Green Awards looking for grassroots ideas: How about recycling by the program's ad?

The Green Awards came to Denver yesterday, touting the Green Giant-sponsored program that will give $25,000 to the best idea for greening the environment. And to advertise the contest, a giant, temporary eco-ad mural made of grass was created at 22nd and Blake streets, just past Coors Field. Here's my...

By Patricia Calhoun

February 21, 2011

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The Green Awards came to Denver yesterday, touting the Green Giant-sponsored program that will give $25,000 to the best idea for greening the environment. And to advertise the contest, a giant, temporary eco-ad mural made of grass was created at 22nd and Blake streets, just past Coors Field. Here's my idea:

Put some recycling bins by the other trash cans around Coors Field and throughout LoDo, reminding passersby they should at least try.

Although Denver is one of the rare cities that provides fee-free recycling services for residents, the program doesn't extend to downtown. A few years ago, the LoDo District that looked into the possibility of encouraging recycling in that part of downtown, but the cans never appeared. (After a test on the 16th Street Mall, the Downtown Denver Partnership introduced its own program with ten bins.)

Now, can I have my $25,000?

Not yet, it turns out: The deadline for ideas from Denver, the third city participating in the Green Awards program, is March 6.

Read Alan Prendergast's "The Hunt for Green," his profile of Denver's recycling program, here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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