Go Green Earth Day Contest
What we all know and love about PBS is that it allows us to recycle and reuse our favorite things…books! We’re here to keep well-loved books out of landfills and in the hands of avid readers. Increasing our positive impact on the environment is an important goal of the club, so we look forward to Earth Day each year as a special time to celebrate and to further our commitment to protecting the planet.
This year, we want you to celebrate with us! In the spirit of Earth Day on April 22, 2011, we’d love to hear your great ideas for Going Green.
Share with us a practical, creative, helpful, and fun idea on how to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE household items. Remember, when it comes to going green, even a little goes a long way. Submit just one, excellent idea that each of our members can implement into their lives to live a more verdant lifestyle.
Submit your greening idea by April 14th in a comment to this post. We will choose 5 ideas and members can vote on their absolute favorite Going Green Idea starting April 18th. The winner will be announced in the PBS Blog on April 22nd. The grand prize winner will win 10 credits & $5.00 PBS Money, and the second, third, fourth, and fifth place ideas selected will win 3 credits each.
We look forward to hearing all your ideas and pooling everyone’s suggestions to make PBS members the greenest readers in the country!
Go green and good luck!
“The earth is what we all have in common.” – Wendell Berry
For Your Greading (Green Reading) Pleasure
Click the cover images to view the details page for each book on the site. These books are ready to be reused; they’re available to order from your fellow PBS members!
The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas Kostigen
It's Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask
Wake Up and Smell the Planet by Grist Magazine
Squeaky Green by Eric Ryan, Adam Lowry
Tags: Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions, Contests, Green Living
I try to get things secondhand. Almost all of my furniture I got from the sidewalk or a friend who was moving. For smaller items, I like to use Givmo to give away stuff I don’t use anymore and get “new” stuff. It’s like Craigslist but without the millions of annoying emails and having to meet up with people. And when I give away things, I get Karma Points that help me win other things that I might want.
when i have to mail an item i use an old cereal box for the wrapper, just cut it to fit and write the info( a book for example), and tape it up, it doesn’t add to the weight of the item.
Magazines can clutter your house. But, instead of throwing them out, use them to make woven purses, bags, wallets, etc. They’re cute and practical. Plus, they make great homemade Christmas gifts.
I’m working on one made out of my old National Geographics.
These may be simple ideas, but at my house….
—my family was using a different towel after every shower. I suggested that we all make one towel ours and then wash that towel every week or two which helps to save water (less washing) and electricity (less drying). We also started hanging our towels up to dry on an indoor clothesline which further saves on electricity.
—We have a compost bin for extra and unwanted food.
—We use plastic grocery bags as trash bags. We simply change the bag when it becomes full.
—We recycle and refill ink cartridges for the printer.
—We recycle batteries and other recyclables.
—We use baking soda to clean and aid in washing dishes.
—my family also has and uses a composting toilet.
We are now making our own laundry soap, cleaning products, and dishwasher detergent. Not only is it saving us TONS of money, but it’s all good natural stuff.
We garden using only organic material and also compost. We also make our own insect spray out of vinegar and natural products.
We buy most of our clothes from second hand stores and garage sales
We love free cycle and swap sites
Drive a Toyota Camry (great gas mileage!)
Have HE washer and energy star appliances
Keep lifetime-warranty info and use it! I recently returned two pieces of 15-year-old, high-end cookware that had lost its non-stick properties and received replacements (shipped free) worth $350. I regularly mail my pricey tweezers to the manufacturer for sharpening and back they come, good as new. For 27 years I’ve taken a major outdoor outfitter up on its promise of a lifetime of repairs, new leather bands and even batteries for my husband’s favorite watch. Misplace your warranty info? Get it from the manufacturer’s website — it still applies even if you don’t have the original document.
I am the Frugal Artisan, and live by an ethic of using less in jewelry designs to help save the Earth.
How about PET ideas?
Small Animal Litter – Alot of us shred documents with personal info. (All of us SHOULD shred personal info.) The strip shredders make GREAT litter for small animal cages. I never bought wood shavings for our guinea pig or mouse cage and saved at least $20-30 a month using the waste paper. Try it for chicks, rabbits, and hamsters. We never had an issue regarding ink digestion but start using it gradually and watch for effects.
Pooper Scooper – Instead of buying plastic doggy bags, I simply take several pieces of newspaper on walks with my golden retriever. When he predictably assumes the ‘position’, I slip a couple thicknesses under him on the ground and roll it up when he’s done, and pop into the trash bin.
Now go have a look at some recycled guitar string bracelets made by yours truly!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/prettycheap/search?search_query=guitar+string&search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5125073&shopname=prettycheap
I always use my own nylon cloth bags, that roll up into a 1 1/2 X 3″ pouch, for all shopping. I haven’t taken a plastic bag from any store in many years. Imagine how many bags are thrown away every day!
