Blog Action Day has finally arrived and I am happy to say that Calgary is a city committed to doing their part for the environment…Are You? There are many ways in which you can participate to help create a greener Calgary. It doesn’t take a lot of time once you make the decision to do your part. It could be overwhelming to make the change and try to do everything, so start small and pick a few things that you know won’t turn your life upside down. As you get use to doing one thing, you can add something else. Here is a list of a few basic things you can do to get started with making the “green” change.
- Bottle Recycling – Visit the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation for a ton of recycling resources, a list of acceptable containers and bottle depot locations
- Stop Using Plastic Bags – Many of our local grocery stores now offer an alternative to plastic bags such as the ones below as offered at the Real Canadian Superstore and Sobey’s
- Composting in Calgary – The City of Calgary has put together an awesome brochure called Composting in Calgary about composting and how to get started. Clean Calgary Association offers composting workshops and City of Calgary subsidized compost bins for Calgarians wanting to start backyard composting.
- Leaf and Pumpkin Recycling– Fall is here and so are the leaves. Halloween is coming and that means pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns. For those of you that are not set up for composting, The City of Calgary is offering a FREE Leaf and Pumpkin Recycling Program. The program runs from September 22 to November 11, 2007. Visit here for a list of drop off locations.
- Other City of Calgary Recycling Programs
Christmas Tree Mulching Program
Organics Recycling
Grasscycling
Now that you know what you can do help out it’s time to hear what the City is doing to help us to make Calgary a greener city. Some of you may already now this, but back in 2001, Calgary Transit joined forces with Enmax and Vision Quest Windelectric Inc. to launch Calgary’s first green energy project called Ride The Wind Program. The goal of this program was to see that one day, Calgary’s Light Rail Transit (LRT) would be powered by 100% green power. This power would be wind-generated electricity coming from the 12 windmills located in Southern Alberta.
The electricity supply partnership between the City of Calgary and Enmax doesn’t end there. Read Green Energy to see how a lot of the City’s operations will be powered by the wind.
Not only is today Blog Action Day, Canadians are celebrating Waste Reduction Week, from October 15th – 21st.
This is the week for communities, schools and businesses to take part in a Canada wide event to educate and bring awareness to Canadians about waste minimization and conservation initiatives. Visit the Waste Reduction Weekwebsite to learn more about how to get involved. The Waste Reduction Week website also provides some great resources and ideas geared specifically to schools, businesses and municipalities and their involvement. Also check out the 2007 Events page to see who is already registered in your area to participate.
This is an extremely sensitive topic for some and I could go on forever about this, but my goal here was to provide some “basic” information and little background into the efforts Calgary is making to do their part for the environment and the people who live here. I love this city and I am proud to be a Calgarian. It is impossible for an individual or even a city to do it all, but if we work together, and give our best effort to do what we can, I believe it will make a difference.
It has been a pleasure to be a part of Blog Action Day and congratulate the organizers and bloggers that have worked endlessly to get the word out and organize this event.
THANK YOU!
