Throw it out, and be green?!?

Today I received an email from Crate and Barrel detailing Easy Kitchen Organization ideas, which is nothing to get excited about... I quickly scanned it and was about to delete it, when I saw a link at the bottom about eco-kitchens. I clicked the link (again, nothing to be excited about). They were touting the usual bamboo offerings and such, and it got me to thinking...

I wonder how many people run out to buy a new bamboo cutting board, or knife holder, or whatever, so they can be eco friendly; only to get home and throw away their old (and perfectly useable) stuff, just so they can say they're eco-friendly... Remember people, it's Reduce, Reuse, Recycle... Not throw away to become eco-friendly.

Now, I can't admit that I've never done that... It's easy to get caught up in the "hype" sometimes. I wonder how many people have thrown away their old perfectly usable light bulbs, after purchasing some new CFLs. Luckily there are options. We can recycle them (as Angelina pointed out in her previous post), or donate them; Denver has a great Habitat for Humanity outlet. Or even Goodwill?? Why not donate?
-S

My Amazing Field Trip to EcoCycle

I *heart* EcoCycle.

I went there, or more specifically, to their Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, yesterday, and it was like a green person's heaven. You drive up to a little window, and a friendly person asks you what you've brought to their little mecca. You tell, they charge you a recycling fee if one applies, and then you drive around to the little bins and drop off your stuff.

I know, it doesn't sound cool, but let me assure you that it's amazing. I did have to pay a fee; I was recycling a laptop and a wireless hub. It cost me all of $6.00 to keep these things out of the landfills and get them back into refurbishing centers. No leaching lead and heavy metals into the Earth, and I know some of the components will end up in other things. But that's not the cool part. Oh no. There are about 16 stations. You can drop off all of your annoying grocery bags. You can shred confidential documents. All paper is accepted. They have a compost acceptance station. They even take waste vegetable oil that they convert to biodiesel. They take clothes, shoes, styrofoam. They took my ink jet cartridges. They accept old sinks and toilets. They take scrap metal. I was in heaven. A recycling mecca.

I just wish I didn't have to drive 50 miles to get there. But it's still worth the visit if you have a car crammed to the gills with recyclables.

And they offer tours. I know where I'm taking Gabs for a learning excursion as soon as she's big enough...

Black Gold (no, not the dino kind)

Happy New Year, Mother Earth! This year, you'll notice we've taken a few more steps to make you a better place. We're composting!

Okay, so not entirely. We live in an apartment complex that barely manages a recycling program in a city that doesn't have community compost. Until the community garden opens up, I can't offer my compostables to them for their gardens. But until then, we're doing our part to minimize the amount of biodegradable waste that ends up trapped in an everlasting plastic cocoon.

I went out and got a groovy little MaxAir BioBag Composter. It's vented, so it stays nice and dry and keeps away the critters. We just plop a 100% compostable/biodegradable BioBag in it and then toss it out when it's time for the trash to go out.

The bag holds three gallons, and I've already been amazed by how much it's reduced our trash output. Dirty paper towels, waxed paper, the paper between slices of deli cheese, "refrigerator experiments", fruit and veggie peels, the crumbs at the bottom of the toaster, kleenex - all of it is compostable. Our kitchen trash doesn't fill up nearly as fast anymore. It's amazing. All of the stuff we threw into plastic bags, never to break down, could have at least been in a biodegradable bag so the landfill flora could reclaim them.

We've done the same in the bathroom, where all the trash is compostable. TP tubes (not accepted by some recycling centers), kleenex, cat litter, paper towels, q-tips, cotton balls - again, all are compostable. And so we have BioBags lining the bathroom trash to help cut down on the waste.

Now, if we could just find a place to take this stuff and make it compost, I'd be really happy. Until then, at least I know that it won't sit in a landfill forever - just until the bugs and birds and bacteria get to it. And that's one step closer to not being in the landfill at all.