The ziploc bag dilemma

Ziploc bags? How un-environmental, right? Still, sometimes they come in handy. I only use a fraction of the amount I used to use. I try to find alternatives like reusing bread bags and cereal box liners instead of ziplocs. But as I'm working towards wasting less food and cooking double batches to save money and time, I find that I need them once in a while.

I found a fabulous post today on The Greenest Dollar on How to reuse and recycle ziplocs. There are ideas for washing and drying them, labeling them so there is no cross contamination, and tips for figuring out how to recycle them when they have outlived their usefulness. Hop on over to the website and read the piece. It's helpful.

My youngest is in a production of The Wizard of Oz this weekend (he's a munchkin and a flying monkey and a flower) - they are putting on three performances, plus his 7th birthday is tomorrow, and my oldest still has baseball, so I'm running around like a mad woman today so there's no original post.

Have a fabulous weekend.

Simple, earth-friendly, meaningful crafts for Mother's Day

Lynn and Corey from Celebrate Green have sent us some great crafts for mother's day.

Moms, I would advise you send a link of this post to your kids' dad and with a note saying something like, "Hey, I think the kid would get a kick out of making a picture frame jewelry holder for me for mother's day."

Dads, your kids will love spending time with you making something meaningful for their mom and these ideas are light on the pocketbook, leaving you with some cash to buy some local flowers or fair trade, organic chocolates to the gift.

And don't forget grandmoms. They love getting homemade gifts from their grandkids.

_________________________________

Money is tight right now. But money doesn't have to stand in the way of honoring your mom (and Mother Earth). You can make a beautiful and more importantly, meaningful, gift for Mother's Day. And what mom would not be thrilled to receive an item infused with meaning made by hand from someone she loves?

Here are a few ideas. Most cost little to nothing in money or environmental terms because you're rescuing items that often are tossed or left sitting in a closet or drawer.

Picture frame jewelry holder

1. Choose an old picture frame and remove any backing. You can decorate the frame with paint, fabric or other appropriate decoration to match mom's bedroom or bathroom decor or leave it plain.
2. Cut a piece of window screen that overlaps the back of the frame 1/2 inch. (Remember when the dog charged through the screen and ripped it to shreds? If it's still lying around, here's the perfect use for it.)
3. Staple or nail the window screen to the back of the frame.
4. Screw in some cuphooks along the bottom of the frame to hold rings and/or in the top corners to hold necklaces and bracelets. Earring backs fit through the screen.
5. If you want the holder to hang, add a picture hangar to the back. Otherwise, it can sit on a small easel or rest against the wall.

Picture ball
No doubt you've got bunches of photos lying around from B.D. (Before Digital). One picture ball uses up 20 of them. This is a fun project that takes about a half hour and while a little tricky, once you get the basic idea, they're easy to make. Craft several with different themes--you as a baby, you as a teenager, you and your siblings. Watch how one is made here or see the directions here.

Meaningful charms

Most moms have a several necklaces from which they can suspend charms. How about adding to mom's collection with a little creative crafting?

Any object in which you can punch a hole can be turned into a charm. Think about your mom's talents, work or leisure activities. For a teacher, make a pencil charm. For an artist, one from a tiny paint brush. If she's sentimental, a delicate baby spoon that belonged to you.

Artists are using this technique to create amazing and wonderful jewelry from objects that would normally be tossed. One of our favorites is Susan Lenert Kazmer.

Here's how to make the watch charm pictured here.

1. If your mom has an old watch that sits in her drawer, ask her if you can remake it, or pick one up at a yard sale (although it will be more meaningful if you use one one she already has).
2. Remove the face.
3. Glue it into a bottle cap.
4. Punch a hole in the cap near the top.
5. Fashion a loop from a piece of wire.
6. Add to a necklace or present on its own.

