Top ten reasons your recycling wasn't picked up?

10. The recycling cart was not set out before the truck went by (should be out by 6:30 a.m.)

9. The recycling cart grew arms and rolled itself to Florida for the winter.

8. The cart had unacceptable items in it such as clothes, leaves, wood, t.v.'s, or an album of
Bing Crosby's greatest hits (the cover would have been okay).

7. The cart had aspirations to be a magician and perfected the disappearing act (please contact us for another cart).

6. It was out on the wrong day, recycling is only collected once every other week.

5. It was your significant other's turn to take out the recycling (they may have told you they did it, but they really forgot)

4. One of six holidays (New Years Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas) fell somewhere between Monday and Friday and pushed back your collection by one day

3. Oops!

2. The cart was pulled in before the truck made it through the route (the truck broke down and by the time it was fixed they barely finished the route by 6:30 p.m. to avoid getting fined by the city.

1. Gremlins, they still exist, and they attacked the driver and stole the truck right before they got to your street.

Superbowl Boosts Recycling

100 million people (give or take a few) and I watched the Superbowl last night. If they were like me they helped boost recycling with the number of cans and bottles collected for recycling this week. Let's do the math together. To simplify my experiment, say everyone consumes an extra 2 cans of their preferred beverage, which is a conservative estimate for many people that watch the game. Yes, some live it up a bit more with bottled beverages and wine, but let's talk aluminum cans.

100,000,000 people * 2 extra cans/person = 200,000,000 cans. "WikiAnswers" says about 28 empty cans equals a pound. 200,000,000 cans divided by 28 cans/lb. gives us 7.14 million pounds of extra recyclable cans from the Superbowl. Converted to money, at $0.60/lb. that's over $4.28 million dollars in aluminum! Wow, the Superbowl really does boost recycling!

What's your impact?

In my tangled "green" network I received a link to an interesting website. It has many environmental and home improvement tips, and a calculator that measures your environmental impact. If you would like to try it go to http://www.lowimpactliving.com and click on the "Impact" tab. I gave it a try and found out that I'm about "average" (it hurts to be reminded how average I am). Anyway, I'm taking that as a challenge and plan to use a few of the website tips to save energy such as using power strips to shut off electronics (T.V., stereo, etc.) that use energy even when they are turned off, and try some water conservation tips. In the grand scheme of things I'm not too concerned about my score (by the way it was 104), but I'm looking to improve it. Give it a try and let me know what your score is!!!

2009 Calendars

Is it me or have you noticed the lack of 2009 calendars this year? The economy has cut back on businesses sending me the usual 5 or 6 calendars that I used to get. This is not a bad thing, though, cheers to waste reduction! If you are looking for a 2009 calendar, you should have received one from me.

Our 2009 Brooklyn Park Recycling Calendar was mailed to all residents at the end of December. Residents of Brooklyn Center, Crystal, and New Hope also were sent the 2009 HRG Recycling Calendar. They were redesigned to color coordinate the recycling collection map with recycling collection days. For example, if you live in southwestern Brooklyn Park your recycling day is every other Monday and it is highlighted in orange to match the orange recycling zone on the map. If you live in the southwest part of Crystal/New Hope your recycling day is every other Tuesday and it is highlighted in yellow to match the yellow recycling zone on the map.

If you did not receive the calendar and want one sent to you, please give us a call at 763-493-8007 and we can mail one out. If you are still looking for a "regular" 2009 calendar, try Fleet Farm.

Now that Christmas is over...

Christmas is over and my annual ritual of breaking down gift/cardboard boxes is complete. I was hoping to be setting out a box from a new 52" T.V., but Santa delivered it to the neighbors. Instead, I got to recycle a couple boxes from new lamps. Many items from Christmas gifts are recyclable, such as toy boxes, shoe boxes, and cardboard boxes too. Our recycling hauler tells me that gift wrap is not recyclable, but the rolls from gift wrap are. I know this recycling thing can still be confusing, but try to bear with me.

Christmas trees are going to start showing up at the curb and please remember that most garbage haulers require you to call them to set up Christmas tree recycling. Some charge a small recycling fee and most only pick up through the first week or two into January. There is also a free Christmas tree recycling drop-off site for Hennepin County residents at RRT Processing Solutions at 630 Malcolm Ave SE, Minneapolis. They only accept them for a limited time in January. For more information call 612-331-3993.

Too Many Phonebooks

Do you ever wonder why we receive seventeen phonebooks each year? Yes, I'm exaggerating a bit, but it sure seems like a waste to get more than one phonebook. Some people don't even use a phonebook, they just look up a number online or call for directory assistance (if you like free directory assistance try 1-800-GOOG-411, but the City and I are not officially endorsing it of course).

Back to phonebooks, if you want to stop getting them go to www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.com and you can opt out of getting white pages and/or yellow pages. I did this and I haven't received a phone book since!!! Okay, that was only last week but I will see how long it works.

Need more space?

After the long Thanksgiving weekend I know I could have used more space. More space on my plate, more space in my belly, and more space in my recycling cart. All the cans and bottles from food preparations and spirits couldn't fit in my first recycling cart, but my second recycling cart had plenty of room. Did you know you can get a second recycling too? E-mail me at dan.ruiz@brooklynpark.org and I can get you a second recycling cart or if you don't have room for a second cart you can get a larger cart. We have 3 sizes: 35, 64, or 96 gallon carts.