Wise Acre Eatery, the new restaurant just down the street that produces all its own produce and meat: YUM.

Here're some write-ups: City Pages, Star Tribune, Heavy Table.

Mr. Trashbasher and I kept smiling all throughout our meal, saying "mmmm!"

We had the Shades of Summer salad, the CSA Hash and the most tender blueberry/lemon scone with just the right amount of sweetness.

From their website:

Their patio disposal station.

Compostable-plastic utensils and cups.

I love their light fixtures, which hang at different heights.

This is behind the bar. Notice that there's not even a trash container, just compost and recycling.

Their dumpsters are hidden behind these walls of lovely plants.

Gorgeous landscaping all around the restaurant and parking lot.

Recycling at multi-family buildings

2011-07-23T10:14:00.012-05:00

Recycling at multi-family buildings (apartments, townhomes, condos) is traditionally a tough nut to crack. You have a population that's transient, sometimes low-income, and often there are language barriers. Louisiana Court Apartments, owned by PPL, in St. Louis Park had tried twice to offer recycling to its residents, but both times the program failed. My co-worker Carolyn was contacted a few months back by an AmeriCorps member working with Louisiana Court because a small group of residents really wanted to re-start recycling at the complex (11 buildings). So the pieces needed for success started coming together: a staff person on the ground who could oversee the program plus a group of enthusiastic residents -- a very important piece. The City of St. Louis Park recycling coordinator was also involved, as were Carolyn and I from the county. Louisiana Court's hauler is Aspen, and at the initial meeting with all of us there, their representative said the program would never work at Louisiana Court. We set out to prove him wrong.

After more meetings, e-mails, and some great-looking new educational materials -- cart stickers, door hangers and posters -- developed by Carolyn and our Environmental Education & Outreach unit, LCA held its kick-off recycling event in the courtyard.

There were free tacos and drinks, recycling demonstrations, recycling pledges, information on energy efficiency and music -- a nice festive atmosphere to get people excited about the new recycling program.

Master Recycler/Composter Lisa went through a recycling sorting activity with a resident.

The complex even has garden plots and rain barrels!

New educational stickers

The following week, the AmeriCorps member and a Master Recycler/Composter went door-to-door answering questions and letting people know about the new program. With so many key pieces in place, I think there's a good chance of success.

Carolyn and I did a spot check, and the contents of the recycling carts looked great -- very little trash. In fact most of the carts were 2/3 to 3/4 full, so Aspen needs to deliver more carts before the recycling start overflowing.

The organics bunker

2011-07-21T22:21:00.002-05:00

After your food scraps and non-recyclable paper leave your house, they come here to the Hennepin County Recycling Center and Transfer Station in Brooklyn Park (aka Brooklyn Park Transfer Station) and get dumped in this bunker that's separate from the trash pit (see next pic). All the organics from Minneapolis come here, get tipped to check that the load's not too contaminated with non-organics, and then are loaded onto a larger semi (20 tons at a time) to be driven to SET's composting facility in Empire Township. When Ch. 12 did the interview on the new organics drop-off program, they also shot footage of this bunker, which is why I finally got to see it, so here it is for you to see, too.

Here's the gigantic trash pit. On the right side of the photo is where garbage trucks back up to the pit, and the trash comes tumbling out.

See the catwalk on the left of the photo? We walked over the pit from the residential drop-off side of the facility to this area, called the tip floor.

Egg-cellent reuse

2011-07-20T23:18:00.008-05:00

This was probably about 700 egg cartons, collected at the Coon Rapids Recycling Center for reuse by Sunshine Harvest Farm. Since I go to both Coon Rapids and the Kingfield Farmers Market, where Sunshine Harvest Farm has a booth, I serve as the Deliverer of the Egg Cartons. Works out well for everyone!

You could try doing the same thing at a farmers market you frequent -- ask whether a farm that sells eggs would like to reuse egg cartons, then collect them from your friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. Great way to reuse, and reduce waste, not to mention save money because I'm told those cartons aren't that cheap. Sunshine Harvest Farm has saved hundreds of dollars by reusing the cartons.

Lights, camera, "go ahead"

2011-07-17T10:31:00.013-05:00

My supervisor John, who is Hennepin County's organics recycling specialist, wanted to make a how-to video to address all those questions from residents on what can and can't be composted from what you generate at home. So he put Andre and I on the task. I researched other videos, wrote an outline and gathered many props, and Public Affairs turned the outline into a script and handled the actual making of the video. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at Hennepin County's newest video, shot at our house.

