So...Many...Catalogs...

OMfreakingG...Why does Macy's have to send SO many catalogs out? Seriously they send like 3 per week sometimes - clothes, casuals and home. Each one of these is like a novel in size and none of it is really anything I want to buy. Hell, I don't even look at them anymore because it's totally boring. Thus they go straight into the recycle. And when you combine Macy's with REI and Black&White and other random crap that I've never even bought from...that's a lot of waste. Ok yes, it does get recycled but that still takes resources and energy and creates some waste.

Today I discovered a site called Catalog Choice where you give your info and the info of the catalogs you no longer want and they'll make sure you stop getting them. Now will it work? I don't know yet, I plan to sign up for it tonight. If it does, however, I'll be the happiest girl in the world because it's near-impossible to contact the corporation/company and make it clear that you want no more catalogs...bastards....

Anyway, I'm thinking that all companies need to just switch to email ads and catalogs anyway. Those are great b/c i just label them and archive them so when I do want to check out sales/coupons I can just go into my folder and find what I need. Doesn't waste my time, nor does it waste paper or energy etc. Wave of the future, people, c'moN!! =)

The other option is for Macy's to get famous movie stars on their covers. For example, if this were Drew Barrymore I'd hang it on my wall and admire it always. (Ok, slight sarcasm, but it may work for some...).

Green Holiday Tips

IT'S CHRISTMASTIME! Ok, well, at least I'm trying to psyche myself up for the Holidays even though I'm guessing this year I'll probably get coal (getting older is a bitch) and only a couple people have RSVP'd to my White Elephant Gift party =(. However, what I'm still psyched about is being green and luckily, green is one of the colors of Christmas! So here are some tips courtesy of the Denver Zoo and modified by me. Did you know that the Zoo is doing it's part to be green this year by using all LED lights in their Zoo Lights display? LED lights use 1% of the energy of traditional lights and 10% of the energy of little lights.  Also, if you guys are local, definitely check this out...it's going to be AWESOME!

Denver Zoo Lights!

Go green this year for Christmas
Your Christmas Tree

• After the holidays, don’t just throw your tree away- Recycle it! Denver Recycles offers free pick up of your Christmas tree.  Visit their website, www.recycleyourchristmastree.com, for specific rules and regulations regarding when and how to have your tree picked up.  They list tree pick up by county to make it easy for anyone in Colorado to recycle their tree. (out-of-staters check for something like this in your area!)
• Instead of purchasing new ornaments this year for trimming your tree, try edible or compostable items like popcorn or cranberries on a string, gingerbread cookies or items made from recycled objects around your home.
• Or...get a fake tree! Reuseable every year!

