Terracycling up for a New School Year!

Yesterday, we had our Back to School Store at our church. The women's group organizes this entire event, which helps provide back to school supplies for about 100 students in our local community.
My favorite part is meeting all of the students and sometimes seeing students that I have had in the past! I had a chance to talk with more than 6 of my prior students, some parents and some possible future students! It was a wonderful day and the kids left with backpacks full of school supplies and stomachs full of home made cookies!

The night before, when we were setting up, I noticed that volunteers were putting cookies in small snack sized Zip-Loc bags.










Of course, my "trash-radar" went up and since I could not avoid the baggies, I could gather them and send them to Terracycle. So, I prepared a box with a sign asking for the empty baggies to be put in the box.
While I still had to raid the trashcans, there were many baggies put in the box! (mind you I had to take baggies out of the 'plastics' recycling can and cardboard boxes out of the 'plastics' recycling can!)

While I was helping to clean up and gather these baggies, Judy asked me about everything that I collected. She said that she really did not like to throw items in the trash as she understands that there is no "away" when an item is thrown away! So she wanted to know if anything that she had saved was something I collected. So, she will be bringing me her trash on Monday! I also sent her a link to my original blog post on what I collect with the brigades! Through the Terracycle Facebook page, I often find out about changes to the brigades or clarifications as to what is acceptable. The only recent change is that Terracycle now takes the Straws from the Drink Pouches. This is the comment from the Terracycle FB page:

"This is because we also now turn the drink pouches you send to us into pavers, bricks, fence posts and more. Through this melting type process (please excuse my lack of technical knowledge on the subject, but do see... See more the video in our video tab called 'From Flavia Fresh Packs to Pavers' to learn more) we are also able to use roughly 4x more drink pouches then before, which is really great for everyone. For example, a large juice pouch tote bag uses 26 juice pouches, but one paver stone uses at least 100! Happy TerraCycling."

Remember, the idea is to reduce the packaging that we put in the landfills. There are many ways to accomplish this.

First--really consider the items you purchase: do you really need it? how is it packaged? can the packaging be reused, composted, or recycled?

Second--look at what you are considering putting in that trash can: Can it be used by someone else (yard sales, thrift stores, freecycle, craigslist!!) Can it be composted or recycled? can it be remade into some other useful item?

There are many people out there who are successful at living life to the fullest while reducing their impact on the environment. It takes time and patience with your self. Our habits did not develop overnight, so it will take more than one day, one week, one month or even one year to change.

Take that first step.

Make one change this week.

Upcycling at its best!

I wanted to share our latest upcycled project!

This will be our second year with a vegetable garden and because it is going to be larger than last year's garden, I wanted Vince to build me a small greenhouse to get the seedlings started in.

So using concrete blocks that we removed from our driveway's edge and one of the skylights we removed from the house, Vince created my greenhouse:



Inside the greenhouse is more evidence of reuse going on: all of my little veggies are growing in old egg cartons:


As you can see, I have had some success with the little green darlings!

Here are my cucumbers, corn and beans:



Here are some tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower!


I encountered a small issue with watering the babies. I do not own a watering can and pouring water from a jar or pitcher put out too strong of a stream of water for the babies. So, using our stash of non-recyclable stuff, Vince created my very own watering container:

He drilled a series of holes in the lid so that the water sprinkles out on my little green babies!


I hope we can get the garden tilled this week as I am on Spring Break and it would be a great time to get these darlings in the ground.

I also have marigolds growing in abundance in several pots around the house so that I can keep some of the critters at bay!

Dry Erase Markers

One of the best inventions for a classroom is Dry erase boards and markers. They are neater than chalk boards, clean up somewhat easier and you get to use a huge variety of colors!

The biggest problem I have with them is that the markers are PLASTIC and not recyclable! It was only the other day as I was throwing yet another marker away that I realized what a huge amount of waste is created by these markers!

I did a bit of research on the internet and found EcoSmart markers, which state they are made from recycled material, are recyclable and most importantly are REFILLABLE!!!

I am awaiting my Terracycle recycling credits so that I can order the starter kit.

Yay!

How to Recycle Anything

In my aimless wanderings through the Internet, I stumbled upon this article from Real Simple magazine. It was entitle "How to Recycle Anything". Since recycling is still in its infancy here in Chester County, I thought there might be some good ideas in this article.

What I found was an interesting collection of information, from suggested places that recycle compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CLF), to websites that collect used crayons and remake them into new ones (crazycrayons.com).

Did you know that Crocs can be recycled too? The company will recycle them into new shoes! You do have to send your old ones to California though!

My favorite upcycler, Terracyle, was mentioned in this article. Did you know that Terracycle is now upcycling Malt-o-meal bags? Yup, so Carrabba's class is collecting them too! (along with Drink pouches, cookie wrappers, chip bags, candy wrappers, Kashi packaging, Clif wrappers, Scott products outer wrappers, Huggies outer wrappers, and Aveeno tubes).

I was reminded about St. Jude's Ranch,which recycles greeting cards into new cards. My sister had told me about St. Jude's ranch before, but I had actually forgotten about them. I usually take my old greeting cards and cut them up for scrapbooking or for gift tags. This may be a worthwhile project for my students this year as well!

