Christmas Trees

Now that Christmas is over, it is time to take down the tree and put it away or get rid of it.  If you are like me and get a fresh tree each year, it has to go out for disposal. Most garbage haulers will pick it up (for a fee) the first week or two in January, but you have to call them to make arrangements for it to be removed.  If you don't call, you may be stuck with it...or like me, just use it for the first bonfire of the spring. 

Goodbye Pumpkins

Who would have thought we would get so many pumpkins? Not me, but we recycled (composted) over 19,000 lbs. of pumpkins from Nov. 1 to Nov. 7.  Thank you residents of Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal and New Hope! We also had one resident reuse pumpkin stems that she dug out of our container. Take a look at the velvet pumpkin crafts she gave us as a sample.

The Great Pumpkin was Spotted in Brooklyn Park!

Can you spot the Great Pumpkin? Who can guess how many pounds of pumpkins are in the container?  Take a guess!

Pumpkin Recycling Continues

Great start to our pumpkin recycling. After our 1st full day, we have collected about 1000lbs. of pumpkins! Keep them coming and I'll keep you posted on how many we get.

Pumpkin Recycling

Get ready to recycle your pumpkins. A roll-off container will be placed at Central Park in the same parking lot as the free wood mulch, which is across the street from Brooklyn Park's Operations & Maintenance facility, 8300 Noble Ave N.  Residents of Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal, and New Hope may place pumpkins in the container starting November 1 and continuing until November 7.  We will empty the container as necessary and the pumpkins will be composted into new dirt to grow more pumpkins next year.

Free Drug Recycling

This Saturday, Sept. 25th there is a National Drug Take Back Initiative.  This is a first of its kind chance to properly recycle/dispose of all your old or unwanted precription medicine.  See http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/takeback/ for more information and to search for the nearest collection site.  The sites in Blaine, Andover, and St. Louis Park are probably the closets for you, but check it out!!!

Did you get a postcard?

Starting today residents in the 2010 Bulky Waste Curbside Clean Up collection area should start receiving a reminder postcard to get ready for the event on Sept. 18th.  If you live in the area north of 85th Ave N and South of 93rd Ave N you are in the collection area.  Single family through eight unit households may participate by putting out general junk, up to two appliances, mattresses, carpet, furniture, scrap metal and much more. Please call 763-493-8006 with questions or send an e-mail to bpom@brooklynpark.org

Recycling #5 plastic

I received a question about recycling #5 plastic this morning and I thought I should share the recycling options. #5 plastic is most commonly used for yogurt cups, butter containers, and some take out containers. Here are a couple options for recycling #5 plastic…

1) Here is a link to the City of Coon Rapids recycling center. They accept #1, #2, #4, #5, and #6 plastic that is labeled with the plastic number. http://www.ci.coon-rapids.mn.us/recycling/recyclecenter.htm

2) You can also recycle #5 plastic containers at the Whole Foods grocery store in Minneapolis or St. Paul or you can mail #5 to the “gimme five” program. Here is a link on this http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/gimme5.html

We are always trying to add more plastic items to our curbside recycling program, but no contractor offered this service when we went out for bid last year. Happy Recycling!

Reuse Ideas

There are so many ways to reuse old stuff and a fellow blogger asked me to share some of their ideas. Here is a link...http://www.environmentalsciencedegrees.net/blog/2010/15-crafts-using-recycled-materials/

2 for 1

After not blogging for quite some time, I'm giving you a 2 for 1 (2 posts in 1 day). The social media workshop I went to today was great and I have many new ideas to connect better with people out there. I'm going to look more into Facebook (thanks Brian), twitter, and Youtube, since everyone uses them. I'm going to set up some google analytics on our website, look into tweetdeck and I may even create a listening dashboard.

To more timely news, don't forget to visit with your neighbors tonight for National Night Out. And if they don't have a recycling container out for the celebration, bring one over and tell them "Dan made me do it".

Social Media

I'm going to learn about social media today. Maybe it will help me write a more regular (and interesting) blog. Or, if you have any tips, please let me know. Wish me luck!

Free Wood Mulch

We get a bunch of calls about our free wood mulch, so moving forward I thought I would try to update whether we have some or not on the blog. WE HAVE FREE MULCH! It is at Central Park in the parking lot across the street from 8300 Noble Ave N. I'll let you know if when we run out and when we get more. Stay tuned!

Saving Water

I got a press release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week talking about saving water and it got me thinking. It's easy to forget about our most precious resource in the world, water. We take it for granted. Turn a knob and there it is. Worldwide approximately 1.2 billion people (15% of population) do not have access to clean water. Here in the U.S. we are blessed with water, but every year there are cases of drought and water shortages in every region of the country. This year has been a wet one in Minnesota, but we are still dealing with a drought that has ground water levels 5-15 feet lower than normal. Here are a few tips from the EPA on saving water:

· Check toilets for silent leaks by putting a few drops of food coloring in the tank; if the color shows up in the bowl indicating a leak, fixing it may be as simple as replacing the toilet’s flapper.
· Twist on a WaterSense labeled bathroom faucet aerator to use 30 percent less water without a noticeable difference in flow.
· Replace a showerhead with a WaterSense labeled model that uses less water and energy, but still has all the power of a water-hogging model.

