Share and Voice: Greening Up Your Holidays

I realize that there's not much time left to finish your holiday gift buying, but despite all the craziness there's always time to think green for the holiday season. People make thousands of choices when buying gifts for their family and friends. However, you decide what's best for whomever you're buying for, but do you think about what's best for the environment? If you want to make that part of the equation think about how much packaging comes with each choice. The majority of that packaging will probably end up in a landfill. If the gift comes with a lot of packaging think about which parts can be recycled. Hartel's DBJ has worked with area vendors to recycle used wrapping paper turning it into material for ceiling tiles, but there are some materials which are not meant to go in the recycling bin. It's a good idea to take a little time to look for packaging that's 100 percent biodegradable and buying items made in the Northland is also an easy way to live green this holiday season. By shopping carefully you may be able to cut your waste in half this holiday season.

Sources: Greening Up Your Holidays and Hartel's DBJ

Share and Voice: Motor Oil Recycling

Automobiles have longer intervals between oil changes than they used to... But whether you're changing your oil at three thousand miles or ten thousand miles; your used oil still needs a safe place to go. Rolling up your sleeves to change your own oil can be a great way to learn about your car and save a little money in the process, but it's critically important to the environment that you dispose of that used oil in a safe manner. Experts say that one drop of oil can contaminate two quarts of water and one quart can contaminate two million gallons of water. Scary thought if you ask me! Most places where you take your car in to service that do oil changes will let you bring in your own oil for recycling and some locations may even find a way to give that used oil a second life. At places like the London Road Car Wash, they re–use oil brought in to heat their facility. It's one of the reasons they were awarded the Sustainable Twin Ports Seal in 2008. So while protecting your pocketbook, make sure you're also protecting the environment. 

Source: Motor Oil Recycling  

Share and Voice: LED Holiday Lights

The holiday season is now upon us and what better way to do a share and voice than Christmas lights! The holiday season often means a lot of green and red lights and decorations, but one of those colors should be your main focus this season. LED holiday lights have been around for several years now and while they may cost a bit more than traditional lights, they can provide significant benefits over incandescent bulbs. When Minnesota Power decorates its annual Christmas tree in Duluth they use only LED lights. So what are some of the benefits of using LED Holiday Lights? LED lights have a lot of benefits, including, they are 75 percent more energy efficient than traditional Christmas tree lights, they last ten times longer, and they're also more durable and they are cool to the touch so they reduce the risk for a fire hazard. Here's the difference: The energy of one seven watt incandescent bulb can power 140 LED lights. Something else to think about...if you plan to ditch those old energy eating strings of Christmas lights, you can do it in a green way. Airpark Products & Services in Duluth has partnered with the Recycling Association of Minnesota to safely recycle your old strings of lights. Last year the "Recycle Your Holiday" program recycled more than 100,000 pounds of lights. This year their goal is to double that. The recycled light bulbs will be crushed and the glass recycled, even the wires will be recycled. The copper inside will be stripped and marketed to area vendors. I thought this was an awesome article and now I know where I can recycle my old Christmas lights when they burn out. 

Source: LED Holiday Lights 

Share and Voice: Amazing Grace

I was browsing the Northland's News Center website and found an interesting article about Amazing Grace in Canal Park and how it is very green friendly. Since Amazing Grace opened they have added more biodegradable options for taking out food. In the dining room they also take a unique route to remain green. The plates that the food is served on, comes from a variety of sources such as Goodwill. Also, if you are taking coffee to go, the cup is biodegradable, and the lid. It can all be recycled. Finally, the majority of the food sold at Amazing Grace is locally purchased. You can check out the video and site below.

