Mom Goes Green

Mom Goes Green is now also “Upcycle Mom” to 400 kids… the kids at our daughter’s elementary school, that is!

We’ve finally joined TerraCycle in their “Drink Pouch Brigade”.  If you know TerraCycle you probably know all about their products, but if you don’t know about their brigades, let me give you the rundown…

First of all, keep in mind that each year literally BILLIONS of non-recyclable drink pouches get tossed in the trash and wind up in landfills… fortunately, along came TerraCycle.  They upcycle this otherwise worthless trash and convert the used drink pouches into fashion bags, tote bags, pencil cases, and a whole slew of other items for kids and adults.  All you have to do is save the drink pouches, send them to TerraCycle and earn a little cash for your school, organization or charity of your choice.

Sure the financial part is a little incentive, but more than that (to me!) is the idea of all the trash that is being salvaged, upcycled and put to use.  Anytime something DOESN’T go in the trash can (thus the landfill), I’m one happy green momma!

These programs are perfect for schools, community groups, Boy Scout or Girl Scout troops, youth groups, churches… you name it… any group can do it and make quite a contribution to the planet.  

And it’s not just drink pouches… they also collect yogurt cups, candy and cookie wrappers, chip bags, glue sticks and glue bottles… there is a list of 25 brigades, so something is sure to fit.

I’m ready to go and lead my little troops in the Drink Pouch Brigade.   Now, if I suddenly stop blogging, could someone please come over and rescue me from under the mountain of drink pouches where I’m likely to be buried?!?

Greywater may be a new term to you… once again, this one was recently a new one for me too!

Greywater is defined as the “waste water generated from bathing, showering, dishwashing and laundry”.  Initial thoughts might sound something like “well… ick.”  Sure, I certainly don’t recommend you grab a glass(!), but there are plenty of household uses for this water (as long as you aren’t using harsh cleansers and detergents).

Think about watering your indoor plants, outdoor plants and shrubbery, or washing your car.  This water is ideal.

All you need to do is add a handled bucket to your shower, scoop out a bucket or watering can full from your bath, or add the bucket to your utility tub when your washer is draining.  Plants will actually thrive from the content of this water and your car happens not to care if the water has a bit of added body wash or laundry detergent.

Considering this greywater accounts for somewhere between 50%-80% of residential water waste, conserving and using it will certainly amount to a lot more than just “a drop in the bucket”.

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!

(This giveaway is now closed for entries.  See “comments” for winner.)

Well, I am officially in Stress-Out Land thinking about the holidays and all that needs to be done.  Shopping  (NOT “checked”).  Christmas cards (NOT “checked”!).  Tree up and house decorated (NOT “checked”!)   Outdoor decorations and lights (NOT “checked”!).  Yea, I’m way behind… and I’m starting to sweat!

So today, instead of a mind boggling post, I’m just going to help a reader get one item out of the way so I can get to some holiday “business”!

Let me first tell you about Citizenpip.  They sent me this fabulous lunch kit that will put at least one recipient on my gift list in the “checked” column.  It’s their Soup to Nuts Kit that includes an insulated lunch bag, stainless steel water bottle, insulated food jar, four food containers, a stainless steel fork and spoon set and five cotton napkins.  Everything is BPA-free, safe, reusable, eco-friendly galore and super cute! Perfect for avoiding all of that needless lunchtime trash, so yes… one little recipient on my list is going to be happy and really GREEN this Christmas.

Do you have someone on your list that would love a lunch kit too?  Well, I know you would certainly love giving one(!) and today, you can win a FREE Square Meal Kit right here! It includes an insulated lunch bag, stainless steel water bottle, four food containers and five cotton napkins.

All you have to do is leave a comment saying you’d like to win and tell me who you’d like to “gift” it to, or send a Twitter message that includes a reply to @momgoesgreen and a link to this blog. The winner will be selected one week from today’s post. (US entries only… sorry!)

If you don’t win, don’t worry!  The fine people at Citizenpip are offering an extra something for Mom Goes Green readers.  You can get a free fork & spoon set for every order over $50 (use coupon code: MOMGOESGREENgives at checkout), and for every $10 you spend, Citizenpip will plant one tree in partnership with Trees for the Future.  That, alone, should give you the warm, green, fuzzies!

So, while I try to de-stress and get something accomplished, take a chance at winning a gift that will make you feel a lot better too!

This weekend my husband and I have made a pledge to one another… a serious vow and promise that will not be broken.  That promise?…

Clean our clothes closets and drawers! Ohhh, sounds romantic, yes?

