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May 31, 2013

Cycle, Recycle and Discover June 1-2, 2013

Posted by GreenLivingOttawa under arts and culture, building, flora and fauna, food, Ottawa, recycled, reuse
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Written by Denise Deby.

Wild Bergamot, Ottawa photo by D. Gordon E. Robertson, Wikimedia Commons

Wild Bergamot, Ottawa photo by D. Gordon E. Robertson, Wikimedia Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wild_Bergamot,_Ottawa.jpg

This weekend, June 1-2 2013, is jam-packed with fun events that also have an environmental angle:

The Fletcher Wildlife Garden is holding its Annual Native Plant Sale on Saturday from 9:30-12:30. As well as wildflowers for sale, they have lots of advice about what to grow to attract birds, butterflies and other creatures to your garden. For more information, click on the poster at http://www.ofnc.ca/fletcher/.

The City of Ottawa’s designated Give Away Weekend is on Saturday and Sunday. You can put used items marked “free” out at the curb, and let other people who can use them take them away. Check the City’s website for information on how it works and what to include and not include.

Several neighbourhoods are holding multi-family garage sales on Saturday. There’s the Riverview Park Community Wide Garage Sale,  the Manor Park Garage Sale, the Hintonburg Garage Sale, the Island Park Garage Sale and the Wild Wild Westboro Garage Sale. (OttawaStart posts a helpful list of sales and suggestions on where to find used stuff at http://ottawastart.com/used.php.)

This weekend is the annual Doors Open Ottawa. It’s a wonderful opportunity to visit buildings that are normally closed to the public, including heritage homes, artists’ studios, embassies, city and museum archives, churches and more. On the environment side, you can see how Ottawa’s water is purified and how our wastewater is treated, explore the University of Ottawa’s newest green building, tour an historic garden or learn about Canadian energy research, for example. The full list of buildings, and schedules, are at http://ottawa.ca/en/residents/arts-culture-and-community/museums-and-heritage/doors-open-ottawa-0.

The Ottawa International Children’s Festival is delightful for all ages. As well as fun and funny performances, the Festival offers Let’s Talk Science learning programs, Otesha Project workshops, a Dynamic Maze and other activities that allow participants to explore their environment and themselves. The 100 Watt Earth Stage schedule includes short plays about animal rights written by Ottawa kids. There’s lots more, so check it out at http://ottawachildrensfestival.ca/.

Capital Vélo Fest runs this weekend. This annual celebration of cycling offers a Bike Rodeo, workshops, vendor and art displays, games like bike polo and bike jousting, a bike-powered smoothie machine and a Tour La Nuit “for riders of all ages and abilities” on Saturday. On Sunday, several communities will offer their own cycling events as part of Community Spokes. See the Capital Vélo Fest website for more details.

Happy first weekend in June!

Update:

Also on Saturday evening is the Ottawa Velo Vogue bicycle fashion show. Ottawa Velo Vogue’s aim is to promote cycling by demonstrating that you don’t need fancy clothing or equipment to ride. The show will feature bike-friendly clothes, accessories and bikes, and is a fundraiser for Cycle Salvation. It’s at 7 p.m. at Kichesippi Brewery. Details at velovogue.eventbrite.ca or www.ottawavelovogue.com.

On Sunday, there’s an open house at the Gatineau Park Visitor Centre in anticipation of GatineauPark’s 75th anniversary coming up in July. There’ll be nature walks, interactive displays on biodiversity, wildlife management and wilderness survival, birds of prey demonstrations, and food samples from local restaurants. It’s 9:30-4 at the Visitor Centre in Chelsea. Details at http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/places-to-visit/gatineau-park/news/2013-05-28/gatineau-park-celebrating-75-years.

Also on Sunday, the Brewer Park Community Garden is holding a community consultation on its plans for a Biodome Garden. The project, supported by the City of Ottawa’s Neighbourhood Connection Office, is to extend the growing season by creating a greenhouse-like space for producing food sustainably. The consultation is 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Brewer Park Pool meeting room. Details at http://brewerparkcommunitygarden.weebly.com/garden-news.html.

 

April 13, 2013

Earth Month April 2013 at terra20

Posted by Green Living Ottawa under books, clothing, fair trade, food, health, household, organic, Ottawa, personal care, pets, recycled, reuse
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Written by Denise Deby.

terra20 books photo by Denise Deby

Living green, for many of us, means trying to do the best we can as consumers, by reducing, reusing, recycling, and choosing environmentally-friendly goods and services over harmful ones, when options and information exist.

Bringing a wide range of sustainable products to the Ottawa market is the approach of eco-store terra20, which opened last year. Billed as North America’s largest eco-store, Ottawa-based terra20 sells an array of items, from household goods and cleaning products to office supplies, clothing and more. In one visit, you could pick up non-toxic shampoo, bamboo and organic cotton bed sheets, a backpack made of recycled soda bottles with a solar cell phone recharger, a copy of Adria Vasil’s Ecoholic, and fair-trade chocolate.

Terra20 posts the ingredients of the products it sells, and adds its own labels to let customers know what eco-principles it considers those products to be consistent with—for example, “organic,” “made in Canada” or “waste-reducing.” Few products do everything, but terra20’s overall message is upbeat: its name comes from the idea that “the year 20-something will be the year we achieve sustainability.”

Sustainability may be more of an ongoing process, but one interesting thing about terra20 is that—like smaller stores in Ottawa that sell environmentally-friendly products, but on a bigger scale—it’s working to build a community where people think about and share ideas about green living.

Terra20 is continuing to do that this month in a big way, through social media and in-store promotions. Its Earth Month celebration focuses on a new theme each week. Last week’s was cloth and alternative diapering.