For more water saving tips visit http://www.epa.gov/watersense/

Rain Garden Workshop Tonight

This is a bit late notice, but Brooklyn Park is hosting a rain garden workshop tonight, Thursday, June 24th from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at city hall, 5200 85th Ave N. The cost is $10 and each paying attendee can bring a guest for free. Come learn the what, why, and how on rain gardens!

Juice Boxes and Milk Cartons

Did you know that all residents in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal and New Hope can now recycle paper juice boxes and milk cartons in the recycling cart? That's right, juice boxes and milk cartons are made of mostly paper (70-85%), but they also have barrier layers of aluminum and plastic. A new process allows the layers to be separated and recycled. juice boxes can recycle and that includes other items like orange juice cartons and tomato juice boxes. Please throw away your straw (for now).

Thanks Jill (a blog follower) for requesting information about recycling juice boxes and milk cartons!

Happy 40th Earth Day

Today is a great day to celebrate the great things we do to keep our environment clean for future generations, but more importantly it is a great day to do more. Here are a few little things you can do that add up when we all do it.

• When you are done with your soda at lunch, if there is not a recycling container around, take it home with you and put it in your recycling container. Repeat 260 times each year (1x for every work day) and you will save the equivalent energy of 12 gallons of gasoline.
• Plant a tree, you already know this but food and lemonade tastes better in the shade on a hot day.
• Bring your reusable bag to the grocery store, it makes cents (about 5 cents at some stores)

Happy recycling and Happy Earth Day!

Cell Phone Recycling Week

Did you know that April 5-11 is National Cell Phone Recycling Week? I didn't until today, but I thought I would pass along some information about it. You've heard it before, but every phone counts. Recycling one cell phone saves enough energy to power a laptop for 44 hours. Wow!

You can always recycle cell phones for free at the Hennepin County Recycling Center at 8100 Jefferson Hwy. in Brooklyn Park.

The Environmental Protection Agency has more information on cell phone recycling opportunities as well at: http://www.epa.gov/cellphones

Yard Waste Site Now Open

I think we can officially say spring is here. It is 76 degrees out, the sun is shining, and most importantly the Maple Grove Yard Waste Site is open! Bring all your leaves, tree branches up to 10-inch diameter, and (eventually) grass clipping to the site. There is no charge at the gate for residents of Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal, and New Hope. The site is open April 1st through November 30th, Mon-Sat 8am to 7pm and Sundays Noon to 7pm. For more information visit www.mgyardwaste.com

Cash for Appliances

As some of you may know, more federal stimulus money is up for grabs. Whether you agree with the funding or not, if you have an old refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher or washing machine, this is a good opportunity to trade up and save up to $200. The idea is to get some of these energy "hogs" off the grid and replace them with Energy Star models that use about 1/3 of the energy. Your old appliance must be recycled. Details are available at www.mnappliancerebate.com

The rebates will go fast and you can apply to reserve your rebate starting at 8:00 a.m., today, March 1st.

Hangover

I've had writer's block (loser's hangover) since my last post, because every time I look at it I see Vikings and I'm still not over that game (and won't be until we get to and win a superbowl). Enough about my Vikings.

Today I'm promoting a great opportunity for Brooklyn Park residents to get involved in our community. Nearly 400 people gathered at community cafe's and more recently, 31 community members came together in a 3-day strategic planning session. Both are part of the process of making BP a better place in the future. We are looking for more community members to help by joining an action team geared towards three areas; resources, diversity, and youth. The deadline to join an action team is Feb. 26th. Please see our video clip or www.brooklynpark.org for more information. GO BP!

Do not recycle part 2

I'm continuing my series of things we should not recycle (in the curbside recycling cart). If you are like many Minnesotans, you may be enjoying a pizza this Sunday evening while watching the Vikings game. The pizza came in a box that you might think is recyclable, but it is not. Once a little grease and cheese get on the box, it should go in the trash. When grease and cheese sit on the pizza box for a while, mold starts growing and that is the last thing you want when you are trying to turn an old box into new cereal boxes and other boxes for food. Thanks for not recycling (pizza boxes) and GO VIKES!

Do not recycle part 1

I'm starting a series on items that we should not recycle in your curbside recycling cart. Today it is plastic bags. Please do not put plastic bags in your recycling cart and please do not put recyclables in plastic bags in your recycling cart. Plastic bags fowl up the sorting systems that are used at material recovery facilities. They get stuck in the conveyors and wind up as trash.

So what should you do with plastic bags...?

1. Don't use white or black trash bags for your recyclables at home, use a paper bag or put the recyclables in the cart without a bag. Personally, I use a small plastic trash container without a bag. When it is full, i walk it to my recycling cart and dump it - no bag needed!
2. Bring your own reusable bag when shopping
3. If you buy a small item, tell the cashier you don't need a bag
4. Recycle your plastic bags at Drop Off sites such as Festival Foods, Cub Foods, Lunds, Byerly's, or the Hennepin County Recycling Center (8100 Jefferson Hwy.,Brooklyn Park)

Thanks for not recycling (plastic bags in your cart).