Archive for the ‘Recycling’ Category
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on January 3, 2010
Even little Christmas trees (like mine above) need to be mulched! You can recycle your Atlanta Christmas tree with Keep Atlanta Beautiful on January 9th, 2010.
Size doesn’t matter when it comes to recycling your Christmas tree this year. Keep Atlanta Beautiful invites metro Atlanta and Decatur residents to transform their Christmas trees into mulch this year with their annual “Bring One for the Chipper” program. As an added bonus, after saving your tree from a sad fate in a landfill, you can even request a pile of mulch for your own yard! Here’s how, direct from the Keep Atlanta Beautiful website:
The mulch from these trees has been used for playgrounds, local government beautification projects, and residential yards. The high quality, weed-free and pest-free mulch can be obtained for your large-scale landscaping project free of charge. Contact Davey Tree Service at 770-451-7911 for more information or download the Mulch Request Form.
This year’s event will take place at two Home Depots here in Atlanta from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, January 9th, 2010:
- 650 Ponce de Leon Avenue (map it!)
- 2525 Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta (map it!)
And Keep Atlanta Beautiful would like to extend a big thanks to Boy Scout Troop 298 for their service in helping unload the trees this year!
Don’t live in Atlanta? Just click here for the Keep Georgia Beautiful website where you can type in your zip code to find a recycling drop off point near you.
So come be one of thousands of Georgians recycling their trees into useful organic material and keeping them out of a landfill! Peggy Denby, the Executive Director of Keep Atlanta Beautiful, thanks you and encourages you to spread the word! You can also check out their website for more information.
Posted in Donate, Recycling, Trees | Tagged: Atlanta recycling programs, Bring One for the Chipper, Christmas tree recycling, free mulch, Keep Atlanta Beautiful, tree recycling Georgia | 1 Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on November 1, 2009
We set up cardboard recycling containers from B Green Services along the race course just beyond the water stop tables; at the bottom, I'm holding my very small bag of trash leftover after bagging up four large sacks of paper cups and plastic water bottles!
Wow - recycling at Atlanta’s road races has been an ambition of mine for quite some time and yesterday, thanks to our volunteers and B Green Services recycling, we managed to recycle paper cups and plastic water bottles for 2,025 runners and dozens of race volunteers for the Silver Comet Half-Marathon! We have been preparing and strategizing our approach to recycling at this eco-friendly race for several weeks, starting with printing flyers on recycled cardboard for the race goodie bags, to silkscreening B Green Services t-shirts on a variety of recycled thrift store purchases, to cajoling volunteers to come out at 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning for a noble cause.
With the start line, finish line, and four water stops along the out-and-back course, we divided up pop-up cardboard recycling bins, trash bags, plastic gloves, and breakfast food for each stop. We met at 5 a.m. at the race start line at the Mable House where we set up bins for the runners and volunteers at the start before heading out to our respective water stops. We led my Dad (my #1 volunteer) to the first water stop and Zack (my other #1 volunteer) dropped me off at the second water stop while he headed onto the third (Angela and Brooke took the fourth stop). Ingrid and Emil worked the start and finish lines and my Mom came out to water stop one to help out, too. I had the pleasure of working with Anne and Jim Baker for the duration of the race as the lead coordinators for our water stop! Anne is a brave soul who teaches eighth graders at Floyd Middle School and helped guide the groggy teenager volunteers in their water stop duties that morning.
Within the hour, it started drizzling which then became a bit of a downpour which then subsided to a steady rain and then… you get the idea – it rained pretty much the entire morning. But everything held together beautifully, the kids did a great job handing out water and prepping cups, and the runners had better aim than I expected when recycling their paper cups. As someone who has never actually watched a race before (usually I’m on the receiving end of the water), it took some adjusting to get used to being on the other side – and we had a lot of fun!
When all was said and done, we had four big bags of recyclable material and less than one cubic foot of trash going to a landfill. Zack had slightly more trash at his water stop, but that’s because someone brought Dunkin Donuts for everyone. 
Thank you to everyone that came out and helped – B Green Services recycling volunteers as well as Silver Comet Races and Get Fit Atlanta volunteers – for a soaked, successful race day! You can also check out more photos on facebook…
Posted in Events, Recycling, Volunteer | Tagged: Atlanta road races, B Green Services, eco-friendly, paper cup recycling, plastic bottle recycling, race recycling, Silver Comet Half-Marathon | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on October 27, 2009
B Green Services will be providing race recycling at the 2009 Silver Comet Half-Marathon. Interested in volunteering to help? Email me at jenny.p@mac.com!
