Earth Hour - March 28th 8:30 -9:30

Earth Hour - March 28th 8:30 - 9:30

Milwaukee Recycles

Thanks to everyone that came to the Greener Milwaukee Meetup this past Tuesday evening at the the Milwaukee Public Market.

We had about 20 attendees in all and a generous hour-long discussion by the City of Milwaukee's very own, Rick Meyers!

Rick Meyers is the Recycling Specialist for the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works. He manages the City’s State recycling grants and recycling programs and oversees a 190,000 household curbside recycling program. He establishes and maintains contracts or other agreements to market all recyclable materials, including a contract to operate the City-owned Materials Recovery Facility. He plans, supervises, and implements recycling projects, educational campaigns, and programs to increase waste prevention, reuse, and recycling. Rick represents the City of Milwaukee in the Wisconsin Be SMART Coalition and is a board member of Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful. Prior to joining the City of Milwaukee, Rick worked for nearly seven years for the Iowa Waste Exchange, providing customized assistance to business and industry to implement waste reduction and recycling practices. Thanks agian for all who showed and learned about our city and our planet making Milwaukee a cleaner, greener, better place to live.

-Ryan Thompson

Joint Finance Committee Public Hearing in West Allis

ellow supporters of transit. There is a huge meeting next week - the Joint Finance Committee Public Hearing in West Allis. Here are the details:

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 10:00 a.m.
State Fair Park, Banquet Room #2
640 S. 84th Street
West Allis, WI 53214

If it makes sense to add this to your blog, please do.

What is also super important more critical is if you can help drive people to a survey we've created, that would be most appreciated. The survey is only 5 questions, really fast to complete, and basically provides a bit of information and asks people what they'd like to know more about. To check it out, go here.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=4AnrWn0qDdTicfIW4aBQvw_3d_3d

If you're cool with it, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tweet this or something like it (if anything, can you be sure to use the # tag?). Also, please tweet as often as you can today through Monday. Next week is crtical for our future.

Why would you sit on a soy bean? Ford Motor Company will tell you why.

Ford has developed soy foam seats, a feat previously thought to be impossible. These sturdy yet quickly biodegradable seats are one of many examples of Fords commitment to environmentally sustainable materials.



Original post by Ford Motor Company
See the Link on Greener Milwaukee HERE

Get to Know Aga of Aga Arkta of Greener Milwaukee & Interior Designs

Blake of ActionsTalk asks Aga of Greener Milwaukee about her small business. Feel free to reach out to her on GreenerMilwaukee.com and give her business what it needs in order to grow... green.


ActionsTalk #29 - Aga Artka Interior Design from ActionsTalk on Vimeo.

Congress backs streetcar system for Milwaukee

(Via JSonline.com) Ending a 17-year-long dispute, Congress has thrown its support behind a modern streetcar system in downtown Milwaukee.

With local officials deadlocked over how to spend $91.5 million in long-idle federal transit aid, Sen. Herb Kohl and Rep. David Obey quietly inserted a provision in the massive federal budget bill to hand 60% of the money to the city for a downtown rail line and 40% to Milwaukee County for buses. President Barack Obama signed the budget into law last week.

That's a victory for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who has championed a downtown streetcar loop, and a defeat for County Executive Scott Walker, who has fought the idea. Kohl and Obey, both Wisconsin Democrats, acted at the urging of Barrett, their former congressional colleague.

Modern streetcars resemble light rail vehicles but are smaller and less expensive.

The $91.5 million is all that remains of $289 million appropriated in late 1991 for public transit in the Milwaukee area. Over the years, officials have debated and rejected plans for a bus-only highway, a full-scale light rail system, a guided electric bus system and reserved bus and car-pool lanes on I-94. Meanwhile, the federal government took away $48 million, and state and local officials agreed to spend $149.5 million on other projects. »Read Full Article