And here's a "charming" container for any small gift

1. Remove the label from an empty soup can. Wash it. Paint mom's favorite color. Let dry. Glue paper or ribbon all the way around the top edge. Punch a hole on each side near the top and insert a piece of wire through the two holes forming a handle. (You can string on some buttons and charms after feeding one side through as done in the example.)
2. Once this is done, mash down on the top of the can so that the opening is no longer round, but more oval (although you don't have to do this either if you prefer a perfectly round can).
3. Glue on decorative accents and /or words cut from newspapers or magazines. A quote about mom or simply the words, "I love you, Mom," will work well.
4. If you have a shredder, fill the can with shredded paper (from a magazine to add color if you like). Fill the can leaving just enough room to rest the gift on top.
5. The can later can be filled with flowers and hung outside.

Lynn Colwell and Corey Colwell-Lipson are mother and daughter and co-authors of Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family, available at www.CelebrateGreen.net

Hitting the yard sales just got easier

Buying pre-owned stuff instead of new stuff is one way to be green. You help to keep perfectly useful items from ending up unused or in landfills and you keep new resources from being used to create new items.

Yard sales are one way to easily find new homes for your unused items and to find those items that you need. A new feature on Googlemaps is going to make it a lot easier to find yard sales in your area. Yard Sale Treasure Map lets you put in your location and then finds yard sales around you.  

The map uses Craigslist yard sale listings to compile the information. If you know of a yard sale that isn't listed on the map, you can input the address or just click on the map. It will add the sale to your map. Then you can print out a list of yard sales and directions so you can easily hit as many of them as you want.

I really think this is great. Even more so because for the first time in six years, I don't have a 9am baseball game every single spring morning. I used to hit the yard sales a lot when my boys were really little, but once they got old enough for sports, my spring and fall mornings (prime yard sale seasons around me) always had a 9am ball game. 

The Yard Sale Treasure Map was brought to my attention by one of my fellow bloggers on MNN, Jenn Savedge. She's the family blogger and always has great information about things to help your family go a little greener. Check her out.

Have you checked out ChicoBag lately?

I love ChicoBags. I've got several of them. I got my first one when they asked me to review their reusable bag for this blog, but since then they've created a couple of new bags that you should know about. 

The original ChicoBag was a brilliant idea. A durable, washable, reusable bag that folded up into a small pouch so you could put it in your handbag or your pocket and never be without a bag. 

I was listening to my favorite podcast, More Hip than Hippie, the other day while I was walking. The fabulous hosts, Dori and Val, were interviewing the founder of ChicoBag, Andy Keller. He was telling them about two new bags that the company now makes.

The first is the Vita. It's made of the same material that the original ChicoBag is made from and folds up into a pouch, but this one has long handles that can be put over your shoulder so you can carry it as a shoulder bag. The original didn't allow you to do it. The Vita sells for $8 on ChicoBag's site.

The second new bag is really impressive. It's called the rePETe, and this one is made of almost all recycled material.

The ChicoBag rePETe Original follows our Original reusable shopping bag design but is made from 99% recycled content by weight! Each rePETe has uniquely accented handles with the phrase, "This bag is made from 7 plastic bottles!" accompanied by a custom illustration. A list of the recycled materials used in manufacturing the rePETe is printed on the inside of each bag.

The rePETe sells for $9 on their website. The original, which is designed the same but made from virgin materials, sells for $5. 

I haven't tried either of these bags, but if they are of the same quality of the original ChicoBags that I have, they will be durable and wash up well. 

Images: ChicoBag site

10 Easy ways to be more sustainable with your purging

My hallway is piled up with stuff that has to go. It doesn't matter how many times I purge, it seems there is always unused stuff around my house. Considering that I've become much less of a consumer in the past two years, it's really a mystery where it all comes from. The easiest thing to do would be to dump it all at the curb and let the trash men take it away, but when things are still useful, that should never be done. 

So what can you do with your stuff that needs to go?