Asian invasion!

Jim, in the blue cap, was the cameraman, and when he was ready for us to start speaking or moving, he'd say "go ahead."

I didn't realize how much lighting goes into making a video.

We tripped the electrical circuit three times.

The crew checked out the footage on this small screen.

We shot in the front yard, back yard, kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room, bedroom, entryway and driveway.

Clowning around.

(This shoot took place in mid-June, but John wouldn't let me post these pictures until the video was complete.)

But this wasn't the end of shooting. We also shot footage at the Wedge Co-op and SET's composting site in Empire Township, shot all the props in a basement storage room at the Government Center, and we recorded voiceovers at the Government Center.

The next week, we were at the Wedge, at 7 a.m. The store is a beehive of activity, as Jim put it, at that time of day, with people stocking the shelves and getting the store ready for shoppers.

On the left is Steve from Public Affairs. He turned the outline into a script and directed the video.

I'm a regular customer at the Wedge, and it was fun to be there before regular business hours.

And then later that day ... this is a storage room at the Government Center that was transformed into a studio for us to shoot the props.

That brown object on the left is a very, very ripe banana.

I was in charge of arranging all the props and making sure we shot all the props on the list. As you'll see in the video, there were a lot of props.

Arranging them just so.

We got a preview about halfway through the editing process. Deb (not pictured) did a fantastic job of putting the video together and editing it.

And then the week after that we went to the composting site, which you probably recognize from my earlier posts. I coordinated with the transfer station so we could film a load of organics being delivered.

Today Steve was the cameraman.

And the last step for Andre and I was recording the voiceovers.

Annnnnddd, here's the finished video! Scroll down about a third of the way down the page. You'll need Microsoft Silverlight to play it. Hope you find it useful! Making this video was a wonderful experience! I learned so much, and it was a lot of fun!

Compostable concessions

2011-07-13T20:50:00.005-05:00

A handful of restaurants put bins for organics collection out in public areas, but most keep the bins in the "back of the house," away from the public so the bins don't get so contaminated with non-compostable stuff. Bread & Pickle at Lake Harriet boldly tackles a new frontier: organics bins out in public areas at an outdoor concession stand. With little monitoring! Bold!

A lot of organics in the trash, unfortunately. Yup, that plastic-looking cup on the right is compostable plastic (PLA).

Organics bin looks pretty clean.

Perfect way to spend a summer day.

I thought these signs were a great idea. So people see them as they're waiting in line to order.

"Thank you to the local farmers and producers who make this menu possible." I love love love that Bread & Pickle uses grass-fed meats and local, sustainably grown and harvested ingredients. Owner Kim Bartmann is committed to these environmentally friendly/animal friendly values. Here's a fantastic piece by City Pages' Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl on why you should eat grass-fed, humanely raised meats and where to find them in burger and barbeque form in the Twin Cities. And here's a review of Bread & Pickle.

Lots of compostable-plastic cups in the trash.

Doing it the right way: grouping all three receptacles together. But as you can see from this picture: there are no signs on the top of the bins. So I think that would help people sort their waste better.

Unless you're looking at the front of the bin as you approach, this sign is easy to miss.

Strawberry ice cream cone. The ice cream comes from Sonny's and Izzy's.

My letter:

Hello Kim and Bread & Pickle, I love love love that you have composting at Lake Harriet! How wonderful of you to make that zero-waste commitment and expose thousands of visitors to organics recycling! And I love that you use grass-fed, sustainably raised and harvested local ingredients. So often we have to forgo those values if we want to eat at an outdoor concession stand, but no longer! Thank you so much for your commitment to the planet and to local food! Could you put a list of your suppliers/farms on your website? Thanks! Nancy

Stormwater management in our own back yard

2011-07-11T09:44:00.004-05:00

I bought this tandem rain barrel set-up off Craigslist, and Mr. Trashbasher was nice enough to put it up for me. Our one rain barrel was filling up way too fast, so we needed more capacity.

Our first rain barrel is the small one on the left.

After one big rainstorm the first barrel filled up. Then the next day it rained again, and the second barrel filled up! I love our new rain barrels! The guy I bought these from did a really nice job of making them.

