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.

Featured Upcycling DIY

With Valentines closing it, now is rush time for gifts! If you want to make a homemade gift there isn't anything better than an upcycled gift. The one we picked to feature just requires a Vinyl Record and some cooking supplies, but the gift will definitely be one of a kind, a Vinyl Record Bowl!

Thrift shops are full of old vinyls, so stop by any and pick out a record with a significant title or, if you get lucky, with a song that is important to you. It's a great way to make a very personal gift without having to spend a ton of money. The finished project is a bowl that can be used for whatever the recipient wishes! Different sized records make different sized bowls, so take that into account when making yours!

Check out the DIY here! Happy gift making!

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/

School Districts Going Green With GreenRU & Chamness Technology

We're working to help some area schools to compost this semester, and we'd really love for all of you to know about it! Read about it here.

This semester is starting off a little more green for two Iowa school districts. Ottumwa Community Schools and Pella Community Schools have begun the semester by implementing GreenRU composting into their food services.

Both schools started the program at a couple of schools in the district. They are planning to expand so all schools in the district will be diverting their organics from the landfill.

“We’re getting used to it, it isn’t too hard,” said Cheryl Ferguson of Pella High School, as she sliced a pineapple and threw the stock and skin into a orange composting bucket at her feet.

Danny Renfrew, Director of Operations at Ottumwa Community Schools, has wanted to start a program like this for a while, so he is happy to finally have a company who can work with them.

“The kids who we’re doing this for, they’re the ones who inherit this planet.” said Renfrew.  He continued that he did not want to leave this planet a mess for the children at the school to clean up when they are adults.

Bob Brisendine, Head Custodian at Douma Elementary School in Ottumwa, has been teaching the children there to separate the waste themselves. The Douma cafeteria now has two big containers marked “Food Waste”. Brisendine is impressed with how quickly the children are picking up food recycling. That day’s waste had only one piece that did not belong in the food waste, which he separated before moving the food waste into the orange organics bin that now sits behind the school.

“It’s a little extra work, but it’s worth it,” Brisendine said.

Both school districts are excited to expand the program to all of their schools. GreenRU and Chamness Technology, Inc. are teaming up to provide this service free of charge to the schools this year.

Already both schools are seeing the huge impact it could have on their waste.  In the first couple weeks Pella Schools that started the program have diverted 180 pounds of organics from the landfill. Ottumwa Schools are still in their first week, but have already noticed the drastic difference.  

Our Work With Education

We're happy to work with people from all sectors, but recently we got a chance to visit a couple of schools who are currently working to implement GreenRU in their school Cafeterias. Today we just wanted to share with you this snapshot we got of one of the workers at Pella Community School District.