Please join us at our Compost Awareness Celebration! - Wed. May 9th @ Fremont Park with the City of Sacramento and GRAS restaurants like The Waterboy, Tuli Bistro, Selland Family and Hot Italian. We would love to have your organization represented at this event, which will be a fundraiser for GRAS, and have a free festival for kids. This is Sacramento’s premiere Food Cycle Celebration! The event is to be 1) a limited $25 Tasting Flight provided by GRAS restaurants (to benefit GRAS); 2) FREE educational festival for kids and adults (with music and beer/wine sold separately in Beer Garden). Including: Ella Dining Room and Bar, The Waterboy, Tuli Bistro, Mulvaney’s B&L, Restaurant Thir13en, S

Little Relics Boutique and Galleria in Midtown is home to handmade fine jewelry and original work by Eric Decetis and local artists.   Owner and artist Susan Rabinovitz has been running this new gallery for the past five and a half weeks. With monthly themes, she is able to show the abilities of various artists. The shop held a preview showing of "Love Your Mother Earth" Thursday. With inspirations from spring and Earth Day, the thematic art that was composed of recycled and repurposed items, as well as nature-filled artwork. From jewelry made of old credit cards to nature themed paintings, creativity filled the gallery. With recycle and reuse as the infused theme, one artist used someth

Fairytale Town hosted its fourth annual Fairytale Town Goes Green event Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3p.m. Throughout the day the event brought out over 1,500 guests from the Sacramento area to participate in educational activities. The non-profit park dedicates itself to promoting imagination, creativity and education, so hosting a go-green event had to share the same mantra. Fairytale Town Goes Green promoted the education of parents and children on ecology and the environment through the use of displays and activities located around the park. Activities included Earth collages made from old newspapers, newspaper windmills made from recycled newspaper and My Chia Pet, where children could p

Co-hosts Liz Franco and Ashlee Gadd are bringing popular clothing exchange Stitch Swap to The Citizen Hotel Saturday. “Stitch Swap is an opportunity to meet new friends, rid your wardrobe of things you no longer wear, find new items for your closet, all while raising money and awareness for Women Escaping a Violent Environment," said Gadd, marketing and public relations manager for The Citizen Hotel. Participants bring $10 as well as any accessories, clothing or shoes they want to swap from 3 - 5 p.m. Saturday at the Citizen Hotel 926 J St. There is no limit to how much people can bring or how much they can take, Gadd said. Franco is a legislative assistant who started Stitch Swap in 2

Nothing lives forever, but according to Clark Kayler, trees can. He extends the life of trees by turning them into furniture. The trees go from decorating the streets to decorating various rooms. Kayler, 41, is the owner and founder of New Helvetia Hardwoods. They rescue trees that have been knocked down by storms, trees that are being chopped down for development purposes or dying trees that are all headed for the landfills. “(I am) giving our city’s trees a second chance,” Kayler said. In early 2005, Kayler noticed a tree being removed from his neighbor’s yard. It bothered him. He asked the neighbor for the redwood tree, and he created his first piece of furniture: a table. As a pr

The City of Sacramento Department of Utilities will launch the 2011 Recycling Incentive Awards, sponsored by AT&T Real Yellow Pages and the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station on May 2, 2011. Each week through June 27, the City will randomly select recycling containers in a selected Council District and check it for proper recycling. If the container holds only clean recyclables, the City will award owners of clean recycling bins with $100 and the chance to win an iPad2. “Recycling right is the right thing to do. Clean, dry and usable recyclables limits waste going to the landfills and is a win for the environment,” said Marty Hanneman, Director of the Department of Utilities. "So m

Give your Christmas tree the proper holiday send-off. Rather than toss it in the trash, recycle it. You’ll be doing our local landfills a big favor. Bring your Christmas tree to the SMUD Corporation Yard at 6100 Folsom Boulevard on Jan. 8 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. SMUD staff will mulch it for free. Please remove all tinsel, lights, tree stands and nails. Flocked trees will be accepted at all locations. There is a limit of five trees per vehicle. Christmas trees may also be recycled for free at the following sites and dates: In Sacramento Elder Creek Recovery and Transfer 8642 Elder Creek Road (Jackson Highway, south on Florin Perkins Road, left on Elder Creek Road) 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan.

Roz Savage is the type of person who, when her mind is made up, does things 110 percent. Nearly 400 people listened intently as Savage shared her remarkable story at Sacramento State’s University Union Ballroom Thursday night. About 10 years ago, Savage penned two versions of her own obituary – one that she hoped for and the other realistically depicting what she was heading for. She said she realized her life was drifting off course and toward a legacy that would leave her unfulfilled. Gradually, Savage began to let go of what she referred to as her security blankets. She moved out of her home in London, quit her job as an office worker and claimed that she began to find “happiness in w