Spreading the word -- this time on TV

2011-07-10T10:04:00.006-05:00

I was on Channel 12 the other day, talking about the new organics drop-off program at the Hennepin County Recycling Center and Transfer Station in Brooklyn Park.

You can go here and click on Play Video. My short segment starts at minute 6:29.

Update: Sorry, but the video's no longer available online.

It pays to praise

2011-07-05T13:45:00.002-05:00

I wrote about the recycling bins outside Hy-Vee in yesterday's post. Here's what was in my mailbox today.

Dear Ms. Lo,

Thank you for writing Hy-Vee.

Thank you, too, for your kind words about the recycle bins and our sustainability efforts at our Mankato #2 (Adams St.) store.

I forwarded your comments to Dan Olson, store director at that location so he can share your comments with his staff, who I am sure will be very pleased to see your message.

I also forwarded your message to the store’s supervisory officers.

What a nice gesture on your part to write us! Your comments are deeply appreciated.

Thank you,

Stacie M.
Customer Service Representative

Hy-Vee, Inc
making lives, easier, healthier, happier
5820 Westown Parkway
West Des Moines, IA 50266

Signs of hope

2011-07-04T10:17:00.005-05:00

I've often been disheartened at the lack of recycling bins in public spaces and parks, and outside grocery stores, home-improvement stores and gas stations. Every time I look in the trash at one of those places, I see bottles and cans and recyclable paper. People who are very good about recycling at home tend to become lax when they're out and about, and the lack of bins next to trash cans only perpetuates that habit. So when I see recycling bins right next to trash bins in public areas, I smile and think "wow, that's awesome!" and then usually I write an attaboy to the establishment to give them positive reinforcement.

These are on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. It's not often I see recycling bins out on a street.

This is from the Downtown Improvement District's website:

And this is outside the #2 Hy-Vee (Hilltop Hy-Vee) in Mankato.

There's a recycling bin at both the entrance and exit, as well as bins for recycling plastic bags.

And when I went to their website to look for contact info, I found they have a whole page on sustainability. Here's my attaboy:

Hello! At the Mankato, MN store on Adams Street, I was so pleased to see that you have recycling bins right next to the trash bins at both the entrance and exit, placing the recycling bins so it's convenient and easy for people to recycle. Many grocery stores do not provide recycling bins outside their store, so I was glad to see that you do. Thank you for helping people to recycle more. And then I went to your website and read about all your sustainability initiatives. Keep up the great work!
Sincerely, Nancy Lo

And finally, here's some plastic packaging from Subway that made me happy:

I know it's not a very good picture, but on the container it says in large letters, "Contains at least 25% post-consumer resin." Post-consumer! Not just recycled resin! That's fantastic. And then I went to their website and learned about a bunch of their other energy-saving/waste-reduction initiatives. I'll be writing to them, too. If such a mainstream fast-food chain as Subway can do it, there's hope.

The composting site redux

2011-07-01T07:29:00.008-05:00

To celebrate the start of Hennepin County's first organics drop-off site at the Brooklyn Park facility, I'm going to post some more pics from SET's composting site in Empire Township. I finally got to go myself in May when the Master Recycler/Composters (MRCs) took a tour, and I went again last week.

The pics I'm posting here are some highlights; if you want to know about the composting process in detail, I wrote about what goes on at the SET site in this blog post.

A load of organics arrives from Brooklyn Park.

Grabbing a load of organics to mix with yard waste.

The red machine is the mixer.

The mixed product comes out the back end.

And here are pics from May, when the MRCs toured the site.

Atop the berm that separates the yard waste area from the organics area.

People dropping off yard waste.

Loading yard waste to be mixed with organics.

These fans that blow air into the piles are essential to making the compost here. The fans are connected to two pipes that run under the pile, with holes every 6 inches so the air can blow up through the piles, keeping them aerated.

A big pile, doing its decomp thing.

This gives you an idea of how tall the piles are.

Some bits of plastic and garbage in the pile. All this has to get screened out.

Awesome compost is the finished product.

Trucks get weighed on the scale on the way in and the way out.

Brooklyn Park Recycling Center now taking your organics!