It is worthwhile to check out the article in detail, as there may be an idea lurking there that you have not thought of. An idea for what to do with those items that are hanging out in the back of your closet or kitchen cabinet, bottom of your drawer, or corner of your cedar chest.

I have reduced or eliminated the purchase of many items because of the packaging they come in. However, it is not possible for me to eliminate all that I want to. If you are like me, I rinse it out and save it instead of tossing it in the trash. I always figure that there is a use for it somewhere, I just have to find it.

All ready for the new school year!

This is the front corner of my classroom...please note the NEW signs that tell my students that they MUST SHOW THEIR WORK. That pertains to Math class. Some of the students show their work, they usually get the correct answer, and if not, I can help them figure out what they are missing. Some don't have to show their work and still get the correct answer...but they will have to change their methods for a while in class this year. Most of the students don't show their work and really should.



This is one of my NEW bulletin boards:

The board will be interactive. There will be math problems written on the leaves. Students must solve the problems on the leaves each week. There will be 10 problems each week. This board will remain up for the first 6 weeks of school. Then I will change it to one of 4 others that I created.
When I say created...I did not think up the ideas! I just tweaked them and created them in fabric as opposed to just paper. The backgrounds and tree are fabric, the rest is laminated cardstock.
The tree canopy is buttoned on (with really nifty leaf shaped buttons!) and is reversible so that I can create the "Spring into Math" bulletin board in the spring!


This is the back wall of my classroom...it is floor to ceiling shelves! I love the storage space!
My first year, Vince added some shelves on the left side so the students could stack their books in specific areas. Just to the right of these stacked books are the new paper organizers Vince built for me this year!

A close up of the paper organizers for this year!



And last but never least, here is where we collect items that are recycled in our classroom! Of course, I do have a bin for plastics and aluminum cans, as well as crates for paper!

Above the recycling center are the two previous years' "Time Capsules". At the end of the year, each student creates a mini time capsule that we seal in a box for each class. I also include all of the discipline slips they received, drawings and cards they made, and other items of interest for that class. When they graduate high school, the intention is to invite each class back to open up their time capsule and reminisce!

Terracycle

A few weeks ago, I just happened to be in the office at school when Terracycle called to talk to me. They wanted to find out what I thought about their cookie wrapper/drink pouch/candy wrapper/chip bag collection program and how I use it in the classroom.

Here is the published article in the local paper, the Chester County Independent: http://www.chestercountyindependent.com/photos/CCI06182009B.pdf
Check it out!

Please check and see if anyone locally is upcycling these waste items for Terracycle. It is one way to keep some waste out of our landfills. Not one of these items that is being upcycled is biodegradable; it just sits in the landfill FOREVER!

One Day without Plastic??

I know that it is difficult to live without plastic. I have been trying for over a year to reduce my plastic use and while I have been successful in many areas, I know I have far to go.

Today, I attempted to go the entire day without using any disposable plastic. I am sad to say I was unsuccessful.

As I was preparing to write this blog, I thought back over my day:

I ate breakfast at home, a bowl of Cheerios. I emptied the box, then tore off the Boxtops for Education coupon for school, folded up the box for recycling, and folded the PLASTIC INNER BAG, so I could use it for trash.

For lunch, we all ate out after working at the Thrift Store. I ate a Chicken Finger meal with a biscuit which came in a paper tray. I brought in my own cup so that I would not use a styrofoam cup. So, no plastic for me at lunch.

Before the above thought process, I thought I only had one offense:

These are the little plastic pricing tags from the Thrift Store where I picked up some shirts for my mother. They are small, but they are disposable plastic.




Then after remembering I had the plastic cereal bag to account for, I realized I had two offenses.

Sigh.

And we have not even started dinner yet. I know there will be plastic there as any meat we decide to prepare will be packaged on a styrofoam tray and wrapped in plastic. Unfortunately for us, that is how meats are packaged here.

Awareness is critical to beginning to control plastic waste.

Be aware.

Plasticky Lives

Today, a coworker of mine attempted to put a plastic soda bottle in my trashcan. I stopped her and said that it was recyclable. She told me it was a plastic soda bottle, and I repeated that it was recyclable and to put it in my wooden basket. I intended to take it home for recycling. She is not use to recycling. The recycling of plastic is relatively new here in our county.

We live in a world where plastic is part of our lives. We cannot get away from it. Every where we look....there it is!

Wallace J. Nichols challenges people to go ONE DAY without using any disposable plastic.
Can you do it? I know it will be a challenge for me! But I am willing to try it. I have been working on reducing my plastic waste for over a year now, and while it is down significantly, I have not managed to reduce it enough that I don't think about it every day.

I challenge you to go ONE DAY without using any disposable plastic. Send me a comment on how you do.

My update will be here tomorrow!

One more item kept from those landfills!

