Recently, the Minnesota Energy Challenge, in partnership with Eureka Recycling and the City of Minneapolis, added recycling and composting actions to the actions people can take on the challenge. For the first time, you can calculate the impact your individual recycling and composting efforts have on reducing global warming…and they are significant! My family composts and have found it to be an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create nutrient rich soil to grow healthy food in our backyard. If you want to learn more about the environmental benefits of composting, visit Eureka Recycling’s new composting website: www.makedirtnotwaste.org.
Additionally, a number of my fave restaurants in Minneapolis are leading the effort to reduce their carbon footprint by composting leftovers. Birchwood Café (my local hangout!), Barbette, Bryant Lake Bowl, Common Roots Café, and the Red Stag Supper Club were the first to start composting in partnership with Eureka Recycling, and they all have teams on the Minnesota Energy Challenge!
You can engage in the friendly competition among these teams to see who’s loyal customers can reduce the most carbon dioxide! Show your support for composting by joining their teams by December 9th, and the next time you go out to eat make sure that you are making dirt not waste by eating at one of these restaurants.
More and more restaurants are coming on board—check Eureka Recycling’s composting website (www.makedirtnotwaste.org) often for an updated list.
Go to www.mnenergychallenge.org to take the Challenge today (or update your pledge if you’ve taken it already). You can sign up for up to three teams, so after you chose your favorite composting restaurant, you can also join your local CERTs region! You can also stop by any of these five restaurants or the Wedge co-op to take the challenge.
I made dirt not waste this past Saturday night at Barbette!
Diana McKeown
Metro CERTs Coordinator
dmckeown@greeninstitute.org
612-278-7125