2011-06-30T21:03:00.008-05:00

At last there's a place where you can drop off your organics in Hennepin County if you don't have curbside service! You can be a resident or a small business, and you're allowed to bring 5 bags per day for free! Yes, it's in Brooklyn Park, which is a little far for some of us, but if this effort is successful more sites may open. So start separating your household organics, and bring 'em on over (in compostable plastic bags) to the drop-off center. Here are all the details as well as a list of what's compostable and what's not.

These carts stand ready and waiting for your compostables! Bring them Tuesday through Friday only.

John and I went out to the Brooklyn Park facility to talk to the staff about the new program and answer questions. They were very helpful in flagging potential issues that residents would have.

Put your organics here. You have to live in Hennepin County, so don't waste your time and energy driving from another county.

Look at that concentration. What a perfectionist.

And here are a couple of pictures I took at the composting site yesterday. This is where all the organics from the Brooklyn Park facility go. I wrote about the composting process in detail here.

A big, beautiful pile of rich compost.

Anti anti-packaging

2011-06-27T08:52:00.005-05:00

I smiled the whole way through this ad from France by a company called Elipso Packaging. And here's part 2.

What do campers throw away?

2011-06-23T22:23:00.007-05:00

Now that I've been working in the waste reduction and recycling sector for a while, I know that a waste sort is more officially called a waste characterization study or a waste composition study -- because you're doing the sort to find out what's in the waste stream.

Rose (check her out in the video) is doing her GreenCorps stint with the Three Rivers Park District. She's done 8 or 9 waste studies in 9 months! She was looking for volunteers, so I went out to Baker Park Reserve in Maple Plain to help.

Here was the staging ground:

What's in campers' trash, and how well do they recycle at a campground? This study aimed to find out.

A sorting station consists of a long table covered with a tarp or large piece of wood, and the bins you're sorting into (the green ones on the ground) are arrayed around the table. Three to four sorters work best, and you get into a groove.

This group found something that was double-bagged, and it was heavy and uniformly squishy. Note the apprehension on their faces as they investigate .....

We were all in suspense, fearing the worst (grossest). "What IS it?!"

Beef stew.

Steve was super-ultra dedicated and climbed into this dumpster. The stench was quite powerful because of all the rain we've been getting.

See how he's delicately balancing himself on these boards? He was scooping garbage out of the water, which was at least a couple of inches deep. Like I said: super-ultra dedicated.

This cute young fox visited us. He wasn't afraid of us at all (bad idea, little fox!).

Every waste sort needs a mascot. This was our table's.

Plant pot recycling

2011-06-18T03:35:00.004-05:00

At Mother Earth Gardens, they spell out how we should prep our plastic plant pots so they can be recycled. Here's a list of other garden centers where you can recycle your pots.

From their website:
Plastic Pot Recycling is Back!
The name of this game is cooperation. We'll take single growers pots, 4- and 6-pack cells, and trays sorted by size and free of debris. Please make sure the pots do not contain any wires, rocks, garbage, other plastics, or excessive dirt because this stuff wrecks the process downstream. We cannot take compostable pots or consumer plastic pots purchased empty. Feel free to ask us if your pots fit the bill, we need to work together to keep this program going!

It's a gorgeous garden center and its loveliness makes you want to buy it all!

Cool homemade wooden dogs for your yard, made by my neighbor.

3 Rs: Reuse, reuse, reuse!

2011-06-16T19:57:00.009-05:00

What's better than recycling? Reduction. What else is better than recycling? Reuse!

Here are three recent instances of reuse in my life, which netted me 2 wonderful solutions and 1 awesome new item.

1. At the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, they have a TerraCycle recycling station for chip bags, juice pouches and cookie, granola bar and candy wrappers, but people are always putting in things like crouton bags, cat food bags and other foily packaging that TerraCycle doesn't accept. So we wanted to put up a sign, but there wasn't a good way to hang it or post it. I dug around in the scrap-metal dumpster and found these two white aluminum pieces, screwed them together, then attached them to the metal cart. I'm not very handy, so using the power screwdriver to do this little project was an accomplishment! And the set-up does the trick for this situation.

2. Our plastic soap pump, left, broke after many years of use, so I looked for a replacement, which was only a couple of bucks, but would've required me to make a special trip to Michaels or Jo-Ann Fabrics. So, since I'm lazy, I just waited for something to come along. And lo and behold, I soon came across this plastic pump from a bottle of hand sanitizer, which works well as a replacement.

