It's Photo Friday Again!

  For this Photo Friday we’re doing a little feature on a DIY project we’re trying in the office. We recently re-pinned a tutorial on Pinterest that teaches you how to take old 2-liter bottles and turn them into self-watering, seed starter pots. It’s a great way to use up some of that old plastic and it works really well! For ours, instead of starting out little vegetables, we planted a small Blue Moneywort. It is a cute little crawling plant that does great along the bottom of flowerbeds as well as hanging baskets. Its small blue-violet flowers are really lovely to look at. We planted this little guy with some soil, and of course compost, about a week ago and so far it has been thriving. Thanks to Skruben.blogspot.com for the great tutorial! Here is the link to their tutorial: http://skruben.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-self-watering-seed-starter-pots.html

International Compost Awareness Week Kickoff Day

As many of you may be aware, this week is International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW). Later this week we will be at the Iowa State Capitol Building to have a proclamation signed by the Governor recognizing ICAW and Chamness Technology for being a forerunner in the state! However, there are ways that you can celebrate ICAW at home as well! Here are just a few.

Plant some Tomatoes
This year the U.S. Composting Council announced their 1 Million Tomato campaign, so planting one of the million yourself is a great way to celebrate ICAW. Tomatoes do especially well in a soil/compost mixture that can result in bigger, brighter, and juicier tomatoes!

Start Composting At Home
It may seem difficult, but starting to compost at home is actually pretty easy. You can't do all of the organic products that we can handle at the professional level, but eggshells, coffee grounds, and old salad are some great first steps in your own composting journey!

Get your Workplace Composting
A lot of companies are beginning to put corporate sustainability policies in place, so why not make it a very sustainable place to work? Many companies don't even think about compostings, or realize there's a company in Iowa that can help you do it! Contact GreenRU if you're interested in getting your work composting at sales@greenru.org or 855-RU-VERDE

Find A Local Composter and Buy Some Compost For Your Garden
Compost can help everyone have a more beautiful and bountiful garden, no matter what the size. Keeping the compost local reduces the environmental footprint and can work wonders in all kinds of soil! We sell compost at our Eddyville and Ames facilities, so make sure to stop by if you need some locally sourced compost!

Featured Article: Turning waste into compost

We admit, we're a bit biased in our thinking that today's article is pretty great. This story features one of the customers of GreenRU, who's material is all dropped off at our Eddyville facility. As today is Earth Day, it is important to remember the real impact that a company can make by choosing to compost their organics, and just how much of the waste stream this can alter. 

GreenRU is doing some great work across Iowa to divert organics for both large and small scale customers. If you want to learn more about GreenRU and their services or Chamness Technology and ours, feel free to contact us at our respective number: 855-RU-VERDE and 855-4U2-GROW.

Read the article here.

Featured Article: Why Bother Composting?

As a company that offers commercial composting solutions, we're a little biased when it comes to composting. However, the Huffington Post's article from yesterday summerizes our feelings on the subject particularly well.

While composting may not be glamorous or first nature for many people, the positive outcomes can't be overlooked. With less organics going to the landfill there will be less methan gas being released in the atmosphere, and it reduces the rate at which landfills are rapidly filling.

We could make our own arguments, but why not read them from an outside source. Be sure to contact us if your business is interested in diverting it's organics as well!

Read the article here

Photo Friday

Happy Friday! Today's photo also comes from our Dodge City location.

Did you  get a great photo recently? Share it in our comments!

Photo Friday

Hello Everyone, and happy Friday! This week's photo comes from our Dodge City Office! Check it out:

U.S. Composting Council Conference

As you all know, last week we were at the annual U.S. Composting Council Conference down in Orlando. Despite the gorgeous weather (especially when compared to the ice and snow that Iowa was getting) we spent most of our time inside the hotel's conference center learning about the great things happening in the world of compost!

From composting in restaurants, to higher education, to new avenues to composting, like community councils on sustainability, the panels covered a variety of important topics. We're excited to get back and use the information we gained in our everyday activity.

Did you attend the conference this year? If so let us know what your favorite panel was!

Featured Article: Students Ask Lawmakers For Compost Bill

We love featuring articles about people who are trying to make a greener difference on our blog, however this time we got a chance to sponsor some of them as well. This team of students went to the state legislature to do a waste audit and show them the true effect of organics on the waste stream, and to ask them to consider a bill that would help to make Iowa a little more green through composting.

Check the story out, they're a dedicated group of students and their story is a great show of progress. Read about it here.

Photo Friday

This week we visited Pella Community School District and Ottumwa Community School District, who are implementing GreenRU in their cafeterias, free of charge. Chamness is donating tipping fees at our facility and GreenRU is donating pickup services for the rest of the school year for the districts, and we snapped this photo of one cook slicing pineapple and tossing the scraps directly into the composting GreenRU bucket! Nice!

Top 5 posts of 2012

Hopefully you're all getting ready to enjoy 2013! We are excited for the new year, but we're also looking back at the one that has past. At the end of May, 2012 we started seriously blogging, and so we wanted to take this post to look back at our top 5 posts of 2012(based on post views)! Here's to hoping we have plenty of popular posts to pick from in 2013!

1. June 25: Gardening Inspiration

This post looked into the amazing and interesting world of vertical gardens! When looking back, it isn't hard to believe this post is popular. It's inspiring, especially to our readers who might live in more urban areas and can't plant a huge backyard garden.

