April 11, 2008 at 3:45 pm (Uncategorized)
Colin Bevin AKA No Impact Man is the person I credit with turning me around from being an armchair environmentalist to one who talks the talk and walks the walk. He had a light bulb moment over a year ago and decided to see if he could live a no impact life for a year. It was a gradual transition to get there and now that his year long project is done, he is deciding what he wants to continue doing. He is also becoming more politically involved.
His post on April 10th talks about what he and his wife have done to decrease the amount of trash they create on a daily basis. I thought it would be a useful thing to pass on and a great way to introduce you to a fascinating person.
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/lv-grn-42-ways.html
1 Comments
April 8, 2008 at 3:53 pm (challenge, pledge)
Tags: Crunchy Chicken, Add new tag, Buy nothing
Crunchy Chicken: Buy Nothing Challenge
One of my favorite blogs is Crunchy Chicken. She has some really interesting challenges. We finished up the Freeze your buns challenge and now she is doing a buy nothing challenge. Since starting my challenge of not buying any clothing for a year, a month of buying nothing seems doable. We are allowed to buy food and other necessities like toilet paper, toothpaste and shampoo (if people still think they are necessary). Garden items and preplanned purchases are exempt. The month long challenge started on April 1st, but I was too busy shopping to post about it. Ha Ha.
I’ve actually been very busy getting my garden put in and I will post about that at a later time. So I really have not had time to buy much. I was even successful at deferring a purchase to my dear old mom. (HI mom) My daughter decided to sew a top and shorts for a 4-H project and she needed fabric. So my mom bought it. (Thanks Mom).
I do have purchases I want to make, namely a pressure canner and more jars. Really not to much else I want.
Anyone else up for not buying anything for the month of April? I’d even exempt the whole first week if you start today. You can sign up with Crunchy at her website or with me, or just do it on your own. Let me know if you want to participate.
2 Comments
April 1, 2008 at 2:49 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: economy, joke, shopping
Yesterday I received my rebate check from the government, woo hoo. I am going shopping! I’m sending my kids to Disney for the day with my parents and I’m going to hit ALL the outlet stores in Orlando. Maybe we will rent a Hummer for the day to drive down there. Thanks for the cash George! I want to do my part for the economy. Spend, spend, spend! We don’t want a recession or even a depression. But what are we trying for? A procession? An excession? Oh who cares, lets buy shoes.
Comments
March 31, 2008 at 10:18 am (challenge, environment, photographs, pledge)
Tags: party, earth day, carpooling
This is a follow up to my post What to wear. My husband was given a five year pin for working for the same company, for you guessed it, 5 years. There was a dinner party planned for all the people getting pins for various numbers of years. You were supposed to dress up for this occasion and the invitation even said semi-formal or business attire. Due to my challenge, I needed to find something to wear from the garbage. Well I think I did pretty well in my selection. This is what I chose to wear.
Click to enlarge
It was very warm outside last Thursday, so I did not want to wear the velvet jacket, but I still wanted some sort of cover-up. While looking for something else, I found this lace jacket that I knew I had but could not find. So I wore it to the event and brought the other jacket for warmth once inside. I never needed the warmer one.
After we arrived and had our picture taken and got drinks, the director from my husbands company called us over. She told my husband that she had a job for him. She thought he should be in charge of organising a bike to work day on Earth Day. I chimed in with “What about walking, busing or carpooling?”. Then she said I should be the co-chair on the project.
After we were seated at a table with four other people and had started eating our dinner, my husband brought up the Earth Day car-less idea. The others at the table were interested in how you could set up a carpooling project so people could find other people who lived near them. If we can figure out a system, we can use it at our church as well. We also discussed cloth grocery bags and how to remember to take them with you.
This was the first event with my husbands company that I actually enjoyed. We had to leave early so I was unable to ask about leftover food, but the Salvation Army was right next door so hopefully they have something worked out with them.
5 Comments
March 27, 2008 at 10:01 am (Riot for Austerity, environment, recycling, reduction, waste)
Tags: consumer goods, electricity, food, Gas, therms, trash, water
I just realized that I needed to post my numbers from February. As part of The Riot For Austerity we usually figure up how we compare to the rest of the country in terms of consumption of resources. We are a family of four, living in the USA, so our numbers are compared to the average American or average American household. There are seven categories.
Gasoline: We purchased 15.2 gallons in Feb which is 8.4% of average. Our 9 month cumulative total is 193.2 gallons or 13% of average. And as reported last month, this does not include the airline trips taken in November.
Electric: We used 212 Kwh from Feb 14 to March 14. The average household uses 900 kwh/month so our usage is 23.5% of average.
Therms: We used 11 therms of natural gas from Feb 14 to March 14. The average household uses 83.3 per month or 1000 therms over the season, since much of it is used for heating. We are using no gas heat, but do heat water and cook with gas. Our usage is 13% of average.