3. And lastly, I visited ARC's Value Village because I had a coupon, and got this gorgeous orange Pyrex casserole. Isn't it sunny and cheerful?!

Opting out of MORE phone books

2011-06-11T00:11:00.004-05:00

I posted last July about getting off the delivery list for Yellow Pages. Then today 4 Dex books showed up at my house, so I went here to opt out of those, too. Are you frustrated with all those phone books getting dropped off at your front door? Opt out of them!

Beer bottle caps are recyclable

2011-06-05T19:59:00.005-05:00

I've heard the question of whether metal bottle caps are recyclable a lot, and I finally have a definitive answer. Metal bottle caps and lids such as those on beer and jars of pickles are recyclable, but their small size is a problem -- at the materials recovery facility (MRF) they tend to fall through the screens and sorting machines and end up as trash. So there's one thing you have to do to get them recycled: put your metal caps into a steel can and then smoosh the top so the metal caps/lids don't fall out. Then the can and its contents will get recycled. Voila!

Checking out the new Fulton Farmers Market

2011-05-30T01:20:00.007-05:00

Yay, I'm so glad the Fulton Farmers Market is up and running! It's awesome to have a farmers market right in our neighborhood!! It's every Saturday from 8:30 until 1 at 49th and Chowen in the Lake Harriet United Methodist Church parking lot.

Our friend Kris owns Gai Gai Thai, a brand new mobile food business.

The lovely and talented Courtnay, cooking up some delicious chicken! Gai Gai Thai uses chicken from Kadejan, beef from Thousand Hills Cattle Company and tortillas from La Perla.

And of course I had to check out the waste situation at the market ...

And by "check out," I mean dive right in. Here's that same barrel with the organics pulled out.

This one was full, too, and is nearly empty without the organics.

They need recycling bins for cans and bottles, too.

Bashin' some trash.
Two 33-gallon bags of organics out of the trash. There was more organics to pull out, but I'd only brought two compostable bags. I talked to several farmers market board members, all of whom were enthusiastically supportive of starting organics collection at the market. So hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be reporting on this blog that it's started!

Cute family!

Spreading the love

2011-05-28T23:00:00.013-05:00

In the last post, I wrote about my workhorse of a car, always hauling things here and there. Well, in recent days I finally reciprocated some love: replaced a burned-out headlight bulb and also got a new set of tires (a pothole punctured the sidewall of one of my tires). The latter errand turned out to be a very fruitful one.

I went to the Discount Tire store in Bloomington. The guys were very helpful and super nice. Tire Technician Adam taught me all about corrosion on my rim (which he buffed out) and how a tire gets inflated and balanced.

My rim after Adam buffed out the corrosion.

Corrosion build-up on my tire.

New tire without build-up.

Adam mounting my rim onto my new tire.

This machine simulates road conditions and tells the technician how to balance the tire.

And Salesman Adam and I talked about recycling and composting after I saw their trash bin full of office paper. He asked about getting curbside composting at his Minneapolis home because he had lived in Seattle, where curbside organics collection is widespread. Then I said I'd bring some paper-recycling bins, which I put in place myself because the store was very busy at the end of the day.

Before

After

I also went to the Cub Foods next door, which had just put recycling bins in every single check-out aisle two days previous. Front-end supervisor and recycling enthusiast Kelsey was very excited about the new bins and the addition of bottle & can recycling bins to the employee breakroom and in the offices. She said the new store manager was very supportive of recycling efforts (support from the top is crucial), thus the rollout of all the new bins. We talked about how some signage would help customers figure out where they should put their discards (right now the bins aren't marked).

They're in every single check-out aisle! Excellent! The recycling program is implemented on a store-by-store basis, Kelsey said, depending on whether a particular store's manager makes it a priority and makes it happen.

And I was pleased to see they now offer a compostable container (on the left) for deli foods.

My wheels, my workhorse

2011-05-25T00:17:00.008-05:00

Dear Diary, it was another typical week for me:

Sunday 10:30 a.m. She packed me to the hilt with Styrofoam.

