Bringing Home My Recyclables

I have a confession.  I bring home as many recyclable things as I can.  I pick up recycling around town and I bring it home from vacation when I can't find anywhere to recycle it.  And this is why:

When we were in Wyoming over the summer, there was this great public building with bathrooms and big bins for all types of recycling in pristine Jackson.  Chicago has recycling and solar powered compacting trash bins all over the city.  But our last two trips were harder.  Miami was difficult with the seemingly endless stream of plastic cups but Aruba was impossible!  

After several failed attempts to locate anywhere I could take plastic, glass, or paper for recycling, I finally made room in my backpack and come home with this:

We try to travel light by each taking a single travel backpack, so I wasn't able to bring home much of my nemesis, plastic, but I did manage to bring back and recycle all the paper we (somehow) accumulated.

You might be wondering why this is a confession.  It's not a secret that I recycle.  But bringing it home on an airplane?!  I know.  I know!  I have a problem.  I can't even bear to figure out if it's a net energy loss since I'm flying it home.  (My guess is that, yes, it is.  I told you I have a problem!)  It's just so disheartening watching the trash can fill.

Seriously, I can't stop.  I'd already put this in our car before we discovered that beach in the first picture.

Let me explain.  Not my own habits but the reason the beach looks like that.  Arubans are not going around throwing plastic on their beaches.  (Well, probably some are.)  No, that beach looks like that from people like us.  Trash that doesn't make it into a landfill, more often than not, ends up in the water somewhere.  And things that end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans end up on a beach or in an animal - including humans!  This book gives a wonderful explanation about the whole waste/water/gyre cycle.  I'm glad I read it before seeing this beach.

At least then I knew not to tut-tut the friendly people of Aruba.  That didn't do much for my growing "obsession" with picking up after others though...

Peace,

Stacey

31 Days of Green Little Things: Laundry Day (The Cold Water Cycle)

Welcome back to my 31 Days of Green Little Things!  This is where I discuss the little things I do to help the environment.

Sunday is usually laundry day around the Green Stuff house, which reminded me that I haven’t talked about washing in cold water yet.

Back when we were washing diapers, we switched to a front-loading washing machine, which uses less water, and learned about the power of washing with cold water when we could. (Of course, we never washed diapers in cold!)  When someone’s sick, we still use hot water but, other than that, we use cold water almost exclusively.  This saves a lot of energy since most of the energy used by the washing machine is to heat the water. The detergent we use says it is appropriate to use with any water setting and there are many cold water detergents out there today. If you’re wondering, we haven’t noticed that our clothes are any less clean either. 

We buy our concentrated detergent by the case from our local health food store.  We started doing this so we could get one that was powdered without fragrances.  It is packaged in cardboard boxes rather than plastic jugs. "Fragrances" are usually made from petroleum and can be irritating to the skin and respiratory system.  Plus, I don't like how the ingredients are not disclosed. (It seems like the company is trying to hide more than just trade secrets... but I could be wrong.)

Remember, saving energy also saves money.

Give it a try.  If you’re nervous, start with your dark loads then work your way up to whites or sheets and towels.

Peace,

Stacey

To follow other "31 Days" journeys, check out The Nester.  She's hosting this party. 

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31 Days of Green Little Things: Make a Bottle Cooler

Welcome back to my 31 Days of Green Little Things!  This is my place to talk about the little things that I do to help the environment.

O.K., here it is.  This is the extremely hard and very complicated way I made the water bottle cooler you saw in yesterday's post. ;)

Start with an old sock, preferably one with a hole in the bottom, and a pair of scissors.  (Still with me?)

Next, cut off the heel.  

At this point I would "try it on" your water bottle to get it to the correct length.  I didn't do this the first time I used this one and it was about 2 inches too long.  (It looked more like a water bottle legwarmer than a koozie.)

If I were a talented seamstress, I might bind the raw edge.  Since I'm not, I didn't but haven't had any problems.  I've even washed it and it was fine.

There you go.  I told you it was difficult. ;)  Now you, too, have a way to carry your cold non-insulated water bottle without getting your hands cold or wet.  It definitely came in handy last summer when it was 100+ degrees for so long.  I assume this could also be used to keep hot things warm but I haven't tried that yet.   

