Tips for a Healthy Planet

Wondering what to do with unwanted or unusable holiday lights? Recycle your broken, burned out strings of lights, power strips and power cords at the Solid Waste District. The District accepts strands of lights year-round at 4750 East 131 Street in Garfield Heights. Drop off light strings in the
lobby during business hours Monday-Friday from 8:30 AM-4:30 PM. For more information, see: Cuyahoga Recycles : Holiday Lights.

Interested in composting? The Solid Waste District sells the materials needed and has free seminars. For materials, see: Cuyahoga Recycles : Buy a Compost Bin. The seminars are listed in Cuyahoga Recycles : Event Calendar. They also have a seminar on how to compost with worms.

Would you like to grow garlic, lettuce, or celery from kitchen scraps? The Sierra Club magazine had an article on how to do this. It might be a fun project with the kids. For garlic, take cloves sprouting green stems, and plant the cloves (not the whole head) unpeeled and with the sprouts
facing up, two inches deep and four to six inches apart in a pot of soil. Place them in a sunny spot and keep the soil moist. Snip the sprouts and eat them for a garlic-like flavor. For lettuce or celery, take one bunch of either vegetable and chop three inches from the bottom. Put the bottom in an
inch of water and set it under bright indirect light. Change the water every few days. Slice off new stalks; you can compost the rotting parts. For more tips, see Katie Elzer-Peter’s No Waste Kitchen Gardening.

Are you interested in joining a group that works on projects to help the environment? The Unitarian Universalist Ministry for the Earth (UUMFE) meets the second Sunday of every month after church and coffee hour on Zoom. Contact Pam Schenk (pamelajschenk@gmail.com) if you
would like to attend.