Pacing Myself

Where did I go? Here I am! I missed you too. :)

Recycled Sandals and More...started off with gusto, and has quickly (far too quickly) trickled off to a slow drip. And it happened with no explanation...sorry folks.

The need to set a pace for myself has surfaced. I'm not going to be able to put up a post a day as was my goal a couple of weeks ago. I do need to build up the amount of content on this blog, but at the same time, not trade quality for quantity.

So let's set a date, and meet back here on Sunday evenings. That'll give the good folks at the offices of the world something to look forward to on Monday mornings while they inject their caffeine and peel back their eyes, and it will give me a week at a time to think about, research, and put together some good posts.

I'd like to offer my thanks to D-M for creating a logo for RecycledSandals.com, which will appear not only on our commercial sandal site, but also here, by this time next week. Thanks D-M, I love it! (The rest of you will have to wait.)

Being Green Can Make You Blue

Little bit of a rant again today, please bear with me.

I like stuff. I have a lot of stuff. There's lots more stuff that I would love to get. There's stuff that I probably WILL get, at some point. But I do try to keep it in control, as best I can. I'm not perfect, by any means. I often see commercials for products which are single use and disposable, and I think "Oh, how HANDY!"...then quickly force myself to take a step back and consider the impact of purchases like that on our environment. To this end, I'm very proud that I've never owned a container of disposable kitchen or bathroom disinfectant wipes, no matter how much I think they would make my life easier. I have a reusable mini wetwipe container that I refill to stick in my purse when going out with baby...I buy my wetwipes in bulk to keep down on the litter they create. Yes, I DO use wetwipes...I'm not so "holy granola" that I'm willing to make my own reusable ones, because frankly, that just grosses me out.

So there's that. I'm not perfect. But I try.

Which brings me to my point:

Why, oh why, when people KNOW they're not even making an effort, am I made to feel like *I'M* the weirdo extremist who wants everyone to live in a treehouse (seasonally, of course)? And why do the people who drink bottled water announce "But I recycle the bottles!" and feel like purists? Why do people think I'm ONLY cheap when I ask them to close the damn door in the middle of winter and they want to stand there in the open doorway and chat? And the one that really gets me...oh grr...is when I talk about reusing things, re-purposing things, throwing out less stuff because I can find new life for it, do I feel like people think I do it because I can't afford to do "better"?

Dear readers, what are your experiences/thoughts on the diseducation (my own word, thank you) of the seeming masses? Anyone else find their actions being questioned by friends or family who just don't get it? I'd really love to hear from you...everyone on my street puts out their blue and gray boxes each week, but in taking further steps, I often feel alone.

Murky Waters

I've been doing some reading on the evils of bottled water...and the perceived evils of tap water. Seems each side of the argument has a huge following of devoted bottle drinkers vs. tap suckers.

I'm a tap sucker, myself. And after learning a bit more about the subject, I plan to stay that way.

The obvious argument against bottled water is the physical pollution all those plastic bottles cause. Here are a few extra facts, gleaned from different sources:

• Most bottled water contains no fluoride. Fluoride ingestion through drinking water can reduce tooth decay up to 15%.
• Canadian water supplies are inspected daily, while bottled water facilities are inspected every three years. THREE YEARS!!!
• Your body absorbs more chlorine during an average shower than is contained in 2 litres of tap water.
• High bottled water consumption could possibly, one day, lead to privatizing municipal water supplies. Yikes.
• Dasani (a Coca-Cola product) and Aquafina (a Pepsi product) are filtered municipal (tap) waters.

That's all some pretty scary stuff on its own...add to it that bottled water (probably not the municipal filtered kind though) has been leached of its vital minerals and nutrients (which it then leaches from US when we drink it), and you can see why I'm sticking with the faucet.

