GardeningNude

The Recycled Holiday Ornament Challenge Is A Success and You Are Responsible For Our Landfills Too!

Here it is – the completed Holiday Tree filled with ornaments made from recycled and reused products. There’s even a lovely snowy background for the photo.

Although it is time for the Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge to be done, the important message persists that we should be responsible for the things we use and dispose of in our every day life.

Every year I walk the seasonal aisles during the holidays and have been utterly amazed by the limitless quantity of ornaments and holiday decorations available – it is certainly a billion dollar industry. All these products use resources. What happens when a consumer is tired of a particular ornament or decoration? Mostly it ends up in the landfill – where the resources used to create the beautiful items end up going to waste.

As a reminder, the United States is running out of landfill space. Every inch is jam-packed full of garbage, and most of that garbage is re-usable or recyclable. Saving an inch – saving a centimeter – can make way for trash that is not reusable.

It is time we started thinking of ways to prevent the waste. Next time you have a holiday ornament that you no longer want, do not throw it in the landfill. Instead, donate it to friends, family, or an organization like goodwill or a resale shop.  Give it a try – make a holiday difference for the environment.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

The Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge: Make Christmas and Holiday Ornaments From Recycled or Reused Products – Angel Ornaments From Aluminum Cans

Teaching children how to give to others is such an important lesson. We should be doing it every day; not just at the holidays. One thoughtful way to help with this lesson is to make Christmas or holiday ornaments as gifts for friends and family.

Making “green” ornaments – even better! Above is an adorable angel made from old clothespins, a cut-up plastic bag, and soda cans.

To be placed on our incredible sustainable holiday tree, the decorations have to qualify by following the below rules:

Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge Rules – the components must be -

1. Reused, or
2. Recycled, or
3. Garage Sale Purchased, or
4. From a Resale Shop, or
5. From the Natural Environment

Any craft parts beyond glue, staples, and needle/thread also need to be from a resale shop or disassembled and reused from a previous source.

How To Make An Angel Ornament From An Aluminum Can

Supplies:

Clean soda cans

Used or old clothes pins

Thin point marker

Non-toxic glue

Scissors

Plastic bag or ribbons

Glitter

How To:

1. Cut plastic bag into ¼” wide strips. Length is dependent on the size of clothes pin.
2. Cut the ends off aluminum soda cans, then using the sidewalls of the soda cans, cut out a similar shape as the above photo for angel wings.  Cover the wing portion with glue then sprinkle with glitter. Keep the long strip below the wings with no glitter.
3. Cut out halo shapes. Put glue on the top portion of the halo’s and then sprinkle with glitter. Leave the long support strip without glitter.
4. Wrap the plastic bag or ribbon around the angel to make her “clothes.” Inserting angel wings about half way  down the wrapping process.
5. Put a dot of glue on the angel halo “stick”. 
6. Insert angel halo in front of wings and behind angel head.
7. Draw on angel face.
8. Hang ornament on tree by hooking with clothes pin on tree limb.

Please send photos and links so we can see what you have done with holiday trees to help save the landfills. Thanks!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

The Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge: Make Christmas and Holiday Ornaments From Recycled or Reused Products – Fleece Sweater Ornaments

Due to the economic down-turn, this year has been tough financially for many. Finding creative ways to save money – like making creative and recycled Christmas ornaments seems like a simple way to celebrate at the holiday in a  non-materialistic way. This Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge is the perfect way to get started.  

To be placed on our incredible sustainable holiday tree, the decorations have to qualify by following the below rules:

Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge Rules – the components must be -

1. Reused, or
2. Recycled, or
3. Garage Sale Purchased, or
4. From a Resale Shop, or
5. From the Natural Environment

Any craft parts beyond glue, staples, and needle/thread also need to be from a resale shop or disassembled and reused from a previous source.

Above is a photo of cute embroidered snowmen ornaments remade from the  used fleece snowman sweater you see in the photo.

How To Make An Ornament From a Fleece Sweater and A Paper Plate

Supplies:

Clean used fleece sweater or shirt

Used paper plates which are not oily or greasy

Hole puncher or sharp tool

Non-toxic glue

Scissors

Ribbon or string

How To:

1. Cut out embroidery or design on sweater in circles or tree shapes which are smaller than six inches.
2. Glue onto old paper plate.
3. Paper plate acts as a firm backing.
4. Glue the back (paper plate side) of ornaments to another strip of fleece.
5. Cut out ornaments exactly the same as the top shape. 
6. Punch a hole in the top using hole puncher or sharp tool and thread with ribbon.
7. Hang on tree.

Please send photos and links so we can see what you have done with holiday trees to help save the landfills. Thanks!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

The Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge: Make All Your Holiday Ornaments From Reused or Recycled Products

Late in November I sat at the kitchen table playing games with my youngest daughter and discussing holiday plans. She said to me, “You know what? I bet we could make a few holiday ornaments this year.” This triggered a genius idea between us: what if we could decorate our tree with all reused or recycled holiday ornaments?

During this difficult economy many families cannot afford to buy new ornaments, so this effort will simultaneously teach how to reuse products and how to save money.

After some intense discussion, we came up with a plan for the Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge. While we had hundreds of holiday ornaments here at the house, we could not use them. It was important to reuse, recycle, or make the decorations ourselves so we could help educate our friends, family, and community about recycling and reusing.

To be placed on our incredible sustainable holiday tree, the decorations had to qualify by following the below rules:

Recycled Holiday Tree Challenge Rules -

1. Reused, or
2. Recycled, or
3. Garage Sale Purchased, or
4. From a Resale Shop, or
5. From the Natural Environment

Any craft parts beyond glue, staples, and needle/thread also need to be from a resale shop or disassembled and reused from a previous source.

We decided on a “blue” theme – decorating the tree with blue lights and trying as much as we could to stick with blue decorations whenever possible. Then we took a trip to the local resale shop.

For $4.10 we purchased several used blue colored blankets made out of fleece, a snowman table cloth, and a few blue sweaters which had snowmen embroidery to use as crafting material on-the-cheap.

First step was to assemble the artificial tree. We then hung twenty-four blue glass ball ornaments which I bought at a garage sale two years ago and had never used. My daughter hung a plastic Cinderella ornament she had found from a pile of old toys which had gone off to the needy, and we topped the tree with a fabric angel which was also found at a garage sale years before. We put an old white sheet on the floor as “snow”, then topped that with one of the snowman tablecloths we had found at the resale shop. What a great start.

Over the next several weeks we shall make more ornaments for the tree and demonstrate each craft so readers can see how to make it for themselves. My daughter and I hope you will follow along and make reused and recycled ornaments for your holiday tree as well.

Please send us photos and links so we can see what you have done with holiday trees to help save the landfills. Thanks!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Win A Recycled Wind Sculpture For A Christmas or Holiday Gift and Help Keep Metal Out Of Our Landfills!

My favorite recycled green gift of the year comes from two fantastic artists who are long time friends and partners, Barbara C. Ryan and Elsa M. Mikus. They run an awesome shop based on a green concept which keeps metals out of the landfills. Tempest In A Teapot is a small business which specializes in recycling teapots and silverware into beautiful wind chime creations. 

After starting their arts and crafts business, the ladies were soon happy to see Tempest In A Teapot’s products available in art shows, galleries, and gift shops through out the United States.

Barbara and Elsa were kind enough to send the teapot wind chime (see photo) for Gardening Nude to give-away to one lucky reader for the holidays. This teapot wind chime is valued at $175  and is approximately 24” tall and 10” wide. There are seven silver spoons that hang below the teapot, one of the spoons is engraved with the artists signature.

