Celebrate International Compost Awareness Week With Us!

May 6-12th is International Compost Awareness Week, and we are in a celebrating mood because of it! The best way to celebrate is to get your business started with GreenRU!

GreenRU is simple and easy to start, just contact us at 855-RU-VERDE and we can get the process started! We offer full services, from carts and bins to signage, promotional materials, training. You name it and we can help you with it!

With service this easy, we like to toot our horn a little bit! Our customers have done some pretty amazing things with our services, and have helped us to divert over 1,800 tons of organics from the landfill in just 2012! Imagine how much more of an impact we can make with your help.

Feature: The Recycled Wedding

Wedding season is nearly here! It's hard to stay eco minded when planning a wedding today, and, as this article says, last year the average wedding costs nearly $30,000. That's why we love this article! It's full of great ideas to make your wedding a little more green and still cost effective!

What do you think? Can a wedding be eco-friendly? Share your thoughts in the comments!

 Read the article here.

Sustainable May Day Baskets

It's nearly May Day! Can you believe the year has gone so quickly already? This year change up your May Day basket by making it sustainable! There are lots of fun ways to do this!

Reuse for your Basket
Even the basket itself can be sustainable! Weave a basket out of old news paper or use an old tin can, both are a great way to reuse and still have some fun! Check out this tutorial to weave a newspaper basket!

Give the Gift of a Garden
What better way to incorporate a sustainable theme than to give the gift of growth? Either buy some potted flower or plants, rather than the traditional cut ones, or give seeds. We love this plantable paper as a seed gifting idea! 

Find an Upcycled Gift
Ever since sites like Etsy started popping up it's never been easier to find upcycled gifts. Give a fork ring or a bracelet made from old tires, it's a gift nobody will soon forget!

Go Homemade With Treats
Rather than sticking tons of wasteful wrapped candies in your basket, try a homemade good instead. Cookies, banana bread, and muffins all make great May Day goodies! 

Do you have any other ideas to make your May Day basket a little more green? Be sure to share in the comments!

Feature: Greenhouses made from old windows and doors

We love combining things we love- which is why we're loving all the reclaimed item Greenhouses we've seen popping up everywhere this year! Today we're featuring an article that has gathered some of our favorite ones made out of old windows and doors. 

These greenhouses keep materials out of landfills and give them a wonderful new life- helping grow new things! What do you think? Would you put one of these up in your backyard? We certainly would!

Read the full article here.

Coe College Continues to Pioneer for Composting

Tom Wieseler started composting food waste from the Coe College cafeteria five years ago.  To say that it was an act of love is an understatement.  Every 10 days, or so, he would personally load his van and take the food waste to the Linn County Solid Waste compost site.  This effort would keep 75 tons of food waste out of the landfill.  Today, he has help.

“Before GreenRU came to us with their turn-key solution for organic collection, we were on our own.  Now, we have a partner that will take our food waste with regularity and we know it is going where it should.” 

Wieseler, the General Manager of Sodexo Campus Services at Coe College, learned about a commercial composting operation in the St. Louis area.  Fascinated with the idea, he was disappointed that similar services did not exist locally. He had even discussed composting food waste on the Coe College campus.   “I am very glad that GreenRU has solved our composting concerns.  Let’s say they have taken a load off my back,” Wieseler said. 

GreenRU began collecting food waste from Coe College at the start of the 2012-2013 school year.  They have already diverted over 8 tons.  The collected food scraps are delivered to the Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Compost Site, where they are conducting a compost pilot program to test the long term practicality of composting.

On April 9 GreenRU presented Coe College with a certificate noting their total 2012 tons diverted and celebrating their commitment to sustainability.      

GreenRU has diverted over 1,800 tons of organics from the landfill, with the help of over 30 customers located across Iowa. For further information contact GreenRU at 855-RU-VERDE.