5 p.m. Styrofoam unloaded. Good because the squeaking sounds were beginning to get to me.
5:30 p.m. I get loaded with plastic film and bags from the Linden Hills Festival, then 3 bags of mixed plastic containers from Leslie were added.
6:30 p.m. Plastic film, bags, containers unloaded.
7 p.m. I get loaded with organics. They're stinky!
7:15 p.m. Organics unloaded.
8:30 p.m. I then get loaded with garage sale items (those lamps will never sell), shovels and buckets for compost and one flat of plants for Carolyn.
Monday 11:30 a.m. shovels, buckets used and then reloaded.
6 p.m. Garage sale items unloaded

6:05 p.m. I get loaded with organics, plastic containers and plastic bags from the vet clinic.
8:30 p.m. Plastic containers, bags unloaded, then more organics get added.
Tuesday 8 a.m. organics unloaded. I can breathe freely again!
Wednesday 9 p.m. Plates, mugs, silverware loaded to be used at GreenCorps training

Thursday 8:30 a.m. Plates, etc. unloaded.

4 p.m. Plates, etc. reloaded, this time dirty.

8 p.m. 3 bags of #5 plastic containers, 3 bags of plastic bottle caps for Aveda, 3 bags of milk cartons/juice boxes for recycling by Eureka Recycling, 3 bags of corks (above) loaded.

Friday 12:45 p.m. Bottle caps and milk cartons unloaded. In their place I've got blocks of Styrofoam, a cat litter box and a big bag of organics.

3:15 p.m. #5 plastic and corks unloaded at Whole Foods. It's raining and she left my trunk open.

Saturday 10 p.m. Now she's moving stuff around and folding my seats down. Ah, she's loading up a bicycle.

Sunday 3 p.m. My trunk is filled with organics. They smell ripe! But oh do I feel useful!

Happiness is a half-empty trash bag

2011-05-22T21:39:00.009-05:00

The zero-waste efforts at the Linden Hills Festival just keep getting better and better. This is my third year of helping out with disposal monitoring, and each year the trash decreases. This is what happens when everyone from festival organizers to vendors to visitors are on board with reducing waste.

Covered in cotton candy!

Mmmmmm, mini donuts.

Plenty of helpful signs ...

plus friendly disposal monitors ...

equal a very happy Trashbasher!

10 64-gallon carts filled to the brim with organics, and just a half a bag of trash (on the left). The official weights:

organics: 588.5 pounds

trash: 16.5 pounds

plastic bottles: 7 pounds

cans: 30 pounds

Linden Hills Power & Light paid for this compost to be delivered to the festival to show residents how their food scraps and non-recyclable papers get turned into this lovely, rich compost. And the compost was free for the taking.

Spotlight on Seventh Generation

2011-05-19T22:04:00.011-05:00

Seventh Generation is partnering with Preserve Gimme 5 to produce post-consumer packaging for Seventh Generation. They don't say what packaging the post-consumer #5 plastic is being made into, so maybe they're going to make it into laundry-bottle caps, which are already #5 plastic. I'm happy to see Seventh Generation is now a sponsor of the Preserve Gimme 5 program (consumers drop off #5 plastics for free at Whole Foods stores), because it's an awesome program but it can't be a cheap one. Read the news release here.

Also check out 7th Gen's 96% post-consumer resin bottles and their 100% recycled fiber recyclable or compostable bottle. Love the use of post-consumer materials in packaging! Love the concentrated formulas, which use less water and less packaging! BUT there's an inner plastic pouch (see photo below) that holds the laundry detergent that has very limited recycling possibilities, whereas a traditional bottle can be recycled entirely.

And here's info on the greenhouse-gas impact of their materials usage.

Closing the composting loop

2011-05-18T22:45:00.011-05:00

One of the main things I've been working on for the past six weeks has been organizing a school compost media event. Seven Hennepin County schools that're participating in organics recycling were part of our one-day event on May 17, which involved the county arranging for compost to be delivered to the schools for their students to use in their school gardens. This was the composting process coming full circle: lunchroom food scraps and non-recyclable paper that students separated in the fall were coming back to those schools in the spring. The news media and county commissioners were invited to attend.

On the big day I went to two schools: Meadowbrook in Golden Valley (Hopkins School District) and Nellie Stone Johnson in north Minneapolis (Minneapolis School District). It was a hot and sunny day, one of the few that we've had this spring, which has been super rainy.

In the morning, I was at Meadowbrook. About 25 students did the planting, and Patch.com and Channel 12 came out to cover the event.

Composting Champion and Educator Extraordinaire Louise Miller handed out potatoes to plant.