1. Give it to someone you know needs it. I give the clothes that are too small for my boys to a friend who has two smaller boys. If there is anything else I have that I want to get rid of that I know someone specific might find useful, I ask if they want it. 
   
2. Sell it on e-bay or Craigslist. 
   
3. Put it up for grabs to someone nearby to come pick up on freecycle.
   
4. Donate to Goodwill, Purple Heart or some other charity.
5. E-mail everyone on your list and ask if anyone wants it. A friend of ours did this with a futon, and now our boys have a futon in their basement playroom.
6. Trade it in. There are places that will take books, cd's, dvd's, video games, etc. as trade-in's for credit on other books, cd's... Some will even give you cash for them.
7. Video tapes, old cassette tapes, cd's, dvd's, and even old floppy disks can be donated to ACT.
8. Hold a yard sale.
9. If you have a lot of books you are getting rid of, donate them to a local library that holds a library book sale. 
10. Recycle everything possible that you can't find new homes for.

Do you get your shoes repaired?

I cleaned out my closet last weekend. I found a pair of shoes in the back that I had forgotten about. The upper had started to separate from the sole, and I had meant to take them to get repaired, but they ended up in no man's land. 

In the next town over, we have this wonderful shoe/leather repair man. He's 80 years old, speaks in broken English (I don't know where he's from), and takes so much pride in his work. Several years ago, I took him a leather handbag that had marker that bled through from inside the bag and formed a big black circle on the bag. He said he'd do what he could. When I returned to collect that bag, he told me that he had worked on it every day, but it wasn't done yet. He needed more time to do it right. I still have the bag today and I use it all the time. 

We also took him a leather jacket that our cat had put scratch marks in. Two years ago, my husband got me a cat for Christmas. I got him a leather on jacket. On Decemeber 27th, he hung the jacket on the back of a chair and our new cat used it as a scratching post. Thankfully, we still have the cat and the jacket. I'm sure our leather repair man has a lot to do with that.

Do you get your shoes repaired or do you just go out and buy new ones? Not all shoes are repairable. A pair of worn out sneakers aren't likely to get new life breathed into them. But a pair of my husband's dress shoes can look good as new with new soles and a careful polishing. 

I wonder what I'll do when my shoe guy is gone? Will I be able to find a new one? With the renewed interest in simple living and the push to reduce, renew and recycle, will someone see the value in becoming a shoe/leather repair person? It's not a craft that too many people aspire to master. I don't even know if my shoe guy has an apprentice. 

One of the ways to make sure there will always be people like my shoe guy is to use people like my shoe guy. Give him business. Help others see that there is a need for those services, and maybe others will chose to learn the craft.

Next time you've got something that can be repaired like shoes or a handbag, hunt down one of these trained craftsmen and let him do his thing instead of going out and buying something new to replace it. 

BarterQuest: New Site Helps You Trade Your Stuff

Come on. Confess. There is a gift or two that you got for Christmas that you are never going to use, and you don't know where it was bought so you have no way to return it. I have the solution for you. Instead of allowing a perfectly useful item sit around and collect dust until you eventually donate it to Goodwill, trade it for something you do want on BarterQuest.

BarterQuest is a trading platform designed for the individual. Goods, services, and the use of real estate can be traded, from anyone to anyone, anywhere in the world. It will be the first trading site to fully exploit the advantages of the Internet and allow people like yourself to realize the possibilities of getting stuff for stuff, of excluding the middle man, of avoiding the need for money to get what you want. Anyone who has anything that may be of value to anyone else can be a successful user of our site.

The site is still in beta, but there are already many people putting up items for trade. I did a little test with an item. I have a classic brown leather Coach bag that I picked up a yard sale once for $5 that I didn't need, but it was a $5 Coach bag in  good condition so I snagged it. Consumerism rearing it's ugly head. It just sits in my closet. 

