Plastic Free Challenge: Week Two Update

The following blog post was written by Mary Nieting, Community Engagement Manager.

As we settle into the Plastic Free Challenge, members of our team are still finding unexpected sources of plastic. For team member Grace, it was in her kitchen, specifically with cheese. Grace knew that the cheese she was purchasing was wrapped in plastic, but what she did not realize was that there are very limited options for replacing and reducing her plastic waste when it came to cheese. 

To further complicate matters, some local specialty cheese shops wrap their cheeses in cheese paper, a specialty product made out of paper, wax and a layer of polyethylene. Polyethylene is a type of plastic that renders the paper unrecyclable. Since this wrapper is made out of paper, many people think it can be recycled, which ends up polluting our recycling streams.

Around three weeks into this challenge, Spark-Y staff have found everything from plastic-free deodorant and bathroom goods to plastic-free utensils and coffee cups. But we have yet to find a plastic free cheese. Even the bulk cheese at the local co-op is wrapped in plastic. After a bit of brainstorming, we cut to the chase and asked the cheese monger at Eastside Co-op for recommendations. They recommended purchasing in bulk and putting the cheese into a container or beeswax right away. 

Sometimes it takes a lot of creativity to find ways to reduce plastic. Some ideas our team members have had included buying an entire wheel of parmesan cheese or only eating cheese that comes wrapped in wax. Another team member suggested learning to make your own cheese, and another just wished we could all live in France with a neighborhood cheesemonger. This all got us thinking: sometimes plastic pops up in unsuspecting places, which is becoming more and more apparent to us as the month progresses. Overall it feels like we have made success in many areas, but in others (like with cheese) there doesn’t seem to be a realistic alternative to using plastic. I think that is the general purpose behind the challenge - to push  ourselves to find better paths when possible, even if it is difficult, but not giving up just because we can’t reach our goal 100%.

We know that as a society, if we can reduce our plastic usage, we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. As we have seen this week, it can be more challenging that we originally knew, but the camaraderie I saw this week amongst my peers as we tried to navigate the unforeseen world of plastic wrapped cheese was heartening. And I know that if enough of us contact our local stores about alternatives, we can make a difference. For me, I have my sights set on that wheel of parmesan that will probably last me for years, but one can dream…

Plastic Free Challenge: Week One Update

The following blog post was written by Mary Nieting, Community Engagement Manager, and Pearl Pusiak, GreenCorps Member.

This February the staff at Spark-Y are participating in a challenge from Hennepin County, to reduce the amount of plastic they use at home and at the office. Organizations and businesses throughout the county signup and compete in challenges designed to bring awareness to how much plastic folks are using in their everyday lives. The challenges range from bringing reusable containers to restaurants for leftovers, to reducing the amount of plastic purchased overall, to finding personal care products made without plastic. Teams receive points for each challenge completed. 

Spark-Y was introduced to the challenge by our GreenCorps member, Pearl Pusiak. Pearl recognized this challenge as an opportunity for Spark-y to further extend our teaching and practicing of sustainability, which is at the core of what we do. We teach our students sustainable practices and want to lead by example. This is also a good opportunity for us to audit our own practices and reflect on our impact, both personally and as an organization. 

We started the plastic-free challenge last week, on the first, with about half of our staff signing up. Follow along after each week to see us reflect on the challenge and how it has impacted our lives at home and at the office. 

Plastic has been found everywhere in our environment, from our bloodstream to the ocean floor. While recycling plastic is a good start, reducing our plastic consumption is shown to have a larger, positive impact on our environment. In the state of MN, there is a law that dictates that if you put a plastic that can be recycled into your recycling bin and it is collected, then the recycle facility must recycle it. 

The recyclable plastics are:

• 1 – Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) – water bottles and plastic trays.

• 2 – High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) – milk cartons and shampoo bottles.

• 5 – Polypropylene (PP) – margarine tubs and ready-meal trays.

But there are exceptions to these. Black plastic is not recycled because it is usually a combination of other recycled plastics and plastic can only be recycled so many times. Additionally, black plastic is most frequently used for microwavable meals and those trays contain an additive to make them microwave safe for our health, but that additive does not get recycled. There are many other exceptions and deterrents that keep our plastic waste from getting recycled. 

The best way to impact this cycle is to stop using plastic as much as possible. And this is where the challenge comes in. Hennepin County has an online platform (check it out - here) where our team members have signed up for a variety of activities and tasks that will help them remove plastic in areas of their life. Each day we report back on the efforts we have made. 