Your Holiday Decor Purchase holiday lights made with energy-saving, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. LEDs use only a fraction of the energy of conventional bulbs and are much better for the environment. LEDs use only about one percent of the power of standard (C7) holiday lights, and about 10 percent of the power in mini-lights. Try www.environmentallights.com.  Get outdoor light strands that are wired in parallel. These have separate circuitry so that if one bulb blows out the rest will keep shining; all you have to do is replace the bulb rather than the entire strand of lights. Strands sold with series wiring stand or fall together, making it almost impossible to find and replace a single blown-out bulb. Sending Your Holiday Cards Send E-Cards and you will not waste a single tree. Send cards made of 100 percent recycled paper or tree-free cards made by environmental organizations. In addition to "tree free" cards, you can get cards made of old subway maps, cards made of recycled junk mail, and cards that you can plant which are imbedded with a seed mixture that will grow in the spring. Glue pictures from old cards onto homemade or store-bought recycled paper to create new cards.Yay crafty! Glue pretty paper on the inside of old cards to cover previous writing--and send them again. Avoid cards with glossy, shiny or gold foil coatings since these cannot be recycled. Look for the PCF label on cards (Processed Chlorine Free) -- they're printed on unbleached paper.   What to Buy During Your Holiday Shopping Try making something for those that you love.  People love to get homemade cookies, fudge, bread, or jam Other gifts that will create little to no waste include things like concert or movie tickets, a gift certificate for dinner, or an IOU for services such as a massage, cooking a meal, or baby sitting. Planting a tree is great because you can do it together. Make it a contest for your kids to see how many old toys they can come up with to donate to a local charity; and then the one who collects the most wins a prize. Give someone a gift that keeps on giving, such as a live plant or a donation to Denver Zoo or other local charity to support worldwide conservation projects or the construction of the Asian Tropics exhibit for endangered Asian elephants.  Gifts that don’t require batteries are a great alternative and don’t create as much waste when having to dispose of and replace these batteries.  Try also to look for gifts that are made from recycled materials. Best of all, adopt an animal at Denver Zoo or give a Denver Zoo Membership (or your local zoo)  in someone's name.  Your friends and family will think of you every time they visit! Also, shop on Ebay. There's a lower chance of the toys and stuff being "new in box" which will cut down on all the plastic waste that cannot be recycled. Wrapping Your Gift Try using colorful pages torn from magazines or last year's calendar pictures to wrap small gifts, and old maps, posters or the Sunday comics for larger boxes. Use crayons or sponge paint to decorate brown grocery bags and wrap with natural raffia ribbon. Reusable cloth ribbons can be used in place of plastic bows or you can save bows and reuse year after year. I swear, my mom has bows from when I was like 5!! Avoid using paper entirely by using reusable decorative tins, baskets or boxes, fabric bags (canvas grocery bags are great!)or give a gift in a gift. Un-wrap gifts carefully and save wrappings for reuse next year. Use old scraps of wrapping paper or cut up old cards to make gift tags. If you do buy wrapping paper, look for ones made of recycled paper. Avoid conventional wrapping paper with metallic colors. Such paper is often produced in an environmentally unfriendly manner. If you have wrapping paper left over from last year and want to have different paper for this year’s presents exchange it with a friend, co-worker or family member’s paper from last year and you will both have “new” paper.<-- I like this idea a lot b/c I get bored of things easily! Gift mailing You can re-use packing peanuts. Call the peanut hotline at (800) 828-2214, for locations of mailing centers that reuse the packing peanuts or go to www.loosefillpackaging.com. If there is no location in your community, check with local gift or craft shops, artists galleries or elementary school art programs for reuse opportunities.Great idea! I didn't know this but will try for the future. Use corrugated boxes. More than 70% of corrugated cardboard is recovered and recycled into new boxes and paper products. The fibers from one corrugated box can have up to seven or eight lives. Breakdown and flatten your boxes for easier transporting before taking them to your local recycling center. If you do not have a center available, check with a local grocer or department store to see if they will bale your cardboard in their in-house recycling program. Shred your old catalogs to make great packing material when mailing gift packages.  Reuse tissue paper from clothing store purchases as packing material or gift paper. Holiday Parties Use "real" dishes, cups, and utensils that you can wash and reuse year after year. Switch to cloth napkins. Make it easy for your guests to recycle bottles and cans. If you must use disposables, buy napkins and plates made from recycled material. Try www.biodegradablestore.com.  Get corn-made cups and utensils which can be composted afterward. And if you don't have compost, at least if you throw them away, they'll break down faster than plastic! Serve sustainable seafood and fish.  Check out Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch page, www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp, for consumer guides and more. Serving local organic food at your parties will help to protect the environment because organic products don’t require pesticides and local food doesn’t have to travel far, creating more carbon emissions, to get to your table. You can make a difference just by being aware of the ingredients you are using in preparing holiday foods.  For instance, palm oil or palmitate is included in many of the foods that we eat and the harvesting of palm oil in Indonesia contributes to the destruction of critical habitat for endangered orangutans and Asian elephants.

I'm Proud of My Fellow Pelotonians!

Last night was our annual "Homeowners Budget Ratification Meeting." And boy, it was kind of a throwdown. Residents are not happy that Ecopasses for 2012 are going to be cancelled and some (mostly be and like 3 other houses) about the composting being canceled. I think there might have been some other beefs too, but these are the two that I most care about (since I don't exactly pay HOA fees).  The HOA and Board seemed to have been kinda blind-sided by how many people showed up (over 50) and how many of those were dissatisfied.  Because of this, the budget was reject 31-19. The developers/Board did have 31 votes for all the vacant units they owned but kindly enough, they decided to abstain.

This is really exciting to me because people got together, expressed their views (on both sides) and swayed the masses to reject a budget that probably wasn't ideal for A LOT of the residents. I am motivated now! I am going to get the sustainability going with the help of my new friends from last night. I signed up 13 households interested in composting on top of the 3 or so that I already had. This is going to be awesome! Let's do this people!!!!!!!!!

Even Ruby Rhod is excited! (What? This is one of my coming-of-age, defining pop culture moments!)

Ruby Goes Green (video)

Ruby Rhod Goes Green

I Can Has Beer Can AND Sustainability?

My PBR and RoRo drinkin' boyfriend will be happy to hear this one. Apparently aluminum cans are easier to recycle than bottles. This is due to the fact that even though aluminum is harder to mine and process, it uses a lot less material and is more easily recycled. Glass-makers are more likely to use virgin sand than recycle glass because it's easier/more convenient.

Also, glass is heavier making the overall product more effortful to transport, thus producing more carbon emissions.  

And cans are better to transport to the pool on those wonderful and fleeting summer days! Beer snobs need not worry, either, more quality breweries are getting into the swing of cans like New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Maui Brewing Company and a few others I haven't heard of. So even if you're not hip and indy like My Dearest Man, you can still work toward a greener future! Who knew?

Read the full article here.

Maybe I Should Move to Canada

Go, you eco-friendly Canadians, you!

Sun Chips, Canada is keeping their eco-friendly bag. And if people have a problem with it, write them and they'll send you a free pair of earplugs. Epic!

Canada Stays Loyal to Noisy SunChips Bags

I wonder how much it would cost to get them imported?

Cloth Diapers - Guest Blogger!