I typed in Coach and I was sent to page where I could see who had Coach bags and who wanted Coach bags. I clicked on the tab for those wanted Coach bags and found a couple of things that I could possibly receive if I traded my bag  - an 80GB iPod, Tiffany earrings, or tattoo services. Not too shabby. 

BarterQuest has the ability to help people who need or want items find what they are looking for without having to purchase them new from the store. It keeps goods that already exist from going unused and keeps goods from being created unnecessarily. It's a good idea. 

I did a search for some reviews from people who have used the site, and I was unable to find any. I can imagine that with any other site where you are getting items from individuals there is always the chance of the other person not keeping up his end of the bargain or items getting "lost in the mail." Not too many of the traders are rated yet, but I'm sure as the site is around longer that will change.

If you've got a holiday gift that you aren't going to use, check out BarterQuest and see if someone else wants it and has something you could use. It's better than perfectly good items going to waste.

Image from the BarterQuest website

Green Product Review - Cynergreen Water Bottles

My kids have lost many water bottles over the years on sports fields so I wasn't willing to buy them expensive stainless steel bottles. But when CynerGreen contacted me and asked if I'd like to review their new line of bottles, I figured it was the perfect chance to get the boys some bottles for their lunch boxes. I was sent two CGKidz 350ml Bottles, and once again, my children became my partners in  product testing whether they wanted to or not.

Here's what CynerGreen has to say about their bottles:

The CGKidz 350ML bottle is our most popular for lunchboxes and backpacks. Great for toddlers and babies as well as a sippy cup.

For adults, it's a great refillable option to toss in any bag to keep drinks cool all day. Sports the fun CG Kidz "green" eco friendly logo.
This bottle is:
BPA Free - Chemical Free
304 Stainless Steel
Comes with Pull Top Drink Cap

Here's what we have to say about the Cynergreen CG Kidz bottles:

• The boys like the look of them. 
  
• I like that the caps stay on while drinking them and don't easily detach. Much less of a chance of them getting lost.
  
• They were the right size for lunch boxes.
  
• Both boys said their water tasted just like water when they got to lunch.

Unfortunately, one of them leaked. When my son brought it home the first day and said it leaked, I thought that perhaps he hadn't screwed the lid on tightly. The next day, I made sure that the lid was screwed on well, but he came home with a wet lunch box again. 

The other bottle - which is exactly the same, does not leak at all. Perhaps we got a faulty screw on lid.

The bottles are still perfectly usable for taking to the sports fields or sticking in the outside pouch of a back pack. But for being inside a lunch box where they get tossed around  a lot and don't always stay upright, the one is not a good choice. 

Photo credit: Cynergreen.com

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Packing and Shipping Materials

Just about now during the holidays, if you shop online, you're being inundated with boxes full of gifts. But those boxes probably contain more packing materials than gifts. It's amazing the over packaging that some companies do.

What do you do with all of those packing and shipping materials that end up piled high in the dining room? There is on thing you shouldn't do with them. Throw them away. There are lots of ways to avoid them becoming landfill.

Reduce

You have no control over how a package that is shipped to you is packed. But you do have control over the packages you ship. Try to find appropriate sized boxes so you don't have to put more filler than needed in. You'll save money, and you'll save some greenhouse gasses? How?

It may seem miniscule, but every little bit of extra weight in a package means that the vehicles used to haul it needs to use more fuel. If you make your package as light as possible, and others take the same measures, fuel will be saved.

Another way to reduce when it comes to shipping is to ship directly to the recipient. Do you order gifts online for friends and relatives you live far away, have them shipped to your home, wrap them, and then re-ship them to the recipients? You're doubling the carbon footprint of that packages travels. 

If the company you order from offers gift wrapping, let them wrap it and send it directly. Or, if you're buying for kids who live far away, let their parents know you are sending some gifts and ask if they wouldn't mind wrapping them for you once you arrive. My in-laws do this frequently. 

