Nearly Green » Conservation

That’s A Wrap

Jessica — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:45:39 +0000

Now that we have all come home with our treasures from shopping it’s time to start thinking about wrapping up some of the gifts. That is unless you are like me and like to torture yourself by having to wrap everything the night before. Here are a few eco-friendly wrapping ideas to consider.

Blooming Wrapping Paper by Uncommon Goods $20.00 This paper is a gift in itself and creates no waste because you simply plant the paper add a little water and have yourself a wonderful bouquet of wildflowers in the spring.

Giant Santa Sack by Great Big Stuff $8.77 If you have a really big gift that you’d like to wrap this reusable red sack is the perfect fit.

Recycled Wrapping Paper from Redstamp $6.00 I love the alternative designs like skulls and pimp my sleigh. They are perfect for the teens on your list.

Peace Wrap by Zola Goods $5.99 This cloth-like paper is beautiful and made from shedding tree bark so no trees have to be cut to produce this paper.

Tis the Season Eco Bag from Sweet Organics and Naturals $4.25 This is an amazing bag that is made from post consumer, manufacturing fiber waste, and sugar cane manufacturing waste. I can’t wait to try these out myself. The site also contains other great gift ideas so make sure to shop around a bit.

So What Can I Do?

Eco-wrapping can be a little expensive to get started so you can choose just a few pieces this year that you can keep in the family like wrapping for the kids or spouse. This way you get extra value out of your purchase. Not only do you get great eco-friendly wrapping alternatives but you also get to reuse them next year.
If you’re anything like me you have a whole closet full of wrapping paraphernalia already so the thought of buying more sends shivers down your back. Good news though you can still think green even if your wrapping supplies are not. I just ask my family for any unclaimed gift bags, tissue paper, and good quality bows, ribbon, or wrapping paper to recycle. That way I can limit my out-of-pocket expenses and limit landfill additions by reusing cast-offs by family and friends.
You can get cute shopping totes to package gifts for your friends that still have an addiction to the plastic bag. It serves two purposes by having a multifunction wrapping alternative while showing your friend just how practical the bags are and hopefully converting them one bag at a time. The Disney Store and Toys-R-Us have great ones for your more whimsical friends while Boarders and Barnes and Noble have some nice bags with a more classic twist. Be on the look out for my post on the best shopping totes available on the web.

A Few Things To Think About As You Give Thanks

Jessica — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:28:12 +0000

Typically when you think of Thanksgiving you think of a plentiful bounty with more than enough to go around however, that isn’t the case for a lot of people in the world. So I wanted to give you a list of 5 environmental issues that are plaguing the world right now and why I’m thankful for the changes I’m making to my life.

These are not in order of importance because I feel that all environmental issue deserve our understanding and support.

Plastic Bags: Nothing is ever really free (in the case of material things) and the cost of this one seemingly harmless item is higher than most people realize. Animals both land and more specifically marine animals treat these bags as food and most pay with their lives. Sea Turtles mistake the plastic bags as jellyfish and suffer needlessly until their inevitable death. You can read more about the issue here.

Continuing Deforestation of the Amazon and Forests: There is a great article that was done out of the University of Michigan that describes why this is an issue that we should all be concerned with here. The obvious reason for the need for trees is to help cleanse the Earth. Trees have the ability to pull toxins out of the air and release the essential oxygen that we all need to survive. They are also home to hundreds of species of animals that are slowly vanishing from our world in our lifetime. You would think that our biggest culprit is the paper industry but in reality it is cattle farming. The Amazon has given way to it’s most significant amount of deforestation to make way for cattle farms because Brazil is the leading exporter of beef.

Toxins in the essential products we use everyday. We are finding more and more that products made in the name of convenience and economically were done so with out proper testing. So now we are left with plastics that can cause cancers and pans that maybe easier to clean but can make us sick.

Global Warming: National Geographic has a great fast fact article if you are interested. I don’t know if this issue is what we need to spend a lot of time with since the media has either blow it up or discounted it all together. Whatever you believe I think the fact that the weather is changing can not be argued but the cause of it may still be up for debate.

Clean drinking water for all people. Thirst Relief International states that 1.1 billion people in the world lack access to clean drinking water. This figure to me is unbelievable because to me this is a basic necessity and is something that people should not have to worry about but because of contamination of ground water supplies and waterways this basic need is not available to people throughout the world. This can become an issue even in industrialized countries if contaminates leak into the ground water and it is not tested frequently.

I know when I sit down to my dinner and look at the bounty in front of me and my family I will be thankful that the changes that we are making and continue to make will be moving us in the direction of a more environmental conscious family. I know that we are only one family and that overall what we do makes very little impact in the larger scope of things but if thousands of families start to make similar changes to the way they live we may start to get somewhere.