A lot of veggie seedlings went into the ground this morning.

The students learned about the process of composting in class, and now they were getting to see the finished product. About 120 schools in Hennepin County are doing organics recycling!

In the afternoon, I went to Nellie Stone Johnson, which has a gigantic garden.

Sunflower seeds going into the ground.

Tasting radish seedlings!

Prepping a new bed.

It was an extremely successful day, I'm happy to say. County Commissioners Mark Stenglein, Peter McLaughlin and Gail Dorfman all came, and then talked about the event later that day at their board meeting.

These dog collars tell a story

2011-05-13T21:20:00.012-05:00

Back when the Minnesota Valley Humane Society in Burnsville was still operating, dogs would be brought in to be surrendered, most still wearing their collars. MVHS staffers would take off the collars and usually throw them away, but they started saving them for me when I asked them to. Most are in good shape and can be reused.

So I finally got around to this big project last weekend, pulling about 100 of them out of a bag and sorting them into reusable and unsalvageable.

These were in good enough condition for reuse.

While I was sorting, sadness washed over me: every one of these collars was on a dog that had been unwanted. A lot of them found new adoptive homes through MVHS, but quite a few never made it onto the adoption floor. And some of the collars were filthy, indicating the neglect or indifference these dogs endured and also the low value placed on them by their owners, who couldn't be bothered to make sure the one thing that was always on their dog was clean.

The pile of unsalvageables: too worn or torn to be used.

The winner of Ugliest Dog Collar. This reminded me of a car interior from the '70s.

And the Filthiest Dog Collar.

Here you can see the words, but note how the edges have ground-in grime.

Pile of collars with salvageable metal and plastic hardware removed.

Dirty unsalvageables on the left and freshly washed salvageables on the right. These collars represent a lot of surrendered dogs.

Getting filthy in Seward

2011-05-12T06:55:00.007-05:00

It was a beautiful, hot day for a recycling ridealong in the Seward neighborhood's two-sort recycling pilot program. I didn't bring nearly enough water, and at the end of 9 hours of riding along with the recycling crew, I was dehydrated, overheated and exhausted.

Someone put yogurt containers in their bottles & cans bin, which is a no-no.

"You were tagged because there were one or more problems with the way the recyclable materials were prepared, as circled below."

Check out the rings of grime on my neck! My skin was coated with sweat and dirt. Remember that scene in "The Fugitive" in which Harrison Ford gets himself cleaned up in a public restroom after evading Tommy Lee Jones? That was me in the Seward Co-op bathroom (well, except for the beard-shaving, hair-dyeing, wound-dressing and painkiller/antibiotic-in-the-butt injecting).

A nice plate of food and a freshly squeezed icy lemonade at the Seward Co-op. Ahhhhh

Guest Recycler Kristi!

2011-05-08T21:48:00.004-05:00

Neighbor Kristi was kind enough to make a trip to Eastside Food Co-op to drop off #1-7 plastics for me.

We filled her van.

What'd Kristi think? "Interesting place! I'm glad I got to see it!" she said.

Master Recycler class: Residential waste

2011-05-06T22:36:00.008-05:00

The MPCA's Madalyn Cioci gave a wonderfully thoughtful presentation on waste prevention.

When it comes to packaging, look for the least mass, and then choose recycled content. Here she's showing a plastic shipping envelope vs. a cardboard box. In looking at the life cycle of packaging options for shipping retail goods, less mass always wins out even when the packaging materials are considered.

She talked about ways to motivate people to reduce: emphasize living better over living with less. Get people to try the behavior for a few times or for one week because just taking that first step can lead to change.

Positive feedback and making a behavior socially acceptable are very important. Christie Manning has talked about how she'll come to an event still wearing her bike helmet, so that biking will seem like the norm.

Our behaviors drive our attitudes even though the opposite seems true.

I hadn't given household hazardous waste (HHW) a lot of thought before I began working for Hennepin County's Department of Environmental Services. Louisa Tallman's presentation was packed with good information, and she sprinkled in a lot of anecdotes (such as two days before the fishing opener, there's a rush to empty gas cans that are filled with water from sitting out for months).

HHW: pesticides/poison, flammable liquids, oil-based paints, corrosives, aerosols, mercury, PCB light ballasts and capacitors.

