Turning Swords into Battleaxes: Recycled Vikings! | 3BL Media

No, I don’t mean Brett Favre and his latest overtime interception. Sorry, Viking fans – we got used to it with the Packers. Why do you think we recycled him ourselves?

No, I mean the wooden ship, horns on head, sack London and conquer everything in sight Vikings. Like Hagar the Horrible, only fiercer and bloody. Long before they became famous for never winning a Super Bowl and way before it was chic, the Vikings were recycling.

According to a recent online article in National Geographic, recent archeological finds in England seem to show that the Vikings were metal recyclers, recycling and reforging their weapons after battles. And you thought putting your bottles and cans out on the curb was a lot of work. Imagine having to pull an iron axe head out of old Thjorgard’s skull in order to recycle it!

Photo: Malene Thyssen, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene

According to historian Charles Jones, of the Fulford Battlefield Society, the Vikings may have recycled as they fought. Jones and his team unearthed a metalworking site in the city of York, where Vikings took their weapons after battle for reprocessing. York long ago absorbed the village of Fulford, where a decisive battle occurred, and was settled by Norse raider in the mid 800’s C.E.

Photo: C. Jones

The archeological team has found hundreds of examples of ironwork – axes, sword parts, and arrowheads, as well as lumps of melted down iron and the remains of smelting pits.

In the National Geographic piece, Jones is quoted “The iron finds support the idea that metal was gathered and recycled in the area just behind where the fighting took place.”

Søren Sindbæk of the University of York is testing the artifacts to determine if the corroded items were forged using Norse ironwork, which used alloys of soft iron and hard steel.

“The Vikings were very skillful metalworkers,” Sindbæk, an archaeologist, told National Geographic News. “Their weaponry is famous for the way iron is treated.

“Any metal was a precious material that would be recycled,” he added. “Whoever won a fight in this period would collect what was left on the battlefield.”

Photo: Archiwum Własne Wikingów, Jarmeryk

The Vikings recycled off the battlefield as well. Other excavations in York indicate that Vikings recycled boats into houses and sidewalks.

The story that Jones and his team have pieced together is that the Viking forces were working the metal in 1066 after defeating English fighters at Fulford. They think the Vikings had to call off the recycling effort five days later when the English attacked, this time killing the Viking leader, Brett Favr – er, I mean King Harald III of Norway, and routing his army.

So there are things worse than throwing an interception in overtime that costs you the championship. Fortunately, in our times, paying close attention to recycling won’t cost you your life. It just means that all those bottles, cans, and stuff can live to fight another day.

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

GREENOP4375

6 Surprising Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle | 3BL Media

From flip flops to shingles, check out some of these recycle-friendly products

When most of us think about recycling, we usually think about the standard recycled items like plastic bottles, soda cans and paper. But there are actually hundreds of other materials out there that can be recycled into new and interesting items.

Here are six of the most surprising things that I found out could be recycled:

1. Wine Corks

I’m an avid wine drinker, but I had no idea that the corks for wine bottles could be reused! Apparently the company Yemm & Hart located in Fredericktown, Missouri knew this because they recycle old wine corks sent in by consumers into wall and floor tiles.

2. Potato Chip Bags

Terracycle is an eco-friendly organization that makes awesome products from non-recycled items. One of the coolest items is the Frito Lay Messenger Bag.

3. Flip Flops

The UniqueEco brand created the Recycled Flip Flop Maridadi Bracelet from the thousands of flip flops that wash up on the shores of Kenya’s Kiunga Marine National Reserve. The bracelets and other items are made by local men and women who collect them for fair trade wages.

4. Paper Towels

Most of us know that used paper towels can’t be recycled because they get wet and are exposed to bacteria.  But there’s a group called Partners for a Green Hill that has come up with a great idea to reduce the amount of paper waste in Canada. Special bins for paper towels have been placed in all government building bathrooms around parliament. The paper is then collected, composted and spread over landfills to enrich the soil.

5. Styrofoam

Styrofoam that is used in egg cartons and many fast food restaurants never used to be recyclable…until now!  Check out how Recycle Tech Corp. recycles Styrofoam into useful stuff like house insulation.

6. Roof Shingles

If you ever have to redo your roof and don’t want to throw the old shingles away, then think about recycling them into a new road. Yes, I did say road! Roofs to Roads takes old shingles, grinds them up and then mixes them with hot asphalt to pave roads.