Well, okay, not so romantic, but a necessity?… oh, yes!  It is a promise we have made innumerable times in the past year (and never followed through), but this time we really (REALLY!) mean it!

I have no doubt that one of the most popular items that need to go will be an abnormally huge amount of t-shirts.  Some will be destine for the “rag bag”, others will be donated, but did you also know that there are tons of ways to recycle t-shirts?

I discovered a site that has it all. Andy from hideyourarms.com has done all the legwork for us and has nearly EVERY way – most with tutorials and instructions!  Old t-shirts can be turned into amazing new products with real usefulness:

Think new shirts, reusable bags, yoga pants, throw pillows, camis, scarves, carrying cases, blankets, skirts… the list goes on and on.

While you may not be looking to make a ninja hood (although Halloween is around the corner!) or decide to fashion a bikini (those days are looong gone!), there are some great ideas to “get your ‘reuse’ on”!

Take a look, grab an old tee and give it new life!

Am I obsessed and saddened that the summer is ending?  Yes, (obviously) because I am mentioning it constantly.  Is the end of summer inevitable? Well, yes it is!

So, as we prepare for sending our children back to school it’s easy to become a little “spend happy” since every corner we turn seems to remind us to buy, buy, BUY!  Don’t fall victim to feeling like you have to go overboard.

This year, when we received our daughter’s supply list, the first thing I did was check what we already had.  I was surprised to find that we already had over half of the list… notebooks, pencils, glue, scissors, erasers, ruler, CHECK!  I actually kept a box of what was left over from last year, and I assure you, that bottle of Elmer’s glue that was still 2/3 full is perfect to get her started.  If you do need to buy, buy recycled:  pencils, paper, and even backpacks of recycled materials exist if you just look.

I’m happy to say that we also have a green lunchtime covered.  By using her waste-free lunch kit, I can rest easy that our daughter creates almost zero trash. Lunchboxes and reusable containers are both earth-friendly and economical because all of the single-serving foods are expensive in comparison.  (Still looking for a waste-free lunch kit?  There are still a few days to win one in my giveaway!)

The hardest part of preparing for school is outfitting your kids with a new wardrobe.  Little ones grow so quickly, but the older they get the slower they grow.  Before you charge out to charge a new wardrobe, find out what still fits.  Don’t replace clothing before it’s been outgrown.  If it has, you can still be green by putting “reuse” into action.  Gather up the unneeded clothes, shoes, jackets and coats and donate them to an organization so those less fortunate have the opportunity to use them.  Even consignment shops or swaps with friends are an option and simply give more life to items that haven’t worn out their usefulness.

Whether you get teary-eyed at the idea of sending your kids back to school, or the first day couldn’t come soon enough (I will be a teary-eyed one!) be sure to earn a green star for your efforts before they go!

Every time I visit the grocery store or the local farmer’s market to pick-up some fabulously fresh organic produce, there are little environmentally un-friendly “by-products” that come home with my fruits and veggies… those flimsy plastic bags we’re often forced to use for our produce purchases.

I’ve tried to reuse them, but they’re cheap and end up tearing. I also hesitate because it’s too difficult to get them clean enough to feel safe to reuse them.  So, while I’m buying healthy foods for my family, I’m left with a handful of plastic bags that wind up in the trash.

Enter:  EarthSAKS!  I recently talked about their compact reusable bag that our daughter confiscated, but now I’ve discovered their produce bags too, and what a relief they are!  They’re made of sturdy, see-through, washable mesh with a simple drawstring closure at the top and they even store in an included canvas pouch for toting them back to the store, to use again and again.

I’ve also picked up a few little mesh laundry bags (typically for your delicates… so why not some delicate produce, right?) when I’ve found them on sale, and if you’re feeling really crafty: a rectangle of mesh fabric, some stitches and string, and voila… reusable produce bag!

Whatever you choose, join me in making sure your produce makes its way to your home without bringing unwanted (plastic) guests!

Obviously, with my stepdad in the hospital in critical condition, I’m feeling quite a bit blue rather than ‘thinking green’… but in between hospital visits I have been finding time to keep up on some of my green reading and preoccupy myself.

I read an article on Planet Green about “10 Surprising Reuses for Bread Tabs” and I admit it made me smile.  First of all, I never envisioned so many uses for these ridiculous little tabs!… “gunk scapers”, wine glass charms, electrical cord labels?  Pretty smart actually.

