Green Sexy

How to Recycle Your Christmas Tree

According to Earth911.com, "Between 30 and 35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. each year. Luckily, about 93 percent of those trees are currently being recycled through more than 4,000 available recycling programs."  That's encouraging news!  One of the most common ways old trees are recycled is as mulch for playgrounds, trails, landscaping, etc.  There are many other novel ways that used Christmas trees are being recycled and reused, from providing habitat for animals, to helping to stop erosion. 

Each January, 400 old Christmas trees are strapped to a concrete block and dumped in Lake Havasu, which is a man-made desert lake located in Arizona and California.  These trees, which take a decade to decompose, form a reef for young bass, bluegills and other fish.  This provides protection and a habitat for the fish, and has considerably improved the fishing in Lake Havasu.

For the past 16 years donated Christmas trees have been used as a wetland preserver in southern Louisiana's coastal marshes.  The used trees are converted into four-foot-tall cribs that help to collect the sediment from the water as it rushes in.  Eventually, the sediment builds up behind the crib to form new land that helps to build up the eroded shore.

In Tomahawk, Wisconsin, the Packaging Corporation of America burns about 500 used trees a year as a source of power for their paper mills.  The resulting steam powers the mill for ten minutes.

On Baker Lake Island in Cook County, Illinois, volunteers prop used trees on foot-tall steel pipes to provide nests for herons and egrets.

To find the nearest Christmas tree recycling program near you, visit Earth911.com, or click on the previous link.

Packaging Gifts the Green Way

 Whether you meticulously peel off the tape or voraciously tear into your presents, piles of wrapping paper often times adorn people's living rooms during this holiday season.  If you've been making a habit of buying up rolls upon rolls of cute wrapping paper every year, just think of all the resources that go into making that wrapping paper---from trees to dyes, to electricity, fuel used in shipping, etc.---you could be doing the Earth harm while trying to bring happiness. 

So what can you do?  For one, reuse wrapping paper or gift bags that you had from the previous holiday season.  Heck, it seems like my family has been using the same wrapping paper and gift bags for years now, and no one seems to mind, since it's what's inside that is truly memorable.  The Guardian suggests that you use nice festively-colored shopping bags that you've gotten from stores as wrapping paper, or even cutting up old gift bags and using those to wrap with.  Another idea they put forth is using interesting magazine pictures or maps as wrapping paper.  The way some teens plaster their walls with pictures of their idols, this could be a fun way for a kid to wrap up a gift.  You could try wrapping your presents in sections of the paper that speak to the personality of the person who is receiving the gift---the sports section for the jock, the comics for the joker, the editorial section for the opinionated one, etc.  They also suggest using left over fabric, gift scarves, or clothing items from a thrift store to wrap your presents in.  A final innovative idea is to wrap your presents in aluminum foil, which will add a real shine and glimmer to your display and can be washed and reused to wrap holiday treats or leftovers in!

If using recycled materials as a means of packaging your gifts doesn't tickle your fancy, then there are some eco-friendly products that you can purchase to help decorate your gifts.  National Geographic's The Green Guide suggests Paporganics' hemp-blend wrap that is made from 90 percent post-consumer fiber with 10 percent hemp.  Paper Mojo makes gift wraps made from jute, lokta or banana fiber---that could impress as much as the gift itself!  For gift bags, you could go with Global Exchange's Native Leaf Gift Bags made in the Philippines using certified less-toxic dyes. Not only is Global Exchange a fair-trade organization, but they will also wrap any of its products in a 100 percent recycled box, tied with a raffia ribbon and accompany it with a recycled rice-paper greeting card for $3.95.  Recycled-fabric gift bags can be purchased from Patagonia.  To fill your gift bags, you could purchase white tissue paper made from 90 percent recycled paper and colored tissue made from 75 percent recycled fibers through Nashville Wraps.  

Well, hope you have a great holiday, and if you're anything like me, you'll have a nice, neatly-folded pile of used wrapping paper next to you, ready to be stored and reused next year! 

An Eco-Friendly Kid-Friendly Craft Project!

