Green Calgary's Blog

The average Calgarian throws 50 bags into our garbage annually. That means Calgarians send 55 million bags of garbage to the landfill every year! Oct 17-23 is waste reduction week. in Canada to build awareness around sustainable and responsible consumption. To celebrate, we have 14 ways you can swap this for that to make zero waste! 1.    Consuming for Reducing: Before buying anything new ask yourself, could I borrow, or rent this item instead? 2.    The Store for Second Hand: If you must buy, see if you can find something second hand from Kijiji, Craigslist, Value Village or charity run consignment stores like Goodwill. 3.    Disposable for Reusable: With all kinds of great, dishwasher safe, affordable re-usable options now available, there's no need for disposable anything. Think about those common throw away items you could replace with reusable versions. Travel mugs, shopping bags, jars for bulk and bags for fruits and veggies at the grocery store are great examples. 4.    Che

We're pleased to announce our #rainbarrelselfie contest! Capturing rainwater and using it on your property is a great way to conserve water; keep contaminants out of our rivers and streams; and water your plants, trees and shrubs. And we want to get all of #yyc excited about rain barrel season because we know that Calgarians can do something that will save millions of litres of water every year! To encourage more Calgarians than ever before to harvest rain water, we're giving away $20 Blue Grass Nursery & Garden gift cards between May 1 - June 30th. What do you have to do to win one? It's super simple: take a picture of yourself with your installed rain barrel and tweet @greencalgary with the hashtag #rainbarrelselfie. It doesn't have to be one of our rain barrels, it just has to be installed and in #yyc! We'll award a $20 Blue Grass Nursery & Garden Centre gift card each week during the contest with winners announced each Friday. C'mon Calgary!