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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Maine "Going Green"

Maine citizens are welcoming a recent change in their environmental and healthy habits. “Going Green” is the nation’s new slogan. The United States has been progressing to minimize global warming and the recent struggle of gathering material from other countries. It is really expensive to import material to the US. Recently, recycling material and not using a lot of the pure resources can decrease the cost of living and doesn’t have to threaten the environment. The most popular form of “Going Green” is determined on power saving, organic food, recycling waste, and reducing costs.

Maine has been one of the many states that have been working to reduce their carbon footprint. Landfills have been closing or editing their ways of keeping the waste material under control. “Nearly 100% of the state’s unlicensed, unlined, substandard landfills have been capped and closed, significantly reducing their impacts on Maine’s environment,” says Maine State Planning Office.

www.maine.gov/spo/recycle/

There have been advances over the past three years closing the trash facility in Hampden, ME. After a long battle between the town of Hampden and the Casella Waste Systems Inc. there is hope for the future. The 44-acre trash pile that once inhabited the town has now become more environmentally friendly. It has been 35 long years of toxic waste in Hampden, in 1975, when the Sawyer Environmental Recovery Facility first opened, “there was no liner separating the ground and the tons and tons of waste”. After Casella Waste System Inc. bought the landfill in 1996, Hampden was majorly concerned with the odor, the out-of-state dumping, and the probability that the landfill caused cancer.

Today, the facility is on a cleaning process to wide out all the toxins from the landfill in past years. The $10 million dollar gas-to-energy remodel of the landfill is the first in Maine. Casella Waste System Inc. is using thiobacillus bacteria to east the hydrogen sulfide from the methane, making the toxins less lethal. The facility itself recycles 400,000 tons a year, as the biggest recycler in the region, the once landfill is working to reduce the toxins that it once produced.

http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/141427.html

A new restaurant has opened up in Orono, ME that has developed ways of being a “green restaurant”. Verve is the local café that makes burritos and smoothies. The owners have been thinking about a place like this for a long time. Abe Furth and his wife already own a bar and grill called Woodman’s. Furth likes the local producers and buys from them instead of larger corporations for his groceries. All their food is made fresh daily. The Verve gets their coffee from Carrabassett Coffee Company along with tomatoes from Backyard Farms. Bagels baked fresh from Bagel Central in Bangor and organic sodas from Maine Root are also a part of the Verve menu. Furth says, “Knowing where your food comes from is a pretty enjoyable feeling.” Glassware, including cups, plates, and silverware are provided and watched to save on waste. Table scraps are even given to a local chicken farm. Napkins are recyclable and customers seem to enjoy the factor of a “green restaurant”.

http://mobilemainenews.com/?p=891

Hannaford, a grocery store that services the greater part of New England, is also doing their part to “go green”. “They’re calling it the greenest grocery store in all the land.” Augusta, ME has been put through some new improvements. Hannaford is thinking that they could save some green by “going green”, a double win for the store. More and more supermarkets are looking in reducing their carbon footprint. This Hannaford in Augusta is a great learning opportunity for the company. The store’s remodel includes: drought resistant plants that insulate the store, a solar photovoltaic system, skylights that keep the store cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Hannaford has also taken unused material and debris from construction sites and older buildings in the creation of the store. Energy savers of motion detecting lights in the refrigerators and solar fixtures, that fan the cool air into the freezers and keeps the warmth in the store for the customers, are also things that make the store environmentally friendly.

http://bangordailynews.com/detail/111314.html

It is safe to say that Maine is one of the more productive states in the US. By keeping their landfills, grocery stores, and restaurants environmentally friendly they are also saving a little bit of money “Going Green”. Recycled products are the best way to influence others to “go green” if Mainers see that their grocery store is making a small difference they’re more likely to do the same and care about their environment along with developing healthy habits for themselves.