TO WIN THIS TEAPOT:

1. Sign up to become an email subscriber to this blog. Do that by going to the upper right hand corner of the page and entering your email address, then follow the instructions.
2. Sing about this blog on Twitter.com (you must belong to Twitter to do this.) Create the message of your choice with the phrase  “www.gardeningnude.com” in the tweet. You can say anything you want about the blog or contest – hopefully positive! :-)

(An example: ‘Go to www.gardeningnude.com to learn about being green and healthy!’)

A random number generator will be used to determine the winner on THIS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4th, so start tweeting ASAP. Every time you tweet the Gardening Nude URL you will be re-entered in the contest for more chances to win!

If you would like to see more selection and order one of these awesome recycled gifts, please go to this link - - Tempest In A Teapot.

And the winner of the Teapot Wind Sculpture is - -

::DRUMROLL PLEASE::…………………..

Randomly selected Twitter person who used “www.gardeningnude.com” in a tweet - “@genewrites” from the Gene Was Here Blog. Congratulations Gene – you won yourself a fantastic green holiday gift! :-)

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Stop Throwing Your Disgusting Cigarette Butts On The Ground – Our Earth Is Not Your Ashtray and Taxpayers Are Paying For It!

Did you know that cigarette butt litter makes an impact economically and environmentally in your community? Daily, as I go about my business, I am constantly shocked by drivers who pitch their disgusting cigarette butts out of car windows and on the sidewalks as they are going from their car to stores and businesses. Doing this is littering.

Cigarette butt litter is a negative issue for more than just aesthetic reasons. Cellulose acetate is what makes up the filter on a cigarette. Sadly, it also contains trace amounts of cadmium, arsenic, lead and other toxins. It is very slow to degrade, so is damaging to our environment. Each cigarette butt can take up to ten years to decompose, dependent upon environmental conditions. Wildlife also mistakes the butts for food and eat this poison.

When smokers discard cigarette butts in inappropriate ways – like throwing them into lakes, out car windows, on to beaches, and on the ground - they are basically throwing these substances directly into the environment. In fact, 5.5 trillion cigarettes are used worldwide annually. Keep America Beautiful, a national litter prevention not-for-profit, says there is an economic impact of cigarette litter, “Residents and businesses “pick up” the tab. Cigarette butt litter has to be cleaned up. This requires additional sidewalk and street sweeping, greenway and park maintenance, storm drain cleaning, and increased maintenance of storm water filters. And business owners bear the expense of cigarette butt litter cleanup around entrances, exits, sidewalks, and parking lots.” 

Join Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP). It is designed to support local community improvement initiatives for reducing cigarette butt litter. Get step-by-step instructions for implementing a program today and get started making a difference in your community.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Support Healthy Living – Have A Green Fair!

How do you live healthier? How do you learn more about living a green lifestyle and what that means? There’s so much information out there it can be quite confusing.

My suggestion is to educate your community by getting awesome experts from your community who can better define “green living” and the have a fun experience together. 

Two great organizations in my county in Illinois are doing just that - Cantigny and SCARCE are hosting their first-ever Green Fair on Saturday, September 26. The event, from 10 am to 4 pm, will be a great way to see new environmental technologies and ideas.

Focused on green lifestyle living, there will be cooking demonstrations, presentations, eco-activities and all sorts of educational opportunities for the community.

Most importantly, there will be a “Recycling Extravaganza” at the event. This is a special drop-off recycling event where people can drop off everything from books, to metals, to tennis shoes, to bikes, to electronic waste without ever getting out of the car. All donated products are reduced, reused, and/or recycled. It is a beautiful thing for the community as it keeps products out of the landfill.

Come to the Cantigny Green Fair on Saturday, September 26th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. If you do not live in Illinois, go to the Cantigny and SCARCE websites and learn more about how you can really make a difference for your community by having a Green Fair. A great first step towards having more of your neighbors understand what living “green” really means.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Have An E-Waste Recycle Event At Your Home – Help Your Neighbors Learn About Saving Landfill Space

Electronic waste is currently the fastest growing category of municipal landfill waste. GreenerChoices.org says, “Nearly 3 million tons of consumer electronic waste was generated in 2003 alone, according to the most recent U.S. EPA estimates.”

Guess what? YOU can do something about this and it is simple and easy. Hold your own E-waste Recycling Extravaganza! This can be held in your driveway.

First, schedule a pick-up with a local E-waste recycling company. This time I used Vintage Tech Recyclers, which is an asset recovery and recycling company. Often, if you have large quantities of E-waste, you can get a pick-up scheduled for free.

Next, contact all your friends and neighbors, give them a date you are recycling E-waste, and have everyone deliver E-waste such as their old computer equipment, coffee pots, and electronic games to your driveway. That’s all there is to it – you are done. Now the company comes and takes away the products for recycling. Easy!

In the below video you can see my recycling extravaganza pick-up and details on how easy it is to accomplish!

It’s easy! It’s simple! It’s good for the earth! Make a difference today and recycle your electronic waste products.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

The Morton Arboretum On The Cutting Edge; Beer Bottle Glass Sustainable Paving

Once again The Morton Arboretum is on the cutting edge with sustainability; utilizing recycled glass as a path product.

“Building paths from recycled beer bottles is another wonderful example of our progress towards a more sustainable experience for the public,” said Kris Bachtell, Director of Collections and Facilities. The Morton Arboretum is an internationally recognized 1,700 acre outdoor museum with 4,117 kinds of trees, shrubs, and other plants from around the world located in Lisle, Illinois.

FilterPave^TM paving is crushed glass and beer bottles held together by a special mixture of polyurethane and comes in several different colors. It’s benefits include a highly permeable surface which allows water to sink through and return to the water aquifer instead of traveling into our sewer systems. This is excellent for the environment because the glass mixture is rescued from landfills.

According to Bill Handlos, Director of Presto Products Geosystems Division (seen left), the company that manufactures and the product for the 1,000 square foot walkway, “another benefit of the FilterPave^TM porous pavement is it helps reduce the “heat island” effect by trapping and mitigating heat, rather than reflecting it, as a blacktop surface does.”

Emerald Site Services, LLC, a leading environmental service company in Illinois, donated the installation. John Donahue, from Emerald Site Services (seen right), says “All ingredients for the product are mixed and then laid like cement on the path. It forms a “rice krispy” like consistency which allows more maximum porosity.”

Surprisingly, the finished product only costs about $10 to $12 per square foot installed, which is similar to the price for brick paving. However, utilizing recycled eco-friendly material in a permeable paver form makes it a much better choice than traditional paving for both residential, government, and businesses across the United States.

FilterPave^TM beer bottle paving is long lasting – currently lasting over 16 years in trial tests – and has an attractive crystalline glitter when finished. The Morton Arboretum chose “Amber” as it’s color for the path – a great choice on a grass path surrounded by planting beds lined with brown mulch. It looked beautiful when finished.

Winter plow blades can damage the surface of the paving, however, by plowing the surface a tad high to prevent damage, the permeability of the product allows snow to melt exceptionally quickly, thereby maintaining an ice free surface quite easily. Long term maintenance includes making sure large leaves and debris are swept off in the fall and winter. Outside of that it is maintenance free!

Way to go Morton Arboretum, Presto Products, and Emerald Site Services! Showing the world how cutting edge “green” can really make a difference for your local community.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Green and Simple Tip – Reuse or Recycle Your Paper Napkins From the Car

In a perfect world we would be utilizing paper napkins that are made from 100% post consumer waste (PCW) and are processed chlorine-free (PCF) (which means no bleach will get into our water systems after the product is thrown out or recycled again). We do not live in a perfect world and the pile of napkins below is proof of that.

