Finally - Recycling for Brita filters!

This is the one you've all been waiting for! Brita filter recycling! Of course we've all wondered if it is possible, and now it is.

This came to my inbox via a Brita newsletter:

1: Dry your filter by skaing off any excess water and letting stand to dry at least 3 days.

2. Wrap the filter in a plastic grocery bag.

3. Find a drop off location on the Preserve website. A lot of Whole Foods are now participating in this program and have drop boxes.

If you are not near a drop off site, you can send your dry wrapped filter, packed in a box to : Preserve Gimmie 5 823 NYS Route 13, Cortland NY 13045

Yeehaw!

A Handmade Holiday

Happy Holiday Season everyone!

One of the most eco-friendly and thoughtful gifts you can give is a handmade item. But it need not be made by your own hands. There are plenty of fine artisans out there, selling gorgeous and useful items.

This Friday, check out the Holiday Sale at Custom Art Framing in Norwood! You can eat cheese and drink wine while taking care of your holiday shopping - now that sounds like fun! Julie, the owner, has very discriminating taste and has loads of wonderful gifts for everyone. Don't miss nancy Rosetta's jewelry - I already own a few of her peices and they are favorites in my collection.

Check out more info at http://customartframingandgallery.blogspot.com/

See you there!

~Anne-Marie

Buy Nothing Day

The day after Thanksgiving is referred to by some as "Buy Nothing Day". This of course is in reference to the famous 'Black Friday' shopping bonanza that typically occurs on the day after Thanksgiving, as people prepare for the holidays and make use of an extra day off.

This Buy Nothing Day we are remembering Jdimytai Damour, a security guard who was killed a year ago today by a stampede of shoppers trying to buy cheap flat screens at a Long Island Walmart at 5 in the morning.

Supposedly this year, Walmart changed their ways of handling crowds - keep store open 24 hours the night before and having people line up and get a number at the counter they want to purchase a sale item at. Whatever. Never shopping at Walmart again will be my way of telilng them what I think about their policies.

King Corn!

We finally saw the movie KING CORN! Woooha!

After seeing Food, Inc. and Supersize Me, King Corn is a great film that takes you to the root of the problem. How, why and where corn is used in our food system- which is everywhere! Yup, it's making us fat!

This film is entertaining and informative - it traces the complete life cycle of corn, from seed to grain elevator to soda and your cheap hamburgers. College friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis decide to move from the East Coast to Iowa for one year - to find out what it takes to grow and acre of corn, and where it goes.

Besides the facts about corn it is very interesting to see the lives of farmers in Iowa, and how they have changed over the last few decades due to politics and how America has come to use high fructose corn syrup in everything. None of the corn grown is edible right off of the plant - it is bred to be high in starches, and must be processed into myriad forms in order to be consumed.

I also loved the graphs, charts and little stop motion animated segments illustrating facts about corn farming and how it has grown. The time and detail put into these handmade features perhaps says something about how much time these guys had to sit around waiting for their one acre of corn to grow.

Now.. the challenge... eat nothing with corn in it for a full month! I am tempted to try...although I feel my options will be quite limited!

Textile Recycling

I don't want to throw old clothes out! But, if you can't / don't want to make rags out of them, what do you do?

The only thing I have found close to being able to recycle clothing and textiles is ALA Recycling. (www.alarecycling.com) But it isn't apparent on their website if you can drop off smal quantities of stuff to them - they may only operate in big markets....

Will find out more soon.... it's worth looking in to!

Movie Review: Garbage Warrior

We just finished watching a very exciting documentary about Michael Reynolds - creator of the Earthship style of home. These homes are ingenious in how they are self sustaining living spaces, where water, food, heat, electricity and even sewage treatment are taken care of by the house.

The movie follows his 40 year journey into the world of experimental building, using recycled materials, earth and passive solar rays to create houses that are a living part of the landscape. We also see his battle with the government to legalize experimental building and also how he and his team helped to teach people in several different countries to build earthships as housing after the devastating tsunami and hurricane Rita.

It is a very inspirational story of how one person has not only made a difference, but taught others to do so as well.

Check out more about the Earthships at www.earthship.net

Green Glasses

While Recycling is definitely a great thing, it's easy to forget the order of the three R's - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They are in this specific order for a very good reason - the less you use, the less waste and energy it takes to create something. Reusing an item allows that energy to be more efficient. Recycling an item that has lost its usefulness ensures that it can be useful again.

So... onto our kitchen cabinet. Our glasses collection is a combination of novelty glasses (Bull and Bush Pub in Colorado, Freddie Flintstone from a fast food chain) , some regular glasses, and our reused glasses.

From left to right --

- Curious George makes pancakes on a jelly jar.

- POM pomegranate juice came in this modern, tall glass.

-Another type of jam, Queenie the Cow goes skiing and builds a snowman.

-A mini mason jar from Green Mountain Gringo Salsa (of Vermont). Mmmm... I will collect more of those!

So next time you break a glass or need more for guests coming over, have fun collecting your own personalized set of glasses. Drink up!