The other side does have its arguments, mostly about taste. There are a few other factors, some of the concerns are:

• The pipes tap water comes through. The minerals in the water may eat away at the pipes, and you end up drinking these metals. (Bottled water facilities don't use pipes?)
• Bacteria. (See above list for frequency of inspections.)
• Convenience of buying new bottles and not keeping track of a refillable. (The three R's, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and listed in order of importance. REDUCE.)
  

If you're completely undecided, get a tap filter. Oh, and skip the plastic reusable bottles...stainless steel is the way to go because it doesn't release bisphenol-A, which is linked to birth defects, miscarriage, and some forms of cancer.

Recycling Children

Okay, okay, as much as you might like to...DON'T recycle your children. But teaching them to recycle can be a whole lot of fun, and their ideas range from the mildly creative to the downright zany.

My son has become a recycling nazi. When he gets it into his head that it's "craft time!!!" it's very difficult to hold him back, even for a few minutes. When mommy is busy and can't get out the craft supplies immediately, where does he go? Straight to the garbage can.

Frozen juice containers, pizza boxes, cardboard coffee whitener cans, bubble packaging, fruit cups, all those little things that aren't accepted by our local recycling centre, he finds use for. (And never mind, mommy, about the yucky garbage that gets strewn about on the floor while he gathers his treasures!) Of course, many of these things get thrown into the kitchen sink with a demanding "Wash this please! I wanna do a craft!".

Have I created a monster? Well, yes and no. I'll admit I get a little annoyed when he throws the grimiest gunk right into my dishwater, but I'm also quite proud. And honestly, have you seen some of the amazing things people have made out of garbage? Everything from ripped up t-shirt rugs to juice bag slippers to egg carton art (and I don't mean the pre-school caterpillars...stuff you'd actually hang on your wall). So I bite my tongue as best I can, and ask:

"What do you think this wants to be?"

There are worse things...and I'm definitely the culprit in creating this mind set. We use old yogurt and dip containers to hold paint, glue, sparkles, beads...newspaper is given to my baby to shred (builds hand muscles in babies, they say), old shower curtains are used to cover surfaces where we're creating. Anything I can think of a use for, I keep. My son is just building on my knowledge base.

The next time your little ones are bored, send them straight to the trash can. Oh yeah, and for those who would like to add some education to the trash, let them sort your blue and gray boxes. Nobody makes a more complicated sorting game than the recycling bastards. :)

Mailbox Crap, Pt. 2 - Newspapers & Flyers

I used to love receiving my flyers each week. The local newspapers provided me with plenty to read and drool over, delivered right to my mail box. I'd pull them out and immediately start searching for the flyers I liked best...JYSK, Home Outfitters, yadda yadda yadda. My husband would pull out the Canadian Tire flyer, then complain the rest of the week about all the flyers lying around that he had to gather up and carry out in the gray box every two weeks. Two weeks worth of flyers is a LOT to carry.

Then, one week, I didn't receive a flyer for my favourite grocery store. So I went and looked their flyer up online, and found that it looked exactly like the one that was delivered to me...but after reading it, I could just close the window, rather than adding it to the stack. Then I thought about how much stuff I wouldn't want and how much money I wouldn't spend, if I didn't get ANY flyers...most especially my very favourites, as mentioned above.

I never read any of the newspapers that I receive. All my news comes from the internet, as all the newspapers that I'm interested in have websites. And after finding out that all the same flyers were available online...

...I decided to stop receiving flyers and free newspapers. Believe me, this is much easier said than done. Please keep in mind Friday's post, in which I mentioned the rather large, cute, polite sign covering the front of my mailbox, which asks that no newspapers, flyers, or unaddressed mail be delivered.

Three local newspapers deliver things to my home. Two are small, free papers that are delivered door to door, and the third is the "Flyer Pack" that is distributed by our city's one large newspaper. I have, on different occasions, called each of them.

One was friendly, returned my call, agreed with my protesting this waste of paper being thrust upon me, and I've happily never heard from them again.