Source: Amazing Grace

Share and Voice: Hazardous Waste Disposal

I was browsing around the internet and stumbled onto a pretty interesting topic. I know that almost all of us have some sort of hazardous chemicals at home or in the garage whether it's paint, Lysol, etc. It's what we do with them when we decide to get rid of them. There's a place right here in Duluth called Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) that you can do just that. They dispose of any chemicals or compost such as leaves and even jack-o-lanterns for free, yes FREE! Some examples of things that are brought to WLSSD are paints, sealants, insect and weed killers, and fluorescent bulbs. I strongly recommend visiting this article and WLSSD's websites to learn more about recycling unwanted chemicals and wastes.

Check out the information at: (Hazardous Waste Disposal) and (WLSSD).

Share and Voice: Eco-Footprint

I saw this article and video on Northland's News Center website and thought it was really cool. It is similar to the building that we got to see at Bagley. I hope to build something like this hopefully in the future. Living comfortably and being green don't always go hand in hand but in this EDGE Home in Bayfield you'll find everything you need for comfort in a very small package. How this living space is kept comfortable in the winter makes it one of the greenest structures in the Northland. This EDGE Home by Revelations Architect costs only 30 dollars a month to heat and it has a unique way to adapt to the climate. On the North and South side of this building are giant sliding door which provide insulation to the interior while residents are away and for cold evenings. The home also has something called a butterfly roof which catches rainwater for re–use for use in the bathroom and kitchen. I found this very interesting and it's extremely efficient in cost as well as most importantly eco-friendly! You can check out the house and video at: (Small Carbon Footprint). 

Share and Voice: Lakewalk

I read a very interesting article regarding the lakewalk becoming more eco-friendly. The City of Duluth has been awarded a grant in the amount of $41,159 from the Department of Natural Resources Solar Legacy Grant Fund for the purpose of placing solar powered trash and recycling units along Duluth's Lakewalk. It is estimated over 1 million people use the Lakewalk annually, which contributes to the high volume of garbage, according to the City. The trash containers can hold up to 5 times as much as traditional containers. The units use solar energy to run a compactor that reduces the trash. The trash containers operate on about the same amount of energy as one Christmas-tree light. I found this information to be very beneficial and it's nice to see that our city is trying to do its part to make things more friendly to the environment. It was a breath of fresh air so to speak to hear about these efforts to go more green. Well done Duluth! You can read more on this topic at: (Lakewalk).

Share and Voice: "Natural Cleaning Products"

Cleaning products touting the word "natural" have popped up all over store shelves. But is that word misleading? Does the word 'natural' attract you to purchase a particular product? If it does you should be aware that "Natural" on the label could be misleading. In cleaning products the word is not defined and not regulated by any government body or environmental agency. Cleaning products are not required to list all their ingredients on their product label. To win the seal the natural products association requires full disclosure. Clorox Greenworks is the first cleaning product line to earn the NPA "natural" seal since the organization started testing cleaning products in February. It's not just cleaning products the Natural Products Association is testing. It started giving it's "natural" seal to personal care products such as cosmetics, shampoo, and soap a couple of years ago. When buying supposed "natural" products make sure you take a good look at what's really in it (Natural Cleaning Products).

Share and Voice: Seat Belts

I wanted to talk about an aspect that a lot of people overlook and that is the use of seat belts. A statewide increased seat belt enforcement campaign starts Friday following a deadly start to October — at least 12 traffic deaths in the first six days. The deaths included eight vehicle occupants of which only three were buckled up. That means five people died in which by simply clicking a safety belt could've saved their lives. The increased enforcement runs through Oct. 28. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) Office of Traffic Safety is coordinating the effort. The aim of this enforcement effort is to encourage belt use to prevent tragedies. Around 400 Minnesota law enforcement agencies will conduct seat belt patrols. Half of the enforcement will take place during nighttime and overnight hours, as each year 70 percent of motorists killed during 9 p.m.–3 a.m. are not belted. DPS reports 75 percent of drinking drivers killed crashes are also not belted. Officers will enforce the state’s primary seat belt law, which allows law enforcement to stop and ticket motorists or passengers solely for belt violations. A seat belt fine is $25 but will cost more than $100 with court and administrative fees. The campaign also will include enforcement of Minnesota’s strengthened child passenger safety law that requires children to be in the correct restraint until they are age 8 or 4 feet 9 inches tall, whichever comes first. This law requires booster seats for children usually starting after turning age 4; boosters help adult seat belts fit children correctly. The seat belt enforcement is a component of the state’s core traffic safety initiative, Toward Zero Deaths (TZD). TZD focuses on the application of four strategic areas to reduce crashes — education, enforcement, engineering and emergency trauma response. The goal of the program is 400 or fewer deaths by the end of 2010. To-date, there have been 319 traffic deaths in Minnesota compared to 320 deaths at this time in 2009.  The message here is to BUCKLE UP EVERYONE!!! Seat belts are built-in to vehicles for a reason: to use them and to save lives. You can read more about this story at: (Seat Belts). 

