Recycling, Doing Our Part To Save The Planet

Each Sunday this year I'm going to try to make a post about environmental impact issues, saving our Earth, and how we can help out.  Today's post is about recycling.

Recycling is just a small step that we should take daily in helping out our planet.  Before you go shopping plan your purchases carefully.  Do you really need the item that's on sale that has packaging that can't be recycled?

Take a good look at your bulk store purchases you currently have in your home.  Are you saving money only to have more trash piling up?  Try to make purchases of reusable products not disposables, ie: disposable batteries, non-cloth diapers, paper plates and plastic utensils.

Remember to recycle your newspapers, plastic, glass, aluminum cans, and paper.  Recycling, done properly can save about 2, 400 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere yearly per household.

If you are unsure of what you can actually recycle, hey even I wonder at some of the codes on the bottom of plastic containers,  go to The EPA website.  Or you can take a look at this particular link on  recycling plastics.  Did you know that PETE plastics, labeled with a 1, are recycled into common day objects like the fiber filling in your winter coats, furniture, car bumpers, rope and bean bag chairs?  Of course they are also remade into plastic bottles again.  So don't forget to take your #1 PETE medicine bottles, water bottles, and soda bottles to the recycling center.  I don't want to find out that my readers are just throwing them into the main trash.

For my beer drinking friends I have a recycling website for you that you can bank recycling points.   Miller Coors  is offering up points that you can cash in for rewards later on.  Now you can get a bit more out of your aluminum beer cans.

Don't forget to recycle your newspapers and other paper products.  Just make sure there is no food residue on the paper when you put it into the recycling bin.  Try to buy products that say that they are made from paper not trees.

Did your computer die and you had to buy a new one?  Now you have no clue what to do with the old one?  Don't just put it to the curb, check with your state laws on computer recycling first.

From: Do The Benefits Of Recycling Outweigh The Costs:
Here is a list of some of the recycling programs and information from various manufacturers:

• Acer Recycling Program
• Apple Recycling Program
• ASUS Recycling
• CyberPower Recycling
• Dell Recycling
• Electronics Industries Assocation Recycling Information
• Fujitsu Recycling of Electronic Waste
• Gateway Trade In or Recycle
• HP Product Return and Recycling
• Lenovo Product Recycling
• MSI Recycling Program
• Redemtech Enterprise Recycling
• Shuttle Recycling
• Sony Recycling Program
• Systemax Recycling Require Form
• Toshiba Trade-In and Recycling Program
• Velocity Micro Recycling Program

If you can't recycle try upcycling.  Okay a few of you are probably scratching your heads on the term upcycling.   Upcycling is basically taking an item that can no longer function in its intended purpose and ripping it apart to use as parts for another creation.  Remember WALLE?  Walle's job was to recycle and compact trash from the landfill.  He would find parts from broken items and re-purpose them which is called upcycling. Then of course there are a few of my craftier friends who have told me that they are going to take old computer monitors, those big ones that had tubes in them, gut the monitors, put rug in them and make them outside habitats for feral cats.  I think its a great idea. 


Take a look around your house and go through your "trash", you might find something that can be upcycled.  ETSY.com was the first place that clued me into upcycling.  Maybe you could start an account on their site and earn some money for your new creations.  Who wouldn't want to earn money from their trash?

Tearing Down The Tree

The un-decorating of the Winter Season has begun, well at least at my house.  We don't have a real tree.  I'm not sure why we've never bought a live tree that has been cut down.  Are we too ashamed of what it does to the environment?  I'm not sure.  The one year I did have a live tree it was a small potted pine that I purchased because I was living in the hotel for five months and it was over the holiday season.  But I gave the little tree away in the hopes that someone would be able to plant it and it would grow.

The above photo is what often happens to cut Christmas trees.  Sure some of us could burn them in our backyards but then we'd have to get burning permits.  I recently found out that wood smoke is really bad for the humans.  All those chemicals we've let leach into the ground with our carelessness have been absorbed by the trees we now are burning for our fuel in the winter.  I developed asthma symptoms as a child and was diagnosed as an adult.  My parents had a wood stove installed in their house when I was eight years old.  I wonder if that was the cause of my lung problems.  I love the smell of burning wood and I love camp fires but I think I love to breathe a bit more so I doubt I'll ever be having a wood burning fuel source in my home.  Read this article Burning Issues, which is about the hazards of wood burning.

The last of our decorations are now down as of a few minutes ago.  The boxes are taped shut and will again be stored until needed at the end of the year.  We have a four foot artificial tree.  I didn't pay much for it but it suits its purpose as our house is small.  Enlisted Army housing is always small.  I've seen some families packed in like sardines in a can.  But all is good as long as there are rules.  Now I'm getting away from my post again.

I'd like to know what my readers have for trees, that is if you have a tree at all for Winter holidays.  Do you go with a live tree, and if so do you feel guilt at having contributed to the decline of our oxygen supply, or do you feel no guilt at all?  If you have an artificial tree do you feel guilt at the chemicals used in creating your fake tree and the fumes that were expelled into the environment to create the fake tree, or is there no guilt factor at all? 

Yes I know with either option there is no winning.  Maybe we could all opt to just decorate a live potted tree and later plant it in the spring of the year when the soil is ready.

I used recycled paper in the making of my paper chains and snowflakes again this year.  Easy to tear down decorations and easy to recycle again.  All of the paper decorations are now in the recycling bin.  Still I feel some guilt as again some machinery will have to fire up causing more toxins to be expelled into the environment just to make that paper I used into a pulp fiber to be used once again. 

I'm beginning to believe that there is no guilt-free Winter holiday season.  I doubt its even possible.  Think of all the paper wrappings used and wasted.  The bows, boxes, packing materials and not to forget the gas used in getting the gifts to their destinations from the point of purchase.  Why do we do it?  Is it the guilt of not giving or is it blind love with no concern to the environment?

I just read aloud the above to my spouse and he answered back, "its tradition and you can't argue with tradition as its insensitive."  So said the guy with the B.S. in Environmental Science.

However, if you are feeling any guilt about your "traditions" then possibly you should visit the Arbor Day Foundation.   Or check out your National Parks Service.  Make a donation to them or find out how you can give back.