Hey Athens, Recycle! New Rules for Recycling in Athens-Clarke County

Monday, October 24 is quickly approaching. 

Do you know what’s going down on the 24th? It is two months before Christmas Eve…yes…but did you know there are some exciting changes taking place on October 24th in Athens?!

 Starting October 24th, Athens-Clarke County will begin accepting MORE items for its recycling program. That means the number of items on the "CAN recycle" list are now more than the "CAN’T recycle" list – which means the planet will be a lot happier and healthier – and it starts with you!

Help the Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division reach its bold goal of “reducing landfill disposal of solid waste” 40% by 2015, 60% by 2018, and 75% by 2020. All you have to do is stay up-to-date on the county's recycling guidelines and do your part to keep the right things going in the right bins.

Source: Flickr

 Recycling 101

-Check the package for the little recycling symbol (a triangle) that is typically located on the bottom of the package

-The recycling symbol will include a number inside – this is how you decide if that particular container/package can be recycled

-Make sure everything you recycle is empty and cleaned out

-Never use recycling bins as trash cans – only place recyclables in the bins

-Flatten all cardboard and food boxes

-Throw recyclables in the bins as separate items - there is no need to bag them up!

Source: Flickr 

Throw these items in the recycling bin:

-Plastic food trays and cups (except #6)

-Plastic bottles and jugs (except #6)

-Wide-mouth plastic containers #1-#7

-Rigid plastics

-Empty aerosol cans (remove the lids)

-Milk and juice cartons

-Juice boxes

-Aluminum cans, foil, and trays

-Glass bottles and jars (remove the lids)

-Cereal and food boxes (flattened)

-Cardboard and pizza boxes (flattened)

-Magazines and catalogs

-Phone books

-Paperback books

-Metal food cans

-Junk mail, mixed paper

-Paper bags

-Newspaper

Throw these in the trashcan:

-Plastic bags

-Shredded paper

-Pots and pans

-Glassware (drinking glasses)

-Paper plates and cups

-Napkins and paper towels

-Plastic cutlery

-Food

-Clamshells and Styrofoam

-Batteries or light bulbs

-Wire hangers

-Ceramics

No curbside recycling pick-up? No problem! Visit one of Athens' 11 self-service recycling drop off locations!

1. Central: At College & Cleveland - 1005 College Avenue
2. North: Power Partners Inc. - 200 Newton Bridge Road
3. North: ACC Fire Station #9 - 1650 Danielsville Road
4. Northwest: ACC Fire Station #8 - 3955 Jefferson Road
5. Northeast: Athens Technical College - Hwy 29, Job Quest Lot
6. West: Georgia Square Mall Cinema Lot - 3755 Atlanta Highway
7. East: City of Winterville - Corner of Church & Parkview
8. Southeast: ACC Tag Office Lot - Jail Road & Lexington Road
9. Five Points: George Gibson's Menswear Lot - 1059 Baxter Street
10. ACC Landfill: Monday-Friday 7:30am-4:30pm, Saturday 7:30am-3:30pm - 5700 Lexington Road
11. ACC Recycling Facility: Monday-Friday 8am-5pm (699 Hancock Industrial Way)

If you live on or near campus, UGA also provides 10 accessible recycling locations! Check out http://gogreen.uga.edu/recycle/#where for more information.

-Bolton Dining Commons

-Oglethorpe Dining Commons

-Snelling Dining Commons
-Carlton Street Lot
-East Village Dining Commons
-East Campus Parking Lot Deck
-University Village (Building C Lot)
-Recreational Sports Complex (Lake Herrick Pavilion Lot)
-Rogers Road (Building P)
-Riverbend Research Lot

For more information on the Athens-Clarke County Recycling Division:

-Call (706) 613-3512

-Check out www.athensclarkecounty.com/recycling (You can also sign up for an (eco-friendly!) e-newsletter on this site to keep yourself updated and in the know!)

-"Like" their Facebook page!

Q&A with Amanda of Little Cuckoo Chocolates

The tiny space occupied by Little Cuckoo Chocolates + Cafe of the Chase Park Warehouse is clean and sweet (literally sweet). Based on my definition, chocolate is, in fact, a superfood. It has these magical abilities to instantly transform my bad day into a good one. And this all makes sense scientifically, too, considering that the happiness-inducing hormone serotonin gets released with every bite.

Meet Amanda Crouse - someone who's probably even more passionate about chocolate than I am. Another Community intern Megan and I sat down with Amanda to talk about all things chocolate, hear her story, and we may or may not have received free samples that were absolutely heavenly. In Amanda's own words: "Everyone loves chocolate; it's either that or drugs."