Reuse

Packing and shipping materials can be reused over and over. I have a spot in my basement where I have broken down boxes, bubble wrap, air pillows, etc from items that have been shipped to me. When I need to ship something I never need to buy anything new (except packing tape once in a while).

What if you don't have the room to store these materials or you end up with more than you will ever use? Giving it away is easy.

Many packing/shipping stores will take things like packing peanuts, air pillows, and other fillers. They won't pay you for them, but it's worth it to donate them to keep them out of landfills.

If you have any friends who are ebay sellers, they will probably happily take these materials off your hands.

Another way to give these things away is to list them on Craigslist or to Freecycle them. If you have a collection of packing/shipping materials there is someone out there who wants them, and that someone is checking these places to see who has them. 

Last year, as the boxes came in with online purchases, I threw them all in the downstairs shower (we never use it - it's more like a closet). After the holidays, I put it all together and listed it on Freecycle. Within a couple of hours, someone had come to my house and collected it all. It felt really good to know that all of this stuff was going to get reused at least one more time.

Recycle

If any of these items truly are unusable, say a box has just gotten to beaten up to reuse, make sure it hits the recycling bin and not the trash can.

It's tempting during the busy holidays to just get these shipping/packing materials out of our way by sending them out for the trash men to pick up. It takes extra effort to make sure they end up being used and reused and disposed of responsibly. So decide now to be make a commitment to being responsible with them so you won't be tempted to put those evil packing peanuts in the trash can.

Host a Swap and Save Money

Green Saves Green 

Day 17

I gave up a while ago trying to come up with clever blog titles for this month's Green Saves Green posts. Sorry about the redundancy. But really, we're all looking to save money, right? And people doing a search for being green and saving money are more likely to come across these posts if I don't give them clever titles. 

Our topic today is hosting a swap. What's a swap. It's an event where you bring items and other people bring like items, and then you swap them. Not very difficult, huh? What kind of items can you swap? Pretty much anything but popular swaps are clothing, books, music, and unused kitchen items. 

Put all the items you have for the swap together, and then let everyone take turns choosing one new-to-them item for each item they brought.

It's a great way to reuse and recycle items, and it can save you a lot of money - especially if you do something like a children's clothing swap.

Another type of swap is a food swap. Everyone agrees to make one dish, preferably one that freezes well. They make as many of that one dish as number of people who are participating in the swap. Then you meet, maybe make it into a girls night with some wine and a chick flick, exchange food, and everyone has a freezer full of pre-made dinners. While this isn't necessarily green, it can save money because the food for the meals can be bought in bulk which is usually cheaper. It can also save trips to the grocery store because you don't have anything for dinner (which is sort of green - keeps your car off the road for a bit). 

What type of items do you have that you can swap for items that you need? Chances are you know people who would love to participate in this type of event and save some money along with you.

Remember - Paper Has Two Sides, Use Them Both

A week and a half of school has gone by and already the paper is piling up. My kids are coming home with all sorts of papers that are used on only one side (and both kids came home with a thick student handbook. Isn't there some way, in a school of about 350 kids, they can figure out how to send only one per family?)

I figure now is a good time to remind everyone to not throw their papers into the recycling bin until both sides have been used. Here are ideas for reusing paper. I'm sure I'm repeating myself from a past post, but it bears repeating.

• Use it in your printer. So many many announcements come home from school on nice printer/copier paper with only one side used. Flip it over and use it in your printer when you need to print out something that doesn't need to be professional. Things like recipes, articles you'd like to read, something you wrote that needs to be proofread don't need pristine paper. 
  
• Cut it into fourths and make note paper to write phone messages or other notes on.
  
• Write your grocery lists on it.
  
• Send hand written notes to your kids' teachers on it.
• Draw on it.
• Paint on it.

Once both sides of the paper have been used, and you're done with it, then put it in the recycling bin.

