What’s new around town.
SLC Qi Community Acupuncture moves
SLC Qi Community Acupuncture has moved from its original 900 South location closer to downtown, occupying space in the Utah Natural Medicine Center on 400 East.
Acupuncture works best when it is administered frequently (two or three times a week). SLC Qi is part of a growing movement to provide more accessible and affordable acupuncture treatement to more people. Treatment rates are at a you-decide sliding scale of $20-$40 per session. One remains fully clothed, in comfortable recliners.
Appointments can be made online. Treatments are available seven days a week with Matt Jevtic, L.Ac. and Mallory Berge, L.Ac.
801.521.3337, 242 S. 400 E. Suite B, SLC. www.SLCQI.com
U of U lab develops biodegradable maxi-pads for Third World countries
It began when SHEVA (a Guatemala based non-profit organization with the mission of empowering girls) contacted Jeff Bates, a scientist at the University of Utah who specializes in materials and engineering. His team specifically explores hydrogels that are great for absorbing and retaining water. After about two years of research and development, the 100% biodegradable, sustainable and vegan maxi-pad was born. They called it the SHERO. Using a layered design, the pad is made from raw cotton, organic cotton, brown algae and corn. Depending on conditions, the SHERO pad can decompose completely in a week to six months whereas typical pads, containing plastic, can take centuries to biodegrade.
While this pad was designed to help women and girls in third world countries have better control over their feminine hygiene while reducing waste, the SHERO pad is pending FDA approval to begin shipping to US eco-conscious consumers through period subscription boxes soon.
Sign up for updates at SHEROPAD.com.
Bags to Beds
How does one turn 500 plastic bags into a comfortable sleeping mat? U of U students had the answer at the Clean Air Solutions Fair. They collect plastic bags and then cut and tie them into plastic yarn, or plarn. The plarn is then crocheted into 3-ft. by 6-ft. insulating sleeping mats. These mats are amazingly thick and soft. The students are making them to distribute to homeless people who often sleep on cold, hard surfaces.
We spoke with one satisfied customer. “They really work,” he marveled. They also have the potential to remove thousands of plastic bags from the waste stream. Drop off your bags at the Bennion Center on the first floor of the U of U Student Union Building. JF
bagstobeds.org; bagstobeds@gmail.com/;
Spring must be here: The brown bins are back in action
The winter suspension on brown bins, AKA compost/yard-waste bins will be lifted on March 5. Every winter, due to low demand, the city stops picking them up, saving almost 100,000 lbs. of carbon dioxide (a climate-warming greenhouse gas) from unnecessarily entering our atmosphere and also reducing the city’s spending on fuel.
We hope you compost or have a worm bin. Even those of us who do often have hard-to-break-down biomass. That’s when you call on the brown bin.
Load up the bin with your excess yard waste and nonmeat leftovers (fruits, vegetables, egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds). That waste is transported to a local compost facility where it is turned into nutrient-dense mulch and sold back to the community.
Putting your food waste in the brown bins (vs. the trash can) diverts massive amounts of methane (another climate-warming greenhouse gas) from entering our atmosphere. Make the choice to divert your waste!
SLCGreen.com
Recycle glass at DABC’s 300 West wine store
Utah’s DABC has partnered with Momentum Recycling to bring Utah its first ever glass-recycling center at a DABC store. Check out the Wine Store near the 300 West Costco and you’ll see one parking spot is now taken up with four blue glass-recycling bins. This program is brought to us for free because it brings revenue to Momentum Recycling and our state. The glass is picked up, recycled here in Utah and returned to the industry here. One should always choose glass over plastic because glass can be recycled again and again into glass with out ever losing its integrity (unlike plastic). Now you can drop off last week’s damage to be recycled as you pick up this weekend’s beverages all in one trip.
DABC Wine Store: 280 W. Harris Avenue (1605 South).
Photo credit: Terry Wood of the DABC Courtesy of KUTV 2 News
Handy app to reduce food waste, feed more people
Growing, processing, packaging and transporting food requires a lot of energy and results in more pollution than we might imagine.
In America, we waste 40% of the food that is grown. That’s a lot of wasted energy and toil. Dana Williamson wants to lower that number in Salt Lake County with her new organization called Wasteless Solutions. In January, at CATALYST’s Clean Air Solutions Fair, Dana (with help from daughter Sage Nelson, above) demonstrated how food rescue works:
The food donor submits their food rescue via a computer or smart phone and all registered food rescuers are alerted. When one of the rescuers claims it, they get a map that shows the pickup and delivery location. Food is delivered to any registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps low-income people.
Discover more about rescuing food at www.foodrescue.us/
Bird house competition
Wanted: whimsical, beautiful, practical, functional, artistic or magical bird houses! Entries for the 25th Annual Ogden Nature Center Birdhouse Making Competition are due March 19-24. All ages may enter and there is no entry fee. Cash prizes will be awarded and winners will have their birdhouses on display along the Ogden Nature Birdhouse Trail all summer. JL
OgdenNatureCenter.org/events/its-time-to-build-birdhouses