These kids get it -- do you?

Check out this video made by children at Mary M. Hooker Environmental Sciences Magnet School in Hartford:

We've inspired a holiday tree

There's a new holiday tree in the center of Stratford, and it's made from recycled materials.

Local business leaders got the idea in the spring at the grand opening of the Garbage Museum's first professional art exhibit. They saw how people react to Trash-o-saurus and wanted to create the same effect in their central business district.

You can read more here and here.

Our Museums' record summer

Green is hot. And it’s cooler than ever. At least in Connecticut.

This summer, more people visited the CRRA Trash Museum in Hartford and Garbage Museum in Stratford, and more people took part in their award-winning sustainability education programs, than in any other summer on record.


The table you see here tells the story. In July and August, almost 9,000 people turned to our Museums to learn about recycling, energy conservation, composting and other hot green topics. Over 3,100 people visited the Garbage Museum in the summer vacation months.

Year-to-date, we’re not far off the pace we set in 2008, when both Museums enjoyed record numbers.

We’re proud of our education programs, proud of our educators and confident that our efforts are making a difference in our environment.

By the way, have you become a fan of the Trash Museum or the Garbage Museum on Facebook?

Marion launches a revolution?

We introduced you to our friend Marion, who was concerned about all the paper her children brought home from school and whether their school recycled.

Now comes this story from Southborough, Mass., with a parent voicing a similar question.

Here in Connecticut, the standard state science curriculum includes an Earth Science component, usually in Grades 4 and 6. In many schools, that component includes a trip to either our Garbage Museum in Stratford or our Trash Museum in Hartford, where our educators get students excited about recycling, teaching them that a lot of seemingly small actions can add up to a big positive impact on our environment.

It's frustrating to find out that some schools aren't always reinforcing this message.

Parents: do your schools recycle?

Teachers and administrators: do your schools recycle?

Congratulations, Diane!

A tip of the hat to our friend, Diane Vasseur, who has just become chairwoman of the Milford Environmental Concerns Coalition. Diane has been a big supporter of the sustainability education programs CRRA offers through the Garbage Museum and the Trash Museum.

Good luck, Diane!

Save the Garbage Museum!

You may have heard that the Garbage Museum is in danger of closing.

The Garbage Museum has provided recycling and environmental education programs to almost 300,000 people since it opened in 1993. We were green before green was cool.

Since the news that we're in a race against time to raise money to save the Museum, lots of amazing people have come forward to help.

For example, Diane Vasseur, a Milford environmentalist and a good friend of the Museum and recycling, has started a blog called "Save the Stratford, CT Garbage Museum" and is organizing fund-raisers and spreading the word about the Museum.

And our friend Joanna Templeton of New Canaan and advertising agency Y&R in New York has produced a 60-second audio spot that paints a vivid picture of the Stratford recycling center (we never thought it could sound this beautiful) and ends with a plea for help. You can hear the spot at the Garbage Museum's page on CRRA's Web site.

In the next few days, you'll read about other people who are coming to our aid, and the outpouring of support has been extremely gratifying. We all have friends when things are good, but when we're in trouble we find out who our true friends are.

Fans wanted!

The Garbage Museum has had visitors from every state in the union and countries around the world. Now everyone can connect to the Garbage Museum through its own Facebook page.

The museum’s Facebook page includes basic information about the museum and photographs of what visitors will find there. In the future, we’ll add pictures from special events and news about the museum.

Last year, a record 31,174 people took part in educational programs offered by the Garbage Museum, and we’re looking to break that record again this year. If you’ve never been there, plan a visit to the Garbage Museum now. And we hope everyone will check out its Facebook page and become a fan of the Garbage Museum.

Garbage Museum on radio

Living on Earth, a nationally syndicated radio program that airs on WNPR-FM and about 300 other radio stations across the country, did a great feature on the Garbage Museum. The story takes you onto the tip floor of the adjacent recycling processing center and meets people as they checked out Trash-o-saurus and the museum's other exhibits.

You can hear the story by clicking on this link.

By the way, the story references a birthday party we had for Trash-o-saurus on May 10. Our museum is now home to a one-ton teenager.

News and notes

We've always thought the Garbage Museum in Stratford was a pretty cool place. Now the Boston Globe says so, too! In Sunday's Globe there was a huge spread, taking up most of two pages, about the museum. You can see an on-line photo gallery here, and read the story here.

Have you been to the Garbage Museum? What did you think?

By the way, we'll be talking trash and recycling Wednesday morning on Hot 93.7! Make sure to tune in at about 7:15 a.m. and check us out with DJ Buck, Nancy B and Marv-Lo.

More praise for our education staff

Joan writes:

We visited the CRRA Garbage Museum on Wednesday, January 2nd. We had about 55 children and adults attend. All of the children are in kindergarten, and many of them have a variety of special needs. The staff at the museum was ready and waiting for us when we arrived. My group of six children, who all have low attention levels, in addition to the already low attention level of a typical five year old!, had the most wonderful time. Our guide and teacher, Robin, was able to read the attention levels of my class wonderfully! She knew when she had their interest and could continue, and when it was time to move on! My class especially loved watching the payloader go back and forth under the "bridge" we were standing on and watching the activity below in the recycling area. They also enjoyed seeing the worms in the compost pile and the movie at the end.

In speaking with the other teachers and students who attended, we all agreed that it was a trip worthwhile, educational, and a "must do again" next year! One of the classes even created their own "Trash-a-saurus" on the bulletin board outside of their class!

Thanks for a wonderful and fun-learning morning!

By the way, we usually don't like to scoop ourselves, but in the next few days we'll be announcing that for the second consecutive year, participation in our educational programs set a new record, jumping more than 7 percent to over 53,000. Now we're looking for a "three-peat" in 2008!