Mom Goes Green

Did you know that bottle caps are the second most littered items behind cigarette butts?  Did you also know that bottle caps are one of the top ten most common items found littered on beaches? Sad, isn’t it?

Most people might not give much thought to these little caps but they are becoming a big problem.  Overall, ALL types of caps are creating a problem because most of us don’t know whether or not they are recyclable.  Even if you’re like me and don’t buy bottled water or beverages in plastic bottles we all have mountains of caps that pass though our hands every day… everything from shampoo bottles to food product lids to soap and detergent containers.

So what do you do? Well, there are a few choices, so give these some thought:

• Recycle with Aveda – these salons and stores will accept a variety of caps for recycling, including #5 twist caps, flips caps, jar lids and detergent lids and turn them into new lids for their products.  Find a location near you!
• Recycle with Preserve – they also accept any #5 plastics (including yogurt containers) via mail or at any Whole Foods location and turn them into new Preserve products like toothbrush and razor handles, tableware and kitchenware.
• Give your local recycling a try – it’s sometimes difficult to figure out if your curbside recycling can actually recycle these caps but, if nothing else, include them in your recycling.  They cannot be processed with a batch of #1 and #2 commonly recycled plastics because there is a 100 degree difference in their melting points.  But if they can’t recycle them, they will be removed and at least properly disposed of, which is certainly better than letting them become litter!  Just make sure you detached the lids and caps from the container so they can be easily sorted out at the recycling facility.

So, what can’t be accepted? Well, that would be medication bottle caps, metals lids, pumps and sprayers.  These are unfortunately destined for the garbage can so, whenever possible, make wise choices when you make purchases.  Remember that buying larger containers means fewer lids too!

That’s it… the real deal on caps and lids.  Let’s just do our part to make sure we help remove them from any “most littered lists!”

How often are you given something you want to give back or never even asked for? (Well, I can think of about a dozen things when I think back to my wedding gifts.  Of course, my thoughts then were something like “my god, WHAT were they thinking!” ) But now I’m thinking more about the things that come our way from purchases or services.

Think about wire hangers from the dry cleaner, packing peanuts from shipments we receive, plastic bags that always seem to slip by us when we aren’t paying attention and burned out CFLs.

Well, they don’t need to become needless trash. Consider this the next time one of these things slip your way:

• Wire hangers – (hopefully you’re using an eco-friendly dry cleaner!… but) take them BACK to your dry cleaner the next time you make a drop-off.  Most will accept them and reuse them.

• Packing peanuts – even if they didn’t come from a UPS shipment, they will accept them with a smile and reuse them too.  Check here to find a location.

• Plastic bags – if I’m not vigilant and paying attention, a cashier always seems to manage to slip one in on me.  Save them at home and many stores have collection bins at their entrance if your curbside recycling does not accept them.

• CFLs – so many people get hung up on the mercury content in CFLs, but keep in mind that most still contain only enough mercury to fit on the head of a pin and each new generation of CFLs has even less.  However, when they finally do burn out, remember to dispose of them properly at your local Home Depot through their CFL Recycling Program.  They’ll take them off your hands for proper disposal, free of charge.

Now, as for those hideous items I received for wedding gifts, well those were “given” too… in the way of donation. They do say “one (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure!”

Today I’m going to keep it nice and simple…

If you want to “buy” greener, just “concentrate”… buy concentrated formulas of anything and everything, that is.  It helps to eliminate a lot of packaging waste, even if it happens to be recyclable.  As much as I hate math… it’s simple math.  Less volume = less packaging.

Another tip is to buy in bulk.  Sure, you’re buying a bigger package, but it’s still less packaging than what is needed for multiple smaller sized packages versus the one larger size!

Final tip… avoid excess packaging.  Over-wrapping and over-packaging results in excess waste, recyclable or not.

So “concentrate”, “go big” and “keep it as skimpy as possible”… wow, this post has gone someplace else entirely…

The post-holiday wrap-up is being wrapped up! So sad to see it all come to an end, but alas… it’s back to the less dreamy and festive real world!

Hopefully we’ve all made wise choices about bidding a fond farewell to everything that’s come our way throughout the season and even thought ahead to preparing for next year (… yes, next year!).

