Flatten Juice Boxes

I used to just crumple our used juice boxes and toss them in a plastic bag. We'd have a bulky, sticky mess that my husband hated to recycle.

Then a friend of mine said to me "Really? You don't flatten them?".

Me: "Flatten them? Seriously? What a good idea. I never thought of that." (I'm bright, but we all have our dull moments.)

Now this is what I do. I unfold all the corners and flatten them. I can now fit 30+ into a bag that previously only held ten of the crumpled ones. I even elasticize them together in little packs of ten. I feel like Martha Stewart, lol.

The best part of this is I can now WALK them up to the depot myself because I can now fit them into my pack-and-go wheelie cart.

(If this is the highlight of my week, does that mean I need to get out more? ;)

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Turning Household Recycling Into A Garden Gadget

Here's a trick I tried today that I thought I'd pass on.

I have some cherry tomato plants that are now producing fruit that isn't quite ready to be picked. I forget the name of the strain of plant, but they grow low to the ground. I'm out of string and was looking for another way to prop them up so they don't sag to the ground.

I took some plastic forks and removed the middle two tines, and presto! Plant prop. They're a little too short to reach some of the branches, but I attached a couple of them to the tops of small over-turned planters and they worked perfectly :)




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Recycling Plastic Bags

Here's a handy reference (in Canada), listed by province, of which municipalities will accept plastic bags for recycling:

http://www.myplasticbag.ca/municipaldatabase/default.php

I knew that our neighbourhood was one of them, and have always included them in our blue bin, but have never separated them from the other plastics (oops ;) I now resolve to sort them, per the www.myplasticbag.ca suggestion, as follows:

1. Turn bags inside-out to ensure they are empty and free of debris.
2. Stuff them all into one bag.
3. Tie it closed.
4. Include in curbside pick up.

Here are some other plastic bag recycling tidbits I've learned:

• Plastic bags with the number 7 on them are not always recyclable - check with your municipality first.
• Numbers 2 and 4 are recyclable (2 is high-density polyethylene film, or HDPE, and 4 is low density or linear-low density polyethylene film, or LDPE/LLDPE)
• Food wrap (such as saran wrap) is not recyclable.

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Can You Put Styrofoam In Compost?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that Styrofoam can be used to aerate compost. Because it doesn't decompose or absorb water, if you break it into small pieces and mix it in with your compost it will help to increase air access.

I did a quick google to try and learn more and found a good article at blogonsmog.com that covers this and some other suggestions as to what you can do with Styrofoam:


1) Find a local industrial composting company who will take the Styrofoam to aerate their compost (if you have too much to use in your own compost).

2) Offer large clean pieces to schools, community centres and craft stores for re-use in craft projects.

3) Break them up into small pieces and save them for home projects such as bean bag chairs or dog beds.

4) Find a recycling company that can take Styrofoam and ship it there.


I like the dog bed idea... lol... I might try that one myself :-)
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Green TP!

In my Saving Money blog I posted about a Shopper's Drug Mart sale on toilet paper ... what I didn't mention was that one of the brands on sale (the brand I bought) is Bio Life toilet tissue. It's made from 100% recycled material and it's septic safe.

Economic and green :-)
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Did You Know That Only About Half of Aluminum Cans Are Recycled?

The percentage of aluminum recovered is currently 54% in the US - so just under half of the cans distributed end up in landfills.

That was a shock to me - I had no idea so many cans are still not being recycled. I'm guessing that the majority of this happens when consumers are out and don't have easy access to recycling bins - they must then simply throw out their cans rather than transport them somewhere else.

What is the answer, I wonder? We need to spread the word and continue educating those around us who don't bother to recycle, for one.

Any other ideas?
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Green Halloween

Mwah ha ha ha... (eeeek!!!)

I consider myself to be more green than average, but for a one day a year event I'm willing to let my green standards slide a bit. Life is about balance, after all.

Then it occurred to me that we're already pretty green in our approach to Halloween. Check it out:

1) Our kids carry the same pumpkin shaped buckets every year.

2) They're wearing the same costumes as last year (their choice).

3) We use tea light candles in our pumpkins instead of flashlights.

4) We roast and eat the pumpkin seeds, and compost the rest of the pumpkin.

5) We keep most of the interior lights in the house off to make it more spooky (leaving enough light outside for trick or treaters to see, of course).

6) My kids have been trained to not litter, or walk through people's gardens.

I'm sure there are more, but the time has come to get the kids up for school. Maybe I'll continue this, after the event, if I notice anything else noteworthy.

Happy Halloween, everyone!!

There Aren`t That Many Plastic Bottles In Landfills...

Ha! I knew that banning water from vending machines was a, um, "less than perfect" solution (don't get me started on that one again ;-)

According to a Global TV news story tonight, plastic water bottles don't take up much of our landfills at all, and most are already reused in British Columbia.

Here's a breakdown they gave for some of the local landfill contents:

wood waste - 22 %
paper and cardboard - 14 %
food waste - 13 %
plastic bags - 1%
plastic water bottles - less than 1 %

I find the paper and cardboard stat a little frustrating. I know there are people who don`t have the space to compost, but anyone can keep a box or bin in the corner to stash paper products for recycling. Why there isn`t more of a spotlight on that 14% landfill content is beyond me.

Leave our healthy bottled water alone!!!

Recycling Batteries

This is something I've never done. I did a quick check and found a local company called Nu-Life Industries that I'm going to check out. I'll let you know what I find out - meanwhile I'm prepping for our trip on Sunday. No time for recycling batteries until we get back, but then I'm going to look into this more closely. Having two young kids we go through a lot of batteries, so this is an area where I can make a difference.

That's all for now!