My neighborhood doesn’t have recycling pickup. I have to take everything to the recycling center myself. I have a tiny condo without a garage for storing recyclables so it is a BIG PAIN IN THE BUTT! If you don’t have curbside recycling, then what do you do with your recyclables?
These adorable Gummi Bear pictures. Gummi bears have to be the world’s most adorable food, luckily the vegan ones are a bit hard to find, or else I would eat nothing else!
This post from Treehugger about ways to recycle pantyhose! If there is any one product that never fails to disappoint me, it’s hosiery. They fall apart so easily! I’ve taken to wearing opaque tights in the winter (they are thicker and much harder to rip) instead of pantyhose. I’ve tried only washing them with delicate things, in a mesh bag for delicates, and line drying them instead of putting them in the dryer (heat supposedly weakens them). At least now I know what to do with them after they get torn!
What would you do if a stranger emailed you and asked to have dinner at your house? This cool story (with pretty artwork) is all about having dinner with a stranger – for charity!
Mythbusters! And adorable Kari Byron is preggers! Congrats!
This cute little girl, even though this video doesn’t make any damn sense! (via Cute Overload)
In our household this year, we’ve been trying to save money and be a little more green. Sometimes these are opposing goals, but we’ve done our best this year to make our home a little more green. There were things I was already doing, like using CFLs in most of my lamps, washing the clothes in cold water instead of warm or hot, using a low flow shower head, and choosing organic whenever I can afford it. Here are some of the things we’ve done in 2008:
We bought more reusable grocery bags so that we have enough to do a whole big grocery trip without using plastic bags. Not only does it cut down on waste, but since we don’t have recycling pickup, plastic grocery bags pile up in our kitchen waiting to be recycled.
We installed a programmable thermostat. We can set it to automatically adjust the temperature depending on what time of day it is. It’s an easy way to save energy and money without having to think about it. I use it more in the summer, since here in Georgia we are lucky to have mild winters and I don’t have to use the heat too much.
Since green has become the new trend, a lot of new green cleaning products have come out on the market, and green brands that have been around for ages have become easier to find. I’ve been using Arm and Hammer Essentials laundry detergent, I especially like it because they have a fragrance free variety. I hate the scent of most laundry detergents! I’ve also been using Seventh Generation products, I have been especially impressed with their dishwasher powder. I have a terrible old dishwasher and it took forever to find something that got my dishes clean!
Don’t forget homemade cleaning products! Vinegar will clean just about anything especially mirrors and windows. I love the book Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck. She will teach you how to clean anything in a green manner!
While we are on the subject, homemade beauty products are great as well! Try Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles to learn how to make your own beauty products. I used to use tons of chemicals on my hair to try to tame my frizz, but this year I started using olive oil with a bit of rosemary oil and herbs. It works better than the store bought stuff, smells wonderful, and doesn’t leave my hair greasy like I thought it would. Plus, I know exactly what is in it, I really like that!
I bought myself a Kleen Kanteen this year. No more plastic water bottles! I chose Kleen Kanteen because it’s stainless steel, so it is more sturdy than aluminum, and doesn’t give the water a funny taste like plastic. I like those little Crystal Light packets that give your water a little bit of flavor, as I get sick of plain water very easily, and the tap water at my work place doesn’t taste very good. If I have my Kleen Kanteen and I keep some Crystal Light in my purse, I won’t be tempted to get bottled water out of the vending machine (Diet Coke, however, is another story entirely).
The highlight of 2008: my wedding! We did a very small wedding. We got married at the courthouse with just a few family, and then had about 50 people for dinner at the banquet room of an Italian restaurant. It saved money and we actually got to enjoy our wedding instead of stress about it. How did I use it as an opportunity to go green? My wedding registry! Target has started carrying a lot more green products in the last year, and that was where we registered. I registered for things like bamboo sheets and dish cloths. I also went practical – bakeware and picture frames I will enjoy all of the time instead of fine china I will use once a year.
Now, I definitely have some green goals for 2009:
Cut down on standby power usage. Lately I have heard a lot about standby power. You know about standby power, it is when electronics (such as televisions) use power even when they are turned off. The solutions range from simply unplugging the device when not in use, plugging it in to a power strip with an on/off switch, or even installing a Green Switch that will let you turn off the power to several devices with one button. I’ve gotten as far as plugging most of these devices into power strips, but I must admit that I never remember to switch them off. In 2009 I’d like to find a good solution to save energy and money.
Recycle more! Oh, the recycling bin. It is always overflowing, and the only way to empty it is to take it to my mother’s house. We live in a condominium complex with a central dumpster for trash and no recycling pickup. And our local recycling center? It burnt down this year! It should be opening up again soon, in the mean time I keep taking my stuff to my parents’ house. They have curbside pickup for recycling, but I can’t recycle as many different things as I can if I take them to the recycling center. In 2009 I’m going to recycle more and maybe even talk to our HOA about getting some recycling bins installed.
Figure out a way to compost! I live in an apartment-style condo, so a big compost pile is pretty much out of the question. I’ve seen a few small, kitchen size composters, I want to find a way to compost this year!
Did you know you can recycle old crayons, and they become new crayons? Did you know that you can take your old iPod into an Apple store, they’ll recycle it, and they will give you 10% off your new iPod? I love recycling. I love the whole *idea* of recycling. Maybe it’s because I’m so darn frugal, I hate the idea that as a society we waste perfectly good stuff. I think a lot of people in the environmental movement have realized that we have to start thinking of trash as a resource rather than something to just dump in a hole in the ground. A lot of people want to recycle, but they don’t know exactly what is recyclable. So I love this guide from Real Simple of How to Recycle Anything. (via TipNut)
Now that you know what can be recycled, you need a place to take it! Try RecyclingCenters.org to find one near you. You can also check with your local government (city, township, or county, depending on who is in charge of your trash pick up) to see if curbside recycling is available. I live in a condo and our complex doesn’t have recycling pick up, so I take my recyclables to my mom’s house. The recycling bank takes a larger variety of stuff than curbside pickup, but the center burned down a few months ago. I can’t wait until they open up again!
