recycling

Educate Is an Active Verb

Author
Elizabeth Barnard
El Colegio Charter School
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Demystifying Recycling in Minnesota

Author
Sara Grochowski
Do It Green! Minnesota
Publication Date: 
November 1, 2010

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.

Resources

Remaking the Way We Make Things: Product Stewardship and Zero Waste

Author
Dianna Kennedy
Eureka Recycling
Publication Date: 
November 1, 2010
GOODS E-Waste.jpg

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.

Resources

Treading Lightly as a Family

Author
SARA GROCHOWSKI
Do It Green! Minnesota
Most of my memories growing up revolved around being outside-running, playing, and exploring from dusk until dawn. We spent our weekends at my grandparents' lake cabin. I have vivid memories of my grandfather crushing hundreds of aluminum cans and loading them in his car each Sunday to bring them into the aluminum recycling plant for what was probably pennies in return. Recycling was not the buzz word it is today. However, in our family we knew not to throw cans or bottles in the trash. Now with curbside recycling

How Curbside Composting Can Help Get us to Zero Waste

Author
EUREKA RECYCLING
Imagine completing every day at home without generating garbage.

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.

Footnotes/Endnotes
 

ON THE WEB!

Eureka Recycling: Working
Toward a Waste-free Tomorrow,
eurekarecycling.org

Stop Trashing the Climate,
stoptrashingtheclimate.org

read up!

Backyard Composting: Your Complete Guide to Recycling Yard Clippings, by Harmonious Technologies, 1995.

Worms Eat my Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System, by Mary Appelhof, Flower Press, 1997.

 

What is “Post-Consumer” Paper?

Author
By Dianna Kennedy
Eureka Recycling

100% Post-consumer Recycled Content

Footnotes/Endnotes

Eureka Recycling Paper Buying Co-op

St. Paul, MN

651- 222-7678

www.eurekarecycling.org/bg_coop.cfm

 

Chlorine Free Products Association

www.chlorinefreeproducts.org

“Warming” Family Ideas

Author
by Sara Grochowski
Do It Green! Minnesota

• 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.

Footnotes/Endnotes

Solutions to Global Warming for the Reasonable Family
realmama.org/archives-spring-2007/solutions.php

Personal Solutions to Global Warming
ucsusa.org/global_warming/solutions/ten-personal-solutions.html

Environmental Protection Agency
epa.gov/kids

Activity

Author
Unknown
Unknown

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

Author
Compiled from
REDUCE.ORG and DOITGREEN.ORG.
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.

Footnotes/Endnotes

Ideas for reducing waste at school, work and home, www.reduce.org

Getting an A at Lunch: Smart Strategies to Reduce Waste in Campus Dining guide. Download www.informinc.org/getatlunch.php

Success stories including schools in Minnesota www.wastefreelunches.org/success.html

Call the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for multiple copies of "Creating Less Waste at School" 651-215-0232 or email clearinghouse@pca.state.mn.us

Healthy Schools Projects

Author
Linda Countryman
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency – Prevention & Assistance Division

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.

Footnotes/Endnotes

Minnesota Healthy Schools Program  www.healthyschools.state.mn.us

Healthy Schools Network  www.healthyschools.org

The Green Schools Initiative  www.greenschools.net

 

MN Pollution Control Agency - Prevention and Assistance Division

Linda Countryman

651-757-2292 or 800-657-3864

linda.countryman@state.mn.us

 

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