In Hillsboro, it takes a village. More accurately, at the July 15 Celebrate Hillsboro event, it'll take four villages — each focusing on a different attribute of a growing, thriving city. Celebrate Hillsboro will once again set up "villages" — booths designed to entertain and educate individuals and families with interactive activities — from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. that Saturday. The village concept "highlights in a way that is easily identifiable and memorable," says Patrick Preston, public affairs manager for the city of Hillsboro. "It's a more efficient use of space than a long row of booths. Last year we had thousands of people go through the villages in the seven hours they were open."

In the Northeast when summer arrives so does the sunshine and high temperatures. My three girls and I love to maximize our outdoor time each day and enjoy their break to the fullest. When I am on-the-go throughout the season I always bring a few plant-based and natural items to stay fresh and healthy. Below are my top 7 essentials that are always in my bag in the warm summer weather.

It can be a challenge to be a pet lover and to be environmentally responsible (a case in point being kitty litter). When it comes to recycling pet-food bags, it often comes down to what the bag is made of, and what your curbside hauler, or a local drop-off program, accepts. We consulted Diane Herndon, senior manager of sustainability for Purina, to get some input on whether pet food bags are recyclable. She says the packaging used for dry pet food is made up of a variety of materials, including polypropylene, paperboard, and mixed plastics (polyester and polyethylene).

From TerraCycle and Entenmann’s Little Bites: Through a free, national recycling program partnership with TerraCycle, sponsored by Entenmann’s Little Bites®, Hawthorn Elementary School South has helped the nationwide collection reach the milestone of 2.5 million snack pouches diverted from the waste stream. Along with keeping the pouches out of landfills, collectors earn points that can be redeemed for cash donations to the non-profit or school of the collector’s choice. Through the efforts of collectors like Hawthorn’s student body, donations have just passed $40,000.

When volunteers swarm Navarre Beach to collect garbage each month, cigarette butts often fill their collection buckets. Thousands of these burned, squished and tossed pieces of plastic trash are left on the beach to eventually wash into the Gulf of Mexico. Once in the water this garbage poses a serious threat to wildlife that may accidentally consume it, but that is where TerraCycle comes in. The Navarre Beach Sea Turtle Conservation Center has partnered with this New Jersey-based recycling company to turn some of the collected waste, including cigarette butts, into new products. TerraCycle lives by the mantra nothing is garbage, as evidenced by its slogan “eliminating the idea of waste.” The company has developed a variety of programs to prove that point, taking materials that are generally considered non-recyclable and giving them new life.

Taking actions to become a zero-waste school can be “a big pain,” says Brian Shmaefsky, professor of biology and environmental science at Lone Star College in Kingwood, Texas. But he adds, “As an environmental scientist, I typically look at waste reduction because of budget concerns…Now [that] we can provide digital [assignments and tests] at school, it has really made a big difference in reducing paper costs. [We’ve seen a] 95% drop in costs.”

Plastic bottles, discarded chairs, lone flip flops, food wrappers and cigarette butts — these are the type of items that volunteers picked up from 5.6 miles of Lake Tahoe beaches on July 5 following the busy holiday weekend. The final tally was 1,676 pounds of litter. More than 320 volunteers joined the League to Save Lake Tahoe for the annual Keep Tahoe Red, White and Blue cleanups that look place around the lake at Commons Beach, Kings Beach, Kiva Beach, Nevada Beach and Regan Beach. "Over the weekend, Lake Tahoe hit its high water mark for the first time in years, leaving many of Tahoe's beaches partly or fully underwater," said Marilee Movius, the League's community engagement manager. "With July Fourth celebrations crowded onto the remaining patches of dry ground, our volunteers collected litter that could have been harmful to wildlife and Lake Tahoe's water quality."

TRENTON – Are you in a bind about what to do with your old binders? Well, you don’t have to throw them away any more. Office Depot, Inc. launched its Binder Recycling Program last year, which encourages shoppers to assist in preserving the environment by recycling binders through recycling company TerraCycle. Shoppers across the country can bring old empty binders to an Office Depot or OfficeMax retail location and receive a $2 instant discount off a same-day binder purchase, according to a release. In the past, binders often ended up in the trash can at the end of a school year, but Trenton-based TerraCycle has the ability to recycle the binders, reducing the amount of waste going into a landfill.

Victoria Nichols, 19, a Union College freshman in Lincoln, received $5,000 in college scholarship money for participating in two national campaigns by DoSomething.org. A global movement for young people and social change, DoSomething partnered with Garnier and Johnson & Johnson to encourage young people to get involved in recycling and joining the bone marrow donor registry. Nichols beat out over 80,000 applicants to win both scholarships. Garnier partnered with TerraCycle and joined DoSomething for their “Rinse. Recycle. Repeat” campaign, an initiative to encourage young people to recycle their beauty and personal products that would normally end up in the trash. As part of the campaign, 50 colleges competed to see who could recycle the most empty beauty and personal products to keep them out of landfills.

With your favorite pair of running shoes laced snugly on your agile feet, you run laps around the outdoor track in the center of the park enjoying a cool breeze, fresh air and the view of lush, green trees. You, like many others, may find that running outdoors is a total pleasure. It’s an escape from the day to day, a time to think, find clarity and enjoy the natural world. For others, running is a purely an athletic pursuit leading them to run 5K races, and even marathons, all across the state. But no matter what end of the spectrum you find yourself on, if you’re a runner you care about the environment. Here are several ideas to help the runner (or walker) in you be green and eco-friendly as you pursue your favorite exercise off the treadmill.