Garbage: We created 6.75 pounds of trash and 19 pounds of recyclables in Feb. Recyclables count 80% of trash so we are at 4% of average. The average person creates 4.5 pounds of garbage per day. A typical family of four would then produce 540 pounds of garbage per month. We have the smallest garbage can the city provides and we could go a whole month before our can was full. I put our trash out every two weeks.
Water: We used 1 kilogallon from Feb 14 to March 14. I was so excited to see it drop. We have been at 2 Kg since last Oct. The average person uses 100 gallons of water per day. That is 400 gallons per day for a family of four and 12 Kg a month. Our 1 Kg is 8% of average.
Consumer Goods. We spent atleast $33.84 in Feb which would be 4% of average. That is twp purchases. $20 for bicycle tires and one dinner out when I was sick(excuses, excuses). I will concede that there may be purchases I don’t remember, but even so I am sure we are under 10%. The average American household spends $10,000 a year or $833 a month.
Food: This category is always hard for me. I just guess what I think we eat and spend money on and then I double check what my husband thinks. Last month was 20% local and I think that has increased to 25%. The bulk category has gone from 50% to 45% and I think the wet, conventional, processed food is still at 30%
In summary our gas use dropped in half from Jan to Feb, Electric went up 2.5 percentage points, Nat gas use went down by 2 therms, Garbage has been dropping and went from 7% to 4%. Water use dropped in half. Consumer goods is lower because I just have decided not to buy much. And the food category is pretty much the same with a move in the right direction….towards local!
5 Comments
March 25, 2008 at 10:58 am (challenge, clothing, dumpster diving, photographs)
Tags: dresses, party, semi-formal
I am hardly ever in a quandary about what to wear. However, my husband will be awarded a five year pin from the company that he works for and we have both been invited to the awards ceremony and dinner. For some reason it is a semi-formal event. Now what are the chances that I will find an appropriate semi-formal outfit? Well excellent if I could go shopping for one. But due to my challenge, I am constrained to do my shopping from a dumpster.
Well, you might not think that I could pull this off. But then you could be wrong. I actually have found quite a few semi and even formal dresses. My only hardships have been finding the right size.
The above outfits are about the right size except the last one which is a beautiful white suit in a 22w. I believe I have ruled them all out except for maybe the black sweater and pink skirt. The coral dress actually looks better on me than on the hanger and oddly the silver one looks much better on the hanger. The navy blue dress with the tie in the middle just got laughed at and the brown suit is a tad too small.
I have found a very nice dress that is just one size too large. It is a long dress with a high waist. The material is a dark floral sheer and there is a velvet ribbon along the bodice. It is sleeveless and very modest in front, but it does have a plunging V in the back that means a bra cannot be worn. I’m going to assume that I will be freezing, since I always am at these kinds of events. I will be wearing a velvet jacket, I think, over the dress. This may be the one I ultimately chose.
As I have said before, I am not one for high fashion. I am a simple girl who prefers jeans and a t-shirt. Sometimes I enjoy dressing up a bit, but usually not to this extent. I sure hope the food is good. Maybe I will get up the nerve to ask what they are doing with the leftover food.
What do you think of my choice of outfit? I’ll try to have a picture taken of me wearing this ensemble so you can see just how beautiful wearing garbage can be.
3 Comments
March 20, 2008 at 8:26 pm (challenge, clothing, dumpster diving, photographs, pledge, waste)
Tags: clothing
I have been so busy with spring planting, oh and life, that I have not posted for a while. I did another few loads of laundry today and was folding some of the fantastic finds and I thought “I need to photograph some of these and post them”. So I did. If you click on the photos they will enlarge.
My latest trip to myfavoritedumpster yielded an enormous bounty. I found a 100% cotton creme colored king size fitted sheet. No stains and only one small hole that maybe you could get a pencil through.
I found several dresses near my size.
Maybe 6-8 bras in various sizes, a couple that might fit. One is even a wonder bra. I haven’t tried it on yet. No picture of those.
I found a very colorful skirt with black trim and a black shirt to go with it. I wore them to church last Sunday. My minister was awestruck, (she knows about my pledge now). That is, my pledge to wear only clothes I find in the trash.
I found a bag with material in it and another bag full of ribbon. I found quite a few large pieces of muslin type material, but only took the piece that did not have mildew on it.
One very exciting thing was a box of brand new canning jar lids and rings. It was like the universe new of my plans to can this summer.
Every single time I go to this dumpster I am amazed at the things I find. I am in a quandary about wishing the clothes were not thrown in the dumpster. If they were not, then there are a lot of people who would not get free clothing. Sure, I am one of those people, but honestly I can afford to buy what I need. There are people who can’t. I just wish the clothes could go to the people who really need them. I also wish the people who really need them did not have to dig them out of a dumpster. There has to be some other way for this to work. I’m just not sure yet what that is.
