Virginia
Floyd Fest Grows Greener Each Year
By: Amanda Sandos - 
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This year, Floyd Fest, located just off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, Virginia, held their greenest festival yet and they managed to turn 4.9 tons of garbage into compost in the process. The majority of the remaining waste, several more tons at least, will be recycled by local centers or businesses, as well. Just about everything the food and beverage vendors provided this year was biodegradable, right down to the plastic cups and utensils made from plant sugars and starches. Anne Bedarf, Green Team leader of Floyd Fest 8, says the festival partnered with PME Compost, LLC out of Riner, Virginia, a small town about forty-five minutes from Floyd. Read More »
Mountain Top Removal - A Crime Against More Than Nature
By: Amanda Sandos - Print This Post
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“Every time you turn on a light switch, BOOM, you’re blowing up someone’s back yard.” I was introduced to Ed Wiley, the extraordinary man just quoted, by Kathy Mattea backstage at the Mountain Aid Benefit Concert. She came out to Shakori Hills on her fiftieth birthday to help Ed raise money for his granddaughter and all the children of Marsh Fork Elementary School who are victims of mountain top removal coal mining. Just three hundred feet behind this school, there is a 1,849 acre mountain top removal sight with an unstable slate dam holding 2.8 billion gallons of toxic waste from the coal cleaning process. The community’s water supply is already contaminated, and the children of Marsh Fork Elementary have been going home sick on a regular basis for months. Read More »
Lynchburg Pet Store Thinks Green
By: Amanda Sandos - Print This Post
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Diana Hobson is setting a green example for area business owners and customers alike. The owner of Pet Craze at Western Ways has chosen to think green in her new business endeavor on a number of levels including her buying practices, not only in the sale of environmentally friendly products, but also in the promotion of purchasing American and locally made products, her daily conservation and recycling practices, and her advocacy of animal rescue over the sale of animals. Hobson is also the owner of the well-known Western Ways, which has been in business for thirty-five years, and the only specialized horse and tack store in the area.
