Donating for the Environment

It’s easy to collect a lot of stuff over the years – books, CD’s DVD’s, software, video games – but once you are done using them the question remains as to what you will do with them now? Just throwing away such items is not only wasteful and damaging to our environment (filling up landfills with yet more senseless waste) it is also often times emotionally altering. We become emotionally attached to such things and we don’t want to see our precious possessions just discarded as if they meant nothing. For me the hardest to part with is books – I love books and I know I have so many that I don’t read or even need anymore, but the thought of just throwing them out makes me cringe. Lucky for me, and for everyone else who feels as I do, there are a couple of great options.

Option 1: The Local Library
Most libraries will take used books, CD’s, and DVD’s as donations to be either added to their collections or sold later in book sales to raise funds for library activities and improvements. Donating these items is as easy as just putting them in a bag and delivering them to the circulation desk. You de-clutter your space and help a vital local resource at the same time.

Option 2: EcoEncore.org
I recently discovered a site that allows people to donate books, computer software, video games, CD’s, and DVD’ to go up for auction and the profits from the auction are then used to help along various environmental charities – this site is EcoEncore.org. It is incredibly easy to donate – simply fill out a form and send off the items – and you help a great cause in the process.

Checking out your local paper, chamber of commerce, churches, or environmental groups is also a good way to find other places that will take your used items and recycle, repurpose, or resell them to avoid creating further waste. With a little research and a little thought it is easy to part with items and feel good about it in the process.

Copyright ©  2009, Becki, Green Christian Network, All Rights Reserved

               

Reduce Your Trash

Trash is a huge issue for the environment. Dumps are overflowing and there are not enough landfills to keep all of the trash we make. It does not have to be that way. We can reduce the amount of trash we create by changing a few things we do.

Tips to reduce trash

• Buy Less. Only get what you need.
• Pay attention to Packaging. Go for minimal packaged products.
• Reuse paper. If only one side or half of it has been used. Use the rest. Make sure it is well used before throwing away.
• Baggies. Reuse plastic sandwich baggies. All sizes. Wash. Rinse. Use. Repeat.
• Glass Jars. Reuse them as pen holders, for food leftovers, storing buttons and such or anything else you can think to use a jar for.
• Cards. Birthday and holiday cards can be reused as well. Simply cut them into small tags to reuse on future gifts.
• Gift Bags. When you get a gift bag. Reuse it.
• Newspapers and Magazines. Use old issues to line drawers, litter boxes, etc.
• Clothes. Donate them to homeless shelters or resell them at second hand shops. If they are too old and worn, make rags out of them.
• Try and Fix it. If something breaks, see if it is salvage before you toss it. It may just need a minor fix.
• Have a Yard Sale. Your trash may be someone else’s treasure. Plus you can make a few bucks while helping the environment.
• Freecycle. Give it a way. Someone may need or want what you would like to toss.
• Recycle. Get on your towns recycling pick up list. If you cannot figure out a way to reuse some stuff at least recycle it.

These ideas are only meant to get your mind working and thinking. We need to be aware of the trash we create. Landfills are growing and we are running out of space for all the trash that we create. We need to start making a difference now, before our kids and grandchildren are left with a trash infested planet!

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Stay Green!

               

Paper Matters

It didn’t take me long into my recycling journey to master the art of putting my plastics in their proper bins. The same holds true for glass. Recycling was quickly becoming second nature to me, but the one area that I completely lacked in was recycling paper. When I would finish with a magazine or catalog I would just toss it in the trash. The same goes for all the sheets of paper that my kids would scribble on. I didn’t even think twice about it, I would just throw it in the regular kitchen trash. Then one day my Husband said, “You know, all of that is recyclable too.” I just stared blankly at him. You would think this bit of information would have already crossed my mind, but it never did. It was like this fog suddenly lifted and my mind said, “Oh yeah…Duh!” And thus began my recycling of paper.

Before jumping into the paper recycling world I got on my trusty computer and checked into the information available on recycling paper. What I found is just incredible!

The first thing you notice when researching the subject of paper is just how wasteful we are as a society. It really isn’t something you think a lot about unless you start looking it up. For instance, did you know that around 40% of the garbage in our landfills is from paper? It just sits there, rotting. Also, the average American uses somewhere around 680-700 pounds of paper a year! Wow! What do we do with it all? I mean seriously, look around you and see just where all the paper products are and just what you use them for. As I do this I am amazed at how many things I could stop doing – like I could stop buying more and more notebooks and just use the back sides of the scribbled on paper from my kids for jotting down notes and shopping lists. This would cut down not only paper waste but monetary expense as well.

As I kept researching I came upon some other interesting fact such as, if every American recycled every phone book every year we could save 650,000 TONS of paper! (Paper Facts) Additionally, just by recycling one ton of paper (that is 2000 pounds) we could save about 17 trees! (Recycling Facts)

When you look at those numbers you can’t help but want to get in on recycling paper too. It matters – all of it matters. So thus began my desire to make paper recycling just as second nature as plastics and glass.

So, you may be wondering just what types of paper you can recycle.

There are so many:

• cardboard
• newspapers
• magazines
• catalogs
• construction paper
• computer paper
• the paper you put in the office copy machine
• and even the junk mail you get (like those pesky grocery fliers).

This really is just the tip of the iceberg and yet so many of us throw these items in the garbage every day without giving it any additional thought. Well, not me – not any more. I am now committed and when I get done with any form of paper I have trained myself to march it out to the garage and stick it in the recycle bin. It really is just that easy.

Copyright ©  2009, Becki, Green Christian Network, All Rights Reserved

               

Green Tip of the Day (3/01/09) – Moms…use clothe diapers.

Sure, this is a little messier than the easier, disposable version. However, do you even realize the amount of disposable diapers that are filling landfills?? Cloth diapers are a choice that every mother should seriously consider. Let’s look at some facts that are quite alarming…

Disposable Diapers Sobering Facts:

• from birth to about 2-1/2 the average child will go through about 7,300 diapers
• the cost for that is about $2600
• 18 billion diapers enter landfills each year
• disposable diapers make up about 3.4 million tons of trash
• health risks such as fertility issues in males, eyes, nose and throat issues and even asthma-like symptoms have been connected to disposable diapers!
• long term negative affects on animal and water life.
• the chemicals that make disposable diapers white increase the risk of cancer
• affect development
• they use more water. yep. you may need to wash cloth diapers, however, way more water is used making disposable diapers!
• a study, conducted by Anderson Laboratories in 1999 and published in the Archives of Environmental Health, found that disposable diapers release chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene and dipentene. They have been shown to have toxic health effects, such as cancer and brain damage, when used over time or high exposure.
• they use 1.3 million tons of wood pulp. that’s about 1/4 million trees every year.
• they take up to 500 years to break down.
• more viruses than you want to know about…including polio, survive for two weeks or more after disposed of.

There are many many many more reasons to avoid disposable diapers. However, I think our readers are intelligent and the above information is enough to get you thinking! Research for yourself. You will be shocked!

Go for organic natural reusable cloth diapers. You will not only be helping the environment and saving money, you will also protect your sweet precious love bugs from harm!

Any other comments or ideas on the cloth v/s disposable diapers debate? Post them below!

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Stay Green!