Pretty cool stuff, isn’t it? I certainly think so, and it’s stuff like this that gives me more hope for the future of recycling!

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

GREENOP4365

Who Puts The “Conserve” In Conservative? | 3BL Media

Some of you might snicker and say, “Republican Environmentalist? That’s an oxymoron.” But check your cynicism, open your mind and read on.

The Republican party, in fact, has a long history of support for the environmental movement. Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan immediately come to mind, but let’s not forget Richard Nixon, who appointed thoughtful conservationists like Russell Train, William Ruckelshaus and Rogers Morton to high positions within his administration. Even T. Boone Pickens, no friend to the liberal agenda, has thrown his considerable financial weight behind alternative energy solutions like wind energy.

Let’s face it, Republicans and Democrats approach the environmental issue from different perspectives, but that doesn’t mean that either should be excluded from the debate.

We should be applauding anyone who is trying to foster environmentalism, no matter what their political philosophy. If your focus is truly on saving the earth, then your political views have to take a back seat to recognizing good where you find it.

And when it comes down to it, we still have more in common than we think. 

Yes, it’s election season and there’s certainly a lot of trash talk going on. But when it comes to how we treat our trash, Democrats and Republicans seem to agree. 

According to the Curbside Value Partnership Program (CVP)—a national program created in 2003 and designed to help communities sustain effective recycling programs—recycling is one area where we can all get along.

The CVP study showed that the majority of both Democrats and Republicans are participating in curbside recycling. In fact, in areas where curbside recycling is available, an overwhelming 70% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans say they “always” recycle.

The study also found that 95% of Democrats and 94% of Republicans said that recycling was at least somewhat important to them, if not “very” or “extremely” important. More than half of respondents in both parties believe that recycling is their responsibility in order to help the environment.

While members of both parties carefully recycled both newspaper and aluminum cans, there was some division in how each political party handled other recyclables. The study found that Democrats are more careful to recycle glass (18%) than Republicans (10%) and Republicans are more careful to recycle plastic (24%) than Democrats (16%).

In fact, the CVP study points toward the recovery of a past in which environmentalism is not a one-party issue. Recent electoral trends, like the upset election in Massachusetts of conservative Scott Brown—whose support for environmental policies is listed on his website—indicate that there is growing bipartisan support for environmental issues.

Groups like Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) are also giving Republicans a voice in the environmental debate. But the REP is no party-line GOP mouthpiece, either. They are holding Republicans accountable and ranking Republican environmental votes.  

Headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the REP was formed in 1995 in part to advocate for strengthening the Republican platform on environmental issues. The REP has a grassroots membership of Republicans in 49 states who support environmental stewardship. 

Each year, the REP ranks GOP members in terms of their support for environmental legislation and support for conservation policies. See the full list at REP Congressional Scorecard.

Top 10 Republican Congressional Environmentalists

U.S. Senate

1. Senator Susan Collins, (ME) Named one of the “Greenest Republicans” by REP, Senator Collins is a supporter of strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through conservative energy policies. She has voted to increase funding for National Forests and to include oil and gas smokestacks in mercury legislations.  The LCV (The League OF Conservation Voters) has rated her as one of the most environmentally friendly Republicans.

2. Elizabeth Dole (NC)

3. Olympia Snowe (ME)

4. Bob Corker (TN)

5. Kit Bond (FL)

U.S. House Of Representatives

1. Rep. Mark Kirk (IL) also named one of the “Greenest Republicans” is the top-scoring House member in REP’s Scorecard. He is a leading voice among House Republicans for balanced energy policies and for protecting Americans from air and water pollution.

Kirk has championed protection of the Great Lakes and other bodies of water, keeping the air free of harmful pollutants, developing cleaner energy sources, and protecting America’s many natural treasures.

2. Frank LoBiondo (NJ) 

3. Vern Ehlers (MI) 

4. Wayne Gilchrest (MD)

5. Dave Reichert (WA)

It shouldn’t surprise you to find out that there are Republican members of congress who support environmental causes. And as Ronald Reagan said, “What is a conservative after all but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live… And we want to protect and conserve the land on which we live—our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our plains and meadows and forests. This is our patrimony. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it to them either as we found it or better than we found it.”

Greenopolis.com is dedicated to our users. We focus our attention on changing the world through recycling, waste-to-energy and conservation. We reward our users for their sustainable behaviors on our website, through our Greenopolis Tracking Stations and with curbside recycling programs.

GREENOP4368