Connecting, Protecting and Conserving our Environment
Time to start planning your event to celebrate 2010 Environment Week in Alberta. Open your doors, invite people in and involve them in activities. Showcase your waste reduction initiatives or use Environment Week to start some action in your community. Do the Green Stop!

What’s a Green Stop?
A Green Stop is an Environment Week event organized by volunteers to educate, empower and engage other community members. You can do anything from workshops, displays, walks, talks, tours, to hands on experiences with nature.

Need ideas? Check your Resource manual, or visit the Environment Week website and see the Green Stops hosted last year.

May 30 - June 5



Showcase the work you do and celebrate with neighbours in your community. When you register as an official Green Stop you become part of the provincial Environment Week program coordinated by Alberta Environment. Promotional resources are available to support your Green Stop. Of course, you can log your hours on mVP.

Registration is now open.

                                                                             
                                                   - brought to you by the Government of Alberta

Karen and volunteers at 2010 Earth Day Celebrations

Hello everyone! We had a great time at Earth Day down at Fort Edmonton this year at our interactive display "World of Waste". Children were asked to choose some items from our garbage pile and go and put them in the appropriate box: recycle, reuse, Eco Station or garbage/compost.

Most of them did very well and realized that the "garbage" pile was much smaller after we chose to "not throw everything away". Most of our table top displays were used, and creatively set up by Anna Vesala, and manned by master composters, Helga and Tasha, along with staff - Laurie Taylor and myself. Everyone was kept busy answering questions, reminding people about the Open House on June 12th at the EWMC and helping people look at our worm composter and make compost tea bags.

Anyhow, check out the CTV Edmonton news story that reminds families to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Happy Composting,

Karen L-C

A Call for Submissions - Celebrating 20 Years of MCRP

The Master Composter/Recycler Program is Celebrating its 20th Year and we want to hear from You!

We are putting out a call to all volunteers to submit their stories of accomplishment with volunteering in the program. We are looking for any and all stories about your experiences volunteering. They can be stories of inspiration, accomplishment, and/or success. They can be about something you've done, something you've learned, how volunteering has affected you personally, or how your volunteer work has affected others.

We would like a compilation of all types of writing and all types of experiences, so your stories can be short, long, funny, or dramatic!

 Think your story is too "boring" to bother? Think again. ALL volunteer work is important, and you might be surprised at how others will view and appreciate even a seemingly small contribution.

Volunteers are encouraged to submit their experiences - big or small - in whatever way is best for them: a casual email, a formal word document, or even a post on the blog!

Once all the stories are gathered they will be showcased in various ways throughout the year within the program, at events, and online.

Deadline for submissions is May 7. Volunteers are asked to send their story (or stories) to rose.bangen@edmonton.ca

Every entry received will be entered to win a $100 gift certificate to Earth's General Store.

2010 Big Bin Events

Here are the dates and locations for this year's Big Bin Events.

2010 Reuse Fairs

Spring is finally here, and that means the City of Edmonton Reuse Fairs will be underway soon.
Reuse Fairs are a great opportunity for you to divert waste from Edmonton's landfill while helping out community organizations.

The 2010 Reuse Fair dates are as follows:
May 8th North Glenora Community League
10 am - 3 pm 13535 - 109A Avenue
Contact: Margaret 780-451-0808

May 15 Queen Alexandra Community League
10 am - 3 pm 10425 University Avenue
Contact: Suzy 780-436-1279

May 29 Avonmore Community League
10 am - 3 pm 7902 - 73 Avenue
Contact: Joanna 780-465-0783

June 5 Millhurst Community League
10 am - 3 pm 5811 - 19A Avenue
Contact: Debbie 780-463-4404

June 12 King Edward Park Community League
10 am - 3 pm 7708 - 85 Street
Contact: Renée 780-462-7001

We encourage you to join in, clean out your clutter and pass it on at a Reuse Fair.

If you are looking for reusable items or wish to donate reusable items please visit the Reuse Centre. It is open year-round and takes many of the items accepted at the Reuse Fairs.

Enough talking at you, now we're talking WITH you!

For a number of months, the MCR Team has been learning all about new media with the goal of having a new way to keep in touch with Volunteers. We had the newsletter and webpage, but that was simply delivering our message to you, without the opportunity to hear back from you on what we were doing, and without the opportunity for you to connect with each other.

This blog is the result.

Now you can not only stay up to date with Branch news and upcoming events, but share your thoughts as well. You can let others know about what you are doing, and keep in touch with those who share your passion for waste reduction.

It is now a conversation, one which is long overdue.

Welcome to our blog - we want to hear from you!

Reuse Centre Video

Shopping for school supplies? Check out the Reuse Centre. It accepts various items from Edmonton residents free of charge and makes them available to organizations and individuals for reuse.

Squirmy Wormy School Presentations

We are starting to train a few master composters to learn our vermicomposting presentation so we can meet the demand from teachers this fall. Thanks to Anna Vesala and Laurie Taylor (right) for helping to mentor our “trainees”.

Please let us know if you are interested in taking part in this exciting opportunity.