4 Comments
March 12, 2008 at 8:39 pm (environment, recycling, reduction, waste)
Tags: catalog choice, do not mail, junk mail
Have you ever received a catalog and thought, “Why do they send me this, I’ll never order any of this stuff.” After saying that do you then throw the catalog in the recycle bin or worse the trash, and then forget about it till they send you yet another catalog? Well, there really is more you could do. You could call the 800 number at the back of the catalog and tell them you don’t want their catalog sent to you anymore. You could do that for every catalog you get. Well you say, “I get 100 different catalogs a month. There is no way I am calling 100 different companies. It is their waste anyway not mine”. Well if there is something you could do to stop it, it is your responsibility and your waste as well.
I was grateful to find Catalog Choice. I was able to enter all the catalogs I received into their database and finally am only getting a couple catalogs a week. There are a few companies that do not honor Catalog Choice and I will be calling one of them tonight to give them a few choice words. You are able to keep getting whichever ones you want, specifying those you don’t want. They even let you change your mind.
Now you say hey, “If they only did that for junk mail”. Or “What about a do not mail list like the do not call list?” Well it is up to you and me and our Government to make that happen. If you would like to support legislation to help stop unwanted junk mail, check out this site. DO NOT MAIL.
Five years after the national Do Not Call Registry became the most popular consumer rights bill in history, conservation group ForestEthics launched its campaign for a Do Not Mail Registry to give Americans the choice to stop wasteful, annoying and environmentally destructive junk mail that also fosters identity theft. Please support this by signing their petition.
Recycling your catalogs and junk mail is not the answer. Most catalogs and junk mail are printed on virgin paper products. That means trees were cut down to send you mail you did not want. 100 million trees a year are cut down just to make junk mail. Save a tree, save a lot of trees. Stop the junk mail. Stop the waste.
2 Comments
March 10, 2008 at 7:48 pm (disposables, recycling, waste)
Tags: airlines, bottled water, Delta
One of my readers asked if I knew what airlines did with all their empty water bottles. I did some on-line research and found a lot of really useless information. A few things were interesting like this blog by a Delta airlines employee that is gung ho recycling.
Delta Air Lines Blog | In-Flight Recycling: Rethinking trash Here is an excerpt.
One June 1, 2007, Delta became the first US airline to launch a comprehensive recycling program for our domestic flights into Atlanta, Georgia. Flight Attendants collect Aluminum cans, plastic bottles, “Enjoy” plastic trays, plastic beverage cups as well as newspapers and magazines for recycling. Catering and Cabin Service crews play a critical roll in the program by ensuring the materials are placed into dedicated recycling dumpsters.
I did not find any other glowing reports and sadly according to this article “Trash Landings: How Airlines and Airports Can Clean Up Their Recycling Programs”, The NRDC says:
The airline industry threw out 9,000 tons of plastic in 2004, and enough newspapers and magazines to bury a football field more than 230 feet deep. Nationwide, U.S. airports generated 425,000 tons of waste in 2004 — a figure expected to increase nearly 45 percent by 2015. Each passenger today leaves behind 1.3 pounds of trash, the researchers found. Seventy five percent of this waste is recyclable or compostable. Yet the industry-wide recycling rate is 20 percent or less — one third less than the U.S. average as a whole.
Now, that article was written several years ago, so things may have changed a little. Being green is becoming more popular and profitable. What I found out, is that some airlines do a little recycling and some don’t do any. It seems that Delta has the best recycling program right now. I flew Delta back in November and was impressed by the flight attendant’s efforts to collect recyclables. If you want to read more information about different airlines recycling policies, read the article at this link. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_5_13/ai_99118806
My personal policy is that if I have anything that is recyclable, I will carry it to wherever it will get recycled. Sometimes that means I carry cans or bottles in my purse or backpack until I get home or to a recycle bin.
Comments
March 8, 2008 at 11:20 am (Wardrobe Refashion, challenge, clothing, dumpster diving, waste)
Tags: Sewing, T shirt surgery
I was able to visit myfavoritedumpster on Thursday. Then Friday it rained all day long. There were even at least 4 tornadoes here in North Florida. It is always best to go before it rains, because if you go after you may run into a lot of wet clothes.
I have broadened my vision in regards to what I decide to bring home. I signed up for Wardrobe Refashion and need to refashion something. So my sights are set on finding garments that have interesting fabrics or patterns. So I am going to be working on coming up with ways to combine pieces of clothing and make new ones.
I have spent several hours recently at the fabric store looking at patterns. I’m especially looking for ones that can be pieced together from two, three, or four different garments. I also am waiting for the patterns to go on sale. I have a couple that I could use, but can always use more. If you were wondering, I will not be buying any fabric, or even using any from my stash, to make clothing. All homemade clothing will be made from fabric and/or garments found in the trash.
There are several websites that talk about remaking clothes. This site http://community.livejournal.com/t_shirt_surgery, is all about how to remake t shirts. If your shirt is too big, too small, has a hole, a stain or is ugly, check out this site for some inspiration.
When I decide what I will be refashioning, I will post pictures of the before and when I finish, the after. If you know of any great sites, fill me in. Thanks.
1 Comments
« Previous entries · Next entries »
