Awesome Design Idea

So the company I work for, Mediabarn www.mediabarninc.com designed some fun areas using 3Form paneling, better yet we used remnants, you can find those here. They have all kinds of natural materials, and you gotta love their green approach, that they will take back waste from a site installation, and try to sell it back out, makes them a little money and helps keep this construction waste from getting into our landfills. Who wouldn't want some kick ass Banana Fiber paneling somewhere like the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom?

Organics in regular grocery stores

So, while I think Whole Foods is pretty amazing and kinda fun to visit, I wouldn't want to do all my shopping there. One reason is that they dont have things that are bad for me, but that I have still decided I want...like Coke Zero. I m sorry, but ToastedNutJuice Splash doesnt cut it for me. So we do our everyday shopping at Giant, Wegmans, and sometimes Safeway. All these stores have a fairly good and growing supply of organic selections. Sometimes you have to look for it. They typically keep the organic milks with the hormonal milks, but the snacks, cereals, and other items are usually near the ethnic foods or in another spot, you should look for it, there are some good alternatives there. So while our kids still prefer Rice Krispies over Puffin cereal, we at least have a place down the street that makes it easy to try new things.

So much junk mail, Junk Papers?

On Sunday afternoons we would often pickup the paper from the driveway and deposit it in the Recycles, just not having enough time or motivation to read it. So we finally just canceled the paper, to save on waste, money and time. The only paper we get now is the local paper, delivered free on Wednesdays. (I asked The Loudoun Times to stop delivering, but for some reason they are insisting, so I have to write them again.) I kind of view it now like we view our junk mail.

Now much of our Junk mail, just goes right into our paper recycles, in the old days it could only be newsprint, but now most places will recycle all papers.

Refuse to throw away cans or bottles

So at a restaurant today where they did not have recycles, but they sold drinks in bottles and cans, which I bought. I could have told the manager that I wish they recycled, I could have taken the empty diet rootbeer can with me, but instead, in protest, I placed the can where the trays are on top of the garbage cans. When other folks see me do it, they did it too...there was about 5 empty totally recyclable items on top of the garbage can. Next time Im in, Im going to ask them to recycle, but today I did what I could.

Baked Cheetos

Ok, so if you are going to eat Cheetos, I think you should know about Baked Cheetos. They are just as good, and have a little less badness than regular cheetos. Just thought you should know.

Packaging

Toy packaging is troublesome to recycle if not next to impossible. For one you must know what can be recycled and what cannot. There are different numbers on plastics and you need to know which ones the collectors will recycle. For the most part packaging for toys and other items are not recyclable so you my feel like you are doing good by putting it in with your coke bottles but it won't be recycled it will be trashed and chances are along with the recyclables stuff. Plastics that have a small bottle neck like soda bottles and milk bottles can be recycled. But all other plastics cannot. Like your yougurt cups, tubs used for butter, baggies, take out food containers. So that pretty much makes all of the plastic in toy packaging ineligible for the recycle bin. Now when it comes to the cardboard boxes that can be tricky too. and not quite sure myself on this one so i always put it in the recycle unless it is obvious it has a thick plastic coating on the cardboard. As far a recycling goes in general.... I do a couple of things. I look at packaging before I buy a product and a lot of times especially with food items that I will want to buy again I make a decision based on if it can be recycled or how much packaging comes with it. I also have written letters (emails) to manufactures of toys such as Mattel and Disney and told them to cut down on the packaging. These are companies along with others that cater to kids and we should pressure them to make their toys and their packaging more earth friendly. I also buy products based on what they are made out of. But that is for another blog.

Toy Packaging

So birthdays in Northern Virgina are obscene, and I admit we are part of it. We had a huge stash of presents for our 5 year old boy..who really doesnt need anything, and we go out and get presents for kids who really dont need anything, so its a huge waste of resources and materials. So, we are not going to tell people not to bring presents, we just arent that brave, but I make sure i take all the packaging and recycle it.

The recycle bin isnt just for beer bottles and diet coke, a lot of the packaging we get for the matchbox cars and spiderman wrist shooter can be recycled. Any plastic toy holder pieces gets put in with our liter coke bottles (from Pump It Up party place. And the cardboard gets put in with the beer six backs I picked up at total beverage today.