Won't you be my Sustainable Neighbor?

A few weeks ago, Barbara Keeney called to ask if GreenPlate could help green the Milltown 'Olympics' event. Milltown Arms Tavern in Cabbagetown has been very open and excited about reducing their environmental footprint. For the August 1st event, GreenPlate helped choose alternatives to plastics, recycling, and composting to reduce trash.

Milltown used products like paper bowls, cups, recycled toilet paper, napkins and biodegradable trash bags from Indoff. As a result, GreenCo Environmental, Georgia's only commercial manufacturer of organic compost using food waste, partnered with us to collect all the food waste, collected cardboard and take out materials. GreenCo composts materials so that it reaches a really high temperature which allows them compost the biodegrables and meat and bones -- things you wouldn't want to try in your home composting system!

Other actions taken included using real silverware for the shrimp boil instead of disposable utensils. At the bar, stirrers were made out of bamboo supplied by Bamboo Studio and while there were plastic straws on the bar, they were only available by request to reduce their overall use. The City of Atlanta Recycling Program Manager Mary Harrington dropped of recycling bins and glass, aluminum and plastic were collected. ReMix recycling agreed to pick up recycling materials.

Not only did the Olympic's participants shine like champions but they also helped the recycling and composting efforts a success by not contaminating the collections.

This has been a great start. GreenPlate is looking forward to working with Barb and Milltown to reduce water and energy use next!

"GreenPlate believes you can give a community a recycling bin, or you
can teach them how to be green."

Castleberry Hill Arts District, Atlanta, Georgia - We are launching GreenCell communities who learn and work together to identify and implement an array of environmentally impactful solutions for community, restaurant and residential improvements. Categories are water and energy efficiency, resource conservation, waste reduction, recycling, and composting. A few of the MANY solutions include community clean-ups that recycle the waste gathered, restaurants' collective buying arrangements for disposable biodegradable take-out products, free energy-saving tips for the home, and community-sponsored reusable shopping bags.

The project will produce "living documentation" of tools, resources, tips, training kits, and trained GreenCell Ambassadors to help other neighborhoods follow suit.

GreenPlate is excited to initiate the first GreenCell community with the Castleberry Hill Art District in Atlanta, GA. We are selecting Castleberry Hill (www.castleberryhill.org) for its progressive, diverse community and its hallmark as a destination in Atlanta. There are over 350 families, 10 art galleries and 14 restaurants in the district. Each month an Art Stroll brings in thousands of people from all over Atlanta. The community also hosts loft tours, internationally recognized art events, a community yard sale and more. Neighborhood leadership is primed and committed to being Atlanta’s first GreenCell.

Castleberry Hill sees this opportunity as a way to build community cohesiveness and “spirit”, promote the existing events and have a cleaner and safer neighborhood. We see it as a way to reduce a community's environmental impact and to nurture green growth one GreenCell at a time.