As we’re out and about this summer, the RTJ crew is offering up free Green Bin liners to those who have pledged to take action and start using their green bin! However, we also know that the liners can be expensive.

Ever wanted to find a cheaper way to wrap up all your organics? Don’t worry! Don’t fear! ORGANICS ORIGAMI is here!  Thanks to a smart cookie at the Region of Waterloo, there’s a way to fold old newspaper that would go into the recycling anyways! (Talk about re-using!) We’ll be uploading a video soon of an RTJer to show you exactly how it’s done. But in the meantime, here are the printed instructions for you to use. Happy Green Binning!

ORGANICS ORIGAMI INSTRUCTIONS

Check out our 2012 Green Bin Project Page for updates, pictures and events. See you on the doorstep!

Have any questions about what can and cannot go into the green bin? Contact us and we’ll find you an answer!

Imagine! A road that reduces juice for us! Well, dreams can come true. Check out this article about a concrete that sucks up all that nasty stuff from cars and trucks. It’s always better to reduce juice at the source, but NOx-sucking roads would sure be awesome.

Check it out straight from the source here!

Reduce the Juice usually shares fun stories or what’s going on during the project, but this time it’s serious. There’s a Mega Quarry being proposed in an area near and dear to RTJ’s heart, as it’s just north of Shelburne, RTJ’s birthplace. Here’s the deal on the Quarry. Brace yourself for this.

The Highland Companies, backed by The Baupost Group, a Boston based hedge fund, has made application to excavate a +2,300 acre limestone quarry, 100 km northwest of Toronto, in Melancthon Township.

If approved, this would be the largest quarry in Canadian history, and the second largest in North America.

The quarry, if approved, would irreversibly eradicate Class 1 agricultural land, involve excavation 1.5 times as deep as Niagara Falls and 200 feet below the water table in an area known as The Headwaters, since it the highest point of elevation in Southern Ontario and home to the headwaters and sensitive recharge area of numerous important river systems that provide water resources for approximately 1 million Ontarians.

The proponent intends to manipulate 600 million litres of water daily (equivalent to 25% of all water consumed by Ontarians on a daily basis), in perpetuity.

In short, Canada has never laid witness to the potential for a quarrying excavation and operation of this magnitude.

A large and growing number of Ontario residents and concerned environmental organizations have understandingly become very alarmed that our government could potentially authorize Highlands to proceed with what could prove, in retrospect, to be an environmental disaster.

Visit  nomegaquarry.ca for more info

So this is a call to action - write some hand-written/emails or phone your local, provincial, even federal MPs. Give Peter Kent (Minister of Natural Resources) a call as well, he likes to chat.
Liberal, Dalton McGuinty dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Conservative, Tim Hudak tim.hudakco@pc.ola.org
New Democratic Party Andrea Horwath ahorwath-co@ndp.on.ca
Green Party, Mike Schreiner: leader@gpo.ca
Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent: kentp@parl.gc.ca

And please come out to Foodstock on Oct 16th to support the campaign! Get your tickets here:

http://canadianchefscongressfoodstock.eventbrite.com/

The end of summer and the end of another amazingly successful project. It’s always a bittersweet time, especially this summer. As two of our students go back to school in Waterloo (one back to WCI and the other to the University of Waterloo), the girls are leaving Waterloo completely! Anna is going back to Germany and Val to Montreal. It was amazing having all of them and we’d like to thank them for making this summer such a success and SO much fun. It was a pleasure working with this team and we’ll miss them!

As a special activity, we also shot a video in Waterloo Park on water this summer. It’s getting edited as I type and will be up on our website as soon as possible for your viewing pleasure. Extra special thanks to the Working Centre in Kitchener for supplying the video equipment and editing software for this video that helped make it so awesome!

Lastly, we’ll be announcing our official results quite soon. It was better than we expected – especially after our busiest event, KidSpark this past Sunday. So stay tuned for the summer results and the water video and remember to check out all of the pictures from the summer!

Today we’re celebrating an awesome summer and announcing some preliminary results from the campaign in Waterloo Town Square! I’m not saying anything just yet, but I will say that it’s going to be good. I mean, REALLY good. This thing is going to be so big, that even Waterloo’s Mayor, Brenda Halloran is coming out to say a few words! We’ll have the whole RTJ show there this time too. We’re talking the WCI solar-electric vehicle, the bike generator, the legendary renewable energy trailer, solar and pedal powered snow cones, and even RTJ t-shirts made from organic cotton for sale!!

And on top of all of this extreme-awesomeness, it’s Community Challenge day! It’s a day that is challenging communities across Ontario to conserve the most electricity. It’s no coincidence that it happens to be on the same day as the unforgettable 2003 blackout. We all need to remember how electricity (or lack of) can affect our lives, which is why it’s so important that we conserve it.

So come work out and pedal your own electricity for a snow cone or let our panels soak up the rays and just chill out to celebrate another fantastic summer in Waterloo!

Where: Waterloo Town Square

Time: 11:00-4:00