Above you see my husband (a.k.a. Mr. Serious in this photo), getting ready to back out of the driveway – his car is usually full of napkins. He runs his business out of his vehicle and spends a lot of time on the road working long hours. This means LOTS of fast food stops. Most of the time he has an extra napkin or two left after he eats. Instead of putting it back in the bag and throwing it out or recycling it, he saves the napkins for reuse to prevent waste. Once he gets a large pile, he brings it in for the family to use and helps keep our landfills just a little bit cleaner.

Seems like a small thing to do for our planet, doesn’t it? It is not when you imagine that Americans use an average of 2,200 paper napkins per person per year – here is the U.S. population count as of this blog post – 307,340,699 – you do the math! Thousands of trees could be used for other purposes if we were more careful about which napkins we choose to use and how we choose to use them. For instance, how are we going to use the napkins which are automatically handed to us through the fast food window?

Follow my husbands great tip and prevent waste – save and reuse the extra napkins you pick up along in your journey through life. Also, when buying new napkins focus on purchasing PCW and PCF products. This goes a long way towards protecting the environment.

You can make a difference!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Car Trash – What Do You Do With It? Here’s a Green Recycle Tip!

 

See the photo above – that would be me at least 50% of my life – in the car. Just call me “The Taxi” It’s true; Americans spend a lot of time in their cars due to our hectic modern life. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, over 100 hours per year commuting to work alone. There are days when various members of my family eats, naps, and does homework in the car – modern American life is hectic.

While living a greener lifestyle in our family does include bicycling and walking, we are still trying to find ways to reduce our automobile usage. In the end, with urban sprawl and larger wide-ranging communities, the car has become a necessary evil to help our family to survive in a modern age. With all the travel and activities we have, there is a bi-product created which lives in our car; garbage from our adventures.

Before recycling existed, we would dump the garbage out at the nearest trash receptacle and leave it at that. However, what I have learned is a lot of what we collect as trash during our car travels can be recycled. Our family has begun to save everything we gather and bring it home so we can place it in the recycling bin instead of throwing useful things out in the landfill.

Next time you’re out and about in your car, remember to save all your recyclables and bring them home. Think before you throw them out in a trash bin and make a conscious decision to make a difference for our environment. Recycle!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Greening is Easy AND Can Make You A Profit – Garage Sale Sustainability

  

Here it is – a giant fallacy about living a sustainable lifestyle: that you need to spend a lot of time and money to make it happen.

Many times I have heard my friends say, “I refuse to do anything about being green – I mean, c’mon who can live like that?” What they are referring to is the ridiculous amount of money you have to pay for a bamboo-blend outfit which can cost over $100 and is supposedly “green”. Worse yet, the exorbitant costs of organic juice drinks, which can sometimes exceed $6.00 seems outlandish. This might be “green” to some people, but it is not the type of practical green living I am talking about for every day living.

Being green, definitively, is living life with more awareness of where all your stuff comes from and where all your stuff goes to. For instance, when you are done with your kitchen waste, do you just throw it in the landfill to become someone else’s problem, or do you compost it to keep it out of the landfill and to use it in your garden?

It is all about simple choices that are better for you because they save money – and even earn money. Sometimes they are choices that are simply healthier for both you and the earth.

For example, if your kids out grow their clothes, what do you do with them? Do you throw them out? Do you give them away? In this economy a simple and very easy way to reduce, reuse, and recycle is to have a garage sale. It EARNS you money.

Faced with my oldest daughter leaving for college this fall, the family decided to have a “Get My Kid To College Garage Sale.” Each of the family members contributed. Soon we had old toys, clothes, books, and even sold fresh veggies from the front lawn veggie garden I built this year. You can see in the above photos we made homemade signs and sold our hearts out.

In the top photo you can see what my youngest daughter and I did not expect – -RAIN! In the end, we were rained out (notice the soaking wet hair and clothes). All was not lost, we worked together as a family and earned a little money which helped my oldest daughter get started with her college career. It was fun!

Use Garage Sale Sustainability ideas wherever you can to make your life greener – remember – it’s all about using simple common sense.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

How To Install A Rain Barrel – The Conservation Foundation Helps Demonstrate How Easy It Is to Install A Rain Barrel

How easy is it to install a rain barrel?

REALLY EASY!

Jim Kleinwachter works with me in the above short video to demonstrate how easy it really is to install a rain barrel. Jim runs The Conservation Foundation’s incredibly successful “Conservation @ Home” program.

Rain barrels come in many forms and the particular rain barrel we are installing was used as a barrel to transport olives from the Mediterranean. Originally the barrels were thrown in the landfill. The Conservation Foundation rescues them and reuses them – a great way to reduce, reuse, and recycle industrial products.

For rain barrel installation you will need a couple tools. Specifically, a rain barrel, hacksaw, and flexible downspout. Aluminum downspouts: 6 screws and a screwdriver. PVC downspouts: PVC cement.

Connecting your downspout to your rain barrel

1. Place your barrel near the downspout you have selected, and measure the area you need to cut.
2. Disconnect your downspout from the sewer system by sawing the downspout above where the top of the rain barrel will be, leaving room for the elbow to be attached. Save all these parts you have removed for use in the winter.
3. Attach a flexible downspout elbow to the cut end of your downspout so that water from your downspout is directed into the rain barrel through the top screened hole.
4. If you have a PVC downspout, secure it to the elbow with PVC cement so it will not fall off during a heavy rain. If you have an aluminum downspout, secure it to the elbow with aluminum screws.
5. Place your rain barrel under the downspout elbow so the water goes directly into the top hole of the rain barrel.
6. Attach a hose to the overflow spigot, and direct the overflow into your own yard, but away from your home’s foundation.

It’s very important that when temperatures in your community get below freezing  you reconnect your downspouts. You can do this simply by attaching the downspout onto the downspout elbow that currently directs water into the rain  barrel. Keep your rain barrel spigot open so water does not accumulate in the rain barrel and freeze. You can also turn the rain barrel upside-down or bring it inside to ensure no water accumulates in the barrel.

It’s that easy – above is a view of my Conservation Foundation rain barrel installed on the side of my home. Get a rain barrel today and help your family and your community conserve water! Purchase a rain barrel from The Conservation Foundation by going to this link – Rain Barrels.

Thanks go to Tom Reid of Tom Reid Motion & Stills LLC for the fantastic video work!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo’ Green On Tuesday – Save Landscape Waste From the Landfill

Today I am taking you with me on a field trip to help save some landscaping and gardening materials. Why, you ask? Because this is an easy way to make a difference and I wanted to show you how you can do it too.

Due to overfilled landfills, most states have banned or are beginning to ban “green wastes” such as landscaping waste, yet many states still allow this type of wasteful dumping. In the past, when a landscaping company pulled out tulip bulbs or plant materials and bushes, it went straight to the garbage dump. Currently, many communities are using ordinances requiring construction firms to submit recycling plans for their construction and landscaping projects and to report the amount of materials disposed of and recycled.

America In Bloom (AIB) is a national organization built to help make a difference for communities. Each community has to budget their own funds and is able to do more with donations of old landscaping products. Last year I connected with a large local landscaping firm and asked them to call me the next time they were tossing out landscaping material so I could come collect it for my local AIB organization. This morning I got a phone call from the group letting me know where they had just deposited several thousand tulip bulbs for collection. You can see my little field trip in the video above.

Imagine that these bulbs were once thrown in the garbage, and I was able to save the tulips from the landfill, make a difference for my community gardens, and beautify my city with them with a fairly small effort.

You can do this too - it is one small thing you can do to make a difference for your community.

