It has been a long long time. Sometimes in life, you get bogged down in unexpected events of sorrow and joy, and projects and pledges take a back seat. I have just went through one of the periods. Loss of a father, supporting my wife finishing grad school, and a multi-state move, brings us to this moment now. It has been a long year, and life has thrown us lemons, oranges, grapes, and whatever other fruit life can throw at you, and we made a lot of "lemonade". Now after everything was said and done, it is time, and there is time to pick-up with conservation and getting Slay Energy Vampires! Moving in the right direction. With all of that said...
...welcome back, I am glad you are still following me. Now, on to some brief information.
A few days ago, the city of Tempe in Arizona, added to their city web page a page dedicated to all of their locally crafted food. Everything from Pasta, to Beer, to Popcorn. It is a long and informative list with direct links and locations to where you can purchase this local food. Local food is still the best and most effective way to cut down on your food's carbon footprint. So, if you are in the Tempe, Arizona area, check out this list. They proudly advertised this list on their Facebook page as well.
Hello all! Justin here, and I am pleased to announce the return and reboot of Slay Energy Vampires. I am sorry for leaving all of you hanging, I took a quick break for the holidays, but when I returned I found that my computer was on the outs, and after many weeks of battling the computer, and other issues I finally started gathering information and idea for the return of Slay Energy Vampires! We are back in complete operation now, hoping to provide you with tips and tricks on reducing your footprint, plus local businesses trying to make a difference, and yes, Meatless Mondays, and my own adventures to make my house just that much energy conscious. I thank you again for the patience, my own person New Year's resolution this year was to make this site 100,000 hits...please help me out, spread the word, send me some links, or heck, even write an article, this is a community here, not just me...
Now with the news!
Coming out ot Tempe, Arizona, there is a new business in town called EcoScraps. EcoScraps offers to takes unusable rotting fruits and vegetables from local restaurants and grocery stores and uses them to turn into nutrient-rich compost and which they then sell back to local nurseries and landscaping companies. This is removing the need to ship in other compost from out of town, and keeping the whole decomposition chain local. According to the press release from the City of Tempe:
This month alone, they will likely create enough compost from what would otherwise go into a landfill to offset the emissions of 13,000 cars for a month.
That's a lot of cars to offset. I applaud companies like this that take the initiative to bring green farming, and sustainable practices to a city and community.
EcoScraps started as a brainchild of Dan Blake who noticed that so much of his food was getting thrown out in restaurants. He started dumpster diving for food from local restaurants and composting at home as an experiment with different methods of composting. EcoScraps is currently in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. You can find EcoScraps on Facebook: here.
Tomorrow the city of Tempe will be sponsoring a Hazardous Household Waste event at Kiwanis Park from 7am to 2pm. This even is sponsored by the Tempe Household Products Collection Center. This is a great way to properly dispose of hazardous household waste. Also remember that the Tempe Household Products Collection Center also has a free swap area, where one can take free partially or never used household, automotive, and other hazardous products that can be used for your own personal use. This is a great way to save on your budget and makes sure that these products never make it to a landfill.
The event tomorrow will feature a way to drop off your Hazardous Household Waste, free shredding of documents, and free compost for your own home use. Make sure to bring your utility bill for your free compost. The free compost is part of Tempe's new green waste program. Check it out if you have some chemicals and what not around the house that you are looking to safely dispose of. Also, coming up on November 13th, is the City of Tempe's electronics recycling collection date.
First off, I must apologize for the lack of information lately. From this point on there will be more and more information and great ideas coming out from this blog! I appreciate all of the support that has come from the audience out there, but I am still looking for links and stories from you, the readers! If you have something in your community or your house that you think should be covered or want people to know about, leave us a note and we'll get it out there for ya. We are always looking for input and the more we keep talking the better for all of our communities and homes.
Now, on to the post.
Tempe, Arizona has done it again, leading the way with a new and invigorating ideas to improve their city and continue to promise green living to their community. Over a year ago they expanded their recycling program to include all plastic numbers, #1-#7, and now they are looking to include green compost waste. According to an August 24th, 2010 press release from the city they are piloting a program in some of their neighborhoods to college green compost waste. This is exciting news, especially from a community that already offers free compost bins to their residents. According to the release the waste is going to be used right back into their community:
As they say, what goes around, comes around - in a good way. Tempe's new pilot compost program collects green waste that comes back to the community in the form of rich compost for parks, ball fields and community gardens.