Terracycle is at it again!
I signed on to check my drink pouch status, and found that they are ready to start collecting CHIP BAGS!
Every week, the students in my class have snack day, where they consume a variety of Frito-Lay chip products. Now, we can upcycle these bags into something else.
While I would prefer to reduce or eliminate the need for these bags, I understand that these students are not going to give up their snacks! Thus showing them that upcycling these previously disposed of items will increase their awareness. They are very keen on giving me drink pouches and cookie wrappers so I am very sure they will be keen on giving me their chip bags!

The drink pouch brigade has been running much more smoothly as of late and I only have another 2,000 drink pouches in my studio that are awaiting their turn to be sent to Terracycle. I mentioned to my students that after Spring Break I will begin collecting bags again, but that I would only accept rinsed out bags. (I just KNOW that they have been stockpiling the pouches since December and that the pouches will be moldy and smelly! If they have been opened and rinsed, they will not have that problem!)

That way, I can continue to ship out pouches over the summer and keep up the recycling efforts I have already started!

Tissues vs Handkerchiefs

I subscribe to these daily emails from Ideal Bite, a website that promotes itself as a 'sassier shade of green'! They do have some useful information, like the blog I had about phone books!
Today's daily tip had to do with using Recycled Facial Tissues.
I read through the information and thought it was quite useful.

However, I also realized that there is a better way!

I have been using cotton hankies for a number of months now. When I ran out of tissues, I just stopped buying more! It does take some getting use to, but I have been using men's handkerchiefs, which are bigger and can take more blows!

I also thought about the cost. My sister sells hankies in her Etsy shop 2 for $5.00! Now, given that on the Ideal bite, one box of recycled tissues was $4.00 for 96 tissues, buying one hankie for $5.00 is a deal! After all, trees are saved, and that cotton hankie will last a lot longer than one box of tissues!

Now, if you are a handy person, you can make your own hankies from cotton fabric! Go, get stitching folks! Save a tree!

Recycling at its Finest!

A number of months ago, I found out about another potential recycling program for a 'hard to recycle' item. Those Plastic Bottle CAPS!
Since they are made from a different type of plastic than the bottle they are on, they are not recyclable with the bottles labeled '1' or '2'.

I read about Aveda's bottle cap recycling program and thought "That's for me!".

I sent in an email requesting information and waited. Then I forgot about it.

It may have been my sister who brought it to my attention again, so I went to the site, and sent another email about it. I waited. Then I forgot about it.

Cat suggested I call to get information. Good Idea. Then I forgot about it.

In glancing through my emails tonight, I spot an email from Kendra at AVEDA!!

Yes, she has sent me information about signing up my school with the program, and Aveda will provide me with postage paid labels to send the bottle caps to them. I filled out the enrollment form and emailed it back to Aveda this evening. As soon as I have those postage paid labels I will let my students know about this program and begin collecting caps in class. In the meantime, I am busily unscrewing the caps from all of my plastic recycling bottles in the bin!

On the Terracycle front, I did receive a check from Terracycle for $0.82! That was for the one bag of cookie wrappers they acknowledge receipt of. I have yet to receive a check for the hundreds of drink pouches I have sent them and they have acknowledged receipt of. There were 10 bags of pouches received as of December. I guess an email to Parker is in order.

On a positive note, I had previously found that there was a huge turn around time from when I sent in the full bags of drink pouches, and Terracycle acknowledging receipt of them and sending me empty bags. Thus I now have a HUGE box of clean drink pouches awaiting shipping to Terracycle. The box is so full that I had my student stop collecting pouches.

Well, I sent in 4 bags on January 12th, and Terracycle acknowleged receipt of them on the 23rd, and today I received 4 new bags! YES! Monday I will ship out another 400 drink pouches.

Recycled Toilet Paper

I have managed to successfully switch from paper towels to cloth towels, from paper tissues to handkerchiefs, from paper napkins to cloth napkins, but of course toilet paper remains a paper usage!
However, I was rather proud of the fact that I was purchasing toilet paper that was made from recycled paper as opposed to virgin fibers! Comparing costs and packaging materials, I settled on Marcal toilet paper and have been very happy with that.
The only issue that troubled me was that the multi pack was packaged in PLASTIC! In comparing the cost of purchasing individual rolls that were wrapped in paper, I found that the cost was double!
So, today, I did a bit of internet searching to see if I could purchase my toilet paper at a reasonable price without having it wrapped in plastic!
I encountered this informative site from the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has some good tables of information regarding recycle percentage and what percent is post consumer waste. While Marcal was considered 100% recycled, only 40% of that is post-consumer waste.
There were several others that had 80% post consumer waste, so I steered my searching in that direction. Actually, Fake Plastic Fish did this same research in 2007, so I followed her ideas!
In looking at Amazon.com's prices, I had to agree with Beth that the subscribe and save was a good deal and a good idea.
I can purchase a 48 count case of single ply tissue (1000 sheets per roll or 48000 sheets per case) or 2-ply tissue (500 sheets per roll or 24000 sheets per case) for the same price: $47.80 with Subscribe and save. (and it qualifies for free shipping!) Since we are using a single ply tissue now, staying with that type of produce is probably what I will do.
One last bit of research is for me to check with Oma (the local health food store) to see if I can get this cheaper there.

And for an additional bit of information, check out this site.