In addition to papers that come home from school, be mindful of papers you get in the mail, papers that come from your church or other community type groups, and paper from when you're purging your filing cabinet. If the papers from the filing cabinet don't have sensitive information on them (which you should then shred before recycling), you can use the other side before recycling.

What other sources of paper or ideas for reusing the blank side of paper can you think of?

Off topic question. How many of you know it's "bears repeating" instead of "bares repeating?" I had to look that one up!

Recycling Plastic Gift Cards (and Other Plastic Cards)

What do you do with a gift card when it's been used? Throw it in the trash? Even if you hand it to the cashier when you've used it at a store, most likely she throws it in the trash, too. They are so small that it doesn't seem like that big a deal, right? But, like all the rest of our trash, it adds up.

According to the Earthworks website, "over 75 million pounds of PVC material from plastic cards enters our waste stream every year." That's astounding! Another astounding statistic - "10 billion new gift cards are placed into circulation each year." Earthworks is a company that recycles plastic gift cards and other plastic cards into new sheets of plastic to make new gift cards or other materials.

It's not just gift cards that Earthworks can recycle - driver's licenses, student i.d. cards, library cards, credit cards, hotel card keys and shopper loyalty cards can all be recycled, too. I would hope that these cards with their sensitive information would be shredded before being sent to the facility, but there is no mention of that on the website. 

Although there is information for consumers on their site, there is no specific mailing address to send in your cards. There is contact information, though.

The site also has a page urging retailers to collect used cards and have them recycled. Just think about all those Target and Toys R Us cards that get used in the month after Christmas. If just those two retailers alone collected and recycled their cards I bet millions of pounds of cards would not end up in the trash.

10 Easy Ways to Be More Sustainable with Your Home Organizing

In September my youngest goes to school full time. With that, I will be devoting more time to freelance writing. I plan on putting in 25 hours a week actually working instead of the 10-12 I put in now. If I want to be make those 25 very efficient hours, I need to be getting my office in order over the next three weeks. It's a disaster area. So home organization is on my mind.

I'd love to hire a professional organizer, have that person come in and put in cabinets and shelves and cute little color coordinating baskets and window treatments. But that wouldn't be sustainable or affordable. I'm going to have to get organized in a sustainable way. Here are ten easy ways I could do it.

1. The first step in organizing is always to get rid of things you don't need. Don't throw away anything usable. Donate or freecycle it.
2. Tackle the paper monster. If your home is anything like mine there are piles of paper everywhere, not just in the office. Gather it all up and put in several piles - recycle, shred (then recycle), file, reuse (if there is still a clean side to the paper and you don't need what is on the front) and perhaps another pile or two that you deem necessary. Then tackle the piles until all paper is where it should be.
   
3. Anything that is behind closet doors doesn't need to look pretty, it just needs to be organized. There's no need to buy matching boxes or baskets. Shoe boxes and other make shift organizing supplies are fine.
4. Pens and pencils can go in mugs. You don't need a fancy desk top pencil holder.
5. Use well washed glass jars and plastic jars to hold items.
   
6. Buy used. If you need shelves or containers, hit the thrift store or yard sales.
   
7. Repurpose things you already have. Do you have any unused furniture sitting in an attic or basement. Could an old chest of drawers be used to organize kids papers and craft supplies? Sometimes a fresh coat of paint and some new drawer pulls can do wonders.
8. Use old dresser drawers underneath beds to store items. If you are worried about dust, place a beach towel over the drawer that can be easily washed. There isn't a week that goes by that I don't see someone put an old dresser out at the curb.
9. Ask your friends, neighbors and family members for things that they aren't using. Let them know you're trying to get organized and e-mail them a list of things you'd like to have. You might be surprised at what people have stored away that they are happy to part with.
   
10. Once you're organized, stay organized. If you know what you have and where it is, you'll eliminate making the mistake of buying duplicate items.
    

What are your sustainable home organization tips?

