Issue #7: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
February 15, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 2 comments
It’s been a while since our last Reduce, Reuse, Recycle carnival. Guess we just have too much to say J. And to be perfectly honest, we are a little (okay a lot) behind. With our sincere apology, here is the new edition:
Hi Samuel all the way from Australia! He gives us a detailed breakdown on how much money you can save by biking. His calculation yields $21,500 (Australian dollars) saving in 5 years.
Beth aka Fake Plastic Fish is learning to fix things. She puts me in shame. With an engineering degree, I can’t seem to fix anything. Perhaps it is all about one’s mind set – easier dispose than fix.
How do you put your house on an energy diet? Scott from Watthackers provides excellent solutions. Before you design a diet plan, you need to detect and monitor where your house uses energy the most first. Scott provides the tools.
Jazmin from makeup moxie offers up practical beauty tips, such as proper disposal of liquid cosmetics, trying “poo-free” hair products, and choosing cosmetics with biodegradable packaging.
Nathan from The Rubbish Depot says suggests that we can switch to the black google page. Collectively the black page can save 750 mega-watts of electricity every year worldwide.
Carolyn of Juggling Frogs is ever so creative. She made beautiful draft dodgers with tuna cans. For those of us who live in warmer climate, the draft dodger keeps your swinging doors automatically shut to avoid, yep, draft, and save energy. I am learning…
Conventional wisdom bears out: being frugal and being green often go hand in hand. Road trip on a shoe string? Tip #1 from poetloverrebelspy: always check the pressure in your tires and fill appropriately.
Too much wrapping paper after a birthday party? Stephanie from Stop the Ride suggests other uses other than recycling or trashing (gasp, no!).
The Author from The Littlest Guy suggests that we conserve energy first and then offset it by planting a tree.
Stay tuned for our next 3R carnival.
Previous issues:
Issue #6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
Issue #5: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
Issue #4: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
Issue #3: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
Issue #2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
Issue #1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Carnival
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Issue #6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
December 14, 2007
Posted by CindyC in : Gems from Others , 1 comment so far
Once again, we are delighted to collect great ideas from our fellow bloggers. A big thanks to all who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences with us. Without further adieu:
Stephanie is a happy recipient of a thoughtful and touching gift from her nine-year old. Not only did he make it himself, he used all the recycle and reuse principles taught by his proud mama. Who says kids don’t pay attention to their parents anymore!
Ms. Green Bean is getting creative, crafty and not spend-happy with holiday decorations around the house. And what a great idea to have an “advent calendar” full of activities, small treats and cheapy, plastic toys!
The Good Human enjoyed and highly recommends “Everything’s Cool: A Toxic Comedy About Global Warming”. Per his review,”It is more than a documentary; it is a demonstration of what forces we environmentalists are up against in trying to get the word out about global warming.” Sounds like a good gift for the environmentalist on your list.
And as a real life demonstration of the forces against which we have to fight, just check out what recently happened to our green friend Michelle. It’s unbelievable how someone can compare an educational program about global warming and energy conservation to propaganda used by the Nazis! All we can say is, “Keep on fighting, Michelle. It’s worth it!”
Previous issues:
Issue #5: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #4: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #3: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
CindyC at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Issue #5: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
November 30, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 1 comment so far
Happy holidays! Once again it is time for us to present to you a number of fantastic reduce reuse recycle ideas from other green bloggers. Thanks everyone for contributing to this community-based conversation and sharing great personal experience and tips.
Christine, an American mom writes from Strasbourg - a city in northeastern France, – about what recycling means to her. “I recycle. If I don’t, it affects both people and the planet. As this is my planet, I feel an obligation to recycle as well as finding a joy in the act itself.”
To hang Christmas lights or not? With all the lights lit in your neighborhood, few of us have thought about the energy they are consuming (think millions of houses). Phil suggests that we decorate outside of our homes us without using light bulbs. Alternatively if you have your heart set on holiday twinkle, try out the LED lights – Rockefeller Christmas tree has 30,000 of them that use 10% of the energy normal light bulbs use.
In addition to the LED Christmas light recommendation Stephanie from Stop the Ride imparts other green Christmas tips, such as using comic section of newspaper or brown paper bags as wrapping paper and using newspaper, shredded paper, or plastic shopping bags for packing when sending gifts.
Dare to skip the holiday altogether? Treat it just like another exciting day in your life. Wenchypoo is doing just that. Amongst many reasons, she believes that “Holidays have become excuses to consume, wildly distorting the original meaning for celebrating these particular events.” Well, I must say, I more or less agree with her, about the holidays being hijacked by consumption part.