Today’s post is a “Two For Tuesday” – this blog is on both my greening blog – www.gardeningnude.com AND my gardening blog – http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com – ENJOY!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com.

Get Yo’ Green On Tuesday – An Indoor Bokashi Meat and Milk Composter Review

Clean Air Gardening sells this cool Indoor Kitchen Composter which composts more than traditional veg material, it also composts meat and milk. While I have practiced outdoor composting for several years, I have never done indoor composting and was curious if this worked. You can see a video review in the above short video.

According to the package directions, composting happens directly in the 16” X 10” X 10” pail so it is perfect for apartments and condos. Bokashi composting uses a different method than outdoor composting. Essentially it pickles the waste, turning it into fertilizer using fermentation. It works in half the time of conventional  composting. Moisture released from food waste can be drained out through a spigot at the bottom of the compost bin and can be made into a compost tea for house plants.

Clean Air Gardening shipped out the composter and a 2.25 lb bag of a special Bokashi mix that enhances the microbial action of the compost and allows traditional veg material as well as meats and milks to breakdown. Bokashi is a Japanese word that means "fermented organic matter." It can also be used as a soil amendment to increase the nutrient level and microbial diversity of the soil.

According to Clean Air Gardening, here’s how to use the Indoor Kitchen Composter and Bokashi mix:

“Before putting any compost in your Indoor Kitchen Composter, start by laying down a layer of Happy Farmer Bokashi. Then, when you add fresh food waste in the Kitchen Composter it's important to add additional Bokashi on top of every layer of scraps. Once the container is filled to capacity, let the waste continue to ferment for two weeks and then transfer into your garden or planter.”

Overall, I felt this product works and is rather amazing in it’s ability to breakdown meat, bones, and milk waste. However, it can be smelly if you do not cover the food waste properly (note the look on my face in the video). It is a wonderful idea for apartment dwellers and for people who have a strong motivation to save landfill space. I do prefer traditional composting better because it is less expensive. To maintain the Indoor Kitchen Composter, you must repurchase the bokashi several times a year.

For those of you interested in really taking a bite out of the landfill space situation, I think this is a more than fabulous idea. If you are interested in purchasing this composter or others, Clean Air Gardening has a wonderful selection. Go to www.cleanairgardening.com for more information.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle Your Package Waste – Make A Difference For Our Landfill Space

How bad is our package waste problem in the United States? Annually the people of California – ALONE - generate 66 million tons of solid waste. Almost one third of that solid waste is packaging.

Above you see an example of a common ingredient in packaging – tie wraps and plastic bags. Plastic bags are made from oil and the wraps are made from processed metals and oil combined, which take a significant amount of resources to produce. Imagine our landfills stuffed full with billions of dollars worth of natural resources formed into these tiny packaging products. It is a crisis to have all that money and resource lost.

While the “players” in the packaging industry truly need to work together to reduce packaging waste, it is also our responsibility to help keep it out of landfills.

Above you see where I have reused a water bottle package as a mini-greenhouse for seedlings this spring. It is easy to make if you carefully remove the flavored soft-drinks as you need them. Plastic ties are also reused in the garden as plant ties. They are good for kid craft projects as well and I always keep some on hand to tie cords and belts together.

What ways can you think of to reuse packaging products and make a difference for the world?

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Put Together a Recycling Extravaganza Event and Make A Difference!

When I met Kay McKeen, the first thing she said to me was, “You really need to come to the Wheaton Recycling Extravaganza.” This was years ago, and I am more than happy I followed her advice.

Dupage County, Illinois sponsors multiple recycling events every year. Hundreds of volunteers participate, including the School and Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education (S.C.A.R.C.E.), run by Kay McKeen. Here you see a photo of Kay with my youngest daughter at one of these special recycling events.

Recycling Extravaganza’s involve far more than simply turning in some aluminum cans. These events recycle everything imaginable and make a true difference in hundreds of people’s lives. This year alone, the Wheaton event collected 37,688 pounds of electronics, 2 roll up dumpsters full of scrap metal, 109 solid lead acid batteries, 46 fire extinguishers, 37 bicycles, 143 American flags, 342 eyeglasses, 8 hearing aids, 215 cell phones, 216 ink cartridges, 8 pounds of keys, 20 crutches, 5 medical assistance walkers, 4 wheelchairs, 4 large boxes of sterile bandages, 1 SUV load of styrofoam packaging for reuse, one pick up truck of scrap metal donations were taken to the resale shop, 6,200 pounds of books, and 1,500 books were reused in the book swap.

Absolutely amazing! All of that was saved from the landfill. This is “making a difference” on a grand level and every community in the world should be doing this type of work to help reuse resources and keep our landfills from overfilling.

What I noticed when walking around all the recycling stations, was that people were absolutely proud to be a part of the experience. Below is a photo of the American Legion men who were in charge of the flag retirement station. They were proud to be out that day, doing something special for their community.

At the Wheaton, Illinois Recycling Extravaganza, the volunteers set up stations in a parking lot. Donators drive in the parking lot and around a simple “track” where the various stations are located. Volunteers collect the material and the drivers never have to get out of their cars. Simple. Easy. It runs like clock work.

Your community can sponsor a green event like this as well. Get people together to make a difference for our landfills. Imagine what books, medical supplies, wheelchairs, and eyeglasses might mean to members of your community who need them but cannot afford them. These recycling events are now touching the global community. S.C.A.R.C.E. sends the books they collect wherever needed – including many third world countries. Having an event like this is important and is a wonderful opportunity to help others.

For further information on Kay McKeen and her green team at S.C.A.R.C.E., please link through and read here – http://bit.ly/156vhE. Contact S.C.A.R.C.E. for additional community ideas at www.bookrescue.org.

Plan a Recycling Event in your community and make a difference for the world!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com, The Green Blog - www.gardeningnude.com, or The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

The Great Coffee Cup Challenge

Here’s the coffee cup truth – our landfills are filling up with disposable coffee cups. According to the Sustainability Is Sexy website, Americans use approximately 16 billion disposable coffee cups per year. In 2006 alone, Starbucks used 2.3 billion coffee cups. Most cups including Starbucks current coffee cup design (as of 4/2009) only use a small percentage of recyclable material and are NOT recyclable themselves due to plastic content used to protect the cup from liquid leakage.

This quote from Sustainability Is Sexy really says it all; “In 2006, it is estimated that paper cups accounted for 252 million pounds of garbage resting in landfills.  Paper cup use in 2006 also accounted for 4 billion gallons of water wasted, 6.5 million trees cut down, and 4,884 billion BTU’s of energy used.”

When I found out these statistics I was blown away. Lots of people on the internet are complaining about it, but very few people are doing anything. Let’s DO SOMETHING!

If we can’t recycle them, why not reduce and reuse them?

The Great Coffee Cup Challenge

1. I challenge you to bring your own coffee cup to the local coffee house.
2. I challenge you to ask the manager of that shop to use recyclable cups every time you visit.
3. I challenge you to show my readers a creative way to reuse the coffee cups via video or photo.

Above is a video I made showing you what I do to reuse disposable coffee cups. I challenge you to make a difference by finding creative ways to reuse these cups. Send your videos, photos, and write-ups to blog@thecasualgardener.com and I will post your ideas and suggestions.

Let’s do something to make a difference together!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo Green On Tuesday – Composting Kit And A Way To Save Kitchen Scraps From The Landfill

One of the greenest things you can do is save anything you can from a landfill. Food scraps are particularly difficult for landfills to deal with because when the scraps “melt” into mush they turn into a toxic bacterial soup that runs out of landfills like a river. We, as taxpayers, must clean up this “river” of ick with our tax money. Nice, right?