The second small paper blamed the kids that deliver the papers. They're new to the route, they don't know which houses want them and which don't, excuses, excuses. (They should know I don't want them...sign and all.) I asked them to send someone to pick up the paper, which of course they laughed at.

The large city paper never called me back, but at least they stopped delivering the flyer pack.

My advice? Call and complain, complain, complain. Even if it is kids who deliver the papers, this is a job for them, and they should do their job properly, or lose it to someone who will.

Another little tip...I have an old newspaper from a couple of weeks back sitting in my mailbox, and it seems to be repelling more papers from landing there. Keeping one in the bottom and letting it turn yellow may well work for keeping away more.

My husband couldn't be happier about the reduction in our recycling. He's the one who trots it out to the curb anyway, and he's more than happy to read Canadian Tire's flyer online.

And, dear readers, if you're reading THIS, then you have the resources to:

1. Lighten your recycling load.
2. Clearly send the message that flyers and newspapers aren't wanted or needed.
3. Still shop for the sales of your favourite stores.

Oh yeah...my shopping list has been reduced phenomenally now that I don't know about every little gadget or "must-have" that's currently available. Check out "Story of Stuff" to find out where 99% of our shopping ends up.

Mailbox Crap, Pt. 1 - Admail

Raise your hand if you love admail! Woo hoo! And who enjoys the pound or so of flyers dumped in their mailbox weekly? Oh yeah!

After a lot of phone calls, a trip to the post office, and many instances of chasing newspaper and mail carriers down the street, I think I've finally put a plug in the stream of crap flooding my mailbox.

Admail pisses me off to no end. All the waste that goes into designing, printing, and delivering these glossy ads of things I'll either never want or simply look in the yellow pages for, could be so better spent elsewhere. I pull it out of the mailbox, it clutters up my counter for a couple of hours, and then it makes its way directly to the gray box, which my husband carries to the curb every two weeks. Two weeks of admail can really add up to quite a pile of dead tree.

A few months back, I got sick of it, and decided that it was MY mailbox attached to MY house, and I should bloody well have a say in what goes into it. So I made up a sign which reads:

"Please help us to be green! Please leave no newspapers, flyers, or any other UNADDRESSED mail here." I even included a cute little clipart Earth with a face, ice pack on its forehead and a thermometer stuck in its mouth.

However, this didn't work. Nothing changed at all. So I called Canada Post and left a message. Nobody got back to me. I called again, and again, and always received an answering machine. Finally, I gathered all the admail that I had received since putting up my sign, and took it to the main post office.

They weren't very happy. I told them I had a sign on my mailbox stating I didn't accept junkmail (only I referred to it as recycling, and they corrected me...it's admail, NOT recycling, ahem). The nice lady gave me a phone number to call to opt out of junkmail. She wrote it on the top piece of rec...ahem, ADMAIL that I had brought back to them. She was even less pleased when I ripped off the phone number and left my ADMAIL on her counter as I walked out.

The admail stopped for a while. The few times that I did receive it again, I either dropped it back into the red mail box up the street, or hand it back to the mail carrier. On one of these occasions, I chased her across the street, and instead of taking it back, she told me to just drop it in the mailbox below mine! What, so that guy will get two identical pieces to put in his recycle bin? I fairly growled at her as I thrust it into her hand.

I haven't received any admail for quite a while now, and am very happy.

Now here is something I wish I had known about long ago, it's called the "Red Dot Campaign". They give a solution to admail, which is to send a form letter (available on their site) to Canada Post requesting no admail be delivered to your address. Your mail carrier should then affix a red dot sticker to your mail box to remind them that your house does not want junk mail.

Hopefully, this will rid you of your admail. If it doesn't, feel free to open some of your ADDRESSED admail, look for a stamped return envelope from that advertiser, place your other admail in it, and send it to them. Eye for an eye, and all that.

On Monday, I'll tell you about my grief with local newspapers.