"Tis the Season to Freecycle

In my last post, I relayed how I was putting all of my shipping/packing materials left over from buying online onto Freecycle. Within 24 hours someone had come and picked it all up. I also was able to find someone who needed the kitty condo that our cat never uses. That was gone within 24 hours, too.


Over the next few days I’m going to doing what I always do the last couple of days of every year – going through the house looking for no longer used things to donate to Good Will. One last tax write off before the year ends. Every year there are things that can’t go to Good Will because they don’t accept them or they are too cumbersome to haul there. This year, I’m going to be freecycling those things instead of letting them sit around. As we make room for all the new things we got this Christmas, I’ll be finding new homes for the things we no longer use but are still very useful. None of it will go to waste. None of it will end up in a landfill. 

2007
12/29
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
Freecycle
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I Hate Packing Peanuts

Packing peanuts have got to be on my top ten most annoying things ever list. Not only are they bad for the environment, they have malicious little minds of their own. They fly all over the place, stick my hands and my clothes, and take forever to scoop out of a box. There is no easy way to get a box full of packing peanuts emptied. And the entire time I’m trying to empty a box, my cat is jumping inside the box trying play.


Why this rant today? I just spent about 45 minutes gathering up all of the shipping boxes and packing materials that I had thrown in my downstairs shower (which no one ever uses) while getting ready for Christmas. I do a lot of shopping online. I’m always amazed at the huge box that one little CD can arrive in.

In the past, I’ve always recycled as much of the packing materials that I could, but this year I decided to go one step further. I’ve neatly put all the boxes, packing peanuts, air pillows, balled up paper, and anything else that can be used for packing/shipping together in the biggest shipping box and offered it all up on Freecycle. There has to be someone out there who sells on ebay or has other shipping needs who can use it all. This way, it can all get reused at least one more time before it is recycled.

Today is glass/plastic/paper pick up day in my town, and as I look down the block, I see tons of useful boxes put out at the curb. I’m not judging – it’s being recycled and that ‘s a good thing. In the past, my curb would have looked just like the rest. But it feels good to know that I’m doing just a little bit to curb the waste instead of putting the waste out at the curb.

2007
12/27
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
Freecycle
recycling
reusing
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Picking Through the Trash

I wasn’t prepared. I had been so busy in the days leading up to Christmas that I hadn’t thought to plan ahead to make sure that all of the trash generated yesterday got disposed of properly. And I certainly was not of a clear enough mind when my husband and boys woke my up at 6am (hubby was up first and woke the boys – he’s such a boy himself) to open gifts to make sure things got saved to recycle instead of thrown in trash bags. All of the wrapping paper and boxes that the toys and other gifts came in went in to one trash bag.


So today, I went through the trash bag and pulled stuff out. Yep. That’s what I did. 

Next year, I’m going to make sure I’m prepared. And I’m putting it on my calendar for late next summer to query some publication about writing an article on being eco-conscious during the opening frenzy.


2007
12/26
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
recycling
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Anyone want to gift wrap Manhattan?

I read this today on MSNBC.com


If 40% of Americans used just 2 less sheets of gift wrap this season, we would save enough paper to gift wrap Manhattan.

We all wonder if the little bit we do each day really does make a difference. See. It does.

2007
12/14
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
small changes
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Expanding my Vocabulary

I read a new term the other day – greenwashing. It’s when a company or an organization claims to be doing something green when in fact they aren’t being very green at all. They are simply jumping on the green bandwagon since right now it’s hip to be green.


Today I heard a commercial for the local mall. A husband and wife are talking about shopping. Wife says she’s going to save the environment by doing all of her shopping in one place. She then goes on to name a gazillion products she’s going to buy in that particular mall – products that of course are not helping the environmental problem at all. Her husband congratulates her on doing her part for the ecology.

My first thought – GREENWASHING! I was amazed at how quickly that word entered my vocabulary. So great, now with my constant nitpicking of commercials and advertisements – bad grammar and faulty logic abound everywhere – I’ll be scrutinizing them for greenwashing.

It’s a good term, it’s just bad for someone with my idiosyncrasies.

2007
12/12
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
green term definitions
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When it’s Okay to Use Paper Products

We had a neighborhood Christmas cocktail party over the weekend. If you look our my back door right now the piles of beer and wine bottles along with the boxes they came in are enormous. They all must wait until Thursday for the recycling to be picked up.