It seems to me that there’s an easier way to handle the problem: composting. If we compost our own kitchen scraps we are saving energy and money for taxpayers. Compost has the added bonus of being “gold” for your garden. Good deal.

Here’s the catch – last year I failed at composting. Something went wrong and my well intentioned kitchen scraps, leaves, and yard waste did not turn into compost. To help solve the problem I ordered a very cool kitchen scrap composting kit from Clean Air Gardening. It has a cool kitchen countertop pail with a filter so it does not smell, compostable bags, a compost thermometer,  and a “Home Composting Made Easy” book.

What did I do wrong last year? After reading the instruction guide carefully I think my compost pile was not wet enough. This year I put the compost bins right next to my newly installed rain barrels. Seems like it will be a lot easier to transfer water into the compost bin and all will be well.

Meanwhile, I have fallen in love with the awesome non-stinking kitchen countertop pail. Quite a change from the old bucket I was using. If you want to order your own composting kit, it is easy to get online at Clean Air Gardening. Go here - http://www.cleanairgardening.com/composting-kit.html.

Today’s post is a “Two For Tuesday” – this blog is on both my greening blog – www.gardeningnude.com AND my gardening blog – http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com – ENJOY!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com.

How Now Green Cow - Simple Solutions for Our Green Waste Issues

Guest blogger Daniel Shellenberg writes the awesome farmer-goes-green blog  known as "AGroGuru" - a great blog focusing on how greening impacts the agriculture community. Today he is my guest blogger and brings interesting insight into how we might find a surprisingly simple solution for green waste. Read on -

I had the wonderful experience of working with the Green Team during a winter solstice celebration in Lake Wales, Florida. The yoga camp, organized by 3HO, serves three vegetarian meals a day for about 500 people over the course of one week. As you might imagine, the camp produces its fair share of green waste. In search of a quick and efficient solution, we turned to local rancher, Bob Massie for help. He was happy to take about 9000 pounds worth of what he called “wet feed” off our hands.

Why do I think feeding green waste to cows is a novel idea? Well, we have a solution to dealing with green waste without added effort or cost. One alternative is composting and using it as a soil amendment.  Composting is great, but it requires time to break down and a committed operation to get it done right. Another alternative is further packing green waste into landfills and harvesting the methane gas as an energy source.  This is innovative idea, but methane capture from landfills requires a significant investment for what appears to be a low return.

The truth is feeding green waste to cows is a simple solution that uses existing resources. In many countries, feeding green waste to cows is common practice and I feel it has potential for three main reasons. First, infrastructure for green waste collection in many communities already exists. Second, animal feed prices have skyrocketed and farms may find green waste to be a cheaper alternative. And finally, farms are highly-efficient operations that operate independently.

It’s time to take home the message that agriculture is an integral part to helping with society’s challenges. I encourage you to reach out to a local farm and see what resources you can offer.  Who knows?  Maybe you go home with fresh produce and a sense of service.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Learn How and Why Your Stuff Ends Up In The Landfill: "The Story of Stuff"

This week I was sent by a friend to view a powerful online movie called "The Story of Stuff." It was 20 minutes long, which I thought was horrid - in a very busy world I rarely have time for a 20 minute movie, particularly during the work day.

My decision was to watch half the movie while I ate lunch, and see if was worth continuing. An hour later I had watched the movie in its entirety TWICE - it turned out to be one of the most powerful and thought-provoking green experiences I have had in a long time.

Below is a brief 52 second teaser to the show which gives you a surprising look into the world of where all our stuff goes that we use every day - from natural resource to product to retail to landfill. Most of the information provided I knew, but had not examined and understood the complete process of how all that stuff worked.

Whether you choose to agree or disagree with "The Story of Stuff," I hope that you will watch it and think about the importance that each and ever person and all our stuff has on the planet. How about you start with ten minutes at lunch and see where it goes? Go to www.storyofstuff.com and get started.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo Green On Tuesday - Recycle Your Ass Off!

Today is Tuesday - recycling day in my neighborhood. Why do I call it "recycling" day instead of "trash" day? Because for the last seven years I have lived in my neighborhood, I have put out four recycling bins every week - minimum.

The community I live in requires that you pay for trash pick up, while recycling pick up is free. From a money-saving standpoint, it simply does not make sense to put your recyclables in the trash.

What is the most shocking revelation about this recycling policy? When I drive around the city I see an increasing number of trash cans sitting beside a very tiny, itty-bitty, miniscule recycling bin, barely filled half-full.

I am a trash digger people! I have stopped and looked - your garbage is not full of garbage - it is full of recyclables. It is no more difficult to place a tin can in a recycling bin than it is a trash bin. Landfills in the United States are at the bursting point and by being lazy and not placing recyclables in the proper spot you are part of the problem.

It is time for a change! Please stop being a part of the problem and be a part of the solution. It is time to do it today - get out there and recycle your asses off - I will be cheering you on with pride.

You are the only one who can make a difference; it all starts with a first step towards being kind to the earth.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Yo Green on Tuesdays - SAVE LANDFILLS - Recycle Carpet With Green Kid Crafts

Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) is a joint industry-government effort to increase the amount of recycling and reuse of post-consumer carpet and reduce the amount of waste carpet going to landfills. According to the CARE statistics, 5 billion pounds of carpet was sent to landfills in 2003 alone.

Used carpet can be sanitized and recycled in an industrial facility. New carpet is also thrown out by retail carpet stores. We can prevent this waste. I went to the local carpet store searching for rubber backed samples for crafting purposes and found that management was very cooperative and willing to give samples for free.

Getting children involved in "reduce, reuse and recycle" for carpeting is a great way to have fun and increase their understanding of how we all need to care for landfills. Doing crafts with your children is a great way to spend time "unplugged" and building your relationship.

RECYCLE CRAFT - MAKE NON-SKID COASTERS OUT OF CARPET SAMPLES

Tools Needed:

Discarded Carpet which has a rubber backing (samples or new is preferred, however, old carpet is good if it is not contaminated somehow)

Sharp scissors

Step One: Measure carpet for coasters. We have extra large mugs at our home, so we measured 5" square carpet sections.

Step Two: Cut. Carpet is difficult to cut through for small hands - children might need parental assistance.

Step Three: Give as gifts or use yourself. Perfect for coffee mugs!

Spending time with your kids is great. Better yet, children get a great sense of self-esteem and community when doing something good for the planet - teach them to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Teach them to make a difference!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Your Green On Tuesdays – Teaching Children Recycling and Green-Crafts

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle: the “greenie” mantra. One of my favorite ways to practice the 3 R’s is to save trash from the landfill by recycling it in the form of a craft.

Being the first week in January, my kids and I took down all our old calendars. Instead of tossing the calendars in the recycling bin, we decided to re-use them. Similarly, I have been saving some full-color folders from the Chicago Art Institute, awaiting a good excuse to reuse them for a craft.

We are reusing these products to make bookmarks which can be used for writing notes on [by writing on the back of the bookmark]. It is an easy craft children and adults of all ages and helps teach about how to rescue reusable products from the landfill. One 12 month calendar and one folder made an amazing 90 bookmarks - all beautiful and artistic.

RECYCLE CRAFT - MAKE BOOKMARKS OUT OF USED CALENDARS AND FOLDERS

Tools Needed:

Old Calendars or Folders – any colorful paper product which has a “stiff” feel so it will not fold or bend when being used for a bookmark.

Scissors or Paper Trimmer (I prefer a paper trimmer because it is quick to measure and cut)

Step One: Disassemble calendar, separating staples or cutting pages off the holder.

