Birmingham’s current effort to go green, which currently includes initiatives like Mayor Langford’s 4-day work week and scrap metal recycling program, could be expanded soon to include a plan to implement a regional plan to use E85 fuel made from wood waste in the city’s 130 current fleet of flex fuel vehicles and other vehicles in the area’s three largest cities.

The mayor’s office let us know that he recently met with Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos and Mayor Ed May of Bessemer to discuss the possibility of developing just such a regional plan. According to the press release, Birmingham alone generates an estimated 16,000 tons of wood waste per year.

“One ton of wood waste generates an estimated 215 gallons of E85 fuel. Just based on that, this City could generate three times our annual fuel consumption,” said Mayor Langford.

The Alabama Environmental Council and Waste Management are partnering to encourage attendees to this year’s City Stages festival to recycle. There will be seven (7) recycling stations throughout the festival site (staffed by volunteers in the evenings) asking festival goers to recycle plastic and aluminum cans.

Just keep an eye out for the Think Green t-shirts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings between 6 - 10 p.m. Of course you could win your way in to see what it’s like - your last chance to enter to win two sets of passes to the festival will be at about 5:15 tomorrow afternoon!

Today is the day to clean out the garage. Jefferson County officials will be accepting hazardous waste Saturday at three locations from 8 a.m. to noon: Centerpoint Courthouse, Birmingham Fairgrounds and the Bessemer Civic Center.

Here’s a list of materials that will be accepted provided by the Alabama Environmental Council:
Aerosols; antifreeze, car batteries, motor oil, and tires; paint & thinners, stains & varnish; pesticides & herbicides; auto & furniture polish; wood preservatives; akaline batteries; caulk & glue; chemical drain cleaner; solvents; ammunition, explosives, firearms, gun powder, pyrotechnics & flares. BONUS — the nasty, hard-to-get-rid of mecury and flourescents will also be taken.

Do your part for the Earth by disposing hazardous wast properly. Or in this case, get someone to do it for you.

The Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham Southern College is starting to celebrate its 10th anniversary this month with its first ever online auction. Summer Splash currently has 19 items available for visitors to bid on with all proceeds going to support the organizations educational efforts. We’re pretty sure they’d appreciate you visiting (and bidding) early and often. But no worries, you can visit and bid until May 21 and there’s always EcoFest 10 in October…

The first major delivery of XO laptop computers were made to students at Glen Iris Elementary School earlier this week. Approximately 700 computers were distributed. We all know how environmentally friendly the laptops are but what about the packaging?

AEC Program Coordinator Jenny Dorgan gets assistance from a student at Glen Iris Elementary School while preparing the boxes that delivered approximately 700 laptops for recycling. Photo courtesy of the Alabama Environmental Council.

Well, the Alabama Environmental Council let us know that they recycled 100% of the packaging from the first disbursement of the laptops (including all of these boxes that you’re seeing).

BTW - how about letting us know what your plans are for Earth Day over on Magic City Question?

Just wondering…

Now, tomorrow’s Earth Day (officially), at least the one that everyone’s familiar with (maybe)… that’s another post. Anyway, there are a lot of things available to people in Birmingham tomorrow because of the observance that will help make the community a better place to live, whether financially or environmentally. One of the environmental options includes driving up to visit Vulcan atop Red Mountain and getting a free 90 second emissions test beginning at 10 a.m. Click on the link to see the rest of the scheduled testings for this year if you can’t make it tomorrow. There’s more…