Monday, September 28, 2009

Have you received our expanded recycling program mailer or seen our ad?

To help you learn about our expanded recycling program, we sent out mailers -- has this handy reference arrived in your mailbox already? We have put the mailer online (PDF, 1.63 MB):

expanded recycling program mailer

We're running this newspaper ad (PDF, 839 kb) as well:

expanded recycling program newspaper ad

We encourage you to share these links and documents with others!

Friday, September 11, 2009

We gave a composting presentation, and learned just as much

Yesterday, my colleague, Ana, and I gave a composting presentation to the Darne Bloomers Garden Club in Darnestown.

No sooner did we enter the meeting room, I whipped out my camera, and started snapping away! Never mind the composting presentation -- we were in waste-reduction paradise!

The meeting invitations were printed on the inside of brown paper bags. Their last line read: "Please compost this announcement".

meeting invitations printed on brown paper bags

The tables were covered with brown paper (also compostable!), each sporting a different garden-related quotation. The table decorations were arrangements of fruits and vegetables.

table covered with brown paper

Delightfully-decorated "fruits" and "vegetables" -- tiny cakes! -- were among the goodies served. These were presented on cabbage leaves, in cookie crumb "soil".

tiny cakes presented on cabbage leaves

There were no plastic utentils or other disposables here! The cutlery was wrapped in a cloth napkin package, easy to pick up and take back to one's seat.

cutlery, wrapped in cloth napkins

Three labeled containers awaited the end of the meeting, and the return of silverware; dishes; and cups, glasses, and bowls (from left to right).

containers for returning used dishes and utensils

Congratulations on the thoughtfully prepared meeting, and on the negligible amount of material which went out as trash!

Do you have a meeting coming up? Benefit from the zero-waste meeting lessons learned by a US EPA employee, and check out the EPA's Green Meetings resources.