If you did not manage to avoid the damage to your bank account on black Friday, you may want to hear these tips from the baglady – being frugal and being green often cross each other’s paths. For example make your own sparkling water – avoid containers and spending $. Or you can be adventurous and make your own soap from leftover bacon.
If you did avoid the black Friday and want to get a gift that is good for the planet, Nature Mom Tiffany has just the thing for you. Reusable grocery bags from Mimi’s. Almost too pretty to put my carrots and squashes in. But it may just entice a non-reusable bag user to kick the plastic or paper habit. Good call.
Even though Al’s post is not exactly focused Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, we are excited to hear a green voice all the way across the Pacific Ocean from Asia. “The 13th ASEAN* summit held in Singapore shows promise of our region integration economically and brings various groups of people closer.” Their declaration includes increasing the forest cover of ASEAN region by 10 million hectares by 2020, reducing the loss of biodiversity in the ASEAN region by 2010, halving the number of people without access to clean drinking water by 2010, and more.
*ASEAN includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Related Posts:
Issue #4: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #3: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Issue #4: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
November 16, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 3 comments
Once again it is time for us to present to you some fantastic Reduce Reuse Recycle ideas from other green bloggers. Thanks everyone for contributing to this community-based conversation and sharing great personal experience and tips.
How often does a family use their power drill in its lifetime, 20 minutes? An hour tops? How often do you re-read a book? In my case, it averages to never. Our friend Beth from Fake Plastic Fish suggests a common sense approach – borrow, from neighbors, from friends, from library and from tool libraries.
We have also learned from Beth that shredded paper is not good for recycling. So what do you do with shredded financial or personal documents? Stephanie from Stop the Ride puts it to good use in her compost. Come to think of it, where else can your bank statement be safer than decomposing in your compost bin?
If you are a handy person and want to find out what household material to use as insulation – for a glass of ice water, for a cool beer, for keeping things warm, Franco from Assorted Tips experimented with sawdust and leaves. His conclusion is pretty interesting: Leaf insulation is awesome. Luckily ‘tis the season for a whole lot of them.
Believe it or not, next Thursday is Thanksgiving. Whew! Tiffany at Naturemoms reminds us not to forget the 3Rs at your family and friends gathering. Ask your guests to carpool, use real dinnerware and cloth napkins, make sure that food scrap (there will be plenty) goes to compost, and more.
So at your Thanksgiving dinner or any dinner for that matter, your realize that you don’t own any sippy cups but your friends are bringing their toddlers. Instead of dashing out to buy a few, Michaela from Mindful Momma says: how about reusing yogurt cups?
Holiday season is coming. Kevin from More4kids suggests this is a great time to teach your kids that the holiday season is not about buying more stuff. Visit your local library instead buying new books. Drop off kids’ old clothes at your local used clothing store and pick up new used ones to help them create unique wardrobe.
Related Posts:
Issue #3: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Issue #3: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
October 31, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , add a comment
Through our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle carnival, we have learned so many ways of practicing the three Rs from others. Thanks everyone for contributing to this community-based conversation and sharing great personal experience and tips.
Almost all parents have run into the situation where the kids are starving and the only food around is in the vending machine. Writing from Mindful Momma, Michaela gives great advice on bringing your own waste-free snacks in removable trays or the incredibly cute snack sack. We love the idea!
Edited by Emily King and Jessie Johnston, Intelligent Travel writes in to recommend a nice little private nature reserve in Costa Rica’s last remaining lowland tropical rain forest. The interesting part is that “guests’ food scraps are fed to the lodge’s resident swine. As a result, the pigs produce methane that workers than trap and funnel to the kitchen” to make meals. Reduce, reuse and recycle indeed!
Charles Green writes a very thought provoking entry on the economy of business green practices. As business geeks ourselves, we have a soft theoretical spot for ROI and cash flow. It’s an interesting opinion piece on why many businesses are not willing to go green. Apparently a 10 year, 7 year, even 2 year payback time is too long. Charles provides analysis on this sort of short-term thinking.
Kevin from More4kids suggests raising eco-friendly kids. He believes that “one of the first steps in raising your children to be eco friendly is to be eco friendly yourself.”
Raymond does not think the earth doomsday scenario, because the planet is “a living, intelligent, vibrant organism”. There is all the more reason for all of us to treat it with respect. He suggests seven ways of doing so in our daily lives, and “recycle whenever possible” tops the list.
Wenchypoo dispenses some wisdom from her mental wastebasket. A friend did not know what to do with an odd piece of furniture. Craigslist? Freecycle? Classified ads? The author suggests different ways of reusing it, and reports that the “formerly unusable low bookcase has been turned into a shoe shelf in the mud room.