Our niece recently had a sleepover at our house, and while I was away at work, my wife and my niece came up with a craft project using recycled materials!  I bring home these plastic fruit cups that I get with my lunch at work and I recycle them, and it was these very cups that inspired my niece to create an ingenious little rattle! 

She and my wife glued some paper onto the outside of the cups and filled the cups with assorted beads.  Then they hot-glued the cups together, poked a chopstick through both cups and voila---you have a neat recycled shaky rattle to play with!  Check out the dramatic demonstration below!

School's Out---Recycling's In!!!

Teachers look forward to the last day of classes just as much (if not more) as the kids do!  Shortly after the euphoria of freedom begins to subside, one begins to notice hallways littered with all kinds of debris and garbage bins overflowing with papers and other school materials.

It seems that at the end of the school year teachers and students create an obscene amount of waste---that is, handouts, unopened packets of looseleaf paper,  textbooks and workbooks, unused writing and coloring utensils, fabric book covers, plastic locker shelves, still-usable notebooks and binders, etc.---all carelessly discarded into garbage bins. 

For many years, it was the efforts of a handful of individuals who helped to reduce a fraction of the waste in our school by collecting still usable school supplies from the kids or by rescuing such items from the garbage.  However, there has been a sea-change this year.  It all started halfway through the year when the elementary school principal achieved what me and a few other teachers were unable to accomplish for many years---procuring a contract with an independent paper recycling company!  Abitibi Paper Retriever has provided our district with two recycling "bins" the size of regular garbage dumpsters. This has been a great comfort to many environmentally-conscious teachers and I have taken quite a few mega-trips to the dumpster with a handcart full of paper from various teachers' rooms.

Another positive development is the fact that teachers in my building are beginning to provide students with the opportunity to donate still-usable school supplies and to recycle paper!   All it takes are some boxes and a few signs---not too hard, is it? 

So, after years of frustration, things are beginning to look up for our formerly wasteful school (though there is still much room for improvement)!  What's on the horizon?  Increasing the environmental consciousness of the teachers and the student body via an environmental club that I am hoping to present to the school board next year!  After all, it is our job as educators to teach our children about the things that really matter in life!

Plant Markers: Yet Another Use for Plastic Food Containers

Today my wife and I spent some time turning over our garden and adding some of our high quality compost to it!  Then we set about the task of planting our vegetables.  Today we added some carrots, lettuce, and bok choy seeds.  We realized that we needed to mark what vegetables were planted where, so I ran into the garage and picked out a plastic McDonald's cup that we had picked off of Hamlin Beach earlier this spring.  Then I set about cutting up the cup into nice plant markers and my wife labeled each with a permanent marker.  When the need arose for more plant markers, I ran inside to the recycling corner in our kitchen and produced a plastic yogurt container, and divided it up into more plant markers. 

So, if you're a fellow gardener, consider reusing plastic food containers by converting them into plant markers---I think that's one green sexy idea, don't you?

Green Product, Not-So-Green Packaging!

I had purchased rechargable NiMH batteries and an accompanying charger from Energizer because I was

sick of throwing out traditional batteries, as I was instructed to do by my local hazardous waste facility, which maddeningly enough does not take alkaline batteries!  I was quite pleased by my purchase, as this would mean I could reduce my waste and reuse batteries many times over! 

But there was a problem, but not with the product itself (which actually works very well)---no, it's the packaging.  There is no recycling number imprinted on the plastic packaging!  How ironic, I thought, that I purchase a product for its Earth-friendlier properties, and I get saddled with non-recyclable packaging! 

I promptly emailed Engergizer, and basically lambasted them for not having recyclable packaging.  They emailed back that their packaging is "actually rated #3".  I inquired how a recycling facility would be able to tell what kind of plastic their packaging is if it has no number?  They responded that it is not required that they put the number on their packaging.  I retorted that by not putting the recycling number on their packaging, that they were perpetuating wastefulness amongst their consumers, who upon seeing that there is no number on their packaging, would promptly discard the packaging.  Also, I reiterated my confusion as to how a recycling facility would discern whether or not this unnumbered packaging was recyclable or not?  I implored them to consider imprinting the recycling number in their packaging and to be responsible stewards of the environment.

