It's Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Groundwater Games: Recycle Roundup}

As Groundwater Awareness Week gets closer, Frannie wants to share a fun game you can play that helps you learn about the importance of recycling!  Did you know that recycling helps protect groundwater?  Recycling creates new products from old items, this means less water is used making new products.

Here's what you'll need:

• At least 3 people
• 30 index cards
• Marker
• Three buckets
• Stopwatch
• Whistle
• Large open area

Set-Up Instructions:
1.  Divide your index cards into three piles of 10.  Take the first pile and on one side of each card write the name of an item that can be put in a compost pile.  Mark the second stack with items that can be recycled and mark the third stack with items that can only be put in a landfill, below are some examples:

Recycle -
Aluminum can, notebook paper, paper egg carton, paper grocery bag, telephone book, glass jar, plastic soda bottle, steel soup can, newspaper, plastic milk jug.

Compost -
Apple core, banana peel, coffee grounds, leaves, grass clippings, dead flowers, potato peels, water, worms, pumpkin seeds.

Landfill -
Disposable diaper, used dental floss, used bandage, rubber band, fast food wrappers, cling wrap, wet paper, old sock, paper clip, buttons.

2.  Now label one bucket "Compost," the second "Recycle," and the third "Landfill."

3.  Find a large open area and set the three buckets on one end in a row.  Randomly scatter all the cards, face down, in the area in front of the buckets.

Activity Instructions:
1.  Divide your friends into three teams.
2.  Give one team the title of Compost, the second Recycle, and the third Landfill.  The team should elect one member of their team to stand behind their corresponding bucket.  This person will act as the final judge and can be the only person to drop the cards into the labeled bucket.
3.  At the sound of the whistle, you will have five minutes to go through the cards.  Each person may pick up one card at a time and read the back.  If they think the item corresponds to their team, they hand the card to the judge behind the bucket.  The judge decides if the item is correct and puts it in the bucket.  If the item is incorrect, the judge hands it back to the person who gave the card to them and they return the card to the table or floor, face down.

4.  At the end of the time period, the team that has the most correct items in their bucket is declared the winner.

Share pictures of you and your friends playing Recycle Roundup here.

BLOG: Curbside Composting

by Catherine Chertudi, City of Boise, Idaho

Nearly 74,000 households now have the opportunity to divert compostable materials from the landfill to a Boise City owned composting facility!

The residential compost collection program was initiated nearly two years ago based upon recommendations from a citizen’s advisory committee to reduce wastes sent to the landfill. The idea took flight when the Ada County Landfill completed a year-long study of waste disposed in the landfill. The city discovered that nearly 46% of all residential wastes placed into the landfill were compostable materials.

Realizing that nearly half of our residential wastes could be diverted and used to make a valuable product created the momentum needed to begin discussions to develop a city-wide compost program.

Collecting compostable materials is easy – the issue was having a site to conduct the composting process. For many years, the city had hoped the private sector would develop a regional compost facility, however with the amount of dairy wastes in the area, a residential compost facility was not seen as a high investment priority. Ultimately, the city and our franchised hauler, Republic Services agreed to partner to design, build and operate a composting facility on city-owned property.

The ideal site was found on a portion of the city’s Twenty-Mile South Farm which is used to manage biosolids. The selected location is not ideal for farming – due to basalt outcrops and rocky ground. However, the site was perfect for composting. About 40 acres have been dedicated to the composting facility which includes a scale, office, receiving and windrow pads. The design incorporates extensive storm water and compost leachate management to protect groundwater. A monitoring plan was also required as part of the site permitting process with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and Central District Health Department.

The design and permitting process for the new compost site was nearly 9 months long and required three major revisions to the compost siting application with the Idaho DEQ. Construction of the facility started in April 2017 and will be completed in August. On June 5, 2017 we began delivery of nearly 74,000 wheeled carts to collect the compostable materials and the full cart roll-out was completed July 15th. The first phase of the compost pad opened June 22, 2017 and by July 17 we have already collected and are composting about 1400 tons of yard wastes and kitchen scraps.

The site was designed for about 95 tons per day and we expected to begin with 45 tons per day – we have already seen the results exceed our projections with nearly 66 tons per day collected in the first five weeks of the new program. And, we have reduced trash routes to the landfill by two trucks per day.

The compost process takes about 100 days and the city intends to give back to our customers first – providing free compost and using compost on city properties. Our high-desert soils will benefit from incorporating compost which improves soil and plant health and, most importantly, acts as a sponge to retain water which reduces the need for frequent irrigation during our hot summer months.

Boise residents are supportive and excited about the new composting program – and their commitment to protecting and conserving our great quality of life is evident in their participation in the new program and the low levels of contamination in the compost carts. Reducing wastes and conserving resources is one of our core values in creating a lasting environment for today and for future generations of citizens in our city.

To learn more, visit www.curbitboise.org.

It’s Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Food Waste Part 2: Save and Reuse}

This is the second part of Frannie’s dive into reducing food waste at home.  To read the first part, click here.

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Do you like to cook? Frannie does!

There are ways to reduce food waste and save water even when you’re preparing food and cooking food.

To make sure our food is clean, we should wash our fruits and vegetables even if they come in a bag.  Before turning on the tap, put a bowl in sink to catch the dirty water.  When you are done washing your food, you can use the water on your houseplants or garden instead of letting it run down the sink.  You can also do this with the water you have used to boil fruits, vegetables, and eggs after, of course, you let it cool.

As pointed out last week, you can easily use vegetable peelings to start your own compost pile, but did you know you can also some vegetable food waste to make soup?  Save your carrot and celery ends and freeze them for up to six months and boil them in water to make a delicious vegetable broth.  You can also do this with vegetables that are beginning to get old by simply cutting away any bad parts and chopping them into large chunks.

Want a meat broth instead? Save bones and scraps leftover from your pork chops or chicken and add them to boiling water or the veggie broth.

When your bread goes stale, you can break it into pieces and make homemade croutons or breadcrumbs using recipes like this one.  If you want to try something a bit different, try these cornbread croutons!

Even cheese can be reused.  After cutting away the Parmesan rind, turn it into a nice cheesy broth for a Wisconsin Cheese soup or a creamy pasta sauce for your next Italian night.

Share with us some of your ways to reduce food and water waste while cooking on our Facebook, Twitter, or E-mail.  Bon appetite!

It’s Water-Wise Wednesdays with Frannie the Fish! {Awesome Aquifer Kit: Improperly Managed Landfill}

This week in Frannie’s exploration of the Awesome Aquifer Kit is all about why you should care what goes into your landfill.

 

We all know how to pick up litter and throw it away properly, but where does our trash go and how is it taken care of after the garbage truck drives away?

That’s right! The landfill!

All of the gross things we don’t want near are homes are going to a landfill.  When it rains, the water infiltrates the landfill.  In other words, it filters down through all the layers of trash to reach the earth.  Once the water has trickled down through all that trash, it starts to look and smell like a garbage soup.  Scientists call this soup “leachate”.

Leachate then seeps down into the ground where it can interact with our groundwater, the same water we pull from our wells to drink and use in preparing our food.  If we are not careful of what we put in the trash or if the operators of the landfill are not careful to check the garbage trucks for harmful and toxic items, then our wells are in danger of critical pollution.

Luckily, there are special landfills for dangerous chemicals.  These can be underground storage tanks, septic systems, or recycling plants that treat or transform toxic trash until it is useable again.  You can help at home by doing more recycling, even for items like broken electronics, batteries and light bulbs!

You can learn more about landfills here and visit your local landfill to see what they are doing to keep your ground and groundwater safe.