But it made me smile because this kind of thinking is actually the epitome of my stepdad, Ted.  He always manages to find new uses for everything.  In fact, the car he was driving when he had the accident was made almost entirely of salvaged and reused parts… a plastic Miller Lite bottle was even converted into an overflow reservoir for one of the engine fluids!  In his garage, coffee cans, pickle jars and plastic bottles are premium storage containers.  T-shirts that have taken a beating from all of his mechanical work and “building” are turned into his garage rags.  Milk jugs are turned into drip pans and the leather from an old jacket (that got torn) was given new life by becoming the seat of one of the motorcycles he built.

I would never tell him how “green” he really is, because he would probably deny it but sorry Dad… all this reusing is SO GREEN!

Today, take the time to find something that can be reused instead of thinking of it as trash.  Raise your “reusable”, give thanks that you have the ability to do so and send us another little prayer … Dad is still critical but we continue to hope and pray that he’ll soon be back on his feet to let the reusing continue…

Waaaay back in my previous life – about 2001 BC (Before Children!) – one of my favorite indulgences was having fresh cut flowers in our home, at all times.  It was a little OVERindulgent, but it sure brightened up the place, no matter the season.

Since having kids, this has taken a backseat to many other things that command our disposable income.  But one of my shortcomings was that I only looked for cheap flowers without any consideration of how they were grown, where they came from or how they got here… oops!

I’ve since learned that about 70% of flowers sold in the US are imported and grown using highly toxic chemicals, including pesticides, fertilizers and fungicides… doesn’t sound so pleasant to take a big “whiff” now, does it?!  This is a danger to us as consumers, workers cultivating the flower crops and florists working with them daily.  It also pollutes the land and groundwater and creates an unhealthy environmental effect.

Enter: organic flowers! These farms instead use environmental, sustainable practices (without toxins) to insure that everyone in the chain, including the environment, isn’t put at risk.  And it also simply supports local, domestic farming. Diamond Organics, California Organic Flowers and Organic Bouquet will help put you in the right direction to locate a florist that offers organic flowers or simply buy online if you want “green” blooms.  You can also look for the VeriFlora label or ask your florist if they are VeriFlora certified and you will know you are buying organic… and NOT bringing those toxins into your home or sending them to someone you actually like!

Along with this recent “enlightenment” I also discovered that I have quite a bounty of floral vases that are crowding that useless cupboard above my refrigerator (yeah, you know the one I’m talking about!).  Most of these vases are created with such a variety of glass, they can’t be recycled (hence trash!).  But before you let them hit the can, consider giving them back to a local florist!  Many will happily accept them, and honestly, I would not be one bit irritated if I knew that my flowers were arranged in a reused vase!

And if you’re lucky enough to live in Northeastern Ohio, like me (okay, so it’s not so lucky in the dead of winter!), a co-op between Green Lotus and Cleveland Blooms will actually pick them up from your doorstep(!) so they can be cleaned and sent back to a local florist who wants them, so you don’t even need to do the legwork!

Even though that “flower fund” has now been redirected to “Barbie” and “Planet Heroes” you can bet that, when I want to treat myself to a bouquet, I will be doing a search for organic flowers and calling Green Lotus when my blooms head for the compost pile!

It seems like we are constantly winding up with boxes in our household.  Something gets purchased and shipped, and voila… another box that has me feeling guilty.  (I won’t even begin to discuss the guilt of those boxes that arrive packed full of shipping peanuts and bubble wrap or are obnoxiously overpackaged.)

One of my best friends, Kev, recently moved from the west coast, and he and his partner, Will, spent a small fortune buying moving boxes, then labored over what to do with them afterward.  Another friend’s husband nearly loses sleep over all of the boxes at his work that wind up in the trash on a daily basis.

But what if there is a better way?  Well, there is.  A relatively new site Boxcycle.com is working hard to help us find boxes we need and sell those we don’t.  You can search for boxes in your area or list boxes that you are willing to part with, before they have to hit the recycle bin.  And isn’t it the most environmental choice to reuse rather than recycle?

I absolutely love this idea.  It’s the exact reason eBay, Craig’s List and Freecycle are so successful, but with a very environmental, targeted offering.  You can actually buy and sell boxes, so yes, there is a cost involved, but isn’t that a win-win situation? You can buy them for much less than brand new, and you can sell them and earn a little money if you have some to get rid of.  And the environmental impact?… well, it keeps them out of landfills and in that beloved “reuse” category.

It would be great if business owners and employees would get in on this action. Imagine NOT driving past a dozen dumpsters a day and seeing them overloaded with cardboard boxes!  And if you’re moving and need boxes, do a search.  If you just need boxes, do a search!  If you have a bunch to sell, get them listed!

So send your unneeded boxes on an adventure.  In the words of Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the places you’ll go!”