Green Options

Are you planning a wedding in Michigan and you are hoping your big day will be a shade of green?

Then look no further than the Traverse City area which boasts beautiful resorts, wineries, and bed and breakfasts-many that have gone green.

Endangered species protections have been reinstated for the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that Endangered Species Act protections are reinstated for the gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region.

However, the status may only be temporary.

The economy is down, but here is another sign that green technology may be the way out of our economic dilemma. US clean energy patents hit a record high last quarter.

Here’s a feather in the cap of renewable energy supporters.

When the (baseload, coal and nuclear) power went out after storms in Muskegon, a mobile renewable energy unit came to the rescue.

Flint’s Back to the Bricks annual event is almost here.

While not the most eco-friendly event since it’s all about what made Flint -cars…and the people that still love them, it’s a fun event.

Back to the Bricks is something Flint needs. It is a morale booster and a local economy booster.

Plus it is just good old fashioned fun with events that range from a drive in movie to rolling cruises to free food and plenty of car exhibits.

When the sun goes down, some walkways in Birmingham, Michigan, start to glow.

They’re fitted with a phosphorescent glow-in-the-dark pavement marking system from Glow-Mark Technologies LLC of Royal Oak, MIchigan.

The system consists of encapsulated “pucks” fitted into brick pavers, wood or other material with a boring drill.

Take a moment to step out of the fast paced modern world and visit a village where time stopped over a hundred years ago.

Listen for the train whistle to signal that you can take a ride on the Huckleberry railroad, or feel the breeze off the lake while riding the Genesee Belle, enjoy old fashioned carnival rides on an old carousel or swing, watch a blacksmith at work or check out the way printers once had to set up their printing presses.

At Crossroads Village you can see what the good old days were really all about.

Recycling in Genesee County isn’t something that’s widely advertised but it is available. I’m noticing more and more that people are getting into recycling their stuff.

Cell phones, plastic grocery bags, batteries, CFLs, ink cartridges…there’s a place to recycle just about anything and everything, you just have to know where to take your stuff.

We already talked about CBC Recycling, they accept your basics: cardboard, 1 & 2 plastics, glass, tin and aluminum cans, paper, and some e-waste.

Where can you take everything else?

If you are not lucky enough to live in one of the Genesee County suburbs that offers curbside recycling you might be wondering where you can take products for recycling.

The answer: C.B.C Recycling in downtown Flint. They have huge bins where you can dump your cardboard, newspapers, magazines, phonebooks, office paper, glass, tin and aluminum cans, and number 1 and 2 plastics.

There are some very cool things in Genesee County, Michigan that many people don’t know about.

Everything is always focused on GM and all the terrible things that happen. One fabulous thing about Genesee County is our parks and all that they have to offer including free programs for families and children and several really cool places you have got to check out, like Crossroads Village and the Genesee Belle paddleboat.

So close but no curbside recycling.

If I lived two or three miles to the west, in Flushing, I’d have curbside recycling, but no I have to collect all my stuff and haul it to downtown Flint to CBC Recycling.

Or wait and go early on a Saturday morning to the once a month recycling collection that Mt. Morris Township offers.

Sorry, I’ll go at my own leisure. Which usually ends up being once every couple months.

I really think curbside recycling programs should be a standard service right along with regular garbage collection.