Thursday, March 26, 2009

Recycle Bottle Caps

Did you know that most bottle caps that go in the recycling bin do not get recycled? I know, shouldn't all plastic that goes into a recycling cart be recycled? In a perfect world, yes, in the real world there are more types of plastics than are current recycling equipment can handle.

So how can you recycle your bottle caps? Bring them to Aveda, a local beauty salon and salon product manufacturer. They accept all sorts of bottle caps from water bottles, milk bottles, laundry bottles and the list goes on. Aveda stores are in Blaine, Bloomington, Minneapolis, and Edina.

They also have a program for kids to get a cap recycling program at their schools. Kids bring in the caps from home, they fill up a box at school and Aveda pays for the shipping and recycling. Visit http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp for more information on the caps they accept and how to start a program at a school.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Earth Hour

Have you ever heard of Earth Hour? Me either until about 10 minutes ago. Well someone, somewhere (Sydney, Australia to be exact) came up with the idea in 2007 for everyone to turn off their lights for one hour to "vote" for elected officials to take action on climate change. This year you can "vote" by turning off your lights on March 28th at 8:30 p.m. for one hour. There is more information and a sign up to have your vote counted at http://www.earthhour.org/

So, if you choose to participate with over 1 billion people worldwide, go for a walk, go to bed early or do something fun by candlelight!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Driving Gizmos and Gadgets

In my exciting line of work I read popular magazines like Resource Recycling, MSW Management, Waste News, etc. Okay, they don't compare in circulation to People or the National Enquirer, but they do highlight some interesting gizmos and gadgets.

Today I read about a driving device that monitors your driving expense in real-time. It shows how much your trip costs and your cost per day on fuel. Anyone with elementary school math could figure these costs out with a simple calculation or two, but as Americans we like gadgets that talk to us immediately. Here is a link: http://www.fuelefficiencycenters.com/fuel_efficiency_adviser.php

If you get one of these gadgets, let us all know if it works and if you changed your driving habits to save some dough!