This Earth Day (April 22), the Living Green Expo is challenging each Minnesotan to take a personal pledge to make at least one change that will positively impact the earth.

“As the world around us is turning green with spring, it’s an ideal time for Minnesotans to think about ways to live a little greener,” says Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP), a nonprofit coalition of more than 80 conservation and environmental organizations that produces the Living Green Expo.  (more…)

Less than 15% of Minnesota phone directories are recycled, a drop of more than 50% from 2003.  A 1992 state law requires recycling of phone books but convenient recycling options have not always been easy to locate.  Last week, phone book publishers and Conservation Minnesota launched a new website, Don’t Trash the Phone Book, that makes it easy to opt out of receiving directories and find recycling opportunities.  In the first day of operation, the site attracted more than 10,000 visitors.  It has the potential to boost recycling rates and reduce the number of discarded phone books significantly in Minnesota.

John Tuma’s Capitol Update – Summer Edition, September 9, 2010

 
“50,000 Families Go Without Milk As Drivers Quit.”
-  Minneapolis Journal Newspaper, September 1, 1919

In the days before refrigeration, milk was a highly perishable but extremely essential part of life.  As a result there were fleets of small delivery wagons and trucks driven by your friendly milkmen who delivered fresh milk daily to the front doors of urban dwellers in the early 1900s.  Like many workers during the heart of the industrial revolution, they had to endure some terrible working conditions, particularly in large cities.  Many had to work ten hour days seven days a week without vacation.  In 1912 the milkmen in the Twin Cities organized the Milk Wagon Drivers Union Local 471 and within a short period doubled their wages while securing better working conditions.

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