Step Two: Measure and mark 2” X 8” rectangular areas on the full-color design. If you are using a paper trimmer you can eliminate “marking” the rectangular areas and simply measure with the measuring marks on the trimmer.

Step Three: Cut as many 2” X 8” bookmarks as possible with paper material. Save leftover scraps to make smaller bookmarks.

Step Four: Recycle remaining scraps.

Step Five: Give as gifts or use yourself. We like to use the bookmarks when reading reference material - we write notes on the back-side of the bookmarks.

Happy Crafting!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Green and Simple Tip - Guest Puggy Says "Recycle Your Christmas Trees"

Today I am kicking the New Year in with a Green and Simple Tip. Guest puggy, Winston, Green Super Dog and rescuer of fair maidens says, "Check with your local waste authority about proper disposal or recycling of your live Christmas trees. Many states will set up locations for the public for proper disposal."

Following Winston's advice is the way to go! According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), millions of trees end up in landfills or illegally dumped on public property every single year. MILLIONS!! That is a lot of space taken up in our landfills! If the average tree is eight feet tall, that means that two million trees placed in our landfills would be approximately sixteen million feet long. WOW!

There are several ways communities can source-reduce Christmas trees. The easiest method would be to grind the trees into mulch which can be reused to mulch city property or to give to residents. Mulching puts nutrients back into the soil, helps protect plants against winter freeze and also helps conserve water by keeping the ground cooler. You can find more ideas for holiday tree source reduction at the EPA’s website - www.epa.gov. Another GREAT website for this information is The National Christmas Tree Association at www.christmastree.org.

If you would like to see your city help with the Christmas Tree landfill issue, why not contact the city administration and ask if the city would consider a “brush pick up” mid-winter? They can pick up all those discarded pine trees and turn them into mulch for the city’s residents. Christmas trees can be the gift that keeps on giving if they are turned into mulch. Call your neighbors and get as many people as you can requesting a better way to dispose of this major landfill problem.

Winston the Pug says, "Recycle Your Christmas Tree" today!!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Get Your Green On Tuesday and in 2009 – A GREEN New Year's Resolution Guide

It is that time again: the time for New Years Resolutions. Here are my top five easiest green and healthy tips which will really help you and your family “get your green on” in 2009.

Make a GREEN New Years Resolution to follow these simple tips -

#1 – Recycle all soda cans and plastic bottles instead of throwing them away. Landfills are rapidly overfilling – this saves considerable landfill space. 

#2 – Convert all light bulbs in your home to Compact  Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs. Changing the light bulbs will also save you money.

#3 – Turn off the lights when you leave a room. This alone will save a significant amount of energy.

#4 – Give away your old clothes, appliances, and toys to a community assistance organization. It saves landfill space and promotes giving to the community. 

#5 – Turn off the water when you are brushing your teeth. Saving gallons of wasted fresh water every year can make a real difference for your community. 

There you have it - five of the easiest-to-do and inexpensive greening ideas ever. These new year resolutions are easy to stick to as well – so do it – get your green on in 2009.

Happy New Year!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blogs - www.gardeningnude.com or http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com

Monday Whazzup - Fixed Income? No Problem - Earn Money By Being Green

Economical difficulties are hard to face, particularly through the holidays. Want to take a few steps towards better greening that literally earns you money?

Here are my top three environmentally friendly tips which can put cold hard cash in your hands for the holidays:

#1 – Once a month recycle all the aluminum and metal you can at a local recycling center that pays you for your aluminum. Have non-recycling friends? Great! Give them an old box and ask them to save their old aluminum and metal for you - recycling and getting more people in your community to do so is a win-win for the earth.

#2 – Sell old clothes, tools, appliances, beauty  items, toys, and all items you cannot recycle via traditional routes on an online auction website such as eBay. You are saving these items from the landfill and making income at the same time.

Tips for selling on auction sites - start auctions out at a lower bid price for more response, give clear descriptions, group attractively together and photograph in "lots" to get a higher price for the items, and keep shipping prices as low as possible.

#3 – Get together with all the neighbors in your community and have a "Winter Extravaganza" garage sale. Bundle up in your winter coats, clean out your old garage mess, advertise well, and sell hot cocoa and cider along with your old household items. Nice way to earn some extra spending cash and build community!

Go green, practice conservation, save landfill space, and earn money while you do it!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community! www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blog - www.gardeningnude.com

Monday Whazzup - A Story of EBay-Recycling The World's Ugliest Purse

Shopping via eBay is recyclicious, uh yeah, new term I invented: Recyclicious! Getting your "green on" has never been so easy as when you recycle on eBay (and you might be able to earn some money at it at the same time). Case in point: even my eight year old is into the eBay recyclicious ball game.

Recently, my mother-in-law, bless her heart, brought over the ugliest danged purse I have ever seen. Out there in the world somewhere are a bunch o' women who would just love a used, ripped, fake leather, metallic pink, imitation crocodile purse studded with cheap silver-tone studs, diamonds, and a giant metallic emblem sewn onto the front of it, but not me. That purse made me dizzy.

My mother-in-law smiled and said, "Got it for free - family was throwing it out. It's shiny!" That could mean only one thing; my youngest daughter would love it. As soon as my kiddo saw that awful thing she grinned and said, "Shiny!"

Gardening Nude Naked Winner of the Week: Ebay Inc. for Global Citizenship

Most Fridays I feature a special person on the Gardening Nude Blog, this week I am featuring a corporation as the "Naked Winner of the Week." Every person or corporation featured in this category is a winner for doing great things for the community and for trying to make a difference for the world. You can make a difference too.

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The naked winner of the week for 11-21-08 is ::drum roll please::

Ebay Inc.- YES EBAY! For saving millions of otherwise useless and unwanted items from the landfill and redefining the expression, "one man's trash is another man's treasure!"

EBay has single handedly revitalized garage sale shopping, teaching grandmothers, children, and even computer illiterates to shop used items online. The benefit of this? Every third grader in the United States has heard of eBay and understands implicitly that they can resale items on eBay which might otherwise be thrown in the trash. This means that without specifically creating an educational program in our national school system, eBay has taught millions of children what reduce, reuse, and recycle means through popular media. How brilliant is that?

On eBay's global citizenship website the below information expanded on their policies:

"The eBay Marketplace has facilitated the reuse of an estimated $100 billion in goods since 1998, extending the useful life of products, keeping unwanted items out of landfills and reducing the need for the raw materials necessary to manufacture new items. ... We are also taking steps to address the environmental impact of our operations. This includes evaluating our environmental impact, reducing our footprint, investing in alternative energy, balancing our carbon impact, engaging our employees, empowering customers, and working with other external stakeholders."

BRAVO EBAY! This is the mindset environmentalists want to see all corporations use. The surprising benefit, however, is that eBay is helping educate people about the possibilities of rescuing items from the landfill. Because this is being done at the grassroots level means we all benefit as a nation from Ebay's actions.

Keep up the good work eBay - reduce, reuse, and recycle!

EBay wins a free pat on the back and lots of naked applause from all my readers for continuing to build a green company with sustainable ideas being at the forefront of their goal!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blog www.gardeningnude.com

Get Yo Green On Tuesday - Recycle and Rescue Items From a Landfill

Not too long ago I received this mysterious email: "Have park bench. It is yours. Find it leaning against a tree at XXXX Main Street."

Sounded like a kidnapping to me. I half expected a guy in a black stocking cap with a gun to be waiting for me when I arrived. Throwing the only cash I had in my pocket (ten bucks) I dashed out the door to ransom the kidnapped bench.