Well, anyway, I don't expect them to bow to my request, but if it is not required to put the recycling number on packaging, then WHY is it not required?  Also, even though it isn't currently required, shouldn't companies in this day and age do it anyways?  I think it's called...um, how do you say...oh, yes---"corporate responsibility"?   

Recycle and Read More Easily!

I feel as if I'm having an Andy Rooney-type moment here...I'm going to talk about magazine ads.

If there's anything that drives me crazy about magazines, it's cologne ads with the stinky sample.  I know they're supposed to smell "good", but all they make me want to do is sneeze.  Whenever I find one of these in a magazine I've purchased, I rip it right out and plop it in the recycling bin.  Another thing that always gets recycled are those stiff subscription cards. 

Today I received the April 2008 edition of BestLife Magazine, which is a publication created by the editors of Men's Health Magazine.  This magazine was a bonus that came with my Men's Health subscription, so I was intrigued as to what I would be getting.  Turns out, just like most magazines nowadays, I got about 2/3 content and 1/3 (or more) advertisements.  So, true to form, I leafed through the magazine and tore out two cologne ads and removed all of the subscription cards.  Just then I had a thought---why stop now?  I leafed through the magazine, tearing out all 2-sided ads---from Cadillac to Nordstrom, Polo to Viagra---until I had 16 pages of useless capitalist drivel to line my recycling bin with.  Now I have a magazine that will be less cluttered, thus easier to read, and ultimately quicker to recycle since I'll probably get through it faster. 

So, my advice to you, reader, is to tear out those silly ads, recycle them and enjoy the actual content of the magazine, which is what you bought it for in the first place.

Andy Rooney---eat your heart out!

Does Your Workplace NOT recycle?

I work in a public high school that does not recycle paper.  Think about it, we're a school---how many hundreds of pounds of paper are wasted every day in the copy room?  How about in the classroom?   

I see my coworkers take piles of paper and chuck them right into the garbage can.  I often times pick through the garbage and salvage some paper that has only been copied on one side.  I recently saved a stack of midterm exams that a coworker was going to throw away because she mistakenly copied some pages upside down on the back side.  Folks, these midterms were at least 10 pages long each, and when I brought it home, my wife went through and salvaged a whole pile of paper that we could still use to print on one side!   What a waste! 

Students in my school revel in the chance to ball up their papers and shoot "baskets" at the garbage can.  When I hand back papers, they summarily glance at the grade, peel off the sticker (if they received over 80% on that assignment) and throw the paper into the garbage.  I constantly admonish the kids to recycle their papers in the recycling box that I have in my room.

Oh, yes---I have a box that I put papers into in my classroom.   Then when full, I take this box home with me and I recycle it at my curbside.  It doesn't take too much effort and I get some exercise by lugging the 30 plus pounds of paper out to my car.   

Now, I and two other teachers at separate times have tried in earnest to get a recycling company to help us with our dilemma, but for some odd reason, recycling companies won't touch our Orleans County school with a ten-foot pole!  Our own Orleans County recycling companies won't recycle papers for schools!  Some Orleans County schools recycle paper with the aid of companies based in Buffalo, NY (Erie County), which is quite the trek---they won't come out as far as us.  Monroe County, which is the neighboring county, won't service our school, even though we are literally right on the cusp of Monroe County, because we are not in their service area.  But you know what we really need at our school?  A supportive administration that is willing to allot some funds for us to make it economically feasible for recycling companies to help us recycle our paper.  Until that happens, we're still going to be "wasting away"!

There is a culture of waste in many workplaces.  This mentality spreads to other facets of the employees' lives.  The workplace should be a model for responsible behavior and recycling paper is one way to teach employees that we can be mindful of our environment in all areas of our life. 

If you have any workplace horror stories or success stories or suggestions, PLEASE pass them my way!  If you comment on this post, you'll be in the running for this cute desk mini recycling bin that reads: "Don't Trash Our Future.  Recycle" with some surprise goodies inside! Don't you just love surprises?!  I will draw names out of a hat on February 29th, 2008.  Good luck and happy writing!