They also have released a nice video about the program and the important benifits of the program:
Once again, Tempe showing the way for other Arizona cities, and actually, United States cities. Does your community do this? If they do let me know, and I'll give an update and a shout out to those communities as well!
Also, speaking of Tempe. According to a July press release from the city, they have finally installed the much needed Mill Avenue District recycling bins for drop-off recycling. This should be a great benefit for the students that live off campus in apartments and houses in the area, where recycling is not necessarily offered. From the press release the location is:
It’s now a little easier to be green in downtown Tempe. This week, the City of Tempe in partnership with Downtown Tempe Community installed three new recycling containers in the downtown area – on Mill Avenue at both Fifth and Sixth streets and at Tempe City Hall, 31 E. Fifth St. – making it easier for people to recycle while visiting downtown Tempe.
This should be a great improve to a city always trying to look forward. For more information please visit Tempe's recycling website.
Speaking of recycling really quick, I recently took a trip back to Michigan, and was flying Delta. For the first time in all of my air travel, they actually offered in-flight recycling. I was shocked, but pleased. This probably isn't news since I don't fly more than twice a year, but it was comforting to finally see this in-flight.
Until next time, which will be sooner than last time, feel free to reach out to us and help us bring this community together and move forward one mind at a time, and spread the word!
We here at Slay Energy Vampires! are now back from a short vacation, and we have a big announcement regarding this website's founded, Jay Fretz.
It has been announced that on December 4, 2010 that the Not One More Foundation, a group that raises bicycle safety awareness in the state of Arizona, will be sponsoring and organizing a benefit ride for Angie and Anika Fretz. They have posted an open call to all of the bicycle organizations in the state, from the Link The Lake Facebook page:
Not One More Foundation Announces to all Arizona Cycling Teams, Clubs, Community and Friends a special Fundrasing Ride to "Link the Lake" for Jay Fretz. Sat Dec 4th.
On May 17, 2010, 36-year-old environmental and bicycle advocate, Jay Fretz, was struck and killed by a vehicle while commuting home from work on his bicycle.
Jay was a draftsman for a Tempe architectural firm. He left behind a young wife, Angie, and a 5-year-old daughter, Anika. Aside from the difficult emotional consequences that encircle this tragedy, meeting the needs of comfort throughout this grieving time has taken the back seat to meeting another life or death need: supporting Angie in all of the ways a human can be supported as she endures chemotherapy for a diagnosis of breast cancer and ultimately, a mastectomy. She was diagnosed the week before Jay was killed.
Angie Fretz is without health insurance now that Jay has passed, is self-employed and does not earn an income unless she is working transcribing accident tapes and must raise her daughter alone. She is currently on a leave of absence from her contracted work.
The “NOT ONE MORE” Foundation and the cycling community mourns this great loss and is planning a Fund Raiser Event on Sat Dec 4th to help ease Angie’s & Anika’s burdens.
This will be a Valley Wide Sat morning ride to Tempe Town Lake for All TEAMS & CLUBS as we join together and “LINK THE LAKE” for JAY FRETZ.
Look for details soon here, in Club/Team emails and on flyers in Bike Shops on how to participate and how to donate to help the Fretz family.
We hope THOUSANDS OF CYCLISTS will join us to completely “LINK THE LAKE” with our bicycles as a cycling community and say... “NOT ONE MORE” senseless cyclist death in our Valley and State.
Sterling Baer & Dara Schulenberg
Founders, Not One More
Contact Info - 480-641-0755
This provides to be a great opportunity for cyclists to stand in solidarity, for those that bike for commuting, reducing their carbon footprint, or just enjoy biking as a recreational activity. Tempe has now had three bike related deaths in just as many months, and this issue needs to be addressed, especially in a city that prides themselves as a bicyclist community. The Fretz family has shown an amazing amount of strength the past three months, and every little bit of continuing support makes their lives that much easier.
Now that we are back, look for more updates and articles! Some future articles include airline recycling, Tempe recycling, Tempe public garden, urban gardening, and an update on my own energy use! Plus, much much more!
As always, if anyone has any article ideas, or would like to contribute to Slay Energy Vampires! in any way, let us know! Thanks!
Monday, August 6, 2012 at 1:07PM 