When I arrived I found out that "bench" was a generous term. It had two rusty, black, wrought iron ends, which were the arms of the chair. Moldy wooden slats connected the two arms. The wood was rotted off in most places and the entire bench leaned at a wonky angle, hence the need to rest it up against a tree. It smelled disgusting.

For a full five minutes I stood looking at this lovely piece of junk wondering how I was going to save it from the landfill. The nuts and bolts, which held the rotting slats in were rusted solid. When I tried to lift it I discovered the arms of the chair were quite heavy. But I saw a future for this gangly, ugly, piece of garbage; surely I could make something out of it and save it from the landfill.

Too heavy to lift; I dragged the bench from the back yard, up Main Street, and to my car cutting deep gauges in the grass from the bench feet. When I got to the car it became apparent that saving the slats would be impossible. Pushing, hefting, heaving, and manhandling the odd shape into my little hatchback's rear-end brought sweat to my forehead and laughter from passer's by. Cursing and angry, I finally shoved the devilish bench in with a forceful push and a shout, "S*$#!!!" Shaking and laughing I drove home.

Monday Whazzup - Educating Children About The Meaning of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

This weekend my eight year old daughter came to me, held up a toy perfume atomizer and said, "I have invented a breath freshener! Wanna try?" Ah... a cure for morning breath. Awesome.

My daughter breath freshening her dolls.

"Of course, let me try the cure for horrendous smelling breath!" She squirted a liquid in my mouth. Hmmm... tasted kinda mintish with a hint of clean. I asked for another squirt. Hmmm... reminds me of water. Only a slight change in the smell of my breath, however, I was drinking coffee prior to the taste session and that takes a mighty powerful cure.

Without skipping a beat I looked her in the eye and said, "How is it good for the environment? How is this remarkable product of yours 'green'?"

This threw her into a stuttering reply much like the recent Kouric/Palin interview, "well... uh... uh... hmmm..." She then walked off aimlessly looking at the ceiling.

Five minutes later she came running back with joy spattered all over her face, "I've got it! I have an ingredient that's recyclable." Apparently, the breath freshener was developed in a laboratory (the kitchen) by a professional (her) with only the best ingredients (water, toothpaste, and pulverized Altoids). These delectable ingredients were made into a fine mist spray you can squirt in your mouth via a toy perfume atomizer for a refreshing morning breath cure. Not a thing that's recyclable that I can see. "Remember, Mom? We recycle the Altoids boxes for underprivileged children to hold crayons in."

So close! She's almost got it, but recycling packaging is not the same as a recycled or rescued ingredient. With a twinkle in my eye, I smiled at my soon-to-be lecture victim. She looked warily back at me thinking, "Oh oh - looks like a lecture." Carefully, I explained what "reduce, reuse, and recycle" means.

How will our children understand the concept unless we discuss it with them at home? They, of course, will learn to recycle by watching and imitating our actions, but considering most schools fall woefully short in teaching children the basics about how to be good to our environment, I decided this was my special opportunity to educate a young mind.

Surprisingly, she participated in our discussion. She enthusiastically told me ways she reuses her craft supplies and toys instead of throwing them out. We talked about our home reduce, reuse, and recycle practices and how these things touch the world and make it better. It was a wonderful conversation between a mother and her child, and I hope you also have a similar conversation with children close to you. Educate them so they make better choices the rest of their lives.

After our talk she ran off to play, but came dashing back after she remembered an important point: "WAIT! One of the ingredients was recycled because I saved it from the landfill!"

My heart went pitter-pat, the child actually understood my lecture. She got it! She saved something from the landfill! Choirs were singing. Happy people were dancing. The world is filled with rainbows and unicorns! IT IS A MIRACLE!

Smiling, eyes brimming with tears, I asked, "What was it that you saved from the landfill?"

"The Altoid! I dropped it in the garage and was going to throw it in the trash, but THEN I decided to make breath freshener out of it instead." She grinned evilly at me and ran away before I could tackle her.

UGH! ACK! CHOKE! Well... she definitely saved an Altoid from a landfill, and I learned an important lesson: always ask your child where their scientific experiment ingredients come from.

Shawna Coronado says Get Health! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com or The Blog - www.gardeningnude.com

Get Yo Green On Tuesday - Dispose of Batteries Properly and Help the Environment

The green message of the day is this: batteries contain sufficient amounts of mercury, cadmium and lead to damage the environment if they are not disposed of properly. Currently, there are no completely safe ways of disposing of batteries. We can however, reduce the damage as much as possible and send batteries to special hazardous waste facilities to help protect our communities.

Gardening Nude Naked Winner of the Week - Kay McKeen

Every Friday I feature a special person on the Gardening Nude Blog. This person is the "Naked Winner of the Week." Every person featured in this category is a winner for doing great things for the community and is trying to make a difference for the world. You can make a difference too.

- - - - - - - - -

The naked winner of the week for 10-17-08 is ::drum roll please::

Kay McKeen, Manager of S.C.A.R.C.E., for being green to the extreme and rescuing over 3 million books from the landfill while providing less-fortunate children with an educational opportunity!

Kay McKeen at the SCARCE warehouse in DuPage County, Illinois. Note the books are piled all the way to the ceiling and would have been thrown in the landfill if Kay and her team had not rescued them.

SCARCE (School and Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education) is  a not-for-profit environmentally-centered community outreach program in DuPage County, Illinois. Kay McKeen, the inspiring manager of SCARCE, is working with her team to truly stimulate positive environmental change.

Get Yo Green On Tuesday - Recycle Mint Containers and Help Children

It is DOUBLE Get Yo Green On Tuesday - I want to show you an idea of how you can make a difference for children in need, while at the same time recycling by rescuing packaging materials from landfills.

Imagine if you were a small child in middle of a hurricane relief camp; ripped away from your snug bed and comfortable home, you might only have the possessions you were able to put in your backpack before being evacuated from your community.

In a relief camp you might share a cot with your other family members in a tiny trampled area and receive water and food from the relief workers. You would not know if you were staying for days or weeks at this camp. Hour after hour you have nothing to do and must sit and wait for word about your home and when you can return.

Then someone brings you a small care package filled with coloring books and a trample-proof tin of crayons. The crayons are used, but you do not care, you love the tin which can later be used to hide secret treasures. You are happy that someone took the time to give you something to do to keep your mind off of the horror that surrounds the experience you are living through.

S.C.A.R.C.E. (The School and Community Assistance for Recycling & Composting Education) is saving millions of crayons every year from the landfills by recycling them. Using crush proof candy tins is one of the ways they have found to rescue "newer" crayons from the landfill. They donate the crayons to under-privileged children, schools, and relief efforts across the world.

Get Yo Green On Tuesday - Find Your Recycling Zen

Get Jiggy Wit Yo Recycling Zen - that's right people - we need a serious lesson today on getting jiggy wit it!

Why oh why is it possible that people in the United States still cannot put an aluminum can in a recycling bin? In the city I live in - a lovely green town indeed - we have full-on garbage-man retrieved recycling. No charge. Free. Gratis. FREE PEOPLE. They DO charge, however, for trash pick up. Let's see... PAY for garbage removal or FREE for recycling... hmmm... common sense. Use it.

This is why I was shocked on my morning bike ride when I found this can of Manzanita Sol (made by PepsiCo) sitting next to my back garden. The garden is built on a walking path, so lots of people pass by the spot. Note the can is crushed - I mean, heck, that's half-way to the recycling bin right there.

Recycle Trash to Treasure - Making a Planter Out Of A Wicker Loveseat

Ever think a coincidence is not a coincidence? You know when something magnificent changes your life forever? My magnificent moment happened about two years ago when I was pulling out of a clients driveway. I happened to look intently at his trash. No, I am not a stalker, I am just nosey - really.

