recycling
Demystifying Recycling in Minnesota
The average Minnesotan generates more than seven pounds of waste per day and more than one ton annually! In fact, in the Twin Cities area alone, we generate enough waste to fill the Metrodome 11 times every year. Although Minnesota has one of the highest recycling rates in the country, we could be recycling more. Often the problem is not what you know that can be recycled, but what you don't know. Those items usually end up in the trash.
Remaking the Way We Make Things: Product Stewardship and Zero Waste
Have you found yourself holding onto a household item or package that you cannot recycle or compost (or get fixed for less than buying two new ones) and yet you just can't stand to "throw it away?" Are you an avid recycler and composter so now your trash can looks like a collection of plastics that are suitable for nothing except maybe a modern art piece? Sometimes it looks like these items really should be recyclable but those pesky recyclers just won't take it.
Treading Lightly as a Family
How Curbside Composting Can Help Get us to Zero Waste
Although you may recycle everything you can, your trash may be far from empty. Recycling is a powerful way to protect our environment and conserve resources, but it does not prevent waste entirely. By composting, you can eliminate another 25% of what's currently in your trash. When you recycle and compost, you begin to see what's left in your trash can, and it becomes easier to make different choices to eliminate waste altogether.
What is “Post-Consumer” Paper?
100% Post-consumer Recycled Content
“Warming” Family Ideas
• Lighting – replacing one 75 watt incandescent bulb with a 19-watt compact fluorescent can cut 55 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Assign your math-loving child the task of determining how many light bulbs you need to replace and the reduction in emissions. Engage children in budgeting for purchases and replacement.
• Power strips – used for computers, televisions, radios or other electronics continually emit power even when turned off. Each night, time your children while they run around the house turning off the strips.
Activity
Keep a log for one week of everything you “toss”—write each item in one of these categories: “garbage,” “recycling,” “reuse” or “compost.” After the week is over, make a plan for the next week to change ways you can put 50% less in the “garbage” category by reusing, recycling, composting or buying things with less or no packaging. For example, did you know a banana has its own natural packaging? You could maybe even challenge your family members or your friends to a waste-free competition for a week.
Pack and Eat a No Waste Lunch
Pack a No Waste Lunch
A “no-waste lunch” is a meal that does not end up in the trash. You can buy food items in bulk, then put them in reusable containers to carry to school or work. Packing your food in reusables is typically less expensive and creates less waste than buying food that comes in disposable containers.
Healthy Schools Projects
Three Minnesota schools reduce pollution and save energy and money. Houston Public Schools in southeastern Minnesota, Pine Point Elementary on the White Earth Reservation, and Hutchinson High School took part in a recently finished pilot project to develop a healthier, more sustainable work and study environment in schools. These schools were part of a grant to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called the Healthy Schools project.
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