If you have any easy repurposed projects, please post them in the comments.  I'm always interested in simple projects. 

Peace,

Stacey

To follow other "31 Days" journeys, check out The Nester.  She's hosting this party. 
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31 Days of Green Little Things: Give Up Bottled Water

Welcome back to my 31 Days of Green Little Things!  This is my place to talk about the little things that I do to help the environment.

We stopped drinking bottled water.  Here's why:

Just kidding.  We switched to reusable metal bottles long before I ever saw that video and, of course, I'll give you more than that.  She makes a bunch of great points and you should totally watch it... but I won't stop there... even on a Saturday!

We've learned a thing or two over the years.  

We used the aluminum reusable bottles for a year or so but when they voluntarily recalled them, we decided the plastic liner just wasn't worth the risk for us.  Now we use stainless steel ones because there is no plastic liner and they are 100% recyclable.  We bought a stainless steel cap earlier this year and now we all race to see who gets to use it as soon as it's clean.

We take these things just about everywhere.  

We use them on our bikes.

We take them to to restaurants.

What?  I need a treat sometimes!

They hook on my backpack when I'm traveling.

Yes, I did repurpose an old sock into a bottle koozie.

You can even use them on airplanes.  Seriously!  Take them through security empty and refill them at a fountain or filling station near your gate.  (I love the filling stations at Chicago-Midway because they each have a little counter that reports how many plastic bottles were avoided by refills made at that individual station.)

The paint chips off and they get dented but they still work.

We even gave one away a couple years ago in St. Kitts.  Our taxi driver was so complimentary of it that we told him he could have it when we left.  You should have seen his smile!  (I hope he's using it as you read this.)

It doesn't take long to make it a habit and then it's more convenient than stopping to buy one.

That's it.  A reusable water bottle + tap water = today's Green Little Thing.

Where's the strangest place you've taken (or plan to take) yours? 

Peace,

Stacey

To follow other "31 Days" journeys, check out The Nester.  She's hosting this party.  Thanks for the motivation to join this year.
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Water Conservation in the Bathroom

I've always know that water was a precious resource.  Really, I have.  It's just hard to appreciate something for it's preciousness when it is abundant.  Abundant until this summer that is.  It didn't rain here... for months.  I'm used to hot, humid days.  This summer we had hot, dry days.  It was like being in a desert, but this area isn't normally a desert.  We buy rice from a farm 200 miles way; that takes a lot of rain!  We didn't have "normal" weather this year.  Trees died.  The ground cracked.  A couple of groundhogs/woodchucks ate every plant in our garden.  It was bad.  I knew it.  I even started taking shorter showers.  (The agony!) Then this sign went up down the street from my house:

I took this picture during last week's rain (Issac's remains.) We're still in a drought because our water table was so low.

I've mentioned before that this summer we've had a very severe drought but this sign inspired me to do want to do even more.  But what else could I do?  I already made Mr. Green Stuff put in one of those dual-flush, low-flow toilets.  I cut my shower time in half.  (Did I mention the agony involved there??) We don't water our lawn or wash our cars.  We have a rain barrel.  We only run our high efficiency washing machine or dishwasher when they are full.  What else???  I needed another little thing.  

Then it hit me.  What about all the water I waste just waiting for it to get hot enough?  I remember reading somewhere about placing a bucket in the shower to catch wasted water.  I tried this but it didn't seem to catch much.  Then I realized that if I just put the bucket in the bathtub, run the water into it until it warms up enough to tolerate, then I could turn on the shower and no longer waste the gallon or so that was cold. 

I snagged this old paint bucket from the garage.

If those groundhogs/woodchucks hadn't been so desperate for food this year, I would have watered my garden with all this "found" water.  (We somehow manage to fill that bucket at least every other day - that was a lot of wasted water!)  Instead, I have the fullest window boxes of my life!

Naturally, I didn't plant peppers and basil in there this year!

I'm actually embarrassed to admit that I hadn't done more to save water but now it's out there.  I'm doing better... and so are my flowers.  

Has weather inspired you to make a change this summer?

Peace,

Stacey