Plastic Bags and Crochet

I am trying this soon. Maybe after the holidays!

Petsmart Helping the Earth and Animals

Do you have empty inkjets sitting around your house? Or a cell phone that you no longer use? Do you have a soft spot in your heart for animals? Petsmart will recycle your empty inkjet cartridges and your relatively newer cell phone and the money goes to their Petsmart Charities to help homeless animals.

What you do is visit the nearest Petsmart location, pick up the envelopes to send in your empty inkjets and/or cell phones, place the items in the envelope (certain restrictions do apply, check their website above) and send them off for free. Petsmart charities for animals gets $2-15 donation for each item. It is that easy. I grabbed 4 envelopes while I was there so I don't have to go back repeatedly.

If you don't have a Petsmart near you try Earth911.0rg, they are great resource in finding out where to recycle just about anything.

Help a homeless dog or a stray cat have a happy life. As of today over 3 million animals have been saved. And save the environment too!

Be Green.

Goodies at the Goodwill Store

I was inspired by Beth at Coming Up For Air to go thrifting.

I haven't been to a thrift store for about 7 years. And the only reason I went 7 years ago was to look for a Halloween costume for my son and I was unsuccessful. Well, I lied, I guess the the Half Price Bookstore I frequent can be thrifty, some books are new and some used.

There is a small Goodwill store about 7 miles from me. I walked in and remembered the first reason I don't shop used- the old and musty smell. Once I got past the attic scent I headed straight for the books. This helped me to ease into the whole used shopping experience again. Books are ok to buy used, people don't mind, but most people frown on buying used clothes. (Reason #2-wearing some strangers clothes-yuck! I personally stay away from used underwear, t-shirts and socks.) I found 3 books, some silly chapter books for my son and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, all for $1 each. For those of you on the male side of the hemisphere, AYTGIMM is reading right of passage for 12 year old girls. Although my daughter is a wee 7 I will have the classic waiting for her when it is "time".

Next I headed over to the linens area. The reason I came to Goodwill was to look for cloth napkins. Over at Going Green with Burban Mom she has challenged her readers to give up paper napkins. (She also has a Yahoo Group for more in depth discussion, I just lurk right now, hee hee.) I sneezed (reason #3 I haven't shopped thrift stores in a while-I am highly allergic to dust.) my way through blankets, pillow cases, sheets and table clothes to find no cloth napkins.

Then I ventured to the clothing. This was the hardest part for me. Touching, let alone buying, some strangers clothing! The thought of sanitizing everything ran through my head constantly. I found some shorts, they were too small after I tried to get them past my thighs in the dressing room. A little relieved but also flustered, I went to the children's area. I shuffled though a pile of clothes on a table to eventually find 2 very cute denim jackets for my daughter. I have to admit, I was looking at the tags. Anything I knew that was from Target, Kmart or Walmart was not taken only because I know they are cheaper made clothing that even at $3.99 I would be wasting my time and energy. One jacket was from Limited Too and the other from Papaya. I tugged on them for rips at the seams, checked for discolorations and missing buttons. I was proud of myself. I know these jackets were probably $50 each new and I paid $3.99 for them.

I also picked up some computer software games for my daughter to help her learn spelling for .99 each.

I did end up at Home Goods to find new cloth napkins. I know they are not used or organic. But I could have searched the internet for organic, pay a hefty price then have them delivered to my house (hello, carbon footprint) or I can go on the way home to Home Goods, buy them discounted and use the napkins until they fall apart on me. And, yes, I could have made them from old linens I had in the closet, but I am simply not that crafty.

Happy Thifting...

Reuse and Recycle

As you all know we took some weekend trips this summer, we stayed in motels and camped. When my family vacations in that manner we always buy the little boxes of sugary cereal. Before you catch me being ungreen, this has been a tradition since I was a kid. We take a vacation from nutrition, at least for breakfast. I always cringe when I buy the little boxes, the cereals have almost no nutritional value, they are full of sugar, they waste natural resources, should I continue? But like I said, it is a tradition.

You all know the saying, "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle". Well these little boxes take out the reduce part. But my daughter, who is 7, figured out a great way to reuse. See below, isn't that cute? She actually took about 6 of the little boxes and made a little pet condo but I think she converted it into something else because I couldn't find it. And when she is done we will recycle. She also took the egg carton for storage use.








Click here to reduce 1 pound of carbon. Care2

CFL's Love Home Depot

A Little Greener Everday posted today that Home Depot is taking CFL's to recycle them. Spred the word.

Old Plastic Bag

My friend sells nutritional suppliments. Not long ago I bought some from her and she gave me some plastic bags with my order inside. At the time I was just starting to rid my life of plastic and/or not throwing it away. So I kept the plastic bag with all the others I don't want to throw away waiting for the day I may need them. That day came yesterday.

Summer is here and we camp. Which means we use coolers. Everytime we leave for the campground we have to make a last minute stop for ice at the convenience store. I hate this. Why pay for ice when I can make it at home for cheap and we have an outside freezer. (I know, very ungreen. But this year it will be full of frozen local fruits and veggies.) So I am starting to stockpile it. And in all those darn plastic bags I have left over. Hence the picture above.

I honestly can't think of any other way to store small ice except for in plastic. If there was no plastic I guess we would have to buy large blocks of ice and break it down. Great when you need to let off steam but bad when you are tired or in a hurry.

How do you "recycle" your old plastic bags?

Longs-Recycling

We went into Long's Drugs the other day to buy shoelaces. (Actually that doesn't matter.) Anyway, I noticed they had a battery and plastic bag recycle collection located just inside the doors. I thought I would just share this tidbit of knowledge. So if you live near a Long's Drug store you too can recycle those nasty batteries and plastic bags in one place.
I also noticed they had a huge section of organic beauty protucts like Kiss My Face and Burt's Bees. So when your not making it yourself, check out Long's.