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.

The Freecycle Network

Ever hear of Freecycle? Most people I know haven't, and some even snicker at this level of frugality. They just don't know what they're snickering at.

Freecycle is a regional network of classified ads...most ads are "offer" or "wanted". The Golden Rule of Freecycle is that any items posted are given FREE, no money exchanges hands through Freecycle. The idea is that a lot of the stuff we toss in the trash may be someone else's treasure, and it is better to pass it on to a new life, rather than have it end up in a landfill.

Each morning when I wake up, and each evening, just before bed, I get an email from Freecycle, called the Daily Digest. Each of these emails contains up to 25 ads of people advertising stuff they would like to pass on (offer) or stuff they would like passed on to them (wanted).

I have been a member of my local Freecycle network for over a year, with tremendous success. Some of the things I've passed on have included:

• baby clothes
• baby gear (bouncy seat, traveling bassinet, etc)
• old electronics (lots of people like to collect this stuff to practice their tinkering)
• household appliances
• books, books, and more books
• toys
• jigsaw puzzles (I only ever do them once)
• decorative items (lots of candle holders)
• egg cartons (local egg farmer requests these from time to time)
• recycling box items (schools and daycares often take boxes of various food jars, styrofoam meat trays, aluminum pans, Popsicle sticks, etc)

And the things I've gained from Freecycle:

• baby clothes
• toys
• books, books, and more books
• a wooden filing cabinet (I'm almost organized!)
• a fantastic wooden rack which holds plastic bins for toys
• a broken DVD player (my husband fixed it)
• an easel
• a 6'x9' rug (in excellent condition, I might add)
• clothes (for me!)
• an Ultramatic bed (for my mom...beware, pickup for large items can be difficult!)
  

Clothes are one of my favourite things to get from Freecycle. They're certainly a huge expense for a family of four, and opening a bag full of name brands that I couldn't normally buy is very exciting. Of course, anything that we can't or don't use, we re-Freecycle (post in an offer).

A Freecycle account is completely free; all that is needed is a Yahoo! email account, and you're off. Please check them out, see what kinds of things people are offering. Then take a look around your own house and see what's collecting dust that someone else might really appreciate.

www.Freecycle.org

Plastic Bag Envelopes

RecycledSandals.com is happy to announce that the Canadian Postal service will accept our recycled envelopes. I was a little worried about this, but as it turns out, they didn't even bat an eye when I handed over the .7 kilo package with overlapped logos and ragged edges.

I have fabric grocery bags, but damned if I can always remember to take them to the store with me. Making plastic grocery bag envelopes give me an excuse to keep bags and bags of them hanging around. They are an office supply for us!

I didn't invent this. I found the idea online and decided to try it out myself. Now, all of our sandals are shipped out this way:

Ingredients:
6 plastic grocery bags
2 or 3 extra bags for patching

Tools:
scissors
3 sheets of parchment paper
1 large towel
1 clothes iron

1. Heat iron to medium setting; lay towel out flat on a table.
2. Flatten and smooth the plastic bags and cut off the handles and bottom seams.
3. Place on sheet of parchment paper on the towel, put three of the plastic bags (these will be double sided, so six sheets of plastic in total) on top of that, and top with another sheet of parchment paper.
4. Iron. Press firmly, but don't stay in one spot too long, as this will create shrinkage and holes in the plastic. Lift of the parchment from time to time to check your progress and see which areas may be bubbling and need some extra pressure.
5. Repeat 3.-4. with the next three bags.
6. Check over your work, looking for holes. If there are any, these can be patched with the extra plastic bags, just cut out some pieces slightly larger than the holes.
   
7. When both sides of the envelope are finished, stack them together and place the third piece of parchment paper on top. Trim the parchment leaving about one inch of plastic sticking out on all sides.
8. Place the trimmed parchment between the two sides. This will keep your envelope from being fused together. Cover with another sheet of parchment, and iron just the edges on three sides. (The fourth side, of course, needs to stay open so you can put something in your envelope!)
9. Finally, stuff your envelope with whatever you want to send and, using the parchment paper again, iron the fourth side shut. You may be surprised at what a sturdy envelope this creates!

A couple of extra points:

• larger envelopes can be created by overlapping more bags in a wider or taller arrangement
• print or write the mailing and return addresses on plain paper, then place clear plastic bags (vegetable bags are great for this, but lower your heat setting first) directly over the label and iron it on
• trim the edges of your envelope to make them a little neater in appearance
• play with your creativity...use bags with cool colours, logos or slogans, or cut out these elements and iron them to your finished envelope as an embellishment

I hope that one day, we see these in our mailboxes all the time. :)

Passionately Drawing a Blank

This is my third, maybe fourth time, sitting and staring at a blank page in front of me. I know that starting this blog is a great idea, it's going to raise awareness of environmental issues, it's going to help people learn what little things they can integrate into their daily life to make a big impact on the Earth, it's going to drive visitors to my website and have them buy Recycled Sandals!

But really, where do I start? I have a list of ideas for posts that I care about, feel strongly about, and therefore could whip off and have published before the kids are even out of bed. But I can't start with any of those, because I haven't STARTED yet! You, dear reader, don't yet know me. Tossing out a post completely out of context seems the wrong thing to do...like walking up to a stranger, slipping my hand into theirs without saying a word and just walking along with them. I don't think I'd get very far.

So let's get back to basics:
I'm Laurel, Canadian, 33, mother of two.
I love vivid colours; reds, oranges, hot pink.
I hate green.
I'm terrified of almost all insects, but bite back my screams when my son finds a spider in the garden because I don't want HIM to think that mommy thinks these things are scary, and be scared too.
I've seen "An Inconvenient Truth" and "Story of Stuff" and want to live better for the planet, so my children HAVE a planet, but don't always know what to do to that end.
I recycle, I reuse, I try to reduce. My set of plastic storage containers came filled with a bonus of margarine, cottage cheese, etc.
My 3 year old knows the difference between the blue and gray boxes, and what type of items belong in each.

Next time, I'll tell you about the Recycling Bastards.