Next to his trash can sat the most gawd-awful looking wicker loveseat I have ever seen. It was pitiful; covered in dirt, unraveling at the seams, covered in stains, with the seat rotted away. But when I saw that horrid piece of furniture, I knew my destiny in life.

I rolled down my window, "Hey! Can I take this lovely piece of furniture off your hands?"

My client looked at me as if I had blown a gasket and said, "Sure, knock yourself out."

After driving the stinky, moldy furniture home, the general agreement was, "it's a piece!"

When my husband saw me pull it out of my hatchback he said, "Throw that piece of garbage out!"

My daughters both said, "Yuck! What a piece of junk."

Yet I did not see trash, I saw the possibility of treasure. In my mind I was rescuing garbage from the landfill - being green - while beautifying my garden. Within two days I had cleaned it all up, painted it bright blue, reinforced the seat, and built a special pan on the bottom using old rubber box lids and chicken wire. All this material I already had at home. 

Filling the seat with potting soil, I put annual flowers in it and placed it in the public garden area behind my home. This year I planted red and white impatiens in it and it has dazzled the bike path out back all summer. Frequently people come to take pictures of my unusual trash-to-treasure invention - and I have received more positive comments on it than any one could imagine.

You can recycle too - make your own garden or home treasure out of trash and save landfill space.

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com and The Blog - www.gardeningnude.com

Gardening Nude Naked Winner of the Week - Frank Novakowski

Every Friday I feature a special person on the Gardening Nude Blog. This person is the "Naked Winner of the Week." Every person featured in this category is a winner for doing great things for the community and is trying to make a difference for the world. You can make a difference too.

- - - - - - -

The naked winner of the week for 09-25-08 is ::drum roll please::

Teacher and environmentalist Frank Novakowski for recycling trash into treasure!

Wheaton Warrenville South High School has a great Science teacher in Frank Novakowski. One of his favorite classes that he teaches is Environmental Science. His concern over making a difference for the planet is seen when he teaches this class. It represents an opportunity to educate children who might not be exposed to positive environmental ideas.

I believe "Mr. Nova" should have the Naked Winner of the Week award for truly living the life he teaches his students every day.

He and Mrs. Novakowski recycle, compost, and do many other good things for the environment. However, his special recycling achievement was in recently turning trash into treasure. He got a call from a relative telling him about a giant water barrel in an apartment building dumpster. It had a broken spigot, but was otherwise undamaged. They pulled the water barrel out of the trash, and after purchasing a new spigot for less than ten dollars, Mr. Nova attached the water barrel on to his house and now recycles the rain water which comes off his roof. He's saving a valuable resource and saving his family money as well.

Good job Mr. Nova - YOU ROCK!!

Mr. Nova won a special River Birch tree which I've been growing since Arbor Day. It is special because I braided three birch trees together and the braided form will stay for the life of the tree.

Congrats and thanks for being a great "every-day" environmentalist Mr. Nova!

Shawna Coronado says Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com and The Blog - www.gardeningnude.com

Super Fashionista Landfill Woman Saves The Day – How My Recycled Clothing Style Sense Is Saving The World

My fashion sense is legendary. Okay, perhaps not legendary, but significant and creative at least. Wherever I go I receive compliments on the clothing I wear. No kidding – almost every day. And it’s good stuff too – I wear Ann Taylor, Gap, Abercrombie, Limited, and many other high-end brands. How do I afford these luxuries on a writer’s salary? You got it Baby – I shop resale!

Why? It’s an easy choice to make when you make a slim salary, it’s also the RIGHT THING TO DO in relationship to saving the world and greening. Landfills are rapidly filling to the brim with lots of garbage which could be recycled – clothing and textiles are an enormous part of that garbage.

When ordering up a perfect world, no one shouts, “Can I take a giant landfill with a side of contaminated groundwater please?” I mean, c’mon people, start listening to your inner “green” voice. It’s that little voice that gives you common sense about the basics to being green. We all have it, but how often do we listen?

Because of popular media’s repeated announcements, we all know that landfills are rapidly becoming one of the United States' largest problems in relationship to conservation. They are filled – almost – to the top. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 4.5%, or 4 million TONS of all waste sent to municipal landfills is comprised of textiles - clothing and fabric. Synthetic fiber products will not decompose, and as a result present problems in the landfill. While garments made of wool do decompose, they also produce methane which contributes to global warming.

You know what that means, right? And I hope you are listening - if you can’t go naked, you should go USED. That’s right – it’s time we remembered the lessons from our grandmothers; don’t throw away what could still be used and recycled. It’s wasteful and wrong.

With that message in mind, I give old clothes away to friends who are less fortunate or a retail outlet like Goodwill or my local resale shop. Oft times the profits from these shops go to help a special cause. With all my old clothes getting reused I save the world – okay – well, at least I save a small portion of landfill space.

This recycling mindset has been translated into my cool clothing secret - - amazing fashion finds at ridiculously low prices. Here you see a photo of one of my recent shopping trips. I was aiming for some comfortable sweaters to wear while in the office or for casual. You will see six sweaters, one pair of jeans, one fake-fur jacket, one blouse, three scarves, and two pair of really hot boots. I can mix and match almost all fourteen items and all of the clothing is a high-end brand name. I spent $43.00 for the entire lot and got myself an entirely new wardrobe for the Fall season for an average of $3.00 per piece. Oh yeah – I’m a genius.

You can save the world too – get your fashion sense pointed in the “do-the-right-thing” direction and you’ll be shouting, “Super Fashionista Landfill Woman saves the day!"

Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com or he Blog - www.gardeningnude.com

eWaste Recycling Made Easy

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle – it’s the mantra we live by at the Coronado home, even more so because of my husband’s business.

Luis owns his own computer services company (www.alchemytech.com) and we are blessed regularly with an abundance of old computer parts and paraphernalia stacked to mountainous proportions in our garage. At first I was irritated by the volcanic pile of electronics. Where’s a Princess to park her car after all?

The garage is an obstacle course. OY! A few weeks ago I stomped into the house and shouted, “What’s with all the computer crap in the garage!?” The response: “Recycling!” Obviously, Luis is a man of few words. I manage between single worded grunts and coded hand gestures to figure out most of what he has to say.

The new term that defines most electronic equipment is “eWaste.” Electronics contain substantial amount of hazardous materials like lead and mercury. Our landfills are filled with toxins related to these products and it is now affecting the groundwater and the air we breathe in many locations across the nation. Do you want your family to suffer because of other people’s stupidity and ignorance in relationship to eWaste removal? I don’t – and my family is doing something about it. You can too.

EWaste products often get shipped to third world countries where workers sort through the electronics and take them apart for reuse. Unfortunately, many of these workers are children or laborers without the proper safety equipment and are exposed to tragic amounts of contaminants and horrible working conditions. Therefore, working with the proper certified recycling company which recycles safely and sends the eWaste to the proper facilities where workers are not taken advantage of is absolutely critical.

Recycling electronic equipment is common sense as the landfills in the United States are currently filled to the brim. Everyone should be working towards recycling these highly toxic products. A certified recycling company comes out and picks up a truckload every month or two at our home. Why not come together with others in your community and have an “eWaste Recycling Day” in your neighborhood?

Currently, one of my favorite certified recycling groups in the nation is SIMS (www.simsrecyclingsolutions.com). If you go to their website you will see they are making a difference on a global level. Taking care of your family’s safety starts right in your own neighborhood – call a certified eWaste recycling company in your local area today!

Get Healthy! Get Green! Get Community!

www.thecasualgardener.com  or www.gardeningnude.com