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I was recently invited to take a tour of a local Texas recycling center which is operated by the AbitibiBowater’s Recycling Division. Casey Gray is a “Business Recycling Consultant” and he gave me an amazing tour of the AbitibiBowater recycling center in Arlington, Texas. The division that Casey operates the EcoRewards Recycling program and they educate and encourage local Texas businesses to begin recycling as much of their waste as possible.

The AbitibiBowater "Arlington Recycling Operation" Building

I arrived at around 12PM on a sunny Friday afternoon to the AbitibiBowater “Arlington Recycling Operation” building and was immediately impressed with the high level of activity surrounding the recycling center. Trucks were constantly loading and unloading at the centers numerous loading bays.

I had always wanted to see how both domestic and commercial recyclables are processed and my tour of the Arlington facility gave me a fascinating insight into how the recycling process works;

1/ COLLECTING THE RECYCLABLES:

The first stage for any recycled materials is collection. Their are several types of vehicles which perform the recycling collections;

Various Recycling Collection Vehicles

There are three main types of collection vehicles, the Front End Loading (FEL), the Rear End Loading (REL) and the Roll Off type vehicle (RO). You might recognize one or all three types of collection vehicle, try to spot them the next time you take a road trip!

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What could be greener than a traditional pumpkin carving contest? Pumpkins are all natural, completely bio-degradable and they unite families at this time of year in an earth friendly activity.
These are the Our Everyday Earth favorite pumpkin carvings for 2009.

Help us pick the best of the bunch by taking our Top 10 Halloween Pumpkin Carving poll… First, let’s check out the entries…

Spooky Pumpkin Carving #1

Our first pick is a spooky pumpkin with a very “Day of the Dead” feel to it, we loved the intricate carving and details in this one!

Have you ever wanted to know how long it would take to walk somewhere, or better yet, wanted a detailed walking map to your destination? We always use Google Maps to plan out our journeys but now there are Google walking maps available! How is this green you ask? Well surely the greenest way to get somewhere is to simply walk, so we wanted to show you our guide to Google walking maps;

Step 1: Fill in your destination and use the “Get Directions” option to add your start address, for example, my wife and I recently went to Fredericksburg (which is a great little town) and here are our directions by car;

Google Walking Maps - Step 1

Step 2: Pick the “Walking” option from the drop down list and click “Get Directions” again;

Selecting the Google Walking Maps Directions

There are a few things to note, the first thing is that this is still in development and there is a note to use caution as the route may be missing some sidewalks or pedestrian paths. The second thing to note is that it would have taken us about 3 days and 1 hour to get to Fredericksburg if we had walked, but we would have saved all our gas money and been the greenest visitors around!

A brand new recycling center has just opened in McKinney, Texas and it promises to revolutionize recycling in the local area. The IESI McKinney recycling facility is called a Material Recovery Facility and is situated in McKinney near the Collin Airport. The Mckinney recycling facility will be the first privately funded single-stream LEED certified Material Recycling Facility in North America.

New IESI MRF Recycling Center in McKinney

The McKinney recycling center building is fully LEED certified which means the building itself was built to the strictest eco friendly standards;
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of green commercial structures.
The new recycling center also houses a second-floor community room and observation deck overlooking the recycling operations area.

The New IESI MRF Recycling Center, McKinney TX

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October is just around the corner and we wanted to run a top five list of things you can do to make it a Green October!So whether you’ve been neglecting your eco ideas or nurturing your green side get ready to make a note of the Our Everyday Earth top ten ways to have yourself a very green October…

Green October - Our Top Five Tips

Switch Off the Air Conditioning in your Car or Truck

• This tip only applies to the milder states in the USA but as you can see, last year almost half the states in the US enjoyed below normal temps for the month of October.
• In October we are all going to switch the AC off whilst driving to and from work saving gas and money!


Last Years Temps Were Below Average

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We were looking for local events which specifically focus on raw foods and found a great festival. The Raw Spirit Festival is the world’s largest and leading raw vegan, healthy-living, eco-peace festival. The Raw Spirit Festival is set to take place September 26th and 27th in Prescott, Arizona at the Watson Lake Park. The very first Raw Spirit festival began with 250 participants in Sedona, Arizona back in 2006, they rapidly grew in size and in 2008 the Raw Spirit Festival attracted over 3300 participants! The Watson Lake Park location is set to host the biggest Raw Spirit festival yet!

The Raw Spirit Festival, Prescott, AZ