My MPMF

This is a little late, but I still had a blast on Friday Night at the Mid Point Music Festival.

kk

it's a one eyed, one hatted puffy orange music lover... 

  

 Tracy Walker at Coffee Emporium

obviously these listeners are very impressed.

 

shake your grove thang, dancin' man. (at Segway)

 

the crowd is enthralled with Wake the Bear

 

croonin' (Wake the Bear)

 

Wake the Bear's shoes and beer.

 

the Sundresses! (kinda...)

It was awesome to celebrate great music in all the cool spots downtown.

(ya know, except for Cadillac Ranch...)

recycleDbin at Urban Cincy!

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you know of a new venture I am embarking on. I am now a contributing writer for one of Cincinnati's more well known blogs,  UrbanCincy . Not that I'm abandoning recycleDbin any time soon. This gives me a chance to meet new people and help cover all the exciting things happening in and around Cincinnati. So... yay!

Diary of a DAAP kid: home sweet home?

picture credit

A couple weeks ago, I left home to do some traveling. Guess where I ended up? Home. Confused yet? Let me explain. As a college student, I feel like I have two places I call Home.

Back Home again, in Indiana... 

The first of these is the area where I grew up (for me, this is small town Indiana.) I still have a bedroom there, full to the brim with memories from childhood and high school. When I go back to spend a weekend or a holiday, my mom cooks me dinner, and we go on bike rides and talk about how much Franklin is changing and growing as a city.  Franklin-home is a comfortable haven, full of memories from friends and times past, reminiscing, and spending time with family and old friends.

However, it's been four years since I've spent any significant amount of time living in Franklin. It seems like every time I go back, there's something that's been built (or worse, torn down) that has changed the familiar landscape of my past into something new and unknown. My roots are in Indiana (and I will always swear my allegiance to Indiana tomatoes and corn over Ohio's!) but I don't know if my heart is there anymore.

old roomies and I outside our humble abode in Clifton.

 Home #2, is obviously Cincinnati. I didn't grow up here, but I've done a lot of exploring and experiencing in this city over the last four years. People are usually surprised to find that I didn't actually grow up here. I feel really lucky that Cincy has so much to offer, and that I've been able to burst the Clifton bubble and get into the rest of the city. I feel connected here in a way that I didn't back in Indiana. Maybe it's the history, the architecture, the events, or even the people... but this city has a tangible hold on my heart.

Even so, it's not like I grew up here. So in a way, it's kind of strange to have two places that I feel quasi-connected to. Two Homes. I am certain that I am not alone in this feeling. I know when I graduate that I will want to get out of town and explore the rest of the country in a way that I haven't yet had the opportunity to. But will I ultimately end up in Cincinnati?

For now, the answer appears to be "yes."

Being green in Boston

  

I had a fantastic time in Boston over Labor Day weekend. Great food, great friends... it was a wonderful all around experience. There was a lot to take in, and our hosts showed us around many of the different neighborhoods of good old Beantown.

Seeing as how Boston is such a progressive and well-established area, I was interested to see what sort of strides the city has taken to become more sustainable. Obviously the first huge thing was the public transportation. The MBTA is a really great system of rail, subway, bus... and boat! Yep. They have boats that take passengers from one side of the bay to the other. It's pretty awesome.

 

view from the ferry

They are also installing solar trash receptacles around the city center. We saw them over by Fenway park.  They look kind of like green mailboxes, but they have icons of people throwing stuff away on them, so there wasn't too much confusion. They hold up to 150 gallons of trash, and the solar panels run a compactor. Hopefully they can also do this with recycling - cans, maybe?

 

too bad it's not a recycling bin!

My friends and I ended up spending an afternoon at Harvard, and I noticed that the campus has been making efforts to "green" their facilities. They had signs around the grounds inviting people to "sit down, it's organic!" The sign didn't elaborate on how the groundskeeping was organic, exactly. I didn't see any goats mowing the lawn, so I assume that they are no longer using chemicals to treat the grass.

 

cool public art installation on the very "green" grass

The good folks at Harvard have also "greened up" their bathrooms. While using their facilities at the Harvard Museum of Natural History (I highly recommend visiting, and not just for the bathrooms!), I noticed that they had installed low-flow toilets and solar powered, motion sensored faucets! Not only that, but even their foamy soap was eco-friendly.

 

 

My only disappointment was, even with all the fancy new equipment... the only means available to dry one's hands after washing up was with paper towels. Seriously? All this new fangled equipment and you couldn't install an air dryer? 

So Harvard's Eco-Score Card gets a B from me. Good effort, but it doesn't make sense to have equipment that's been around for years (i.e. air dryers) in your bathrooms.

Overall, I had an amazing time. I highly recommend visiting. The whole time I was there, I couldn't help but wonder if someday Cincinnati could aspire to be as awesome as Boston. I think we are on our way!

Diary of a DAAP kid: another vacation??