 “Three, two, one. Hands off your sculptures,” a judge announced, as hundreds of people cheered for green gladiators and their trash. Nearly 500 people gathered Friday night for the second annual Junk 2 Genius sculpture competition at the Davis Art Center. DAC board member and Junk 2 Genius event organizer Sheryl Eberhart was happy with this year’s turnout, which was better than last year’s, and said this event is very valuable to the Davis community. “I look around and see all these people coming together to do something unique, creative and constructive on a Friday night,” Eberhart said. The event is an annual fundraiser for the art center that recycles junkyard treasures in a team-b

Helping the Environment and the Economy All at the Same Time. Set It Aside is a local curbside recyclables purchasing company who was born as the economy turned south and has helped local efforts raise thousands of dollars through recyclables. Now the fledgling company is on a quest to help thousands of people who have lost their livelihoods in the oil spill. Set It Aside is the brain child of SIA Professional Services who have been serving the Sacramento area for over a decade and a half. As the market soured the B to B company started looking at a small project that could have major positive effects on the economy. The company began picking up recyclable materials from homes, selling t

The Green Restaurant Alliance of Sacramento has a hand in 10 local restaurants and hopes to reach more with its mission of establishing a sustainable restaurant industry. GRAS is "dedicated to making Sacramento a leading sustainable food community and a leader in the green-restaurant industry," according to its website. The year-old organization helps restaurants reduce waste by composting food scraps and biodegradable material. "This is not a brilliant idea, it's being done worldwide," said GRAS co-founder David S. Baker. "Why can't it happen in our town?" The 10 members of GRAS are Hot Italian, L Wine Lounge and Urban Kitchen, Mulvaney's B & L, One Speed, Selland's, Grange, Ella, Tuli

The City of Sacramento Department of Utilities Solid Waste Services reminds residents that many of the special items used during the holidays can be recycled or reused. “Everything from trees to boxes and wrapping paper and ribbons can be reused or recycled,” says Edison Hicks, Integrated Waste General Manager. “Even large amounts cooking oil, fats and grease can be recycled by taking them to the Sacramento Recycling and Transfer Station or North Area Recovery Station.” The City of Sacramento encourages residents to recycle wrapping paper, bottles, cans, mail order catalogs, boxes, and greeting cards by placing them in blue recycle bins with commingled recycling. Christmas trees can be r

It's about time. On Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council voted 6-3 to make it a crime to dig thru recycling and waste bins. (City Council members Fong, McCarty and Pannell were the votes against it).  Anyone who lives in Midtown, downtown, East Sac, Land Park, and other areas will appreciate the new ordinance. That's because stealing recyclable materials has become a full-time activity for plenty of folks -- and a headache for those of us who live in the city. During the past few years, the problem of bin raiding has gone from bad to worse.  A few months ago, a friend in Midtown told me how the scavengers had taken to jumping his fence and coming into his backyard to go after the

The Sacramento Bike Kitchen (SBK) has been open for a week and the buzz is all over town. A DIY bike workshop that spreads bike culture with its unique approach to getting 'er done. Volunteers help YOU know your bike by showing you how to fix and maintain it. The result is that you are much more at cause over your 2 wheeled friend NOT the effect. Your affinity skyrockets for all things bicycling and simply cannot go anywhere unless it's on a bike. Well alright thats a little over the top but I hope you get my point. At the kitchen we have a theory that most entry level bicyclists have had their hearts broken with the box store variety of bicycles that are not long for the dumpster. Poorly

Did you get a new gadget for the holidays and need to get rid of the old one? Considering buying a new TV for the DTV conversion next month? Electronic waste (E-Waste), such as televisions, VCRs, computers, and iPods cannot be just thrown out in the garbage. There are four easy ways to properly recycle your E-Waste devices in the City of Sacramento. 1) Neighborhood Clean-Up Program: Residential rate payers are entitled to one free clean-up day per year to dispose of bulky waste. This includes E-Waste. To learn more or to schedule an appointment call Customer Service by dialing 311or (916) 264-5011. 2) The City of Sacramento Household Hazardous Waste Facility accepts E-Waste. CRT’s (telev

Have you ever wondered what the proper way to recycle something was but then instead of looking it up, you just put it in your garbage can, closed the lid and forgot about it? How would one recycle carpet? Pesticides? Wheelchairs? Cooking oil? On the Sacramento Regional Solid Waste Authority's Waste Management & Recycling Web site, there's a whole section titled "How Do I Recycle?" with over 30 different types of common waste products that can be recycled. For example, metal crutches and canes, walkers and non-motorized wheelchairs can be donated to the North Area Recovery Station in North Highlands. Inmates in correctional facilities restore these items to like-new condition and they a

Our aquamarine Frigidaire refrigerator has been around since the Eisenhower Administration. It came with the house we purchased in Hollywood Park a few years ago. The fridge had a lot of “vintage” charm to it. It’s actually made by General Motors….so it’s outlasted most of the GM cars. Recently, it’s been making some loud rattling that competed with the noise of the leaf blower guy. But hey, it still worked! Then we found out about a refrigerator recycling program offered by SMUD. Wanna save money while you save the environment? Recycle your old power-hungry refrigerator and SMUD will pick it up for free, plus they’ll give you a $35 rebate. Since our fridge is “old-school” it was sucking