Diapers. Thousands, no MILLIONS, of them are probably sitting in landfills as we speak. Think about it....Ok, who's grossed out now? I know that I am!  For not being pregnant or a mom of a kid in diapers, I find this topic fascinating! It just seems like one of the most icky forms of waste and the (continuing) existence of cloth diapers shows that there are alternatives to help the environment gives which in turn, gives me hope for the future.  So let's find out why cloth diapers are FULL of waste but not wasteFUL

Today, I am pleased to present my very first guest blogger, the lovely Jen E. from mommablogsalot.com. Jen blogs (a lot) about family, family products and green-friendly products as well as a host of other topics. She has written up an exciting account of her experience breaking into the cloth-diapering world as well as a list of links for more info. I love her practical and non-preachy approach to this topic, especially her unashamed use of the occasional disposable diaper. This proves that we do what we can which is leaps and bounds more than if we didn't do anything! (And being kind of a girly girl, I love the idea of pretty diaper covers!)

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Why Cloth Diapers? Thoughts on diapering from the not-so fanatic cloth diapering mom

 

Jen's daughter helping with the now-famous cloth diapers!

I think people come to cloth diapering for different reasons. Maybe you are hoping to lead a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, save some long term money (by age 2 1/2 babies use about 7,000 diapers - costing about $2,000. Comparatively, we’ll spend about $500 or less on cloth diapers total) or avoid the weekly or monthly trips to the store to buy diapers. I know my husband loves never having to go out in the middle of the night or in bad weather to buy diapers last minute. All of these are great reasons to consider cloth diapering!

Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses. Nothing that smells like poop is ever an entirely happy story, if we’re going to be honest. I don’t think I liked cloth diapering per say for at least six months - and I’ve heard this is normal but I sort of wish someone had mentioned it to me when I was getting started. After using disposable diapers with my first child for the last three years, the transition to cloth with my second child was a little bit of a culture shock. The smells were different, the work was, yes, a little bit harder. And I was already tired, sleep deprived and grumpy.

But my husband, who wasn’t in the  throes of post pregnancy hormones, convinced me to stick it out a while longer and before I knew it, cloth diapering had become a normal part of our life that I now wouldn’t trade for anything. The cost savings is exponential, the work just isn’t that hard and the diaper covers are seriously cute.

  

Cute diaper cover!

There are options to choose from as cloth diapering has become awfully trendy over the past few years. Find a style that works for you : prefold / diaper covers, all-in-ones, pocket diapers and even hybrid styles like the GDiapers - you have a lot to choose from! We use mostly prefolds with a few pocket diapers on hand as back ups when I’m running behind on my laundry. Mix and match and find a method that works for you - there is no right or wrong answer here!

If you are considering cloth diapers but are still on the fence, here are a few things to consider:

·           First, understand that cloth diapering need not be all or nothing. Try it for a few months to see how you like it. Traditional prefold diapers can be used as spit up cloths if you decide to throw in the towel. Why not buy one or two covers and a 6 pack of diapers and give it a shot before going all in?

·           We use cloth at home but disposables when we are on the go. Some people use cloth while out of the house, bringing a wet bag along with them, but I opt for convenience first and find the amount of diapers we end up using on the go isn’t very much in the long scheme of things (we buy disposables once every couple of months as opposed to weekly).

·           Make your diapering schedule work for you. How often do you want to do laundry? Your baby will use about 8-10 diapers a day so if you only want to do laundry every other day, you’ll need at least 20 diapers - buy more diapers and a big diaper pail if you hope to do laundry less. We have about 2 dozen diapers for good measure and I wash diapers every 2-3 days. And remember if you fall behind on laundry, you can always throw your baby in a disposable while you get the laundry done - once in a blue moon (or more) won’t hurt anyone.

 

·           You might consider a diaper service if you have one in your area. You might not end up saving any money that way, but if the environment is your first concern, this is definitely an option and perfect for anyone who doesn’t have the time to get the laundry done themselves.

·           Don’t forget accessories! Just like in fashion, they will be your best friend. If you use prefolds - get yourself a package of snappis instead of the dreaded diaper pins and please please please pick up some diaper liners to ease in the clean up of poopy diapers once your baby is on solids (before solids, poopy diapers are water soluable, just toss the soiled diaper in the wash and all will be well). Liners are a god send and can be flushed or tossed quickly. You might also look into a diaper sprayer - I know a lot of people use and love these!

·           There are a lot of accessories, detergents and options out there. Some cost more than others. Some work better than others. Just find what works for you and give it a shot. Change your mind as you get there and figure out what you like. For a diaper pail, we honestly just use a big trash can and wash it when we need to. They make cute diaper pail liners that can also be used on the go - but to me that just seemed to make things more complicated instead of easier. For detergent, you can use any laundry detergent that has no dyes, scents or softeners. We use whichever “free and clear” detergent is on sale that week. They all work fine. We also use a laundry booster like borax for good measure.

Here are some cloth diapering links to check out:

•   Say goodbye to diaper pins and hello to the snappi - makes diaper changes a breeze!
• Imse Vimse is without a doubt our favorite diaper liner.
• A diaper sprayer which connects to your toilet for easy clean up
• Simple Mom is a great recource for anyone looking to try cloth diapering. She has loads of articles with tips on choosing diapers, cleaning them, setting up a diaper changing area, shopping for diapers and accessories, etc.

 Even your kids will love the cloth diaper!