Share and Voice: Park Smoking Ban

I recently just heard in the news that Duluth is in the works of implementing a smoking ban in all of its parks, including the boardwalk (Yay!!!!!!) I really enjoy taking walks down on the boardwalk and cannot stand when I smell second hand smoke from people especially when I'm trying to get some sort of exercise. I found the following information regarding the possible smoking ban from the Northland's News Center website: The Duluth city council is still working out the kinks on a smoking ban in city parks and playgrounds. Currently the proposed ordinance says smokers won't be able to light–up within 100 feet of any city sponsored, organized or scheduled youth event in a park where most of participants are under 18. This comes along with a ban on smoking in all playgrounds. The American Lung Association is working alongside the two councilors proposing this ban, and they are still figuring out how to notify park goers so it can be enforced properly. One of the ideas is placing signs near the perimeters of playgrounds and events. This wouldn't be the first smoking ban of its nature in the area. There is already a smoking ban policy in parks in place in Duluth, but this ordinance would give the policy more enforcement and more specifics. There could still be more changes coming for the proposal. The councilors have talked about tightening up the wording and possibly expanding the ordinance to cover more ground. This idea/proposal makes a lot of sense to me and I hope that it gets past. The link also takes you to the video of the article if you would like to see that as well (Smoking Ban).

Welcome to Matt's Smoke Free Zone

 Hello everyone my name is Matt Koski and I'm a senior here at UMD. My major is health education w/ a community concentration and a psychology minor. I also plan on obtaining a license here at UMD to teach special education. I've been in college for quite some time now and want to be finished!; although I did take about 2 and a half years off from college to work full time. My interests include: hunting, fishing, sports (I played football, basketball, and baseball all through high school and played football and baseball in Junior College), fantasy football, walking, the outdoors, playing video games, going to movies, and just relaxing at home. My family has a lake cabin on Lake Vermillion and a hunting shack up by Canada which I really enjoy being at. I grew up in a very small town in which my graduating class was about 40 people. I also grew up in the country so that's probably a contributing factor as to why I love being outdoors. My blog is going to be about the outdoors/wilderness and why we should preserve/enjoy them more than we do as a society. I would also like to add things on the benefits of not smoking and the harms that second hand smoke causes.

Do NOT include text in ALL CAPS or text in between the () symbols.)

There are 6 possible types of posts on my blog. They include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Read 'n' Seed
6. Share and Voice

The members of my group are:

1. Brenda@Barefoot in the Backyard with Brenda
2. Dane@Dane's Trail of Health
3. JD@Earth and Me with JD
4. Sam@Sustainability with Sam
5. Alicia@Out and About with Alicia
6. Molly@Molly's Rico Eco

You can subscribe to my blog by clicking the subscribe gadget in the gadget column. You can also follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. I am subscribed to all the blogs in my blog list gadget. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile." 

Well that about wraps it up for the introductory portion of the class. I hope my first blogging experiences are good ones and I hope to hear from all my fellow group members very soon. Talk to ya soon.