Lunchtime!!! - Day 18

"Lunchtime trash is second only to office paper as the leading source of school waste." (Green Teacher magazine, Fall 2004)

Bringing your own lunch is usually more cost effective (and healthier), and with the exception of the occasional purchased lunch when there is nothing left in the house to send, my kids, hubby, and I bring their own lunches to school and work. We use reusable lunch bags and eliminate the waste of paper lunch bags.

Rosebud noticed that her friend brought paper bag lunches and asked her why she didn't use a reusable bag. She pointed out that trees were killed to make the paper bags that were used only once and not recycled, and that the trees are good for the environment. Her friend said that it was easier, and that way she didn't have to go back to her locker to put away the reusable lunch bag. Hmmm, she does return to her locker every day, so that reasoning didn't make sense to Rosebud. Rosebud, once again you are making me proud just for questioning your friend and pointing out the obvious facts. Who knows, maybe your friend will have a change of heart and choose a reusable lunch bag to use instead :)

Spring Cleaning - Day 17

So it was a beautiful spring day, and the house needed airing after having 2 sick kids last week (thus the biodegradable wipes of yesterday), so I turned off the heat, and flung open the windows!!! Which then made me feel like doing some cleaning out of my own closet as well as some of the kids' stuff. The Rose Bud and Sweet Pea came up with a big pile of stuff they no longer wanted, needed, or used, and we sorted into paper recycling, clothes to be donated, other stuff to be donated, and trash. Surprisingly the trash didn't even fill a small plastic garbage bag (this bag is getting recycled to hold the small amount of trash because I don't buy trash bags!) Well there were two things in the pile that I am unsure of how to dispose of them. The first is a broken pair of flip flops. Since they are made of rubber, I'm pretty sure they can be recycled, so I "blackled" "how to recycle flip flops" I found this link: http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2009/07/how-to-recycle-your-flip-flops/

The second pair of boots have rubber soles and are in fair condition. One option is:

http://www.soles4souls.org/about/locations You can plug in your zip code and see where the nearest donation location is.

I may also be able to recycle them via Nike. Nike definitely recycles old sneakers, so DON'T throw them in the landfill!! Take a look at their really cool link that explains how each part of the shoe is made into athletic surfaces such as basketball and tennis courts, and track and field surfacing, or even into playground surfacing.
http://www.nikereuseashoe.com/

If you are going to be doing some spring cleaning, I hope you will do the sorting process too; recycle what you can either via your recycle bins, or to sources that can use the items; repurpose things (find a new use for the item); or donate to charities in your area. Challenge yourself to have a tiny bit of trash as you spring clean!

Biodegradable cleaning wipes - Day 16

So I ran out of my favorite cleaning wipes (I know, I know a disposable product), and found that Green Works makes "natural biodegradable" cleaning wipes with natural ingredients such as coconut-based cleaners and essential oils, so I figured I'd give them a try. They work well, and it makes me feel better knowing that even though I'm using something disposable, at least I can compost them, and then recycle the container they come in. Surprisingly, they were comparable in price to other wipes, so it was a total no-brainer to give them a try, and I'm glad I did.

CFLs - Day 15

So slowly as incandescent light bulbs burn out, we've been replacing them with CFLs. I know people worry about the mercury in them, but since I am returning them to the hardware store, they should be properly disposed of. I wonder how much energy and money we have saved so far as we are changing over to CFLs?

Rhody's Observation - Day 14

Rhody was home sick today, and so we curled up to watch some TV, and we happened up the Travel Network. The host was talked about how much she travels for her job, and how bad she was feeling about her carbon footprint, she went on to say that she has traveled so much that she has made the hole in the ozone bigger....

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, even though Rhody was home sick, her comment didn't sit well with him and he turned to me and said, "she didn't make a hole in the ozone, she made it thicker." WOW, so my 3rd grader caught a big oopps, that the producers should have caught. Apparently watching the Inconvenient Truth sunk in at some levels, I'm so PROUD of him!!!!

squeaky clean windows and mirrors - Day 13

It's true! You can make your own window cleaner, and you can have streak free windows and mirrors :) Combine the following in a spray bottle:

2 cups of water
1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar
a squirt (about 1/2 teaspoon of liquid soap)
(Label and keep it out of the reach of children)

My favorite thing to clean with is newspaper from the recycle bin. It does a great job at cleaning, I don't buy or use paper towels, the windows are not streaky, and I re-recycle the newspaper when I'm done. (When the vinegar/water/soap solution dries on the newspaper, it is not going to hurt the paper recycling process.)

When doing windows, I wash the outside in one direction (horizontal), and the inside vertically. This way if I do end up with any streaks it is easy to figure out which side needs a touch-up. To help prevent streaks in the first place, weather conditions are a factor. The best time to wash windows is on a overcast day. If it is too sunny the solution will dry before you can clean, leaving streaks. The same process works wonders on mirrors too.

I know it's silly, but streak-free sparkly windows and mirrors make me smile. It's the little things!

Schools need to learn/teach more about recycling - Day 12

Ok, so it makes NO sense that in the kids' lunchrooms they do NOT have recycle bins! What kind of example is that? Why wouldn't they have bins? No one wants to empty them? I mean it would cut down on the amount of garbage, and that would save the schools money. They do recycle paper from the classrooms, so why not plastic bottles, yogurt containers, fruit cup containers, plastic spoons etc? I mean most families recycle in our town, so the kids already know the system, and if they DON'T recycle at home, they should....those that didn't already know about recycling could LEARN it at school and teach their families. Hmm I wonder how hard it would be to convince the schools to recycle?