Recycling Yogurt Containers - What are the Options?

Yogurt containers are one of those items that are technically recyclable, but finding where to do so is often difficult. If you look on the bottom of most yogurt containers, you'll see that there is a #5 inside the recycling symbol.

First of all a word about #5 plastic, which is actually polypropylene, from the National Geographic Green Guide

Based on current knowledge, polypropylene is one of the safer plastics. It is not known to leach any chemicals that are suspected of causing cancer or disrupting the hormones, and it's not made with chlorine and so doesn't produce dioxin when it's made or incinerated. One of the main problems with giving any plastic a blanket "safe" recommendation is that not enough health and safety research has been conducted on chemicals that leach.

Most residential curbside recycling programs don't accept #5 plastics. The majority of them only accept #'s 1 & 2. So while technically #5 is recyclable, finding a place that will accept plastics made from it for recycling is very difficult.

So what can you do with your yogurt containers and other #5 food containers? Here are some options.

Stoneyfield Farm containers - There is an explanation on their site as to why they choose to use #5 instead of #2. It's worth a read. They realize that it's not an easily recyclable item so they offer to accept them back and recycle them for you. From their site:

if #5 plastic recycling isn't available in your community, and you can't tolerate the idea of not recycling them, you are welcome to return your CLEAN Stonyfield Farm cups and lids to us, and we'll be sure they'll get recycled.

I think that's really great.

TerraCycle - This company collects Stoneyfield Farm yogurt containers (only Stoneyfield Farm) from organizations and upcycles them. Right now there is a waiting list to get into the program, but if you know a lot of people who eat this type of yogurt, you might want to get on the waiting list.

These are really the only two recycling programs I found out there if your community recycling program doesn't take the yogurt cups. However, there are plenty of ways to reuse yogurt cups at least one more time before they hit the trash.

1. Drinking cups - One creative mom at tipnut.com washes the yogurt cups with lids, cuts an X in the lid and uses them as disposable drinking cups with straws. I also grabbed a whole stack of them once (without lids) and a container of ice water to take to the park with my boys and their friends. I had enough cups for them all to drink from and other kids who came along and asked if they could have some, too.
2. Paint cups - When the boys and I do some painting, I use the washed out yogurt cups to hold the paint and as cups for the water for the brushes.
3. Containers to start seedlings. We started all of our seedlings for our garden this year in yogurt cups. We poked holes with a small screwdriver in the bottom, filled them with organic soil, and planted our tomatoes and herbs in them.
4. Snack cups - Yogurt containers make great snack cups for goldfish, pretzels or dry cereal.
5. Candle molds - Soy candle kits can be purchased at craft stores, and you can make your own candles using the cups as molds. Hint: If you buy uncolored candle wax, you can melt crayon pieces and ad it to the wax to give the candles color.

There are probably dozen of other craft type projects you can do with yogurt containers with your kids, but the problem I see with doing craft projects as a way to recycle things is that eventually the craft projects end up in the trash, too, or you'll be up to your knee caps in kids' crafts.

What do you do with your yogurt cups?

Read More:

How to Recycle Old Video Cassettes and Floppy Disks

How to Recycle Denim

Green Term of the Week: Trashless Lunch (Going Back to School in Green Style: Part 3)

First of all, I realized that I completely forgot to do a green term last week. So those of you who wait on the edge of your seat on Wednesdays waiting for a new term - very sorry!

Now, on to this week's green term - Trashless Lunch. I've talked about this before. I think our first mini eco-challenge mentioned it. But with back to school about a month away, it deserves its own post.

When you take a lunch to school or work or anywhere else, if you put everything in reusable containers, bring durable utensils to eat with, and add a cloth napkin to your reusable lunch bag, you have created a trashless lunch. When you leave the table (or desk) you're eating at, there is nothing to go in the trash. It all goes back in the lunch bag to be taken home, washed, and reused again.