This year, the Silver Comet Half-Marathon is going to be eco-friendly with race recycling provided by B Green Services! The race starts in Mableton (west of Atlanta) and is an out and back course along the Silver Comet Trail with a finish line at the Silver Comet Depot. B Green Services will have recycling bins strategically placed near each of the water stops along the course and will have one of our volunteers work with the water stop volunteers to ensure all recyclables go into the bin and anything else goes into the trash (although most everything out there will be recycleable).
As race recycling is something that I’ve been pasionate about for a while now, I’m looking forward to volunteering this Saturday! If you’re interested in volunteering, just send me a quick email (jenny.p@mac.com) or leave a comment below. We would love to have a few more people help! Thank you to those who have already committed to helping us recycle!
The Silver Comet Half-Marathon has become an annual event put on by Dana Greene, founder of Get Fit Atlanta. It’s a great, flat course, and we’re excited to work with Dana, who is also an avid recycler, gardener, and athletic enthusiast. Stay tuned for part II: a post-race recycling follow-up to come next week!
Posted in Events, Recycling, Volunteer | Tagged: Atlanta recycling services, Atlanta volunteering, B Green Services, Dana Greene, green Atlanta, race recycling, Silver Comet Half-Marathon, Silver Comet Trail | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on September 27, 2009
Ugh! On Saturday morning, my boyfriend, his family, and I ran the Doug Kessler 5K and 10K in Sandy Springs, which is a great, relatively flat course that tends to yield qualifying times for the Peachtree Road Race. However, a continued source of intense frustration for me reared its ugly head again – there was no race recycling!! How hard can it be?? To make matters worse, the water stops were stocked with 1.5 liter plastic water bottles for hundreds of runners (instead of water coolers filled from bath tubs or garden hoses) and little hard plastic cups provided by juice-maker Fuze alongside some paper cups). At the end of the race, they handed out small Aquafina bottles to thirsty runners who, after a very humid run, probably drank 2-3 of them each. So, a lot of water was handed out in many small plastic containers and none of it was recycled. I should have enjoyed the run, but had to struggle to keep my blood pressure down!
Well, we’re about to change all of that. Race recycling (and the lack thereof) is something that has bothered me for a very long time (read here), but now we’re going to start working with B Green Services to provide race recycling services across metro Atlanta. Emil Bekyarov heads B Green Services, which currently provides complete recycling solutions to hotels and restaurants around Atlanta, and we’re going to work together to institute race recycling at the Silver Comet Half-Marathon in conjunction with Dana Greene of Get Fit Atlanta! I’m incredibly excited about this and will be posting more about it in the near future, so stay tuned!
Are you interested in race recycling? Do you know of a specific race or race production company that could use our help in recycling at their race(s)? Would you be interested in volunteering with us to make race recycling a reality? Please leave a comment below and let me know!
Posted in Be Active!, Environment, Recycling, Volunteer | Tagged: Atlanta volunteering, Atlanta road races, race recycling, B Green Services, Silver Comet Half-Marathon, Doug Kessler 10K, Atlanta recycling services, Emil Bekyarov, Dana Greene, Get Fit Atlanta | 2 Comments »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on August 18, 2009
Postponed! I just put up this blog post and then checked my email and saw a follow-up email from Southeast Green saying they’re rescheduling this event. But stay tuned and I’ll update this when the event is back on!
Are you a business owner who has made the switch to green packaging? Or a supplier of green packaging? Southeast Green invites you to join them for their first lunch and learn on August 21, 2009! Co-hosted with Green Chamber of the South and Green Plate, this event is for businesses with an interest in green packaging resources.
- Where: Radial Cafe, DeKalb Avenue (map it!)
- When: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
- Who: Restaurants, retail stores and anyone looking for resources for green packaging
- Cost: $15.00, lunch included
Limited seating available. So register here today!
Posted in Environment, Recycling | Tagged: Green Chamber of the South, green packaging, Green Plate, green products, local Atlanta businesses, Radial Cafe, Southeast Green | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on August 18, 2009
The following is courtesy of the Lake Claire Clarion (the local newspaper of an intown Atlanta neighborhood) and was printed in their August 2009 issue:
The Only Biodiesel Pump in Atlanta Is Right in Our Backyard
If you’ve found yourself on Arizona on the other side of DeKalb, you might have noticed a shipping container in a parking lot, sandwiched between a warehouse and a brick office building, that appears to be a pumping station. This is Atlanta’s only biodiesel pump, a 24/7 self-service kiosk operated by Refuel Biodiesel, a program of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE). Founded in 2006, Refuel collects used cooking oil from restaurants and kitchens in Atlanta and processes it locally into biodiesel for the Atlanta market.