Poisons and toxins are everywhere: toggle switches before 1990 contain mercury, PCBs are the starting mechanism in fluorescent light fixtures, kids are eating lithium batteries. The recordable greeting cards are Louisa's pet peeve because of how dangerous they are.

She said the term biodegradable is an example of green-washing because anything left out in the sun will eventually biodegrade ("It may outlive us, though," she said.). There's no federal regulation of the word biodegradable, and no legal definition of the term "environmentally friendly."

Metro Blooms focuses on stormwater management.

Bryan Pynn said that if you must use a herbicide, paint it on rather than spraying it. And with weeds, go mechanical: pull 'em out.

A diagram of how permeable pavers work.

Green roofs around the United States. For boulevard gardens, look to green-roof plants, he said, because those plants are so hardy and tolerant.

He recommended the book "The Blue Thumb Guide to Raingardens." He said native perennials are excellent choices for raingardens because they're drought-tolerant and can handle some water inundation. He really lit up when naming some of his favorite plants: baptisia, butterfly milkweed, Joe Pye weed, aster (especially New England "purple dome"), blazing star, Rattlesnake Master, blue flag iris and these grasses: Side Oats Grama, junegrass, prairie dropseed and Little bluestem.

Coon Rapids Green Expo, 1 year later

2011-05-05T18:40:00.010-05:00

The weather was super crappy for Coon Rapids' 2nd Green Expo, and I think that hurt attendance a bit.

Coon Rapids Eco Teens

Sustainability Commission member Joeleen Famoso

Recycling center attendant Kermit Kirkevold and Anoka County Solid Waste Abatement Specialist Carolyn Smith
LePage's display of what you can and can't recycle curbside.

Dunn Bros.' table.
Sustainability Commission member Jo Ellen Christiansen

USAgain recycles even linens that are too worn to be worn. (try saying that six times fast)

Don Shelby spoke passionately and at length about climate change and the need for us to change our energy-guzzling behavior.

KidWind's hands-on activity helped kids build wind turbines.

An animated, entertaining performance by Splish and Splash.

Unfortunately the caterer brought Styrofoam and plastic utensils.

which made up the majority of our trash, which was 5 pounds total.

And 39.5 pounds of organics were collected.

Checking in with Minnetonka H.S.

2011-05-04T06:49:00.005-05:00

This was a surprise inspection, to see how the Minnetonka High School students are doing with their food-waste separation unmonitored. Some days are not bad and some are terrible, I was told by the lunchroom custodian.

They're taking the time to sort.

Lots of Styrofoam trays and plastic in the organics cart, unfortunately.

263.5 pounds of organics, 147 pounds of trash.

Master Recycler/Composter class: managing food waste

2011-05-01T10:10:00.006-05:00

Remember at the Sustainability Conference when organics recycling specialist John Jaimez drew a huge crowd? This night was no different. John got 50 minutes to infuse his students with organics knowledge, and he was happy to have that much time for a change (usually he gets about 20 minutes to tell everything there is to know about organics recycling).

Source-separated organics (SSO) is the largest segment of our trash with substantial untapped recycling potential.

Wayzata was the first city in Hennepin County to start SSO collection in late 2002 with 1,250 households. Organics collection went from 80 tons in 2003 to more than 10,500 tons in 2010. Eight haulers are collecting organics in the county.

There are now 120 schools and businesses collecting organics for recycling in Hennepin County. Schools are incredibly effective promotional platforms for organics. Often they provide residents with their first encounter with the idea of collecting food waste and food-soiled paper for recycling, and schools inspire people to start new programs.

After John came April, food rescue developer with Second Harvest Heartland, which collects unwanted food for people in need. SHH is now partnering with farmers markets and collecting 10,000 pounds of usable produce and food per week. They also partner with corporations such as Wal-Mart, Lunds/Byerly's, Cub, Kowalski's, Sam's Club and Target, which donate millions of pounds of food as well as volunteer hours.

SHH anticipates collecting 16 million pounds of food in 2011. Produce is the largest chunk of food collected, followed by meat. "If it looks good to eat, we'll take it," April said. And here's where John and April's presentations dovetailed: about 20 percent of what SHH takes in they can't use, so they want to be able to compost that material. Let's see if Hennepin County can't work with Second Harvest to compost their food waste.

Unfortunately I didn't stay for SET's presentation, but I wish I would've.