Related Posts:
Issue #2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
Issue #1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Issue #2: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
October 12, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 1 comment so far
Our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle carnival continues to receive active participation from the blog community. Thanks everyone for contributing to this community-based conversation and sharing great personal experience and tips.
Beth from Fake Plastic Fish sent us recycling tips straight from a local recycling center. For example, one of the tips she gave is: Do not put loose plastic bags or any other kind of plastic sheeting in your recycling bin because they jams the sorter for hours!
Gal from 60in3 contemplated eating too much vs. wasting food.
Halloween is coming in three weeks. Tiffany from Nature Mom recommended better treats for kids from The Ginger People Ginger Chews to Endangered Species Chocolate Bars. Yum!
Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life mused on the benefit of borrowing, bartering, and buying used. She was impressed with the compactors, the freegans and Michael Porter who turned back on his former life as a stock broker.
Kevin from 21 century citizen suggested installing a low flow shower head. For $12.00 he found one that was supposed to save you 50-70% of your water usage.
One of our readers Regina purchased their household cleaners and body care products in concentrated formulas, so fewer bottles need to be used and thrown away.
Frugal Panda rated and recommended the best green cars for the price - gasoline-powered yet “green” vehicles that are all priced under $19,000. Number one on the list is 2007 Kia Rio SX (MSRP $13,495). It gets 32 miles per gallon in city driving and 35 in highway driving.
A big thanks to all the contributors and if you have other ideas to share, please let check out our 3R Blog Carnival for submission details for our next issue.
Organicpicks Team
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Issue#1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Blog Carnival
September 28, 2007
Posted by OrganicpicksTeam in : Gems from Others , 1 comment so far
Two weeks ago, we announced our very first green blog carnival, focusing on Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Thanks everyone for participating in this community-based conversation and sharing great personal experience and tips.
Beth from Fake Plastic Fish avoids plastic products (including bags) in general, but offers practical advice on what you can do with old plastic bags. Additionally, not to be missed, she provides comprehensive tips on what recyclable really means to you on a day to day basis. Instead of researching on the web for 10 hours, you can read her great post.
Annette from Crafters Journey shares her 10 crafty ideas on how to recycle greeting cards. Keep them in mind as the holiday months approach.
Tiffany from Nature Mom recommends First Alert Motion Sensing Light Socket for those of us who don’t always remember to turn off our lights.
Todd from We the Change believes individual actions do matter. Imagine if every family signs up with a local energy company that provides 100% renewable power. He also links to a map for you to check local service providers who sell reusable energy.
Reduce, reuse and recycle not only do good for the environment, but also for your pocket book. Scott and Aaron from College and Finance present ways for students to save the environment and their finance. Stephanie from Stop the Ride shares some of the things that she repurposed around the homestead, such as old tire as a swing and old wooden board split as tomato stakes.
In case you want to reduce the usage of plastic bags, and still want to be super stylish, Doris recommends a couple of cool and funky bags.
A big thanks to all the contributors and if you have other ideas to share, please let check out our 3R Blog Carnival for submisson details for our next issue.
Organicpicks Team
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
This week on plastic: how people are reducing their plastic consumption
September 13, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 3 comments
Plastic is definitely on our minds at Organicpicks this week.
Last weekend, I went to a kids’ birthday parties with my toddlers, an unavoidable experience every parent had to oblige a dozen of times a year. One of the things struck me was how much plastic there was in the birthday parties. 90% of the presents were made from plastic, 90% of the packaging was plastic, plastic plates, cups, forks. And goody bags full of plastic junk.
After the initial realization, I started to see that how much our everyday life involved plastic. First invented in the late 1800’s, plastic was touted as a miracle product. It has since entered every aspect of our lives. Even in the most remote corner of the world, plastic products are ubiquitous. In spite of its usefulness, plastic has come back to bite us. Hard. Alan Weisman depicts a macabre picture in “The world Without Us”. 35,000 years after humans disappear, “lead deposited during the smokestack era would finally be cleansed from the soil”. Yet plastic we are using today will still be there. The plastic toys that we are giving to our children today (which for the most part are forgotten in the garage within a couple of weeks) will probably be strewn about after a million years.
So this week we ranted about the lack of progress in waste management and reviewed alternative toy options. In addition we looked to others to see what they were doing to curtail the usage of plastic products.
Data is important, Minh from Envirostats.info cited that more than 51.4 million metric tones of plastic resins were produced in the US in 2006. That translates into 113 billion pounds!
PlasticLess author lamented that it was hard to find anything in Toys R Us that was not plastic. However She also reported that Coca Cola was planning to create recycling facilities that would be capable of handling all the plastic beverage containers that it produced. Hurray!