That's right, kiddies. I'm heading out of town to Boston over Labor Day weekend. Hopefully I will find some sweet recycled stuff... maybe even ride the local public transportation!

At any rate, may your Labor Days be filled with sunshine and not too much styrofoam. Cuz that stuff sucks.

Recycling in Cincinnati

It is a bit of an understatement to say that recycling is important to me. I mean... you DID read the title of my blog, didn't you? It's an integral part of my life that was ingrained at an early age. There was never a question as to "hmm, should we recycle this plastic bottle, or just throw it away?" I thank my mom for this fantastic habit, and now filling up my green bin is as normal as brushing my teeth or washing my hands.

I know that recycling is slowly becoming more and more mainstream. Just last week I convinced the boys who run the tuxedo shop in front of my house (yep, Mr. Tuxedo's) that they could, in fact, RECYCLE the 3-5 bottles of soda they drink a day. Same with all the cardboard boxes that they toss. They were a bit skeptical until they realized it was just like throwing things away, except for in a different box. Instant converts.

Cincinnati has a recycling program, which is better than cities that don't. There is a proposal that has been developed by some of the members of Cincinnati City Council that will improve the efficiency of recycling in Cincy, as well as turn a profit for the city and create jobs.

Councilwoman Roxanne Qualls sent me an email earlier today, and she puts it like this:

"Back in May 2008, council asked the administration to review the recycling program and recommend how we could increase the rate of recycling, share to a greater extent in any revenue from sale of recyclables, and increase the amount of money the city saves by avoiding landfill tipping fees. The original motion was extensive, and also directed that workers receive a living wage for sorting recyclables."

Basically the city has to pay to dump all the trash that we, the citizens, produce. It's expensive (not to mention really gross)



at $27.25 per tonne of garbage, and over 88,437 tonnes of garbage estimated to be dumped... that's a lot of money to spend.

However, recycling waste ends up paying the city back money... about $28.30 per tonne (at the end of 2008)

The enhanced system will include a Recycle Bank program that records how much individual households recycle, and then rewards them for it. (uh, that's awesome.) They also want to replace the dinky green bins for 64 gallon recycling carts.


Yes, the carts and the new system is going to cost money. But, as we've seen above... it's going to MAKE money. As well as create new jobs.

Qualls says that "the plan, if it were approved and implemented this year, would actually save $20,000 in 2009 and $240,000 in 2010. It would increase the amount recycled by 300% and create 20 new jobs at sorting facilities and 36 new jobs at recycling manufacturing facilities. It also would decrease greenhouse gas emissions.he plan, if it were approved and implemented this year, would actually save $20,000 in 2009 and $240,000 in 2010. It would increase the amount recycled by 300% and create 20 new jobs at sorting facilities and 36 new jobs at recycling manufacturing facilities. It also would decrease greenhouse gas emissions."


These recycling initiatives would be a really great opportunity for Cincinnati, but it is being threatened to be cut off in order to save police jobs.

If you care about the possibility of great recycling in Cincinnati, please follow the link to the Park+Vine blog post about this topic, where you can copy a letter to send to our City Council, specifically Ghiz, Bortz, Berding, Monzel and Harris.

check out Roxanne Quall's website for more info on the proposed recycling plan.

Tell Mayor Mark Mallory and City Council that you care about recycling in Cincinnati!!

Plastic Bag Love: PLAG

It's Friday. Time for some Plastic Bag Love!!

I used to work with an awesome chick named Nikki who is really into plastic bags. She was integral in helping me get up the courage to start recycleDbin, and she's probably one of my biggest fans. And I can't help but be one of hers, because she was the one who got me hooked on plastic bags in the first place!!



Nikki makes PLAGs. If you think that sounds like Plastic Bags... you're totally right. She is an avid knitter, and one day decided to make yarn out of plastic bags instead of the usual stuff. Here's the lowdown from her Etsy site:

"I heart the Earth. I want to keep living here. I want my great-great-grandkids to live here. And I try to do my part to leave a smaller "footprint." I use cloth bags when going to the store, but there are times I stop unexpectedly and inevitably I get a plastic bag. I don't want to put this plastic into the landfill because it NEVER breaks down. Not completely.

I saw this idea to cut up the plastic bags and use it as yarn to create a market bag. Great idea I thought. Practical, not so much. The plastic has a decent amount of give and can stretch out of place quickly with heavy groceries. I use mine more of tote bag. To carry the umbrella and lunch bag to the office. It's also perfect as a beach bag.

Each Plag is made using previously used plastic bags - approximately 50 of them. I change the pattern each time based on the materials. Pictured here is a striped version. I also have solid and pattern bags in process that can be held if you are interested."

so this is what the yarn looks like:



and here's another shot of the PLAG in all its handmade glory:



(all of the images come from her Etsy site, just FYI)

It's a really neat concept that is doing its part to keep plastic bags out of landfills. And that's what we love.

PS - check out the rest of Nikki's Etsy site for really adorable knitted items like this RoboBear. Shop Local!