2. June 29: Photo Friday

                  

This photo friday is simply of a flower near Iowa City. It's beautiful and simple, and captures an Iowa summer. 

3. September 17: Top 15 T-Shirt DIYs

This post was a collection of DIY projects that focused on upcycling old t-shirts! Fun and easy, these DIYs got a lot of traffic and it's easy to see why looking back.

4. August 13: Featured Article: A Green Business Rating System, Created by Middle School Students

This article was another sustainability article that got a lot of traction! It's definitely a good read, and proves that even the young generation is concerned about sustainability.

5. Jun 13: GreenRU Helps Student's Compost Crusade

This story occurred in Iowa, and it's inspiring to see a young woman take such and ardent intrest in reducing her school's waste stream! If you haven't checked out Lilly's story we'd definitely recommend taking a second to read it now.

Featured Article: Hy-Vee and GreenRU Partner to Keep Organic Waste out of Landfills

Organics recycling is a huge service, but it is one that is fairly new on a commercial scale in the midwest. GreenRU is one company that is working to provide that service in Iowa for Grocery Stores, Restaurants, Hospitals, Schools & Universities, and many other locations. The company has been doing work with a few Hy-Vee locations as well. Hy-Vee is a well known grocery story in the midwest, so it is encouraging to see some of their stores picking up this program. 

This article summarizes some of the work the two have done together, and talks about why the grocery stores using GreenRU decided to transition into organics recycling. It's a great little story, it takes about as much time to read as this blog, and we think you should definitely check it out! 

Read the article here.

Featured Article: H&M Launches First Global Clothing Collection Recycling Program

Innovation in the fashion industry isn't new, but H&M are taking that call for innovation to a sustainable place with their new program. Soon you will be able to take used clothing to H&M stores for recycling. H&M will be the first company to start a worldwide program like this one. H&M already works to use organic cotton, does not discharge hazardous chemicals, and saves water.

This program is interesting purely because it is the first one to be implemented in the United States and worldwide. The company is partnering with I:Collect in this effort, however we could not find a website for them to determine what exactly they will be doing with the collected clothing to recycle it. H&M's website lists re-wearing, reuse and recycling as potential end results for the collected garments.

We're trying to decide how sustainable this program will be. The company could have a large impact, however they're also giving the people donating a coupon, to give them incentive. This is nice, but, as the article pointed out, won't that just add another article of clothing to the waste stream? We like to think if you donate once you will donate again, so this might not be a huge concern, however, it is definitely one to look into.

What do you think? Does this program sound like it could make a real change? Would you take your clothes there, and shop at H&M more because they offer this recycling program? Let us know in the comments!

Check out the full article here.

Featured Article: 5 Steps to Prep Your Compost Pile for the Winter

Winter coats are definitely out of closets with the weather we've been experiencing in Iowa lately. It's important to remember your plants when winterizing, but it's also important to remember your home composting pile. One definite benefit of dropping off your compostable to a commercial composter is that you don't have to winterize your heap, the commercial facility will handle that for you. However, if you do have a low level of organic waste and compost at home, this article will really help you out. It's got all the easy steps you need to take to make sure your organics recycling is effective year round.

Do you take any other steps to winterize your heap? Let us know in the comments!

Read the original article here.

Photo Friday

Happy friday everyone! With all these chilly mornings, we've been remembering warmer days. Today's photo is one from warmer days, although we can still grind woodwaste on days like today!

Be sure to share your photo in the comments!

Photo Friday

With the dreary and blustery days we've had for the last week, this Photo Friday couldn't come soon enough. This week's photo is a great picture from one of the gardens using Chamness Brand Compost. It's great for landscapers and gardeners alike, and it makes plants flourish. We love this interesting planting layout that makes a beautiful Cyclone themed pinwheel in Ames.

Did you get any great shots this week? Be sure to share them in the comments!

Photo Friday

Happy Friday everyone! Tomorrow we're forecasted to have some pretty impressive storms around central Iowa, and everyone knows that with storm cleanup comes a lot of wood from branches and trees damaged in storms. This week's photo shows our Wood Grinder hard at work.

Did you get any awesome shots this week? Make sure to share them in the comments!

Photo Friday

Happy Friday everyone. Hope you had a fantastic week. It's been a great week to spread compost on your garden or field, and this week's photo shows it! Have you started your fall gardening yet?

Photo Friday

It's another photo friday and so we have another photo for you! Did you get any great shots this week? Let us know in the comments!

Photo Friday

Well, it is Friday again. We didn't have any Cy-Hawk photos to share, so we thought we'd share something beautiful with you- a big handful of compost!

Who are you rooting for this weekend? Our office is divided! Did you snap any great photos this week? Share the link in the comments!

Featured Article: Fifth-Grader's Petition Prompts Jamba Juice to Ditch Styrofoam

Normally we try to stick to one featured article a week on our blog, but this story was too good to ignore. Thanks to the petition of a 10 year old, Jamba Juice will no longer be using styrofoam in their stores. This is great news, but we'd like to urge the company to take it a step further.

With a chain like Jamba Juice, composting just makes sense, so why not make sure that every Jamba Juice cup is compostable as well? They rely on heathy fruit and yogurt to make their beverages, so why not give back to the earth that gives them so much? Jamba Juice is currently looking into ways to reduce their footprint and trying to make their entire business more sustainable, and composting would take care of a large portion of their waste stream.

What do you think? We talk about the benefits of composting a lot on this blog, would you like to see more restaurants and businesses participating? Let us know in the comment section!

Read the original story here.