I think that Margaret Mead’s quote says it best:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Proud To Be A Bag Lady

Jessica — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:33:35 +0000

A couple of posts ago I mentioned an article that made me stop and think about my plastic bag use and put me on the path to a greener future and I wanted to share that with you. However, I couldn’t find that exact article but I did find several other posts that stated some of the same facts that I found in the article that I read a little over a year ago. You can check out Suite 101’s Say No To Plastic Bags article here. Or you can read Worldwatch Institutes’s article on plastic bags. Both of these articles give similar facts and both are enough to scare the heck out of me and put a twinge of guilt in my stomach over the last plastic bag I received. I think beyond the fact that it takes 1000 years for the bags to degrade is the fact that marine and wildlife think that these bags are food and then die painful deaths when they eat them. Plastic bags can resemble jellyfish in the ocean and often have food residue in them that entices wildlife to investigate and ingest.

So I have vowed to officially become a bag lady. This wasn’t all that hard of a stretch for me since I love bags and purses of all kinds and this gave me a reason to buy super cute recyclable tote bags all in the name of greener grocery shopping. I know that it isn’t really financially reasonable to buy all the bags you would need to get all of the groceries that you need any given week especially if you buy groceries like I do. What I did was buy one bag each week with my regular grocery shopping. Wal-Mart and Meijer both sell bags for 99 cents that work well with their bag holders (that’s so the cashier doesn’t grumble too much when you bring your bags). I have also found that most other major retailers are now selling their own branded recyclable bags. My favorites though are from the Disney Store and Toys’R'Us with bright fun prints and favorite characters I love showing them off. Their prices range from $1.99-$5.50 and are completely worth it to me. I have also washed all of my bags at least once and I have to say that they are holding up nicely although they won’t last forever they are completely recyclable.

If you prefer getting all your bags at once you can take a look at Cheap Totes and Tan’s Club both offer a variety of cotton tote and grocery bags sold in bulk or singles. You can also take a look at ebay for deals on totes.

So What Can I Do?

You can start by changing out one plastic bag for one recyclable bag each week until you have enough bags to complete a week’s worth of shopping. You can also not have them bag the bigger items like laundry soap, milk, and tp paper to save on space and bags. It may mean a few more trips into the house from the car but I always like a bit more exercise.

Take a large bag with you to the mall when you shop so you can simply tuck your purchase in your bag verses taking a store bag. I always put the receipts in my purse so I can make sure nothing gets lost.

Help your friends make the switch by using cute totes to wrap presents in this holiday season instead of gift bags. It makes a simple gift that much better by giving a two for one present. I am going to be making Santa sacks this year for my kids instead of wrapping their gifts from Santa. I’ll be posting this craft possibly later this month so stay tuned.

What Happens To Teddy When The Love Stops?

Jessica — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:56:50 +0000

Is your house currently being overrun by invaders of he cute and fuzzy? I know that mine is and I didn’t have a clue what to do with all the stuffed creatures that are currently occupying all of the closets, shelves, and baskets in my house. That was until I stumbled upon Stuffed Animals for Emergencies that excepts new and previously loved stuffed animals, books, toys, and baby blankets to distribute to kids that have been the victim of natural and domestic emergencies.

SAFE (smart acronym) is currently supporting AdoptaPlatoon for their Operation Crayon where they give small stuffed animals to children in the areas that we are currently supporting as a humanitarian gesture. There is also Beanies for Baghdad that excepts beanie babies for similar humanitarian operations.

Personally, my niece and I are going to try to plan a teddy drive in our area to help before the holidays. If I can get things organized I’ll post details and pictures of the event. I think that this is a wonderful way to recycle all those teddy bears that are in need of a new home. Let me know if you plan on donating or have donated in the past to either these organizations or one I haven’t heard of yet. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

So What Can I Do?

Collect all of your gentle loved stuffed creatures, children’s books, and baby blankets and then find your local SAFE chapter to donate.

Start a teddy drive or beanie baby drive to collect and donate.

Contact your local homeless shelter, American Red Cross, or women’s shelter to see if they accept gently loved items.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Jessica — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:00:38 +0000

So often I find myself just going through the motions of life. Doing things simply because that is how I’ve always done them or how my mom had done them in the past and never really questioning if that was really what was the best thing to do. It took a magazine article to really make me stop and think about how I was living and if how my family was living really made the most sense. When I stepped back and looked at everything I realized that no we were not living in a way that I could really respect anymore. So that one article put me and my family on the path to a less consumer focused and less wasteful way of living.

So how do you start to decrease your carbon foot-print? We started small and really simply started by becoming more conscious of what we were doing on a daily basis that really was wasteful and never added value to our lives. So for me the first change was simply shutting off the water when I was brushing my teeth or washing my face. I had no idea that I could be wasting as much as 4 gallons of water while I was brushing my teeth. Really 4 gallons that’s just crazy I couldn’t believe that and it made me take notice.

I’m not perfect though sometimes when I’m tired I still fail to turn off the faucet when the water isn’t serving any purpose but I try everyday to make that effort. However, each day I have to think about it less and eventually I won’t even have to think about it will just be something that I do. Having toddlers in the house does make this a little more difficult as any mother who has walked into the bathroom and stepped into an unexpected puddle of water and their smiling soaking child well knows.

Here is a link to a list of water facts that I thought was pretty interesting .click here