Checking in...

Things are picking up, no pun intended. So far this month Clean my city has had over 5000 page views, our community section and Flickr group keep growing and I have received very positive feedback. Thank you for checking us out, now the next step is to get people participating in the discussion.

Spread the word.

Get more people involved.

I would like to personally thank my good friends James and Ercy for their participation in the community blogs. The ideas that they are sharing in their blogs are awesome. Cheers.

Drop me a line if you have any ideas on how else we can help raise awareness.

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magazine matters - going digital

I'm sure we've all noticed the "new" resurgence of the green movement over the past couple of years. The first I recall this movement happening was during the mid- to late-80s. It's great that people are becoming more aware of our earth's issues and it's great to see recycling, fuel efficiency, and other earth-saving solutions being endorsed, however, I truly hope it's not just a fad this time around.

Technology has advanced so much more since the mid-80s and now we have the ability to take in our media fixes in digital format. If you're like me (and if you work in the media industry, you'll know what I mean), you may find it difficult to fully give up reading your favorite magazines. I do still subscribe to two of my favorite magazines, but am willing to compromise by recycling them after I read them. And when I do recycle, I take the magazines to an Abitibi Paper Retriever (recycling container) at my church or at a nearby school. Not only am I recycling, but I am helping raise funds for good local organizations that give back to the community...a cycle in itself!

While it's great that many magazines now have special "green" issues printed on recycled paper with soy ink, it would be best if we could reduce the production of printed matter and save some trees. Here are a few suggestions on how to get your magazine fixes while helping save the earth:

• Zinio is an environmentally conscious company offering many domestic and international magazines in digital format.

• Some magazines are offering free online versions of their publications. Organic Style, a wonderful magazine, has just launched their inaugural digital issue. It was produced by the same folks who create greenlight magazine.

• Get a kindle. What's a "kindle?" It's a wireless reading device from Amazon. It's similar to a PDA, but doesn't involve any synching. You can purchase reading material and receive it in less than a minute. Books and newspapers are available and with the kindle, you have access to top blogs as well as Wikipedia.

So go ahead and get your media fix and give some of these earth-friendly solutions a try!

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Free Trees!

The Arbor Foundation is offering 10 free 6"-12" trees to anyone who joins in the month of February.

Check it out







Everyone should do this. Cheers

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Clean My City, strong and kicking...

It has been just over a week since going live and There have been some really cool images posted in the CMC flickr group.

We have also had over 4500 page views! and there are three memebers active in the Community blogs. Its growing. Feel free to join in and speak your mind.

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earth day preparation

It's only February, but it's not too early to begin preparing for Earth Day. This year, I plan to give friends, family, and co-workers with a few tools to help them get involved with saving our Earth:

• Tote bag that can be reused for shopping, errands, etc. This will help keep plastic bags from reaching landfills. The bags will contain:
• Compact fluorescent light bulb with facts on how much we can save by using them.
• Handmade scratch paper books made from used office scrap paper (photos to come in a later post). These will give used paper another use before being recycled.
• A bamboo item. Bamboo is very strong and sustainable and keeps our trees alive.
• A locally produced item. As I mentioned in my previous post, buying locally produced items decreases our carbon footprints.
• Resources list printed on recycled paper. The list will include links to helpful websites (including CMC of course), environmentally responsible companies, and maybe some examples of how celebrities are helping keep our earth - this is mainly for my co-workers who are really into entertainment gossip.
• A CMC button if Dan will give me a few during my next visit to Houston!
So dear friends, that's my plan! How will you be celebrating Earth Day this year?

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Thinking outside of the bin....

From CMCommunity post: Some times we have to take the extra step to recycle. Not every neighborhood or community has recycling available and a lot of us are just too busy or too lazy to take the extra step to make sure we do not waste. When I moved to Houston I found out that the neighborhood that I live in does not offer recycling. But Luckily I live right next to Jersey Village, A small community that does have recycling. Every Wednesday the recycling truck comes through Jersey Village, and as long as you put your paper: Junk mail, magazines, office paper, shredded paper, cardboard, food packaging paper board, receipts, pretty much any kind of paper you could imagine - in a black garbage bag, and all of your plastics and aluminum in a white garbage bag, they will pick it up and recycle it for free. So I called the Jersey Village City Council and asked if I could take part in their recycling. They gave me permission to leave my white and black recycling garbage bags on the front yard of City Hall. Pretty awesome. What you do if you live in Jersey Village is on Wednesday you just put your white and black bags out to the curb like it was trash but instead of the garbage truck its a local company that comes by and picks up the recycling materials. They do this for free because by the ton recyclables are actually worth money. Companies like Waste Management do not want you to know this but yes it actually pays to recycle. I am now in contact with this company that picks up the recycling for Jersey Village and we are meeting up to set up large bins at my work, so that my office can recycle - FOR FREE. This company will actually pay you per ton if you have a lot of materials per month. How cool is that. On the contrast side of things Waste Management wants 95 dollars a month to set up their recycling containers and pick them up.


Today I had three garbage bags of plastic recyclables and one huge garbage bag filled with shredded paper, junk mail, and food packaging paper board.

Spread the word. There are companies that will pick up your recycling for FREE. Because it is worth money. All you have to do is organize enough people or enough materials and these companies will come and pick your recycling up for free and may even pay you. You just have to look around to find these guys.