Feature: 9 Ways to Save In The Kitchen

Earth Day is Monday! Can you believe it? Tomorrow we'll be at the Earth Day Trash Bash at Nollen Plaza and we hope we'll see you there! We're always eco-focused here, which is why today we're featuring an article about 9 ways to save in the kitchen. This list is centered around reducing food waste, a subject we're very interested in!

These tip may seem common sense for some of you, but for others they may seem revolutionary. Either way, we hope you all read them and learn! They're great and simple ideas that make a large impact.

Read the article here.

Don't forget- if your business wants to start composting their organic waste- contact us! We'd be happy to help.

How To Find Quality Compost

Maybe you don't compost. Maybe your work does, maybe your neighbor does. Either way, all you know is that you need some for your tomato plant this year. Where do you go?

The U.S. Composting Council is answering that question! This year they rolled out their new site Buy-Compost.com. It is a complete guide to finding a compost provider near you, so you can have locally made, U.S. Composting Council approved compost!

Not only does this site include a map with the locations of compost sites, it also has some helpful tips and tricks, regardless of the scale of your compost use.  We love the Compost/Mulch Calculator, because often times it is all too easy to not know how much you will use for your garden. This calculator gets rid of the guessing game!

Have you looked around on the site yet? What's your favorite feature? Let us know in the comments! 

Feature: Preparing Onion and Leek Seedlings to Go Outdoors

Can you believe we had snow in Iowa today? Snow! In April! Good grief.  For today we're back to garden planning, and the article we found for you today should help if the weather goes back to normal in the coming days! It's all about transplanting Onion and Leek seedlings outdoors!

This process can be kind of tricky, as it's a big game of timing. We appreciate how the blogger on You Grow Girl explains it though, makes it easy to follow and low stress! Plus she puts a good reminder at the end- don't throw away the trimmings. She gives you a couple different ideas for ways you can use them now.

Don't take our word for it though, read the article and get prepared for your transplants.

Read the article here.

Feature: 3 Minutes To Your Best Garden Yet

Today we're featuring a helpful video guide- 3 minutes to your best garden yet. These videos, put together by Ben Gould, shows you a few different tips to helping your garden be better than ever.

We especially like the last one about how to properly add compost to your garden. We recommend all of you add compost to your garden for larger, more nutrient rich plants.

Which segment is your favorite? Did you learn something? What's your biggest takeaway? Share in our comments!



Read the full article here.

Feature: Wonderful Wallflowers: Vertical Gardening Supplies for Small Spaces

Vertical gardens are a great option available now for the urban gardener. Many of our customers are in rural areas and green thumbed, so we hope that this article will inspire you all the create your own vertical garden! With all these lush, green photos we definitely were inspired! 

We'd love to get your take on the recent vertical gardening craze! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think- are you in love or are you more into the classic approach?

Read the article here

Featured: Orlando Students Help Grow One Million Tomatoes for Community Gardens and Food Banks

The U.S. Composting Council’s Million Tomato Campaign is still in it's early stages, especially in the Midwest, where it's still pretty cold to think about tomatoes. It's definitely understandable that Florida would get a bit of a headstart on us. However, we find this story very impressive. Students from Orlando are working to help the campaign.

This workshop for the program is a great exemplary program because it displays every stage represented by the campaign. The students will grow the tomatoes, sell them at the farmer's market, and learn to cook fresh recipes with them. The students will kick off the program by learning about compost and it's numerous benefits to their tomato seeds.

Read the whole article here and tell us what you think!

We would love to hear other stories about learning programs surrounding the Million Tomato Campaign. Have you heard any? Share them in the comments!

Featured: 10 Things You Can Recycle Through the Mail

We're always looking for new ways to recycle, so we love articles like this. They make recycling as easy as stopping by the post office!

If you have a program locally that takes these items that's great, and we encourage you to use them for your recycling. However, if you're like many people you don't have a place to go for batteries, electronics, light bulbs and many other odd or chemical recycling options.

