FREE COMMUNITY-WIDE RECYCLE & REPURPOSE EVENT FOR DAYLIGHT SAVINGS
‘Fall Back’ into Action to Clean Up and Green Up

The Michigan Green Consortium will once again produce a free community-wide recycle, repurpose and reuse event from 10am until 3pm on Sunday,November 7, 2010 at Parking Lot B in downtown Traverse City. The event is held twice a year, the morning following the time adjustment, and serves as a reminder to residents to renew their pledge to do their part to preserve the environment.

The Daylight Savings Clean Up and Green Up Event will be hosted by the Consortium and a dozen or more local area businesses that provide recycle and reuse services. The event is comprehensive, offering residents the chance to bring recyclable items to one location and at no charge for collection.

Area businesses will be on site that day to process a realm of household goods that have reusable or recyclable value. While not all vendors are yet confirmed, past vendors have included. American Waste; Bay Area Recycling, RecycleChicken, Rifkin Steel, L & B Recycling, Cartridge World, Goodwill, GT Profile’s Shredmonster, TC eWaste, Odom Reusable Building Products, Northern Michigan Garment Restoration, Evergreen Bottle Company, Team Elmer’s and Home Depot.

Michigan Green Consortium is a trade association established in 2008 to promote and support green and sustainable businesses; to educate the business and local community on what should be done to ensure a healthy environment and provides networking opportunities for green
companies. The consortium is funded solely by member dues and public contributions.
To learn out more about the Daylight Savings: Clean Up and Green Up event, call (231) 947-1688 or visit www.mgconline.org

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Lori Weitzner’s innovative Newsworthy wall covering takes recycled newspapers to a new level. The design is woven on a hand loom from strips of newsprint and backed for all applications from residential to hospitality.

Lori Weitzner creates beautiful wallpapers and other textiles and “Newsworthy” is no exception. We love the repurposing of old issues of the news, as well as the modern feel to this ecologically thoughtful wallcovering. As far as we can tell it is available to the trade only, for $125 per roll–perhaps this could be a DIY project? We imagine, though, that it would be a pretty labor intensive one.

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You can make a great new couch or loveseat with an old mattress and box spring set, a few tools, and some upholstery fabric.  It’s quite hard work but the end result is worth the effort. You’ll have a great new couch, and you kept that mattress out of a landfill.

Note: Don’t forget to use goggles, ear protection and gloves.

Tools used:
Scissors
Dremel tool with a fiberglass reinforced cutting wheel
Hand saw
Staple gun
Sewing needle and upholstery thread
A lot of straight pins
Sewing machine
pliers
thimble
hand clamps (the ones that look like industrial clothes pins)
bee’s wax (to wax hand sewing thread)

Cutting Through the Box Springs

Cutting Through the Mattress

Sewing New Coverings

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This site has numerous pictures of things that people have used to accomplish tasks in very unconventional ways. here are a few examples.

more pictures added regularly at There I Fixed It.

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While recent interest in sustainable building has spurred the creation of eco-minded materials like Greensulate and Cow Dung Bricks, drywall is one building component that has remained e ssentially the same over the past 100 or so years. That’s about to change, however, thanks to EcoRock, a new drywall material that’s made of 80 percent recycled materials.

Due to become available from California-based Serious Materials next year, EcoRock is used the same way as traditional gypsum-based drywall, but it’s made of recycled industrial materials and uses 80 percent less energy to produce. The termite-resistant material also generates 60 percent less dust than traditional drywall and is 50 percent more resistant to mold. Perhaps best of all, EcoRock is fully recyclable, and can be used as a pH additive for soil or as a raw material in the production of new EcoRock and other building materials.

EcoRock won a Popular Science Green Tech Grand Award last year and is priced about the same as high-end drywall, Popular Science reported, at USD 14 to USD 20 per 4-by-8-ft. sheet. Distribution of EcoRock will begin on the West Coast of the U.S.

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Ford Field is more than just a pretty new Stadium.  The new indoor football field assumes the look of any other artificial turf field. However, the turf is actually comprised of 75 percent recycled content. FieldTurf’s (Montreal) blades of “grass” are actually recycled nylon strands “growing” out of a mixture of silica sand and recycled crumb rubber. Where does the recycled rubber come from? Don’t forget these are the Detroit Lions and Detroit is The Motor City; so why not put some old used tires to use?

From a plan perspective, the indoor field is the largest in the N.F.L. at 220 feet by 400 feet. There’s generous room around the perimeter to protect players from injuries.

“The height was determined by doing some calculations by the Lions’ engineering team,” said Hartman, “so that they could punt a football in here consistently, and enjoy actual punts and returns.”

Another unique amenity in the indoor training field is that the goal posts lack a vertical pole.

“Safety is a huge issue for the players. So why have something they can run into if you don’t need it?” asked Hartman.

The huge field is well lit by daylight streaming through squares of translucent plastic supplied by Kalwall from Manchester, N.H. It’s a thermally insulating, diffuse-light-transmitting building system.

On the corporate side of the structure William Clay Ford Jr. is using his own style of recycled furniture. The pieces in his office are actually heirlooms from his great grandfather’s estate.

Wall coverings in the conference rooms, private offices and private restrooms come from New York-based Innovation’s line of “Innvironments” products such as Allegory and Grasscloth. These products contain no PVC and are composed of either natural and renewable or recycled materials.

Motion sensor controls are in all primary occupied spaces to conserve electricity and water conservation was also taken into consideration, from the outdoor field aspect as well as the collection of storm water from the building. There are low volume, motion sensor flush valves in all toilet locations.

This project required a collaborative effort among the building owner, Ford Land; the tenant, Detroit Lions; and the design team, Gensler, SmithGroup, JM Olson, John Miller Electric and Limbach. According to Beck, “this ultimately made this project successful from both an environmental point of view as well as a design and building standpoint.”

With this myriad of sustainable products put into place, it seems the new facility is meeting the goals of green building practices. Hopefully the Lions meet their goals on and off of the field.

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Benzie County’s new super store features rows and rows or appliances, furniture, building materials, as well as lighting and plumbing materials.  Along with the vast selection, this store has the lowest prices around.  I know what you’re thinking, did Benzie get a new WalMart?  Not even close.  Benzie County is now a proud owner of a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  Traverse City Record Eagle reports that The store is located at 13998 Honor Highway and they are open Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.  All items for sale have been donated to Habitat for Humanity so they may be a little used but every item is still in very good working order and have many years left in them.  The best part about this store though is that sale proceeds from donated items go toward Habitat projects in Benzie County.  RecycleChicken loves Habitat ReStores, they take your used stuff off your hands, save you money, and help your local community.

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Odom Re-use Co. specializes in used building materials.  Odum salvages and accepts donated building materials for resale in their store in Grawn, MI. They carry everything from lumber and oak beams; to windows, doors, and hardware.  They accept all kinds of building materials for donation but there are some limitations as to what they will take for resale which include:

• Dirty materials
• Windows over 20 years old, (except multi-division)
• Windows transported to us in a flat position
• Unassembled materials – please do not take apart windows or toilets especially
• As always, we do not take in un-bagged fiberglass materials, or loose glass.
• Any material that is not in reusable “As Is” condition. We do not do any repairs or reassembly.
• Household items, upholstered furniture
• Office partitions
• Any item in oversupply

If you have any questions you can visit www.odumreuse.com as well as call (231)-276-6330 before dropping off material.

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