Q: When did you first become interested in making chocolate? 
A: My mom’s family has a long history of baking and cooking. In between undergrad and grad school as an art student I worked at a chocolate shop downtown, which was where Yoguri is now. There was an older couple that started that shop a good 100 years ago and they sold it to a younger couple that didn’t really know a lot about chocolate making. They hired me and I didn’t really know about it either, but they had all of these recipes and all of these books and just kind of let me experiment. They let me sit back there and waste a bunch of ingredients until I got it right. And then I went to graduate school and stopped doing chocolate all together for a long time. After grad school I was waitressing and scrambling for money and started making little vegan chocolates out of my kitchen and selling them at Clocked. After that, I started the restaurant White Tiger Gourmet with my boyfriend at the time.

Q: Three generations of chocolate? 

A: My mom, me, and my daughter Glennlee. (Side note: Glenlee stems from Amanda's two grandfathers' names: Glen and Lee). My mom helps me cook and watches my daughter. My daughter helps me cook and taste the things. It's hard telling her no all the time with the chocolate. 

Q: What makes a chocolate vegan?

A: Vegan chocolate just doesn’t have any added dairy: cocoa butter instead of dairy. All of the dark chocolate I make is vegan. 

Q: Do you know any interesting facts about chocolate? 

A: I think it's interesting that even people like my boyfriend who don’t eat sweets and who don’t like chocolate, anybody (if they taste the right thing) will get addicted to it. 

Q: What’s your favorite thing about chocolate? 

A: Everybody loves it, and they eat it, and they feel happy. And that’s good. 

Q: What is your favorite chocolate? 

A: Vegan truffle, which doesn’t mean that it tastes bad, but I’ve been making truffles with unsweetened coconut milk. They don’t really taste like coconut, but they’re really creamy. I’ve been making ganache, which is the center of the truffle, and keeping it in tubs in my house in the fridge. Whenever I eat ice cream I mix it in.

Q: Would you call yourself a chocolatier? 

A: I’m not really sure. People do call me that, but technically I’m not because I’m not trained. I’m self-taught with everything. 

Q: What is usually the most surprising chocolate? 

A: Basil truffles, white truffles with white truffle oil -- it's really musky. My new favorite is peanut butter bacon vodka. It's made with peanut butter, heavy cream, chocolate, and bacon-infused vodka. I’ve also dipped pork skins in chocolate; it's strangely like a Cheeto. 

Q: What’s your favorite thing your mom has made for you? 

A: She makes this pecan toffee that is kind of like a Skor bar. My mom is an amazing baker. 

Q: Where do you get your ingredients?

A: A lot of the recipes I use are old-fashioned recipes from the '50s and use sweetened condensed milk and flavored oils that are kind of old-fashioned. I try and stick with that for the most part. Some of the recipes like raspberry lemon creams I use fresh raspberries and then make it into a preserve and cook that with my lemon juice and make the cream. I try and get everything that I can locally from the farmers market or friends. My lavender is mostly from my friend’s garden and the basil I get from a little garden up here near the store. I use a lot of Swiss, Belgian, and Venezuelan chocolates as well.  

 Q: Do you have any other hobbies? 

A: I do, I do. I make life-size figurative sculptures out of clay, coil built and hollow. And I have been experimenting with pinhole photography by putting the cameras in their heads. 

Q: Where do you like to shop for clothes? 

A: I like to shop vintage. I always would go to Community or Minx, Dynamite, or Agora. I like to go to Habitat and sort through stuff, but now I like when someone else goes and digs through there. Out of necessity I’ll go down to Target. 

Q: Where is your outfit from?

A: I got this skirt, I think at Minx or Agora, but I love this skirt. I think it probably had a jacket with it. And these are Old Gringo boots that I got online, my other ones need to be cleaned. I wear the other ones every day, they have a skull on them. I pretty much wear boots all the time. 

Q: Are you planning on having the store opened through the fall? 

A: I think so. Right now I am focusing on all of the wholesale orders. The space is going to be more of a community space. There is a girl coming in to sell some of her food. If someone doesn’t have a place to sell their product, they can come and sell it here. 

Q: What are your favorite things to pair with chocolate? 

A: Espresso and red wine. 

Q: What is a customer favorite? 

A: Salted caramels and basil lemonade, a drink that we serve here. (Side note: The basil lemonade is ridiculously good.)

Q: Is there anything that you want to experiment with? 

