Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education Coordinator, Environmental Education and Community Outreach
- Plano
- United States
Topics
9 Comments
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Re: Lunch Composting in Secondary Schools
2011-07-29 14:36:19 UTC
Aldan, would you be willing to share the 5 slides?
Ora, I really like your wholistic approach to how composting fits into the bigger picture on waste.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Lunch Composting in Secondary Schools
2011-07-28 09:11:14 UTC
Up until 2009, our city collected the organic waste from about half of our school district's cafeterias and composted the waste at a regional facility. Unfortunately, we were obliged to suspend the collection due to repeated contamination with non-compostable items. In the schools where there were waste monitors and ongoing education, the contamination rate was very low. Our most successful schools were at the elementary and middle school level where waste monitors (either adults or students) volunteered at breakfast and lunch periods during the whole year.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Office Waste Reduction
2011-07-07 11:35:25 UTC
Denise, I'm not sure whether the idea has spread or not. We promote it at our Live Green in Plano volunteer trainings and at the city's Green Team meetings. It would be nice to know if someone decided to implement it at the office. I like the idea of the non-profit loaning out the partyware to other organizations. What do they pack it in?
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Home Composting Display Ideas
2009-09-22 14:31:48 UTC
Frank,
Thanks for the link. CIWMB's website has a lot of useful information that I've used in preparing for the composting classes I teach.
Andrea,
I would be happy to email you PDF files of our brochures and pop-up displays.
Erin
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Looking for home composting display ideas
2009-08-21 10:51:19 UTC
Andrea,
Are you looking for ideas for an indoor display that can travel, teaching props, or an outdoor display at a demonstration center?
We recently worked with a local graphics company to create six pop-up displays -- three on backyard composting and three on vermicomposting. We'll use these at libraries and indoor public venues. We've put on an outdoor Compost Fair several times. We recruit volunteers, usually our Master Composters, to staff the learning stations. We also have a permanent compost demonstration site.
If you could you be more specific about what you seek, we might have something that would be helpful to you.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Feedback on New Digest
2009-07-30 13:27:21 UTC
Justin, the response has changed. Clicking on the two active icons (ENERGY and ANNOUNCEMENTS) now moves the reader to the correct section of the digest; however, clicking on the titles does nothing. Clicking on any NO THREADS TODAY START A NEW THREAD opens a new browser instance at http://www.cbsm.com/forums/index.lasso.
I am a running a XP box 2002 with SP2 and Outlook 2003 with SP3. The av is Symantec Endpoint Protection version 11.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Feedback on New Digest
2009-07-30 11:06:53 UTC
The links in the new format don't work for me, either. Instead it opens a window titled LOCATE LINK BROWSER and prompts me to navigate through my files to find an executable file. This happens consistently whether I click on the icon and or click on the discussion thread titles. On the mouseover , the pop-up message is
blocked::#announcements (appears over the icon)
blocked::#announcements_1 (appears over the title)
blocked::#announcements_2 (appears over the title)
I tested several copies of the old digest and they worked fine. Clicking on the icon jumped to the desired section of the digest. Clicking on the title opened the browser at the desired thread on the website.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Office Waste Reduction
2009-05-27 11:51:05 UTC
Denise, Thanks for promoting such a sustainable idea. About four years ago, we started with a MUG-A-FRIEND program. Each of our Master Composters donated 1-2 spare coffee mugs for us to use at community meetings instead of disposable cups. When the education program expanded into other areas of interest and became Live Green in Plano, we also expanded our efforts to hold "sustainable" meetings. Through the generosity of our LGIP volunteers, we have reusable plates, cups, flatware, cooking utensils, serving bowls, napkins and dishtowels. Everything is kept in the community kitchen. Volunteers clean the dishes at the end of each gathering. Only the napkins go home for a quick wash. The sustainable kitchen is a great way to demonstrate that reducing waste can be easy and inexpensive with a little planning.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States -
Re: Planting Fruit Trees where we Live and Work
2009-02-18 11:04:40 UTC
Patricia, I'm not aware of a movement specifically promoting fruit trees but I know that there is a growing interest in community gardens and organic gardening. We were approached last year about adding fruit trees to our community garden. We declined the gift because we lacked knowledge and experience in maintaining fruit trees. Since then we have learned that figs, pears, pomegranates and persimmons can be grown successfully in our area without spraying. We also found two other community gardens in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area that are growing fruit trees organically. We plan to try growing figs and pears in addition to blackberries and raspberries this year. This is our first time growing fruit so the gardeners are curious to see how much effort is involved. A number of our participants joined the program to learn to grow vegetables and many are keeping a plot at home now. I suspect that if we can show that growing fruit is easy, there might be an increased willingness for people to consider fruit trees as a landscaping option. One area that we have not examined is whether the fruit trees will require a significant amount of water. If so, encouraging their cultivation in our region might not be appropriate. I would like to hear from others, particularly those in areas where water conservation is a priority.
Erin Hoffer
Environmental Education and Community Outreach
United States
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