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.

Garden chores for February

It's February, but everyone knows it's never too early to get things ready for the spring's garden! For this blog we have compiled our list of chores to get done this month for your perfect spring garden!

1) Finish ordering your seeds! It's hard to think about it, but with shipping time included you need to get finished ordering your seeds for this spring. Get those orders in so you can get started with the next chore!

2) Start appropriate seeds indoors. If you seed can get started early indoors hop on it! Late February/Early March is a great time to start those seedlings for transplant in the spring!

3) Prune Trees & Shrubs. Every plant needs a pre-spring trim, so now is a great time to get it done if you didn't get a chance to yet!

4) Beginning planning and getting things in order for your compost/fertilizer needs. Especially if you are planning on getting a specific brand remember how quickly they seem to go during busy season so if you start planning now you can get everything in order!

5) Finally just keep your houseplants in order! It can be easy to let them slip a little when planning for outdoor, but just don't forget about those ones!

With these tips it will be easy to get prepared for the Spring planting season!

U.S. Composting Council Round-Up

Well, as we said in our last post, we spend last week in Orlando, Florida for the U.S. Composting Council Conference. We heard all sorts of interesting things from all areas of the industry and it was a great experience to learn more about everyone working with composting!

Maybe you didn't go to the conference, but there have been a lot of interesting articles that were published leading up to and following it, by complete coincidence. Have you read anything interesting about composting last week or this week? Share the link in the comments! We'd love to read what you thought was interesting!

We read this article about composting to provide fertilizer for rooftop gardens and we were definitely interested! Check it out: http://earth911.com/news/2013/02/04/nyc-rooftop-compost/

Reuse DIY

Today we're sharing a very helpful reuse DIYs that we found. This great article shares 50 new uses for old things. It's a great guide to finding brand new uses for thing that may be sitting around your house. Check it out here.

Our favorites from the article are:

Toilet Paper Hair Accessory holder

Matchbox as a mini sewing kit

Rubberbands to secure clothing on hangers

Old Mailing labels as return labels for books, movies, ect.

Old tissue boxes for plastic bags

There are a lot of other great ideas in there! Which are your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

GreenRU & Hy-Vee

We're not a big fan of bragging, so we'll let other people do it for us. We do some great work at two Hy-Vee locations, and that work was recently featured on the Iowa Grocery Industry Association newsletter!

Here's just a taste of the article:

"We started [diversion with GreenRU] because it was the right thing to do," says Max Dains, South Ottumwa Hy-Vee store director. "The departments have really gotten into it and are doing more than we asked of them. Everyone understands it's what should be done and what needs to be done."

Wow! Want to read more? You can! Check it out here.