Our Community Engagement Manager Mary signed up to reduce plastic use in the kitchen. She says, “I was finding myself using a lot of plastic in my cooking - purchasing frozen vegetables in plastic bags, buying foods that came in plastic that I could otherwise buy in bulk. I acquainted myself with a few local options for buying in bulk (we have plenty of co-ops and even bulk markets - Tare, Eastside Co-op, Wedge Co-op-  to name a few here in Minneapolis). The first week was rather slow as I have a lot of plastic already in my kitchen cupboards and freezer, but I am bringing more mindfulness to the grocery store when I go out.”

As our team continues in this challenge, we hope to bring awareness to the rest of the office, other organizations we partner with, and with the people around us. While this is called a challenge, it really feels like something that we can strive towards everyday, competition or not, to propel our mission of sustainability. With the community outreach we do, it just makes sense that we work to be an example of sustainability. It starts with us and ends when we have made an impact on our community and the earth. 

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 1. Microplastics Have Been Found In The Human Bloodstream. (2022, April 8). Henry Ford Health - Detroit, MI. https://www.henryford.com/blog/2022/04/microplastics-in-human-bloodstream

Native Plants Green Roof at Mississippi Watershed Management Organization

The following blog post was written by Jeremy Alsaker, Sustainability Educator at Spark-Y.

At Spark-Y we love winter, even as we enter the dreaded stretch of cold from January through March. Why? Because we have the chance to plan for what we’re going to do in the Spring! To help us get through the next few cold months, we embrace the opportunity to plan our spring and summer plantings and projects. Planning is vital to all our projects, especially those that involve planting. In particular, native plants require a lot of planning since many of them have specific times when they can put down roots. We especially like planning and planting when our youth can be involved. So, that is why we are so excited to begin another project with the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO). Starting this February, we will be working with the MWMO to install a green rooftop on their headquarters in Minneapolis. 

Photo of Noble Rot rooftop in Portland, OR. Photo taken from their website.

We previously partnered with the MWMO to build a hydroponics system on their rooftop and have seen firsthand the great work the MWMO does for the community, and up and down our region of the Mississippi.

The MWMO’s green roof (seen here in September 2016) captures stormwater and slows the flow of runoff from the building. Green roofs provide a variety of benefits for the building occupants as well as to the environment.

In their own words: “The MWMO encompasses 25,309 acres (39.5 square miles) of fully developed urban lands and waters. We partner with our member communities to invest in green infrastructure that captures, cleans and reuses stormwater runoff. Our team monitors and tracks water quality in the watershed and conducts education and outreach to promote active environmental stewardship among residents.”

Aerial image of MWMO building and property showing proximity of building to Mississippi River to the west (left side of image). Image taken from Google Earth 2023.

Their mission “to lead, and to foster stewardship of the watershed with actions that promote civic ownership and responsibility and through measures that achieve diverse and functional ecosystems” will help us reach our goals of empowering youth to learn about sustainability. 

How can we not be excited?

The MWMO reached out to Spark-Y to improve their green infrastructure at their headquarters in Northeast Minneapolis (just a hop, skip, and a jump from our own HQ). The MWMO already practices many water-saving strategies on their property, including rainwater storage, permeable pavers, rain gardens, and earthworks. We are excited to extend their efforts to the roof! 

Green roofs provide many ecological services if executed properly. They help to slow the flow of stormwater, which reduces erosion and pollution runoff, and lengthens the life of management systems. Additionally, green roofs reduce the energy needed to heat or cool a building by providing shade, thermal mass, and insulation. Our green roof in particular will provide habitat for native species of both flora and fauna, which is at a premium in urban environments.

Image of the layers involved in a green rooftop installation, including non-permeable layers, a rockbed layer, soil and then a plant layer. Photo taken from Knapp, & Schmauck, Sebastian & Zehnsdorf, Andreas. (2019). Biodiversity Impact of Green Roofs and Constructed Wetlands as Progressive Eco-Technologies in Urban Areas. Sustainability. 11. 5846. 10.3390/su11205846. 

Rooftop planter with natives from designer Julie Farris for Gardenista - taken from their website (photo by Matthew Williams)

Starting this month, we will be enlisting the help of our youth partners to renovate and expand the green roof on the top of the MWMO headquarters. The rest of this winter and early spring, we will be educating our youth on green roof best practices, how to work safely, and the native plant species which will be soon growing up there. They will be designing the layout and infrastructure, deciding which plants to plant, and, when the time comes, they will install the whole thing (with a little help from our wonderful staff)! We are excited to spend the rest of the winter planning, prepping, and looking forward to that first thaw.

Please follow along as we reveal more and share updates on our social media channels, here on our blog and in our newsletter. If you have a youth that you think would be interested in joining us on this or any of our other projects, or if you think this is the kind of event you would like to volunteer at, please reach out here on our website.

Photo of the rooftop garden atop the City of Chicago City Hall Building in downtown Chicago - taken from the City of Chicago website.

A crowd of people learning about rooftop gardening at Toronto Urban Growers - taken from their website (photo by Ivan Emke).