Recycling

On June 6, local residents are invited to join the Buffalo Recycling Alliance to help increase recycling and reduce waste in Buffalo - saving money, protecting the environment and creating jobs.

Recycling every day, at home, at work and at play, is easy.  So why doesn't everyone do it?  That's the big question.  So enter the Buffalo Recycling Alliance to turn up the volume, push the pedal to the medal and get Buffalo's recycling into high gear.

Riding the success of the City of Buffalo's increased recycling rate, the newly-formed Buffalo Recycling Alliance is ready to help city residents and businesses do more with their newspaper comics, tuna fish cans, and laundry soap jugs.

Kudos to city residents for doubling their recycling rate from 8 to 16 percent, but we all know we can do better. The challenge, according to the Alliance, is to raise the city's recycling rate to the national average (34%) within a year. Who knows, maybe after that we might take the title away from San Francisco, which has the top rate of 72 percent.  Sounds like two great goals to shoot for.

Thanks to connections made through the 2012 Green Drinks Earth Week Happy Hour, 25 families from throughout Buffalo will benefit from fresh, local produce this spring.  Prior to the Happy Hour event, Modern Recycling announced that for each pound of perishable food items donated at the event, Modern would match that donation by donating an equal amount of tomatoes from their greenhouse to Massachusetts Avenue Project’s Mobile Market. Read on to learn more...

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Imagine going into your local grocery store only to find out there were no tomatoes for your BLT tonight. Now imagine not having any vegetables in your grocery store. This is the reality for some Western New York neighborhoods that have more fast food restaurants and liquor stores than outlets for fresh fruit and vegetables.

This spring the Massachusetts Avenue Project (MAP) and Modern Recycling are teaming up to tackle this problem locally. Modern Recycling announced recently it will donate 50 pounds of H2Gro vine tomatoes to MAP’s Mobile Market in June.

This Saturday marks the Fourth Annual National Drug Take-Back Day and Western New York sites are read to collect your unwanted prescription drugs!

The National Drug Take-Back Day runs from 10 AM to 2 PM on Saturday, April 28 at sites around the region.  You should bring expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs with labels and other personal information from the bottles removed.  Medicines can be brought in bottles, boxes or bags, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents will dispose of the medicine.

CLICK HERE to find a site near you.  Some sites are even hosting drive-thru events!

Earlier this month, our friend Katy Duggan-Haas, the Sustainability Program Developer at Modern Recycling, took us on a tour of Modern's greenhouse in Lewiston.  The greenhouse runs on energy from their nearby landfill, and the "tomatoes on the vine" (grown in the greenhouse), are sold at Tops, Walmart, and Mighty Taco.

Here are some shots I captured of the tour.  Hope you enjoy!