Make sure all of these activities made your “to do” list, including:

• Recycling your cut Christmas tree.  Check out Earth911 to make sure it gets recycled into mulch or composted, or if you have woods or a ravine near your house, add the tree back to nature and animals will surely turn it into a wonderful winter habitat.
• Recycling materials from gift packaging, boxes from shipments and everything that gets a thumbs-up from your recycling can. If you have a lot of boxes, list them with BoxCycle or save them, along with any reusable packing materials, for when you need to ship something.
• Folding and storing all gift bags to be put back into circulation next year. Even ribbons, bows and tissue paper can get more than a single use.
• Taking advantage of those clearance sales and purchase LED lighting for next season’s energy-efficient decorating. Check out HolidayLEDs.com… they’ll accept your old incandescent lights and give you a 15% discount on a new LED purchase (now, until February 28, 2010)!
• Making way for new gifts… but simultaneously continue to gather items around home (clothes, toys, books, household items) that will now be cast aside and donate them to charity for the ultimate in reuse.
• Recycling all of the Christmas cards you received with St. Jude’s Ranch for Children.  (This non-profit organization cares for abused, abandoned and/or neglected children.)  They accept used greeting cards and the children remove the fronts, attach them to a recycled paper back, and turn them into new greeting cards… and then sell them! This is a great option to traditional paper recycling and a great cause to support.  Your cards will be accepted until February 28, 2010.  Just bundle them up and mail them off to:

St. Jude’s Ranch for Children
Card Recycling Program
100 St. Jude’s Street
Boulder City, NV 89005

I’m certainly anxious to get my life back in order after some fantastically crazy holiday madness… and if you love to organize and clean, I’ll send you my address.  Be here in an hour.  I’ll leave on the lights and one massive pot of (organic) coffee!

What a whirlwind this holiday has been! It’s hard to refocus after all of the craziness… and to top it off, this is my 250th post!  Ironically, last year’s post on the same date was my 100th post… 150 posts in one year!  I knew I could be a chatterbox at times but never imagined I would chatter that much!

The holidays didn’t start in a pleasant way with both kids getting horribly sick… vomiting and other intestinal problems that shall remain without description!  Our poor son’s bout arrived on Christmas Eve and continued into the wee hours of the morning, but luckily he rallied like a trooper and made it through Christmas Day.  And somehow Santa managed to sneak in between the “episodes”.  The way both of them were able to recover so quickly has made me an even bigger proponent of breastfeeding (yes, without getting too personal, I exclusively breastfed both of them).  There is truly something to be said for the way nature “built us”… it certainly gives us a healthy, strong start that obviously continues through life. This is also a likely testament to good eating and healthy food choices!

This year all gifts were given in recycled gift bags.  Not a single supply was purchased, including gift tags that were made from last year’s Christmas cards.  Every recyclable ounce of paper and packaging was most definitely recycled and our recycling can “runneth over”!

I’m happy to say, during all of our gatherings, everyone pulled out the real dishes, silverware and glassware.  No disposables to add to landfills… and that definitely made me happy!  I don’t know if it’s my influence or our families simply didn’t want to deal with my complaining, but either way… I was happy with the outcome!

I am grateful for the generosity of our families but simultaneously cringing at the way the corner of our dining room looks like a toy store due to all of the yet-to-be-unpackaged gifts!  The upside is that both of our kids have agreed that it is beyond due time to clear out all of the toys they’ve outgrown and give them to children who aren’t nearly as fortunate as they are.  I think the entire family will be taking an inventory and making some generous donations (and I hope you will too).

We also gave only gifts that were on wish-lists.  Those without wish-lists received gift cards or good ‘ole cashola!  And who can complain about that?  I just don’t think it makes sense to buy something for someone just because we think we’re supposed to give them something.  It just seems wasteful to give someone something that will clutter a house… that’s certainly no gift!

Last year we were gifted with unseasonably warm weather in late December (upper 60s in Ohio!?!).  This year we were gifted with a snow storm.  Our kids are ready for lots of snow time, but this simultaneously means I’ll have to contend with the naysayers “Global warming my a$$!” comments.  My response to this goes without saying.

One of my favorite gifts this year came from my mother-in-law:  a basket made from recycled chopsticks!  I think she was as excited to give it to me as I was to receive it, but it’s apparent that our family is definitely catching on to Mom Goes Green’s way of thinking!

Soon we will also re-gift last year’s Kiva donation.  The money we loaned to a farmer in Tajikistan to purchase seeds for farming has been repaid, and we will donate the repaid money to another “working poor” recipient so the cycle can continue.  I’m also considering making an extra donation so one more family can receive much needed financial aid. Take a look at Kiva to learn more about this amazing organization.

Overall, despite the challenge of the “pukies”, we’ve had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed all of our celebrations.  Isn’t that really what the holidays are all about?  I hope you created amazing memories with your family as well.