Recycle Golfweek Magazine

I am a huge proponent of recycling.  I am imploring anyone who has any copies of Golfweek Magazine to recycle this magazine immediately!

Dave Seanor, vice president and editor of Golfweek Magazine approved a cover for the January 19th issue that had a noose on it and a headline that read:  "Tilghman slips up and Golf Channel can't wriggle free."  This cover was created in response to an unfortunate and bizarre incident where Golf Channel broadcaster Kelly Tilghman said that the only way for young PGA players to be able to stop the seemingly unstoppable Tiger Woods was to "lynch (Tiger) in a back alley...".  This was an immensely insipid slip up, for which Tilghman has profusely apologized, and for which she was suspended by her employer.  Tiger Woods accepted her apology and said that he and Tilghman are "still friends" because he realizes that she had a momentary lapse of reason and had no malice or forethought behind her words.  Other prominent African Americans, such as Charles Barkley and Washington Post sports columnist and ESPN talk show host Michael Wilbon, have also weighed in on her transgression and have both largely forgiven her. 

Then came the Golfweek Magazine cover.  This is not just a split-second error on their part; they had over a week to contemplate this cover and all of its ramifications!  The president of the publishing company has apologized for the cover and Dave Seanor was also fired, but this does not excuse their premeditated move in placing such an incendiary item as a noose on their cover! 

So, like any good environmentalist, I encourage you on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to:

REDUCE by cancelling your subscription to Golfweek & by refusing to sell this rag in your stores

REUSE by using Golfweek to line your birdcage or for kindling for your fireplace

RECYCLE this magazine and all publications that discriminate unfairly, are biggoted, are racist, sexist, etc.

GO GREEN---DON'T BUY THIS MAGAZINE!

Hey, Let's Throw Our Money Into the Garbage!!!

I love diet soda.  I love the fizz.  I love the sweetness (yeah, I know it's aspartame) .  I also love that I can get my 5 cent deposit back on my aluminum can or plastic bottle from recycling centers like Sunnking or from the recycling machines in local supermarkets.  I live in New York State, which is one of 10 U.S. States that charges a 5 or ten cent deposit on the aluminum, plastic or glass bottles of soda, beer, or wine-cooler type drinks that you purchase.  After you have consumed the yummy beverages, you can take them back to recover your deposit.  Money talks, and this has been a most successful way to encourage people to recycle! 

But wait---what's this?  Are people still regularly throwing their beverage containers into the garbage in a state that will give you your deposit money back?!?  I know it's shocking, but it's only too true!  I have an associate at work who will, in my very presence, finish up his soda and then summarily chuck the can or plastic bottle into the garbage.  Now, this is a person who prides himself on being a self-proclaimed "penny-pincher" and always extols his budgeting skills.  So, guy---why ya throwin' your hard-earned cash into the garbage can?  Do you have a money tree growing in your back yard?  Let's say he drinks, on average, five sodas a week and discards his container every time, then he's throwing $13 away every year!  Cha-ching...we have a loser!

Here's some pertinent facts on container recycling from serconline.org :

*  Recycling aluminum cans saves 95 percent of the energy used to make aluminum cans from virgin ore.

* For each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources to generate about 7.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity. That’s enough energy to meet the electric needs of a city the size of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for six years.

* Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours.

* The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will operate  a 100-watt light bulb for over an hour.

*  Deposit states have cited beverage container litter reduction of up to 84% and total litter reduction of up to 41%

* States with a recycling deposit for aluminum cans have an 80% recycling rate of aluminum cans compared to a 46% recycling rate in states which have no deposit.

Despite all the obvious benefits of container recycling, "Twice as many aluminum cans were wasted in 2001 than in 1981" (serconline.org).  What is up with that?  Massachusetts Congressman Edward Markey (a Democrat, of course) is trying to pass the Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act of 2007 that he introduced to the House of Representatives in November of 2007.  If passed, this bill will put a 5 cent deposit on all beverage containers sold in the United States! 

Alle-flippin'-luia!