“Our locally-based production model aids local waste management and significantly decreases the energy costs associated with feedstock and fuel transportation,” the program states on its Web site. “Furthermore, because we are part of a nonprofit organization, all proceeds from the Refuel program are used to promote responsible energy solutions in the southeast.”
Who uses the biodiesel fuel? Is it available to the general public?
Refuel Biodiesel’s pump is located in the Lake Claire neighborhood at 250 Arizona Street near the intersection with DeKalb Avenue (map it!). The self-service pump is B20 with plans to add a B100 nozzle in the future. Here is what their site said about who can use biodiesel fuel:
- Biodiesel can only be used in vehicles equipped with DIESEL engines.
- Biodiesel can NOT be used in vehicles equipped with gasoline engines.
- The use of biodiesel MAY affect your vehicle’s warranty coverage, check with your auto manufacturer to confirm allowable usage.
- Refuel Biodiesel is not responsible for any damage resulting from biodiesel usage.
- If you are unsure about biodiesel usage, contact us first.
Interested in learning more about biodiesel and which vehicles can use it? Visit Refuel’s Web site at www.refuelbiodiesel.org.
Posted in Environment, Recycling | Tagged: Atlanta biodiesel, biodiesel fuel pump, Lake Claire, Lake Claire Clarion, Refuel Biodiesel, renewable energy, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on August 14, 2009
Hopefully with the new plates and bowls, we can start to squeeze out the use of styrofoam and plastic products around the office!
Yesterday, my spirits soared when I walked into the kitchen at work and saw stacks of ceramic plates and bowls on the counter. Yes! My boss and I have “discussions” from time to time on the merits of reusable plates, bowls, and cups versus the styrofoam that currently stocks the shelves, and I have requested that we please acquire enough plates and cups to completely eliminate the need for plastics and styrofoam (see my previous blog about recycling in the office). We do have a mish-mash of cups and plates in the cupboards that serve most of our team members’ purposes, which is awesome, and now we have plenty of both to go around now – so nobody has an excuse to use anything else!
It’s the small steps.
On a side note, I had this exact same conversation twice last week with two different team members:
- Me: Would you mind using a coffee mug from time to time instead of using styrofoam every morning?
- Offender: We have coffee mugs?
- Me: Seriously? We have an entire cabinet shelf full of them. Right here. Take your pick. (I open the cabinet doors in the kitchen)
- Offender: Huh. I never knew we had those.
- Me: Wait, you’ve worked here a year and a half and never in that time did you open a cabinet door in the kitchen?
- Offender: No, I guess I didn’t. But I don’t mind using the mugs. Too bad I’ve been using styrofoam all this time. Oh well.
After two people claiming that they had no idea we had real cups and plates in the kitchen cabinet, I put up this hand-written note in front of the styrofoam cups as a deterrent!
In general, I try not to berate people too much, instead encouraging them to choose a more environmentally friendly option, but c’mon. Really? You’ve worked some place for a year and half and didn’t think that the kitchen cabinets might contain, I don’t know, kitchen stuff like mugs?? Both of them said they would use mugs from now on. At that point, I made a hand-written sign and placed it in front of the styrofoam cups for all to see, politely suggesting that they please consider using regular cups instead of styrofoam.
In another small victory, I walked in and saw a coffee mug on another team member’s desk for the first time in his two years of working there (previously, he had lived and died by styrofoam). I immediately noticed it, but wasn’t quite sure when he had made the switch, until he said, “Jenny, did you notice that I’m using a real mug today?” And I said yes, and thank you!!
My boss also bought more cups last week (red, restaurant-style plastic cups which we can fit a lot of in the cabinets), for which I was grateful. Luckily, I am not alone in my quest for a more sustainable office, and we have agents who are just as frustrated by the use of styrofoam. Collectively, we seem to be shifting things. I just hope there’s an advocate in each work place to keep people moving in the right direction!