Paul Goettlich at mindfully.org has given up on plastic stuff a while ago. He has some great suggestions on how to work with non-plastic alternatives in your household, glass, Pyrex, stainless steel, cast iron to name a few.
Beth in Oakland works to reduce plastic waste in her workplace. The geek side of me loves her charts of weekly plastic waste. She wonders how to encourage people to use less plastic without nagging and preaching.
While I am still not certain whether I can ever live a plastic-free life, this woman is living it and documenting it. She has pledged to live without plastic for a year. Check out her progress report.
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Global warming vs. iPhone ringtones
August 18, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 3 comments
Besides working on our website and writing on our blog, we love reading about ideas and thoughts from other sources, similar or completely opposite to ours, as long as they are original and interesting. Here is what we have enjoyed this week.
The Worsted Witch Jasmin, thanks for wrapping the ringtone conversation and future priorities in the context of global warming. Brilliant. Kinda like arguing about whose handkerchief was prettier on Titanic. Recently I asked a friend for her opinion about the whole bottled water fight. She said, “Oh, I am not into the environmental thing. You know, it is just not my thing.” Then she turned around and asked me if I had read any articles on how to organize spice rack efficiently because apparently her unruly spices were distressing her terribly. Hello?
Sadly I am not born with any artistic talents, but luckily I appreciate interesting art, especially when it has a purpose (surely art purists would cry foul, but this is my blog!). Emme at Simplereduce has started a photo blog that captures a green image every day. The images are simple and even common, yet utterly touching.
Another post that reminds me of my lack of artistic talents - Victoria E brought to my attention Broken Plate Pendant Co. Broken plates made into one of a kind pendant and rings. What an awesome idea! I am not a big jewelry fan in general, but these are pretty tempting.
Didn’t I mention that we were once business-school geeks? NPV, cost-benefit analysis? No problem. Let me find my HP calculator. Oh here is the answer. I wish business schools would all incorporate the social discount rate, as professor John Whitehead apparently has posted on his fall course syllabus. Will you post your lecture on YouTube?
Finally on the lighter side, I thoroughly enjoyed Kevin’s semi-eco-mockery on 21st Century Citizen. About the green wash phenomenon, I quote, “I feel like losing my ‘eco-lunch’ by ‘eco-barfing’ into a reusable, recyclable ‘eco-barf bag’”. Need I say more?
Have a great weekend
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
Water Sense label for low-flow toilets & other green news
August 11, 2007
Posted by CindyW in : Gems from Others , 2 comments
Besides working on our website and writing on our blog, we love reading about ideas and thoughts from other sources, similar or completely opposite to ours, as long as they are original and interesting. Here is some of what we have enjoyed this week.
Given that we were business-school geeks, a talk about green market segmentation immediately piqued our interest. Joel Makower wrote on July 16th about a study done on Americans’ true behavior when it came to living green. The study suggests that majority of consumers really don’t care that much about the environment and that green is best a niche opportunity in today’s consumer market place. Hmmm, even after Al Gore appeared on Oprah? Somber but fascinating post for green marketers.
Energy Star label for appliances implies energy conservation. How about a Water Sense label from EPA for low-flow toilets? EPA says that the technology has come a long way since the first low-flow toilets were introduced. Are we ready for them?
Farmers’s markets are bursting in seams with stone fruit right now - peaches, nectarines, cherries, and plum. Sadly it won’t like very long. Jennifer Maiser writes about the cost of a flavor peach. Is $3 for a pound of mouth-watering organic peaches too much? I want to turn it around and ask: is $1.19 for a pound of rubbery tasteless peaches shipped from 3000 miles away too much? Or why won’t we spend the $150 they waste on bottled tap water on 50 pounds of to-die-for peaches?
Many people are familiar with the concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). But CSA pizza? What a novel idea. Mindful Momma writes that her local pizza joint creates a pizza with whatever shows up in their farm share box that week.
Ever since my moderately successful tie-dye napkin project, I have been on a kick to find fun and easy-to-do kids’ craft projects. These craft ideas come from Nancy Eckert. I particularly like the various button uses, since in our house, there isn’t a button-free drawer for some reason. Go figure.
Last, but not the least, something to listen to. Talk of the Nation discussed the 2007 Farm Bill yesterday. Okay it sounded really boring to me until I listened to it. Farm Bill actually affects what we eat everyday! The fact that we are eating corn-fed everything (beef, salmon, chicken, soda, and the ubiquitous high-fructose corn syrup) is directly caused by the Farm Bill. Listen on line and take action.
CindyW at Organicpicks
If you enjoyed this entry, please subscribe to the Organic Picks Blog
Copyright 2007 Organicpicks
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