This is where these mail in programs are extremely useful. They can take products that you would otherwise send to the landfill and that could be potentially very dangerous there. These programs make sure that anyone can recycle products, no matter what services are available locally.

Read the full article here. Let us know what you think! Would you use these programs?

Composting in Higher Education in Iowa

As an early adopter of composting in the Midwest, we've had the pleasure of working with many higher education institutions. We think that this work provides many opportunities for both the schools and the students who experience the composting process. Here are the lessons we love about composting in Higher Education

Composting is Easy
It's a common misconception that composting is hard, that it's time consuming, that it won't work because of these reasons. One thing we love about implementing our program is that students and dining management learn just how easy composting can be. It's simply adding another bin to the mix, and many colleges find that most of their waste can go in the compost bin, especially in cafeterias.

Composting Makes a Difference
Before implementing a composting process, it's often hard to visualize just how much waste shouldn't be going to a landfill. Often times there are students working in these dining halls who see, next to management, just how much of an impact composting can have on the waste stream. Seeing the pure volume of the organic waste will open their eyes to the benefits of composting, especially if they know the consequences of landfilling organics.

Everyone Should Be Doing It
Higher Education is one segment that is the most excited about not only pre-consumer waste, but also post-consumer. They bring it to the students as a learning experience and it will change how the students handle their waste, whether they realize it or not.

Do you want composting in your campus dining hall? Contacting your Dining Services Director and encourage them to contact us, we'd be happy to help!

Must-Haves to Start Your Garden This Year

We recognize that a lot of our readers come from varied planting background, therefore, for today's blog post we've put together a list of the top must-have tools to start your own garden this year!

Image found here

Gardening Gloves

Love it or hate it, gardening can be rough on your hands. Between thorns, blisters, and other hazards, you'll be happy you picked up a sturdy pair of gloves!

Image found here

Trowel

Don't let the size of this tool fool you- it's extremely useful! Your trowel will help you break up dirt and dig holes for planting. We recommend a comfortable grip- it will make it much easier to use!

Image found here

Hand Cultivator

For a starter garden you won't need anything bigger than this, but it will be a wonder tool for you. This tool helps you to break up the ground when first planting seeds, but it also helps you with your weeding when you're further into the process. 

Image found here

Pruners

When it comes to caring for your garden, pruners will be a necessity. Trimming away old foliage, shaping of plants, and deadheading all keep your plant healthy and in good condition.

These are just a couple of many tools that could have made our list. Do you have others that should be added? Tell us in the comments!

Don't forget that the most important thing for a healthy garden is healthy soil. For healthy soil we recommend adding compost! Let us know if you're in need of some compost and we'll put you in contact with one of our composting facilities.

Featured Vegetable: Rhubarb!

Leading up to Spring, we're going to be featuring vegetables that are great additions to any garden. We're starting with Rhubarb! Rhubarb is great because it looks great and it's stems are edible! If you're a fan of a classic Strawberry Rhubarb pie this would be a great plant for you- you'd never have to buy Rhubarb for your favorite summer sweet treat.

Image found here

Not only is this plant's stems edible, but it makes quite a showpiece for any garden! Look at the lovely one above! Although be careful if you have pets that like to nibble- the leaves of a Rhubarb plant are toxic!

Will you try growing Rhubarb this year? What are your tips to growing Rhubarb? Share them in the comments!

Featured Editorial

Last week we posted an editorial to our social media channels, but we wanted to feature it on this blog because we really want to emphasize how important writing editorials like this truly is.

Read the editorial here.

Scott Koepke, who wrote the editorial, brings up at the end that his students can grasp the concept he's trying to get across. When it's that simple, why isn't everyone doing it? In the end the switch is a very simple process, even more so with companies like ours, who provide businesses with bins and totes, pickup services, and educational training.

Our company works with hospitals, universities, grocery stores, restaurants and many other generators across the state of Iowa. We know that our customers can do it, but more importantly we know that many other businesses can do it as well.