Posted in Recycling | Tagged: recycling at work, styrofoam, susatinable office, sustainable work place | 1 Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on August 7, 2009
You can recycle just about anything to be reformulated re-produced, but what about putting a wide variety of clean waste materials to an artistic use? It’s one of the oldest forms of recycling – “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” But how to go about collecting and recycling waste materials for artistic projects? A couple of weeks ago, I received the following email from Susan who asked about reusing old “scraps” for artistic purposes:
Jenny,
How would you go about starting a nonprofit organization that’s a hybrid between environmental and arts? I’m talking about reuse — specifically, a creative reuse center. I recently learned about these wonderful places that turn trash into treasure by collecting materials that would ordinarily be discarded, and offering them for sale at very, very low prices. Sometimes it’s samples from printers, designers, and manufacturers, or clean waste materials, industrial discards or byproducts. Paper, fabric, wallpaper samples, plastic things, leftover framing materials, mill ends, scraps. Anything that’s clean and could be used for arts and crafts. I like to call it “reusables.” A lot of other cities have reuse centers.
Here are a few:
- SCRAP – Scroungers Center for Reuseable Art Parts, San Francisco: http://www.scrap-sf.org/
- EastBayDepot for Creative Reuse, Oakland, CA: http://www.east-bay-depot.org/
- The Scrap Exchange, Durham, NC: http://www.scrapexchange.org/
- SCRAP – School & Community Reuse Action Project, Portland, OR: http://scrapaction.org/
Cobb County has something similar called “Teacher’s Supply Store.” The items are offered at no charge (free!!) but as the name implies, it’s only open to teachers and home-schoolers, and it’s not open all of the time. [Similar to Materials for the Arts in New York: http://www.mfta.org/.] I’m looking to start a reuse center that’s open to the public, 6 days a week.
Besides featuring a variety of materials for art, the reuse stores also offer arts & crafts workshops that incorporate education about recycling and reusing – as in, “Look what you can make with this stuff instead of throwing it away!” People have fun, and less stuff goes into the landfills.
I’m running into 2 obstacles here.
- Location. Space is expensive. I need to find a commercial property owner to donate space to this nonprofit: retail, workshop, and possibly warehouse space.
- Tax-exempt status – “501(c)(3)” – this can take a while, so if we’re going to offer donors a tax deduction NOW, we need to team up with an existing nonprofit that already has tax-exempt status.
Any suggestions?
I love Susan’s idea and here were some initial thoughts that I had:
I think a good place to start may be with local galleries or art studios to get their thoughts on spaces, your target audience, etc. One that comes to mind is Wonder Root over on Memorial Drive (whom I believe is a non-profit as well). Perhaps as you start collecting materials, you could tie in with an existing gallery to offer workshops until you get your own space. Also, my friend has been looking into some fairly inexpensive studio space over in StudioPlex in Old Fourth Ward. Cheap studio space may be a way to get started while you work on a bigger place that could also serve as a warehouse.
What about going to local art festivals or art walks and talking to those artists that are already using recycled materials? They might have some ideas and it could help introduce you more to the art community.
So, I am asking all of you for your suggestions! Who do you know that might be a good contact for Susan? Someone with gallery or warehouse space? Someone willing to share a space where she could conduct workshops and classes?An existing non-profit she could get tied in with? A creative audience that would love a store like this? School teachers, parents, after-school camps who would love to take their kids there? Susan has a very well-thought-out business plan that I’m sure she’d share with interested parties – and I know there are like-minded people out there who would love this idea as much as I do! So let me know!
Posted in Recycling | Tagged: Georgia recycling, environmental products, art recycling, art reuse, environ, creative reuse center, scraps | 1 Comment »
Posted by Our Green Atlanta on August 4, 2009
Yesterday, I met up with Kathy, the brains behind Georgia Green Dining Guide, to talk about local Atlanta food and the possibility of creating a new kind of dining guide. While discussing a wide variety of topics, Kathy said to me…
“You know, I can’t believe how many people act so surprised when I bring my own to-go tupperware to a restaurant for my leftovers! I hate styrofoam and that’s such a simple solution to wasteful food containers – I don’t know why more people don’t do that!”
I have to admit, the first thing I said was, “that is a good idea! I’m going to start doing that!” And it’s so easy! So, let’s start a quiet revolution – next time you eat out (at one of our Atlanta farm-to-table restaurants, of course!), take your own to-go food container and leave the plastic, styrofoam, and paper products behind.
P.S. If you’re looking for a more sustainable coffee, Kathy and I sat down at the Dancing Goats, a local Decatur coffee shop that serves organic and fair trade coffees from Batdorf and Bronson Coffee Roasters.
Posted in Food, Recycling | Tagged: Dancing Goats coffee, farm to table, food containers, Georgia Green DIning Guide, local Atlanta food, sustainable coffee, to go containers | Leave a Comment »