I will be posting more about this company and sharing their contact info very soon. I am also working on getting my neighborhood on recycling too. Because its FREE and it is crazy to put all this stuff in the landfills when there are people willing to pay to re use it.



Dano

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think local!

Lately I've been buying organic foods whenever possible. However, when it comes to produce and other products, it's important to also take into account the time and distance these items have traveled to reach their final destinations.

For the most part, U.S. produce is picked up to a week before reaching the supermarket. Let's also remember that it may travel thousands of miles before it reaches that supermarket, a consumer purchases it, and then is driven to the consumer's home. Think of the additional miles products travel when they originate from other countries! It really does impact our use of the earth's natural resources. Given this scenario, there are many reasons to buy local produce and goods:

• Local produce is much fresher and full of flavor. A tomato grown at home or purchased from a local farmer tastes so much better than the bland, mass-produced variety sold at most grocery stores.
• Pollution and gas usage are decreased by buying local products. Decrease your carbon footprint!
• Since it doesn't need to travel very far, local produce is typically preservative-free.
• Buying local supports your neighborhood farmers and helps support the local community.
These are just a few reasons to buy local. I can hardly wait for springtime when I can walk through the farmers' markets and purchase homegrown goodies!

By the way, the photo above was taken yesterday. I had a little snack of locally baked whole wheat bread with sour cherry preserves made by American Spoon (Petoskey, MI...I know this is a bit of a distance, but I still consider it to be local compared to most products which travel a much farther distance).

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CMCommunity - Posts are awesome...

Today, there were a couple blogs that got my attention.

This first one brought up a really good point, and if anyone out there has the answer please let us know.

*grouser* writes -

"What the heck do you do with drywall???

Recycling metals: scrap copper wire, pipes, and duct work is cake. I mean the market for metals right now is so high that they even pay you. Recycling wood isnt so bad either, 6 bucks a pick up truck load and the wood is used to fire a local power plant. I know, not exactly "green", but a heck of a lot better than the dump. One thing I am struggling with is recycling drywall. What the heck can you do with this stuff? Its gypsum, so it seems that its logical it could be crushed and reformed into other gypsum based products, but no one is even close to taking this on. It just goes back to my original point about recycling being difficult. So many barriers in place right now, that its just not being taken advantage of to the degree it should be."

Good question.

And on the other side of things here is a great recommendation to help stop all the Junk Mail.

*ercy* writes -

"keep the junk mail away

This week I cleaned my city! Well, I cleaned my front yard. As I arrived home earlier in the week, I noticed a few pages of newspaper on the ground and decided to step out of my car to pick them up. I later realized that not only was there newspaper everywhere, but there was litter scattered throughout everyone's yards. Most of what I saw was junk mail. If you live in the Detroit area, you know of the strong wind that hit the city early this week. I remember waking up thinking that the neighbors' garbage cans or lawn furniture could come crashing through my window at any moment. These winds caused the majority of the refuse to scatter about the neighborhood.

Anyway, as I picked up the garbage, I thought of ways to stop this from happening in the future. Why not stop junk mail from arriving in our mailboxes in the first place? Here are several sites that can lead you in the right direction:

GreenDimes - This company will help remove your contact information from mailing lists and lets you select catalogs you no longer wish to receive. They will also monitor your account on a monthly basis. The cost for the service is $20 and includes the planting of 10 trees on your behalf.

DMA Choice - DMA Choice is the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) consumer information website. Here you can find many ways to add or remove your name from mailing lists. Let's face it...smart direct marketers don't want to waste marketing budget on people who feel strongly about not wanting the junk mail.

Martha Stewart's Junk Mail Prevention Tips - Even my hero, Martha Stewart, has provided information on her website on how to keep junk mail away."

Good stuff.

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keep the junk mail away

This week I cleaned my city! Well, I cleaned my front yard. As I arrived home earlier in the week, I noticed a few pages of newspaper on the ground and decided to step out of my car to pick them up. I later realized that not only was there newspaper everywhere, but there was litter scattered throughout everyone's yards. Most of what I saw was junk mail. If you live in the Detroit area, you know of the strong wind that hit the city early this week. I remember waking up thinking that the neighbors' garbage cans or lawn furniture could come crashing through my window at any moment. These winds caused the majority of the refuse to scatter about the neighborhood.

Anyway, as I picked up the garbage, I thought of ways to stop this from happening in the future. Why not stop junk mail from arriving in our mailboxes in the first place? Here are several sites that can lead you in the right direction:

GreenDimes - This company will help remove your contact information from mailing lists and lets you select catalogs you no longer wish to receive. They will also monitor your account on a monthly basis. The cost for the service is $20 and includes the planting of 10 trees on your behalf.

DMA Choice - DMA Choice is the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) consumer information website. Here you can find many ways to add or remove your name from mailing lists. Let's face it...smart direct marketers don't want to waste marketing budget on people who feel strongly about not wanting the junk mail.

Martha Stewart's Junk Mail Prevention Tips - Even my hero, Martha Stewart, has provided information on her website on how to keep junk mail away.

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Thank you, Day one was a success.

I must say that the first day of CleanMyCity.org was a great success. We had 823 page visits, 88 people joined the CMC flickr group and 3 new members in the CleanMyCity Community. That is awesome, and I hope that everyone spreads the word.

Thank you again and I look forward to seeing everyone active on flickr and on the community blogs.

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