A trashless lunch means that no packaged foods are added to the lunch, too. Juice boxes or drink pouches or bottled water. Can't have them. Individually wrapped granola bars. Nope. Make your own and put them in reusable containers.

If students could start doing this in schools, it would be huge. My son's awesome third grade teacher last year, Mrs. King,  talked to her kids about this. I think all teachers should do so.

As you're getting ready for back to school this year, take a look at what you have available to send with your kids to make sure they have a trashless lunch. Here's what I know I need to make sure that both my boys won't make any unnecessary trash.

• Two lunch boxes 
  
• Two small reusable drink containers
  
• Two sandwich containers
  
• Two reusable thermoses (they like to take soup)
  
• old utensils that I don't care if they end up getting lost 
  
• cheap cloth napkins
  
• a few containers with lids for snacks

There are lots of products available from eco-friendly websites to help you create a trashless lunch, but really, you've probably already got most of what you need in your kitchen cabinets somewhere.

Why are trashless lunches important?

• Most importantly, they reduce the amount of trash that ends up landfills.
  
• They teach kids that living in a "throwaway society" isn't the only way to go.
  
• They can be an example to the other kids and the teachers.
  
• They will probably end up being more healthy for your kids because they will be eating a lot less pre-packaged processed foods.
  

Cool Dr. Seuss lunchbox picture courtesy of Wikemedia Commons

Related Back to School Posts:

10 Easy Ways to be More Sustainable with Your Back to School Shopping (Going Back to School in  Green Style Part 2)

Going Back to School in Green Style Part 1: Assessing What You Already Have

Green Term of the Week - Upcycling

Back in May, one of our green terms of the week was downcycling. At the end of the post, I stated that next week we would look at what upcycling is, but I simply forgot. So here it is two months later. Sorry for the delay.

Upcycling is when instead of disposing of something that is no longer of use, it gets transformed into something of greater use and value. For example, weaving plastic shopping bags into a durable, reusable shopping bag or turning old denim jeans into insulation would both be considered upcycling.

It's really a form of recycling, but some environmentalists are distinguishing between recyling, upcycling, and downcycling. True recycling is turning something into the same thing. Glass bottles can by recycled into new glass bottles. Plastic bottles, however, are not turned back into plastic bottles. They loose integrity during the recycling process and therefore the products that come from them are considered downcycled. The plastic is not as good.

Upcycling, downcycling and recycling all keep things out of landfills, so they are all important endeavors.

Image from Etsy

Related Posts
Green Term of the Week - Downcycling
How to Recycle Denim

Another Way to Recycle Wine Bottle Corks: Terracycle

A while back I did a post on recycling wine corks. It's ended up being one of my most searched for pages. Apparently, a lot of people are interested in recycling them. Including me. 

Today, I came across Terracycle's Cork Brigade. You can send them your used wine corks (they accept as few as 5) and they will be recycled into useful objects. There are very few places in the U.S. that recycle wine corks, so this is a welcome addition to the ones that do.

Something I found interesting on their website is that they suggest you send them the corks in upcycled packages. They suggest things such as a potato chip bag that has been washed and turned inside out. I suppose you tape it up, slap a label on it, and use it as your packaging material. HMMM.. I'll have to try this!

Terracycle also has programs to recycle juice pouches, yogurt cups and other materials that usually end up in the trash. Some of the items they will even pay for. I'm going to be contacting the superintendent of my school system about the juice pouch program. I'll report more on that in a later post.

You'll probably be opening a few bottles of wine this holiday weekend. Save the corks. Ask your friends and neighbors to save theirs, too. Save a potato chip bag from one of your BBQ's. Then do some good and send it all to Terracycle next week.

Image from Terracycle's website

Related Links:

Recycling Wine Bottle Corks

Wine in a Box May be Greener, But will I Buy it: Part 1

Wine in a Box May be Greener, But will I Buy it: Part 2