Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Backyard Composting 101

Friday, June 10, 2011
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I’ve been composting for almost three years now and can’t imagine ever throwing anything “organic” into the trash (fruits, vegetables, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc.).  Composting has helped us achieve monthly garbage service (20 gallons of trash a month).  It’s much easier than you might think, just follow these simple steps. Why Should You Compost? [...]

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Plastic-to-Oil Conversion and Oregon House Bill 3597: Friend or Foe?

Monday, May 16, 2011
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I originally wrote this article for Create Plenty several weeks ago, but I wanted to get the word out far and wide.  Please share your thoughts on plastics-to-oil conversion in the comments section below. Recently, a new bill was introduced in the Oregon state legislature that would redefine recycling to include plastics-to-oil operators and change [...]

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Happy Mother’s Day!

Sunday, May 8, 2011
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I couldn’t resist posting this adorable mamele by Ruby Re-Usable.  The doll is made out of reused materials including a plastic dishwashing detergent bottle, a spray paint cap, plastic forks, straws, plastic bag for a babushka, mirror, and cardboard display letters that were being discarded.  The Yiddish proverb reads: “God could not be everywhere so he created [...]

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Wasteful Food Packaging: Would you Like Some Food with your Plastic?

Friday, May 6, 2011
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Since when does something already in a “wrapper” need to be wrapped again?  Does the outer peel of an orange, banana, coconut, mango or anything else really NOT serve a purpose that it needs to be coated, covered and smothered in plastic?  Or maybe we need to start individually wrapping each peanut, raisin or prune, [...]

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Want to Learn More About a Clothing Swap? Watch This Video!

Monday, April 18, 2011
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I attended a clothing swap last month and as luck would have, local news reporters were there filming an Earth Day segment.  The news reporters showed women having fun trying on clothing, did an interview with the swap coordinator and interviewed a few people on why swapping is important.  Guess what?!  I was one of [...]

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Mark Your Calendar: National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day

Monday, April 4, 2011
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Do you have a medicine cabinet full of prescription drugs that you’ve been holding on to not sure what to do with?  Good news!  On April 30th from 10am to 2pm, thousands of collection sites across the United States will participate in the second annual take-back day making it safe for you to dispose of [...]

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eBay Offers Electronics Recycling Service

Monday, April 4, 2011
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Ah eBay… I remember the days before this obsessive-compulsive online shopping site was even a twinkle in my daddy’s eye.  Anything you could ever imagine was literally at your fingertips.  eBay has created thousands of businesses, all to fuel our consumerism driven society of “need this” and “want that”.  It seems we’re never happy with [...]

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Plastic Bottle Recycling Flashmob

Friday, April 1, 2011
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I keep trying to think of a flashmob geared towards recycling after seeing this flashmob in my home state of Alaska and my lack of creativity ends up with my mind wandering onto something else.  Then I see this cool flashmob and hit my head thinking “why didn’t I come up with this?!“

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Making it Easy to Recycle

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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When I first moved in with Jeff we had a very simple but less effective system for recycling: one yellow recycling bin for recyclables such as paper and plastic and another larger bin for cans and bottles (“returnables”).  Here in Oregon we pay a deposit on certain bottles and if we return them we get [...]

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