Be more green

Earth Day!

So I helped organize a showing of the new environmental doc- Everything’s Cool. We showed it 5 times throughout the day, and we had people show up to watch it. A lot more wanted to come, but an hour is a big commitment these days.

I take a shuttle bus to my Consortium class each week instead of driving (yay for carpooling-ish-kind-of-stuff!)

Plastic Bag Statistics

• It takes1000 years for a plastic bag to decompose.
• The average family in the United States uses 1,460 plastic bags per year.
• 12 million barrels of oil are used annually to produce the plastic bags used in the U.S.
• Less than 1% of all plastic bags get recycled in the U.S.
• 88.5 billion plastic bags were consumed in the U.S. last year.
• Worldwide, more than a million plastic bags are used every minute.
• Roughly 60–80% of all marine debris, and 90% of floating debris is plastic.
• Each year, the State of California spends approximately $25 million to landfill discarded plastic bags.
• Plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish or sponges, cause harm to seabirds, marine mammals, fish, and sea turtles.

PS- At the coffeeshop at my school, you can get cups of water free of charge. The only catch is that you have to use the clear plastic cups they provide.

I fill up my cup, drink, and take it home to re-use. Next time I plan on going back there (err, tomorrow?) I’ll being it back and use it again.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, restore.

I will unplug my appliances when I am not using them. Especially the cell phone charger. I often forget it.

I will shut off my printer when not using it (because I rarely do use it anywho)

what one of my friends does?

He brings a re-use-able tupperware container with him whenever he goes out to eat

So he can bring home any leftovers in it.

What a great idea! I hate the thought of using Styrofoam anywho. I just always forgot. Solution? Leave a plastic container in the car, for whenever I may need it.

I just found out you can bring your re-usable coffee cup to the Coffeeshop at our school and fill it up (it used to be that you had to use the paper cups they provided). This made me happy. I will do this sometime :)

I stopped by my local coffeeshop today for a spot of tea to go. And lo and behold, they give me a styrofoam cup. I was uncomfortable and felt like a traitor to the environmental movement.

I think I will e-mail them and see if we can get an alternative? Or at least allow the use of re-useable travel mugs? Because the place is pretty amazing otherwise. :)

My mom told me recently that I’ve inspired her to do all sorts of things. They recycle at home because of me. They keep the heat down and shut off lights and such. Cool beans!

My mom expressed interest in cloth bags for the market recently. I had bought her some last Christmas but hadn’t given them to her for whatever reason. So I gave her 5 high-quality cloth bags from Trader Joe’s.

And the wonderful news is that she’s using them all the time. She keeps a few in the car. It warms my heart to know that she’s trying and that less plastic bags are being used now.

<3

I brought my ceramic coffee mug to work so I can get coffee in the break room and not have to use [gasp] styrofoam. I wash out the mug in the sink there after I use and take it home each week to formally scrub it out. I’ve found a lot of my co-workers either write their name on their styrofoam cups or bring their own ceramic mugs from home.

My mom almost bought a cheapo reusable cloth bag from Big Y yesterday. I advised her against it. It was cheap and looked like it would break apart easily…... I told her I have a bunch – actually I have a dozen cloth bags and I only use a few at a time – I’ll just give her a few of mine – and we can both be green! ...because, in all honesty, these silly plastic bags add up, we have sooo many lying around at home – we don’t throw ‘em out – but we also can’t reuse them fast enough either.

I painted.

You know what I painted on?

An old folder I had received an award on in high school. It was the perfect texture and size for painting.

And you know what kind of surface I put my painting materials on?

Recycled newsprint.

And do you know what I used as a pallet and to clean my brush with?

Why, a recycled Earth Balance butter cover and it’s container filled with water.

And you know what I painted with?

An old toothbrush. It worked wonders!

And you know what that old toothbrush was made of?

Recycled yogurt cups. Courtesy of Stonybrook Farms. Made by Recycline.

And you know what I did with the toothbrush after I painted with it?

Why, I made a bracelet out of it.

Doesn’t everyone do that?

Gosh, I feel green. :)