Groovy Green Tip

Clean and Green Recycling

Ahh, Canadians. I love Canadians. Ooh La La - Mounties! Gotta love those uniforms and their crazy detective skills.

This video hails from Canada, and has a good point about the cleanliness of the materials you are recycling. I got my Honey Bear out of the cupboard today, only to find that all the honey is crystalized at the bottom. So, I'm going to try and clean it out before I recycle the little guy.

I know sometimes, you really don't want to deal with the mess that is inside the container.. now green and fuzzy. And we get that. But just don't try and recycle it, it should go in the garbage. But if you can stomach it, clean it out and keep your conscience clean.

Thank You Novotel!

A couple of weeks ago I was up in Toronto celebrating the holidays with my husband's family with a trip to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. (The show was fantastic, by the way!) Anyways, we stayed overnight in Toronto in a hotel called Novotel, and I was surprised to see a cute little recycling bin in the hotel room for us to use! I had never seen a recycling bin in a hotel room before, and was happy to be able to recycle my water bottle and various brochures/papers I had picked up along the way. Is this just a Canadian thing? Has anyone seen these in the U.S.?

Novotel cares! Merci beaucoup!

Recycling Market Hit by Recession

It is a little dissapointing to learn that the recent economic downturn has affected the price of recyclable material. This recent article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081208/ap_on_bi_ge/recycling_bust shows how recyclers are stockpiling the materials coming in, trying to wait for the market to rise again so that the collection of these materials will pay for themselves in time and money.


But this fact "Most recyclables are shipped to Asian countries that use the material to make products that are shipped backed to the United States to be sold." really worries me! Alot of that seems to be iron and steel - isn't metal what we collected during World War II, to support out cause? Maybe if we could bring more recycling back to America, create more jobs here for people, and manufacture our own quality products which will then require much less shipipng.

Does that make sense?

Water Filters

Going back to the first-ever groovygreensisters post (about water)... I used to be a huge water snob. Water is the only thing I drink (seriously - no milk, juice, coffee... just water!). For years, I hated the taste of the tap water in my area, so I bought gallons of bottled water.

Even though I recycled every gallon jug, I did start to feel bad about my impact a year or so ago, so my husband and I started buying those Brita water filters that go right on the tap. That has been working out great, except now I am starting to feel guilty about throwing out this huge plastic filter thingie every three months or so. They are not recyclable, as far as I know. At least with the gallon water jugs, I could recycle those... but my Brita filters will be in a landfill forever. Does anyone know of any tap water filters that are recyclable, or at least have less of an impact on the planet?

How Trashy Are YOU?

I live in Maine, a very rural state with lots of trees, mountains, lakes, beaches... you name it. Unfortunately, not all state residents make an effort to recycle and keep the state green and pristine. I am relatively happy with my community's recycling efforts - my only beef is that my town won't pick up recycling bins from apartment/condo complexes. Since I live in one of these complexes, I have to take matters in my own hands and lug all of my recyclables to the local transfer station myself. (Thankfully, my community recently switched to single-sort recycling bins, so that when I lug all of my paper, plastic, cardboard, and metal to the transfer station I don't need to take the time to sort it, I can just dump it all in the giant recycling bin!) I've noticed that not all of my neighbors are willing to bring their recyclables to the transfer station... as evidenced by lots of cardboard boxes, cans, and paper left out for our garbage service to pick up on trash day. Ugh. This lack of effort shows: Mainers currently only recycle 36% of our municipal solid waste.

Anyways... I recently found out about www.mainerecycles.com, a website launched by the state to promote recycling! It's a cute site with information for everyone on how and where to recycle in Maine. Also, there's a fun How Trashy Are You? quiz that you can take to gage your recycling prowess. I got a 24!

Chilly Idea #1

So the other day I am food shopping for an overnight trip and thinking "Gee, i still don't have any of those ice packs to put in my cooler."  Regular ice in a re-sealable sandwich bag is way too messy (tried it).  I didn't end up finding a plastic ice pack on my shopping trip, which is good cuz I kind of would have felt guilty about buying something like that.

Enter Chilly Idea #1 - reusing plastic water bottles as ice packs. This gets another one of Carolyn's "Duh!'s"  Why this did not occur to me sooner... Don't fill them up the entire way (since the ice will expand) but, just freeze and go!

Yes, bottled water is evil, but let's face it, sometimes necessary if there is not another alternative. turning the bottle into a useful item...bonus!  This will come in very handy on next summer's camping trips! Yeehaw!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is a great time to reuse and recycle old clothing and fabrics into a homemade costume! This year, I've combined a bunch of old stuff from the basement (including my bright blue heels from prom, which haven't been worn in 10 years!), along with some purchases from Goodwill (costume jewelry and a trendy purse) to put together a sweet costume this year. I'm going as... Tori Spelling! Seriously! :o) What are you going to be this year?