Sadly, I also know of a few families who lost loved ones, unexpectedly, during the holiday.  This, unfortunately, put life into perspective.

Here’s to love, happiness, family and friends that make life worthwhile… and cheers (and fears) about the NEXT 250 posts… I’m sure there will be plenty to say!

By now, the gifts should be purchased and the wrapping is underway!  So, while you’ve certainly paid special attention to what you’ve selected, how you “present the present” also needs special attention too.

The average household output of trash actually increases by 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, due in part to wrapping paper, packaging, boxes and all of the waste that results from the holidays. Gasp! I fully intend NOT to be one of those households and will recycle everything in sight, but while you can manage what happens with the waste from the gifts you receive, you can’t guarantee what the recipients of your gifts will do…

So before you unroll yards and yards of wrapping paper, ribbons and massive bows… halt!… and consider these better ways!:

• Buy recycled wrapping paper if you absolutely MUST wrap with paper (yea, I understand that kids love to unwrap!)
• Use, save, reuse, reuse and reuse gift bags.  They can have an amazingly long life.  Try to choose uncoated paper though… it simply recycles better when it finally comes to the end of its use.
• Put the gift in a reusable bag.  You can often score a reusable bag for less than the cost of a gift bag, and then it becomes a gift in and of itself!
• Use part of the gift as the wrap.  Scarf? Towel? Basket? Bowl? Wrap it around or put it inside.
• Wrap with fabric scraps and biodegradable raffia.  Simple as that!
• Skip bows and opt for berries, pinecones, evergreen clipping, twigs or a real flower instead. These natural embellishments can even make brown craft paper look festive!
• Before you toss out this year’s wall calendar, use the images for wrapping smaller packages.
• Use old holiday card photos or images to create your gift tag.  You have ‘em, so use ‘em!
• Reuse, reduce, recycle.  Save the materials you receive to be reused (gift bags, bows, ribbon). Reduce the amount of materials you use for your gift giving.  Recycle all of the paper and packaging from your gifts and make sure they go in the bin, not the trash can.
• (You can also choose not to wrap anything it all! My mom told me “in her day” her Christmas gifts from Santa weren’t wrapped!  They appeared under the tree “au naturale!” Hmmm… makes you wonder how and when Santa changed his policies!)

This will all be over before you know it!  Take a deep breath, grab your green supplies and see if you can join me in avoiding that 25%!

Not long ago I wrote a post about whether or not pizza boxes can be recycled.  I quickly realized that this is only scratching the surface of a topic that often leaves us scratching our heads.

So while we all likely understand the fundamentals of a paper recycling, there is also some uncertainty about the details.  Here are a few things you (may not, but) SHOULD know!

• DO NOT let the paper get wet.  Since recyclers purchase paper by weight, the entire lot may get rejected if they see wet paper.  Check your weather before it goes to the curb unless you are certain the rain won’t get in!
• No food! Dirty paper plates, napkins, paper towels, etc. are, unfortunately, trash… or should go to compost.  But please, not in the recycle bin – they will quickly cross contaminate the other contents.
• Do not worry about little things like small paper clips, plastic envelope windows, staples, labels, metal envelope latches or even notebook spirals.  Unlike food matter, they separate easily in processing and can be removed from the batch.
• Watch the adhesives! Heavily glued (sticky) items can ruin batches of recycled paper.  Don’t toss in those “complimentary” address labels and other stickers.  Post-It Notes are fine but if an envelope has a heavy self-stick flap, tear it off first.
• Allow tape in moderation. Some tape here and there won’t hurt, but if a box is wrapped in yards of shipping tape, remove it as best you can.  Paper tape is A-OK!
• Don’t shred paper unless you must – most recyclers don’t like accepting shredded paper because it’s a challenge to sort.  If you are a “shredder”, contain it in a paper bag first (or it can be composed!).
• Skip the heavy-dye, saturated papers with deep, dark colors or fluorescents.  It’s difficult to bleach them back to a usable form.
• No plastic or wax coated papers (like paper cups), but glossy papers (like magazines) are acceptable.
• Consider dropping your paper at a local paper retriever site (at schools, churches or other non-profits…like this service in my area). You can be assured that your paper is being recycled AND it can benefit an organization by helping them earn money.

Remember, the EPA estimates that 40% of solid waste in the U.S. is paper products… shameful!  But paper can actually be recycled up to seven times, and it is easier and cheaper to make pulp from recycled fibers than from wood… awesome!  And one more tidbit to share:

Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees… and those 17 saved trees can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year!

I hope you never look at paper the same way again… paper recycling rules!