We had so many people at the party, I simply did not have enough plates and cloth napkins to accomodate them. So this, I decided, is when it’s okay to use paper products. I found festive Chinet plates that were made from recyclable materials and were biodegradable. I bought recycled paper napkins. I even brought the paper towels out from under the sink where I hide them out of site. I did use real silverware (well – not real silver, but you know what I mean). 

When I was planning the party, I started to think about how I could make the entire party green. I’m becoming known as the “green” expert in my circle of friends, and I didn’t want to seem like a hypocrite by using paper products. But then I thought about how making the entire party green would be difficult. And I didn’t want my party to be difficult – I wanted it to be fun. I didn’t want to stress over planning it, and I didn’t want to stress while the party was happening.

Part of what I write about is finding a way to make green fit my lifestyle. I know that if I don’t, I’ll probably give up somewhere along the way. So I decided to do the best I could. I made the decision to use some paper products, and you know what? In the end we used about 30 recycled, biodegradable plates, 50 recycled paper napkins, and perhaps 1/4 of  roll of paper towels. That is not so bad considering that the rest of the year, I’m very diligent about not using paper products.

So this Christmas season, as you are getting ready for guests, give yourself a break. If you must use some paper products, find the most eco-friendly ones you can, and then just let it go. Enjoy the party. 

2007
12/10
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
paper waste
recycling
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What is Fair Trade Certified?

Have you noticed the “Fair Tade Certified” label on certain products at the grocery store like cofee or rice? Do you wonder what it’s all about? Here’s the basics:

Fair Trade Certified products must meet certain social and environmental standards. Those standards are:

Farmers are paid a fair price for their products and in turn those farmers pay their workers a fair wage for their labor

Workers must have decent working and living conditions. Forced child labor is prohibited.

Farmers must farm in a sustainable fashion – that includes farming organically.

The farmers must make investments in their local communities.

This process of fair trade raises the standard of living for the laborers and their communities all over the world. By buying Fair Trade Certified products, you are helping to contribute to the environmental and financial stability of people in developing nations.

This is, of course, a very simplified explanation of Fair Trade Certified. For more details, you can visit www.fairtradecertified.org, the website for TransFair USA – the only independent, non-profit certification agency for Fair Trade products in the US.

2007
10/21
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
green term definitions
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Blog Action Day

Today is blog action day – One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.

Today’s issue is the environment. It’s not as if I don’t blog about this every day (well almost every day), but it’s worth noting that today bloggers all over the world will be addressing the issue. Even if their blog doesn’t normally talk about environmental issues, today it will. I wonder how many people who never give the environment a second thought will read something today that will make them decide to make some changes. Every small change counts.

Check out the 365 Day Pledge to Go Green

https://www.wecanlivegreen.com/file/365.pdf

It has one small change idea for each day of the next year. Changes like unplug your cell phone charger when not in use and cook a vegetarian meal. Very doable small changes.

I challenge you to make one small change each day so you can be a little greener every day.

2007
10/15
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
small changes
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Greening Your Kids Lunchbox

Everyday (except for the two days a month I allow my son to buy lunch), I pack my eight year old a lunch to take to school. Two years ago when he was in first grade he threw out a lot more than just the sandwich he didn’t feel like eating. He threw out two or three ziploc baggies each day. One for his sandwich, one for his snack, and one that held the 40 cents he took each day for milk.

Today, there is very little in his lunchbox to throw away except an apple core or banana peel. I send everything in reusable containers. I put his milk money in a little canister that came from a roll of camera film.

I just found this great reusable sandwich wrapper at reusablebags.com:

http://www.reusablebags.com/store/wrapnmat-p-2.html

It wraps a sandwich, becomes a placemat while you’re eating the sandwich, and then wipes right off to use again. I love the idea and wanted to share it with everyone.

I’m goign to order one, and I’ll give a product review once my son tries it out for a while.

2007
10/11
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
reusing
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Choosing Your Green

I have no advice toay – just questions. I was at the grocery store this morning, paralyzed in the laundry detergent isle. Like most people, I have a budget that I have to work with when it comes to the grocery store. Now, most of the green changes I’ve been making in my family’s life have saved us money. But the grocery store is the one place, where if I made all the eco-correct choices, I’d completely blow my budget.

How do I choose between organic milk, eco-friendly laundry detergent or fair trade certified coffee. I can’t afford all of them. It’s a big conundrum.

How do you pick and choose what to buy at the grocery store when you want to change everything, and chang it NOW?

2007
10/09
POSTED BY
robin
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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