Mountain Biking: Rubber side down- Time for a TurnaroundWell, my friends, things are finally looking up, and good timing, too, since I’m sure you’re all sick of me bitching. Recent bike build, including wheels… fun! In what feels like a fairly short time, I’ve come from sitting around … Continue reading → […]
- This Raised My PulseHey, baby… wanna ride? I may be injured, but I’m not dead yet. I can still have racy thoughts. Here’s more info. In other news, UBI was an awesome success! I had a blast. I highly recommend it. Overhaul day…. … Continue reading → […]
- Time for a Turnaround
- Edgy Veggie
Balcony garden step one: “growing” my dirt in a compost bin
Hey! It’s a guest post from the Camera’s Allison Barrett!
Allison
A few months ago I moved into a quiet apartment that had one amazing feature: A large balcony. We aren’t talking 4′ x 9′ or even 5′ x 10. We are talking a 6′ by 25′ balcony that had so many possibilities that the mind boggled.
I happened to move in next to a green thumb and, throughout the cold winter months, before she ran off to Arizona, we devised greater and greater plans for what to do with my space. Her balcony, even in the dead of winter, was a warm, cozy place with chairs spaced appropriately for company and gardening pots and tools carefully placed on the side, ready to be used again as soon as it was time.
Why compost?
So these grandiose plans came down to one simple fact: I needed dirt. Three options arose.
First, sneak out and “borrow” dirt from neighboring homes in the dead of night. Second, buy dirt from a dirt store. Third, and the most enticing, make dirt. Create compost using all the organic materials left around after making a meal, coffee and reading the newspaper!
The first one would land me in jail, the second was not very appealing due to a small budget and even smaller ambition to carry large bags of dirt up to the second floor where my apartment was located. The last one made the most sense. Eco-friendly, cost-effective and hey, I have a balcony, I have plenty of room to “grow” dirt. Read more
Composting workshop this Saturday
Looking to start composting? Get a bin and a workshop for $50 to kick it off this year — clear your Saturday schedule and roll up your sleeves. Read more
DIA composts now! …a little
Ah, yes, the weird Mayan Temple concourse. | photo by flickr user Ken Lund
Title says it all, doesn’t it? No? Well, Planet Green says the rest about the new Denver International Airport composting plan: Read more
Longmont gets composty
The photo illustration of what can be composted that ran with the Longmont Times Call story on the city's new pilot composting program.
The city of Longmont plans to launch a pilot curbside composting program this spring, according to a story in today’s Times Call.
If the pilot is successful, Longmont will start a citywide program in 2011.
A year ago, Boulder expanded its own pilot curbside composting program to serve the entire city.
If you live in Boulder County and you want to know how you can compost, check out the composting resource page on BigGreenBoulder. Read more about Longmont’s program here, or check out an article on the success of Boulder’s program at DailyCamera.com.
Compost improvisation in Boulder
Boulder has curbside composting! Awesome!
Except in certain places! Less awesome!
Small garbage workers, too.
Yeah, curbside composting is really awesome, but if you happen to live in a multifamily situation, like a lot of Boulder renters, you’re out of luck.
But here’s a little story for you: Read more
After the presents & the feast, don’t forget to recycle your tree
Cliff Hathaway recycles the family Christmas tree last Janauary in Boulder | Daily Camera
After the presents are opened, the chestnuts are roasted and the carols are sung — don’t forget to recycle your Christmas tree.
(Assuming, of course, that you didn’t go eco with a live, potted tree that you can plant. Or, that you didn’t buy a petroleum-based fake tree.)
If you live in Boulder, you can get rid of your tree just by sticking it in your curbside composting bin (even if the lid won’t shut.) If you can’t stuff it in the bin, then you can just lean the tree against it instead.
If you went big this Christmas, and your tree is over 6 feet tall, your trash hauler would love it if you’d cut it into at least two pieces.
If you don’t have curbside compost, you can drop your ornament- and light-free tree for free off at the city’s Yard Waste Dropoff site at Western Disposal, 5880 Butte Mill Road.
Folsom Field doesn’t have trash cans
Folsom Field's recycling stats are pretty impressive
CU’s football stadium is full of stats, but its number of trash cans might impress us most. Turns out almost all containers of what you can eat or drink at Folsom Field is recyclable or compostable already — and it’s still improving. From PlanetGreen:
Equipped with the necessary compost and recycling bins, he says the only trash produced is from coffee cup lids, snack chip bags, and candy wrappers. For now, that trash goes into the recycling bins and gets sorted out later (by students, as all the recycling on campus is done), but soon they’re going to stop selling candy in non-recyclable wrappers, and in part because of the university’s influence, Newport said, Frito-Lay is now producing SunChips in compostable packaging.
Read more about Folsom’s zero-waste plans here or after the jump.
