Reduce, re-use & recycle

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Linda Ann on September 18, 2008 at 11:34pm

Anna this is a super discussion. Have you checked out the " gorgerously green" book yet.
My house has alot of "antiques" , they were "secondhand" or "thirdhand" when my husband and I got married over 30 years ago. We also recycle thru a non-profit club in town. The price of gas has really helped us. We just do not go in the car on a whim anymore, an unexpcted "good" of the increase in fuel prices. We do not buy newspapers anymore, read news online. My entire family brown bags lunches daily work and school, we reuse the brown bags. We actually see who long we can use the same bag over before it just pulverizes. ( a game in the family)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anna on September 18, 2008 at 11:54pm

Hey Linda!
I don't have that book, but I just finished reading "The Green Book". My thrift shop friend gave me "It's Easy Being Green" and "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle", Thus the name of the post. I thought it was great and I don't think there is any other way to say it except that way. It kind of says everything.
I have to say, I still subscribe to the paper, but I also reuse and recycle it. We use them for the dog when we go out, we leave one for him to do his business. My daughter's girl scout troop has been working on a community project and they save and take newspapers to the local animal shelters. My town also requires us to recycle them.
I like the paper bag idea to. I have always saved plastic bags and re-used them, but just within the last month is when I started saving the smaller paper bags. I save the big ones from the market to put our paper re-cycling in on trash day. I have also started bringing my own bags to the stores. I have alot of tote bags and finally have a decent way of using them.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Linda Ann on September 19, 2008 at 12:03am

Anna, it's kinda of funny in a sense how we are reverting to old ways. When I used to go to the local grocer for my Boosha, she would give me a big heavy canvas bag to carry back, it was in the 60's but I remember that bag. Now look we are doing the same. In the days, the people who migrated to the US took nothing for granted, glass milk jugs, rain water for the garden, (which we still do) and home gardens. I guess they were the smartest and best generation. (the people for the depression)
Keep it green Anna.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anna on September 19, 2008 at 12:13am

Oh Linda, do I know what you mean! My parents are from the old country and I still have relatives there. I was even born there, and my parents brought me here when I was a year old. In actuality, none of my aunts had ever heard of getting a bag from a grocer, they all had these net like bags that as you filled up, they just kept getting bigger and you could put a ton of stuff in them.
My father keeps to his old ways. He has 3 gardens on his property and waters them using rainwater he collects in barrels. Its all organic. His trash is less then a full bag a week and he is so good at reusing things he hardly ever throws anything out. They really were a smart generation. I'm very glad he is willing to teach me how to make my garden work. He has an apple and 2 pear trees. My mother makes jars of everything they don't eat and they have it all winter. They really don't waste anything. Even stale bread, they make bread crumbs.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bren from Rivendell on September 19, 2008 at 12:17am

Linda,
someone who remember the past ages of the earth like me??? Falling down laughing on the inside! I thought I was the only one who remembered glass milk bottles, soda bottles (that didn't cost $6/4) and praying those pups wouldn't break on the way home (for those who didn't have a MILKMAN (OMG)....rain barrels, hanging clothes outside (oh the sheets at night)....mmmm....sweetest dream...only 3 channels and the TV went off at 10:00...
shoot, now I just remembered how young I am...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anna on September 19, 2008 at 12:21am

Oh Bren, hanging laundry out... You know my mother has never owned a dryer? I hated it when I was a kid, all the other kids had dryers in thier house and it was just a cool thing to have. So after we bought our house, I had my husband put in a clothes line and I use it whenever I can. We figured out that not only does it save money (about $35.00 a month) not using the dryer, but our clothes and sheets smell better after drying in the sun and wind. I love it and if I could hang out our laundry all year, I would.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bren from Rivendell on September 19, 2008 at 2:14am

Oh that I could now, between the covenant of my neighborhood, pollution and the damn "no-seeum" bugs and crap we have here in the outskirts of Atanta, there no chance. I do dry my rugs on the fence and I have sweater racks all over my upstairs and special hangers to air dry as much as I can however....still not the same...sigh...missing the country life I left behind...but not THREE MILE ISLAND WHICH POISONED THIS PRINCESS' PRECIOUS ARSE!
bren

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anna on September 19, 2008 at 12:30am

Boy do I know what you mean about the soda bottles. I don't buy soda much and now when I do its more like a treat for my kids. I keep some on hand cause my father likes it when he visits. I try and find the organic ones.
I miss the milk in glass bottles to. I remember the milkman still came to deliver at my house when I was little. I remember how sweet the buttermilk tasted...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bren from Rivendell on September 19, 2008 at 2:18am

In the countryside of central PA, the milkman still delivered when my girls were little. Put the milk in the mudroom, there's another concept of bygone days...my husbands family own all of the land you see on I-83 going from Maryland into PA, in PA the first 2 exits...most in a small burg of Glen Rock and Glenville..much more...they are going organic...dairy farmers...fresh corn on the cob, digging in the dirt, bare feet, canning all the time...I've got great canning recipes. There's a great book called "Stocking Up" that y'all can check out..its got good recipes...but I digress.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anna on September 19, 2008 at 12:01am

Linda,
I just re-read your post and was wondering, does this non-profit club run a recycling center? Or is this non-profit a recycling non-profit?
Also, I was wondering about the brown bag 'game'. My daughter has a lunch tote she brings for her lunch, but my son brown bags it. I don't know if it'll fly with him. My husband uses a cooler for work and I can't return to work just yet, but when I do, I work as a nanny so I'm usually near enough to either thir home or mine to have a good lunch. I guess I'm trying to ask how do I go about explaining to a 14 year old boy to bring his lunch bag home? I mean, its not cool to do that in front of his friends.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bren from Rivendell on September 19, 2008 at 2:20am

If he folds it right, it should fit in a book or in his pocket. You'd be surprised how "cool" being green is getting to be even in the younger set...be a trendsetter!

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Anna on September 19, 2008 at 9:44am

Your absolutely right. But the thing is, when your 14 and with your buddies, folding up a paper lunch bag is not the cool thing to do, let alone, bring home the baggie for me to rinse out and re-use, hahaha! I discussed it with him on the way to school this morning and he agreed its kind of a nerdy thing to do, but if he feels comfortable he'll do it. We'll see....

▶ Reply to This

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6