This week’s topic is litterless lunches, and on Saturday, April 13 from noon-4 p.m. at the store, there’ll be presentations on products as well as a litterless lunch food prep demonstration (with samples) by the amazing Judi Varga-Toth of Credible Edibles.

The third week is about reducing waste, and includes an Earth Day celebration on Saturday April 20 from noon-4 p.m. Several companies will present products that use recycled materials or help you reuse your own, including EcoJot, which makes stationery from recycled paper, and local business naCoille which produces hand-crafted cutting boards and furniture from reclaimed wood. The afternoon will be hosted by the always-impressive Ian Capstick of MediaStyle.

Week 4 will be all about terra20’s ecobar, where customers can purchase household cleaning solutions in refillable bottles. Further details on all the Earth Month events are at http://www.terra20.com/community/events/.

Terra20 is located at 2685 Iris St. in the mall beside Ikea, on bus routes 96, 101 and 172 (or bike along Iris), and offers online browsing and shopping as well.

 

April 8, 2013

Ontario Tire Stewardship’s Used Tire Program

Posted by Green Living Ottawa under recycled, transportation
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Written by Denise Deby.

Tires in forest by User:Mysid, Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tires_in_forest.jpg

Tires in forest by User:Mysid, Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tires_in_forest.jpg

If you’ve wondered what happens to vehicle tires once they’re no longer useable, you might want to check out Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS). OTS is an industry-funded group set up to take responsibility for used tires. Waste Diversion Ontario, a corporation set up by the province, oversees it and other waste diversion programs (like the Blue Box program).

Ontario residents buy more than 12 million tires every year, says OTS, and OTS recycles over 95 per cent of discarded tires, up from 50 per cent before the program started in 2009.

Under the Used Tire Program, people can take their old tires to participating collectors, primarily automotive centres, which accept up to four tires at any given time, without charge. (They take vehicle tires, not bike tires, unfortunately). A search by postal code or city on OTS’s online database shows collector locations–there are many in Ottawa.

Once collected and processed, the tires go to manufacturers where they’re recycled into products for household, construction and landscaping use, such as patio tiles, roof shingles, gym flooring and playground surfaces.

OTS contacted Green Living Ottawa to say that some of those products will be on display when OTS comes to the National Women’s Show in Ottawa at the Ottawa Convention Centre on April 13 and 14. OTS will also present tips for extending tire life through proper tire maintenance.

Since most tires contain synthetic rubber, oil and various other non-environmentally-friendly materials and additives, they’re hard to dispose of. It’s preferable to reduce their use in the first place, for example by using cars less and cycling, walking or taking public transit, but it’s important that the tires we do use aren’t sent to landfills or burned.

 

April 3, 2013

EcoEquitable: Recycling, Local Crafts and Employment

Posted by Green Living Ottawa under clothing, Ottawa, recycled
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Written by Denise Deby.

Poster courtesy of EcoEquitable

Poster courtesy of EcoEquitable

EcoEquitable is an example of a small organization that accomplishes big things: it turns unwanted textiles into creative and useful products, sells recycled fabrics through its boutique, and provides employment and skills development to people who need temporary support.

EcoEquitable’s “Eco Fashion bags” are made from recycled, donated fabrics, vinyl, even flags. It also makes promotional bags to order, for example for conferences. EcoEquitable’s “Sowing for Jobs” program provides sewing training, financial literacy and work experience to unemployed and immigrant workers as a bridge to other employment. EcoEquitable also takes on contract sewing, does repairs and alterations (a good way to prolong the life of your clothes), and offers sewing training to groups and the public.

This Saturday, April 6, 2013, EcoEquitable is holding its first-ever Fill-A-Bag Fabric Sale. For $10 you can fill a bag with fabric that would normally be priced from $2-5 a metre. You’ll also find buttons, zippers and other notions. Bring your own shopping bag (and cash—the sale is cash-only), and stay for some Bridgehead coffee and baked treats. It’s at Heartwood House, 153 Chapel St. (use the side entrance at Chapel and Rideau), from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The sale will help EcoEquitable get ready to move to a new store-front location this spring.

For more information, check EcoEquitable’s website. EcoEquitable is supported by the United Way, the Community Foundation of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa.

 

October 19, 2012

Green Halloween

Posted by Green Living Ottawa under household, Ottawa, recycled, reuse
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Written by guest blogger Denise Deby, who writes on local and global social and environmental issues.

Several Ottawa groups are offering ways to make Halloween a little greener by hosting free costume swaps or make-your-own costume workshops. Instead of buying new, you can exchange gently-used, clean costumes for new-to-you items, or create your own.

  • On Friday, October 19, 4Cats Arts Studio in Hintonburg is holding a costume swap at 1107 Wellington St. West from 6-8 p.m.
  • At the Dovercourt Recreation Centre’s Halloween Costume Drive and Swap on Saturday, Oct. 20, 12-2 p.m., you can exchange your costume for a different one, or receive a $20 coupon good for any Dovercourt program.
  • Twiss & Weber are offering a Handmade Halloween workshop on Sunday, Oct. 21 from 1-4 p.m. at the Hintonburg Community Centre. Parents and kids 2-12 years can drop in to make a costume, as well as make a mask or decorate a loot bag (bring your own pillow case). Donations to the Snowsuit Fund welcome.

October 20 is National Costume Swap Day, supported by usedeverywhere.com. Their site makes it easier than ever to find or organize a costume swap, and you’ll also find links to help green your Halloween.

Here are a couple of additional sources:

The David Suzuki Foundation’s Queen of Green: Don’t be scared to green your Halloween

The Green Action Centre (Winnipeg): Greener Halloween: Putting the EEEK in Ecology

 

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