It’s somewhat bizarre that this post follows my recent post about the psychology of food and how organic and healthy foods can psychologically help us feel better, but seriously… we all splurge and occasionally eat the bad stuff too.  Show me one person who doesn’t and I’ll show you a hundred who DO!

Anyhow, I often find myself frustrated with the inaccurate information about what can be recycled and what cannot.  Pizza boxes are a prime example because I’ve seen them listed on far too many “recyclable lists” without clear explanations.

Most are made of corrugated cardboard… a material that is normally recyclable, but I want to clear up this misconception…

PIZZA BOXES SHOULD NOT BE RECYCLED!

There are exceptions to this rule, so here is the 411 on pizza boxes.  As soon as foods (especially oils, cheese, etc.) absorb into this cardboard it become UNRECYCLABLE.  If recycled, the paper fibers will not be able to separate from the oils during pulping and a tainted pizza box can actually ruin an entire batch of paper during this process.  If some parts, like the lid, don’t have any oil or food on it, tear it off and recycle it, but if it’s dirty, forget it… and toss it in the trash.

This also holds true for any paper products that have been soiled by food… paper plates, napkins, paper towels, etc.  If your rationale is that these items will be weeded out before recycling just remember that they can cross-contaminate a lot of paper around them while they wait to be recycled, so you are also ruining a bunch of otherwise recyclable materials.

While I’m on this pizza box kick, check out this nifty creation from e.c.o. Incorporated.  It actually turns your pizza box into your plates and storage container.

It’s Friday… so after you take a break from a week full of cooking and call your local pizza joint, remember the real answer for recycling the box:  your recycle bin and all the other papers inside say “no thanks”!

I recently had occasion to purchase a wedding shower gift for our neighbor’s daughter.  Many of us have been there… that occasion where we labor over 12 pages of “wishes” and try to find something that you honestly feel wasn’t a “whim wish” and an item that won’t actually find itself shoved in a corner closet after the bride realizes it wasn’t really something she needed.

While we certainly can’t control what the bride selected, we can certainly choose how to spend our money.  And as I poured over the list, one item caught my eye immediately:  Bamboo Kitchen Cart with Wine Rack.  I was thrilled to know that I could actually buy something useful, as well as something “sustainable”!

I need to remind myself that I do have choices every time I purchase a gift.  A few extra minutes with a list or some special attention and you can be pleased that the gift suits you too!  Look for the bamboo cutting board or cutlery.  Look for the organic cotton towels or sheets.  And whoever said you HAVE TO buy off the list?!  Buy something that you’ll be happy to give.  Just be sure that your gift is useful.  Remember this: An used gift amounts to house clutter that will eventually be cast off.

Other ideas to keep your gift greener:

• Consider a reusable bag instead of wrapping paper.
• Simply wrap things (like towels) in themselves.
• Scraps of fabric lying around after crafty endeavors? Wrap the gift in it!
• A bamboo kitchen towel or two would even do the trick for any gift. For bigger gifts, a table cloth will cover it!
• Use biodegradable raffia instead of ribbon or reuse ribbons you’ve salvaged.
• Use a photo or image from a card you received to make a gift tag.
• Skip the bow and use a pretty flower from your garden instead.  Even twigs, berries or pinecones make great toppers with simple brown craft paper for the wrap.

My big thing has always been that “it’s about choices”.  And even if the bride’s choices leave you rolling your eyes, your gift can keep your eyes sparkling “green”!

Summer is in full swing and sadly, to me, it feels like it’s half over.  I always consider summer a brief 10 week experience (now that we have kids in school), but that’s my own issue.

Anyhow, while I’ve been out and about with my family enjoying the “first half”, one thing keeps catching my eye… Styrofoam coolers.  I almost can’t believe that these things still exist.  I understand that they are a matter of convenience, but with some forethought, it’s easy to be prepared and no one should ever need a ‘single use’ cooler. It pains me to see them sitting next to garbage cans and knowing that they’ve become trash.  And I imagine that after purchasing a few Styrofoam versions, you could probably own a decent cooler of your very own.

My mom actually taught me the amazing insulating ability of newspaper.  Layers of newspaper, wrapped around whatever you need to keep cold in transit, does an incredible job of holding the cold.  This trick even works to keep items hot.  I used newspaper to keep our kids’ baby food warm when we went out to dinner, so they could have their food right along with us.  And the best part is that afterward, it can be recycled instead of thrown in the trash.

I just really want Styrofoam coolers to disappear! The problem is this… even if they disappear from store shelves, they still won’t disappear – they’ll live on in a landfill for about 500 years!