Consider this our call to action: If you know a business owner that isn't composting, challenge them to do so. We provide a complimentary waste audit, so they can see the true impact that their waste stream has. We'll continue our work to turn organics towards beneficial reuse in compost.

Feature: Upcycled Garden Spring 2013

Here at GreenRU we read a variety of blogs about gardening and green living. We loved this post from Friday of last week about creating a chic and upcycled look for your garden this year!

These ideas aren't new, but we love the traction they're getting with social media, especially Pinterest. These upcycled items all look like you could have purchased them from a high end store, but they're just made with something that may have been considered junk.

The idea of giving objects new life through new purpose is great for the green movement, and we hope to see it continue. After all, what is compost if not new life for soil from the old life that grew from it.

Have you seen any other great upcycling posts lately? Share them in our comments! We'd love to check them out.

Our Favorite Gardening Pins

We love garden planning, but we especially love the ability to stow away great ideas year round with Pinterest. We've been pinning for a little while now an have a fair amount of pins, especially on our "Love Your Garden" board. Here is a list of our favorites so far!

See this Pin Here

Everyone needs a little gardening inspiration every now and then. With this post we hoped to inspire every gardener to keep it up!

See this Pin Here

This pin went over how to save your fresh herbs for later use. It's great for preparing for winter time, when fresh grown is so much harder to accomplish.

See this Pin Here

We're a fan of all types of gardens, so is it any surprise that we loved this vertical garden, conveniently located next to the stove?

See this Pin Here

This pin was a fun idea during the warmer months. To be honest, we were surprised how quickly this pin got popular! It is a great how-to to bring beautiful butterflies into your garden!

See this Pin Here

We love the idea of getting your children involved in the gardening process. While that may not be happening until the spring, this Biosphere is a great way to get them excited for it!

See this Pin Here

While this may not look like much, it's actually a guide to a winter to spring bulb project, which is a great way to stay inspired during the cold months.

See this Pin Here

This pin was back during peak apple season. We love it's helpful hints for all of your apple eating!

See this Pin Here

This guide is great for buying local, but also if you're trying to grow these fruits and need to know when the peak seasons are!

See this Pin Here

These lovely flowers are gorgeous year round, however we were especially fond of them during the holiday season because they look like candy canes!

These are our favorite of our pins, do you have any favorite gardening pins? Which of these are your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

Gardening for your Region

We've been doing a lot of gardening in our head lately. The cold weather just makes us plan the plants we will grow in the spring. This week we found a great website that can help you with your garden planning, BHG Gardening By Region.

This site is great, first you find out what region you're in, if you don't already know. Then you can find the best things to plant based on your region. They have numerous guides, all to help you plan that perfect garden!

We particularly liked their guide to the Top Roses for the Midwest. Which article was your favorite? Be sure to share in the comments. Don't forget- food waste makes a great soil amendment  and we can help your business to recycle your organics.

Guest Post: Illinois Proves Positive on Composting

Hats off to the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity for helping the Illinois Recycling Association and its associated organizations present a first rate seminar…“Looking to the Future: Food Scrap Composting in Illinois.”  Nearly 200 attendees learned about the value of composting, the regulatory and operational challenges and successful food scrap collection programs.  Al Rattie of the US Composting Council’s Marketing Director shared how Weis Markets, a Pennsylvania based grocery chain, was turning their collected food scraps into branded compost for gardening customers.  He also covered the US Composting Council’s efforts to develop a Seal of Testing Assurance.  The Illinois DCEO has developed The F-Scrap Program, making grant money available for business and individuals interested in the commerce of composting.  Discussion on Illinois laws and regulations affecting composting operations were also addressed.  This type of one-day seminar would be an excellent idea for the Iowa Recycling Association or the newly formed Iowa Food Waste Reduction Program.

Written by Demetrios Hadjis of GreenRU