A: I have been thinking about that baking gluten-free lately. It seems like a lot of people have that allergy (against gluten). I would like to do something with the ice cream, because that is really good. 

Q: What is your biggest day? 

A: Valentine's Day. Easter is not big at all. I think Halloween and Easter people usually just get the big bags of stuff. 

Q: What is one thing you would want to tell people about your chocolates? 

A: It's as fresh as you can get. It's real chocolate and if you get it here or downtown, it's been made in the last two weeks. 

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For more information on Little Cuckoo, check out the website. You can read up on the available products and learn more about Amanda. The shop is located at 160 Tracy Street, Unit 1, Suite 1. Her chocolates, as always, can also be purchased at Community!

Love and chocolate,

Anna, Community Intern

Casual done right.

It doesn’t get much more comfortable than this outfit of redesigned Community pieces. Denim shorts and an oversized off-the-shoulder Tee are the perfect school uniform - if we had any say in that sort of thing. 

Redesigned vintage acid wash denim shorts:  $30

Oversized mens longsleeve turned into cropped Tee  (30% off sale):  $14

Laurel Wells fringe & feather necklace  $96

Katie Bell Moore Photography

I've already introduced Katie Bell Moore recently, model and talented photographer from Athens. She's about to move to NYC, so expect to hear great things!


http://www.katiebellmoore.com/#1664757/-there-is-no-return

Interview With Our Lovely Lera Lynn on Refinery 29

http://www.refinery29.com/musical-muse-athens-newcomer-lera-lynn-mixes-americana-indie-with-country-strong?page=1


Interview by Athens fashion writer Amy Flurry

Katie Bell Moore

This is Katie Bell Moore, who was one of our models in the Community Service runway show. She is also a talented photographer. 


Check out her work at http://www.katiebellmoore.com. These portraits were taken by Athens photographer Ian McFarlane.

Community Service SS2011

Community Service is a redesigned vintage clothing line by Karen Freed and Sanni Baumgaertner, photos by Daniel Millwood of Ella Rue Photography, and Charles Ryan Barber; production and makeup by Maggie Benoit; hair by Mary Sigalas; graphic design by Don Chambers; models: Annie Howell, Mary-Hanley Coleman, Remington Feierbach; art by Andy Cherewick, Madeline Moore, Karen Freed, and Eve Nettles, support by Megan Swanson and Jessica Farley.

Athens Fashion Collective SS2011 Fashion Show

Backstage at the Athens Fashion Collective SS2011 Fashion Show. 


Photos by Katie Bell Moore.

Video from our SS2011 fashion show!

Inspiring Trip to NYC: Antique Sewing Machines

Just got back from NYC. There was so much to inspire me, but this store blew my mind. All Saints' window features a wall of antique Singer sewing machines, and throughout the store you find display and design elements from the garment industry's past. The clothes, bags, and shoes were spectacular, and I was surprised to even find a department with the coolest kid's clothes possible.

Recycled T-shirts by Ethan and Sanni

New revamps: Ethan and Sanni created these cropped oversized shirts from recycled T-shirts. They are now for sale at Community in different sizes and styles!

Welcome to the Community!

COMMUNITY is a boutique centered around the concept of sustainability without the sacrifice of style.

Opened in 2010 by Sanni Baumgärtner in Athens, Georgia, COMMUNITY seeks to bring chic clothing to our clients while encouraging them to buy locally and sustainably. All of our pieces are either made by Georgia artisans or they are vintage pieces, each one unique. Sanni methodically picks timeless clothing in order to make the shop a truly curated experience - only the best  and most well-made pieces make the cut. 

The name COMMUNITY also references another central goal of the boutique - to make our space one of comfort and creativity to everyone who enters the doors. In order to do this, we constantly seek new, local art and designsIn addition to local design, we also have an in-house brand of revamped vintage clothing - COMMUNITY SERVICE. Karen Freed and Sanni Baumgärtner work together to try to take vintage clothing that, while not initially flattering or up-to-date, can still be reused to make beautiful, timeless clothing. Whether that means hemming a dress or completely reworking a romper into a pleated blouse is up to Sanni and Karen, as they constantly try new ways to update and reuse vintage fabrics and clothing, always with current fashion as an inspiration for all revamps - from the bright colors of Prada to last season's '70s aesthetic, we will always try to bring you pieces that are both beautiful and functional.                                                                                   

So, please stay tuned to this blog! We will bring you interviews with our artisans, street fashion from around Athens, vintage pieces from our catalog and anything/everything we see fit to post (and perhaps even an Etsy store so everyone can participate!) Thank you so much for following our efforts!