Living Green Expo Mystery: What Looks Like A Toy, and is Filled With Soy?

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn., April 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Among the more unusual giveaway items at the May 1-2 Living Green Expo at the State Fairgrounds this weekend is 300 cars.  Well, they are not really cars, but "biobased car kits," packaged in little car-shaped boxes. They will be available to the first 300 guests to the American Lung Association in Minnesota/Twin Cities Clean Cities Coalition (TC4) booth (L117) on the first floor of the Grandstand Building.  Inside are some handy soy-based products such as all-purpose cleaner, hand sanitizer, and the like. Three lucky gift box recipients will also find a $100 gift card inside, making the green giveaway even more popular. The boxes are made with sustainable forestry initiative (SFI) certified paper and printed with soy-based ink.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100429/DC96425)

"The Twin Cities Clean Cities Coalition has long supported the use of cleaner-burning biofuels like biodiesel and E85, but there are a lot of other great biobased products available you might not be aware of," said Lisa Thurstin, TC4 coordinator.  "Many people don't realize that petroleum is used not only for transportation, but is also found in a lot of the goods we use every day, from our clothing, to packaging to cleaning products. The car-shaped goodie boxes are a great way to introduce Expo visitors to products that reduce the need for petroleum and are better for the environment and our health."

At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday May 1, Randy Hilliard of the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI) in Crookston, Minn. will talk about the wide range of soy biobased products being available to Minnesotans in a lecture in the "Ecolounge" area of the Expo.  Both the gift boxes and the lecture are sponsored by the United Soybean Board and the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.

Admission to the Living Green Expo is free, and the event is open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Sunday.  For more information about the Living Green Expo, go to http://www.livinggreenexpo.mn/.   For more on the Clean Air Choice program, visit www.CleanAirChoice.org

SOURCE American Lung Association of Minnesota