Don’t throw away cardboard boxes! If you are in the market for a pricey closet organizer or garage organizer, you can recycle these boxes and save a small fortune!
Use a box cutter to cut away the top flaps of the boxes. Then, stack them sideways (open top facing you) and use them as storage shelves in your garage or even a closet!
I use them to stack boxed items that don’t weigh a lot (like cereal boxes, dryer sheets, toothpaste – stuff like that!
We wash out our used yogurt cups, dry them, and then use them as seedling cups for the vegetables we grow in our garden every spring/summer. This way we make use of our trash and we end up with more and healthier veggies from our garden. This cuts costs at the grocery store and we get to enjoy our own homegrown food.
I recycle junk mail paper and envelopes. Many of the envelopes are the perfect size to mail one book to a PBS member. I tape the PBS mailing label over the printing on the envelope and just draw a line through any other printing that still shows. I use the back (blank side) of the paper to print my mailing labels. Since I tape the label onto the box or envelope the underside does not show at all. So I get free printing paper and mailing envelopes. I also use the back side of ads, posters, etc…. anything that is blank on one side can be used to print on the blank side.
I use a shampoo bar instead of shampoos made from a plastic bottle.
I bring reusable containers with me to restaurants to put my leftovers in. I hate to use those horribly un-green styrofoam containers they always give you.
Just got back from visiting my cousin who does weaving. She made a gorgeous tote bag out of woven strips taken from the plastic bags that her newspapers come in. I also make coiled baskets using dried daylily leaves from my garden- helps to recycle the garden clippings and leaves less waste on the curb!
You can recycle grocery bags at most grocery stores now, but did you know you can also recycle at the grocery store any plastic bag that is #2 or #4? I recycle all the bags my newspaper comes in. I also recycle bread bags, tortilla bags, packaging bags that are marked with number 2 or 4 (some drycleaning), plastic from paper towel packages. Just make sure the bags are clean, dry and empty.
every year my flower beds need new mulch in them. instead of buying expensive wood chips i cut down my ornamental grasses and cut them into about 8 inch long pieces and spread the “straw” over the flower beds. i don’t have to worry about disposing of the old grass and mulch is a great way to cut down on watering.
We use cloth napkins at meals instead of single-use paper towels or paper napkins. They can be used for the whole day’s meals or more, and can make dinner seem a bit more elegant!
I make my own yogurt. Not only is it cheaper and tastier, but I can make it with no artificial anything. I eat yogurt 5 or 6 days a week, so I save hundreds of plastic yogurt containers every year.
One of the best ways that we have found to recycle is to join the local “freecycle.org” group. This group allows you to give away any unwanted items, thus preventing them from going to the landfill. The items that you no longer need can benefit someone else. All items offered or requested on this group are free. This is a great way to reduce the amount of stuff that you have, benefit someone else, and keep usable items from being dumped in a landfill.
We do all kinds of things but here are a few that come off the top of my head…
We have livestock (cows, chickens,etc) and the feed for them comes in good quality nylon bags. We use those bags as weed barriers in our garden, flower beds, etc. They also make a great mini tarp.
We use our old plastic shower curtains for tarps and they work great. It can get pretty colorful around the yard also.
We recycle our bread ends also. We dry those out and make them into bread crumbs for use in meatballs and breading pork chops.
we have made seed cups from recycled newspapers this year so that we can plant the entire package.
We of course use paperback swap for our books and the library knows us by name.
We use old magazines for making recycled bows and recently we have just figured out how to make Jello stickers from your magazines, newspapers, etc.
I could keep going but I may bore people to death.
We can all find ways to recycle, reuse, and reduce the trash on this earth.
When we tore down our back porch last fall (cheaper than hiring someone else to), we saved all of the wood from it, as well as the wood from the part of the house we are altering to accommodate a new porch; now that spring is here and we can work outside again, we are using the waist-high stacks of 2x4s to build storage shelving for the larger items in the garage, which we would not be able to do with bought organizing systems! Some of the larger pieces of wood are going to support us, too, as extra standing levels on the staging when we paint the new porch.
I reuse anything that I possibly can. I keep glass and plastic food containers to store new things in. Glass jars also make great candle holders, vases or fill them with shells and decorative stones for a nice touch on an end table. I use old plastic bags as trash can liners and canvas bags to shop with to keep the plastic bags I have laying around at a minimum. Also, instead of buying new decor such as pillows or curtains I make new ones using old fabric. Old afghans can be taken apart and crocheted into new projects, pillows can be taken apart and the stuffing reused for new ones or you can simply cover the old pillow with new fabric. And a simple one that people don’t often think of as green, is thrift store shopping. Any time that you can buy anything used it is better than buying it new because you are saving money and tones of resources that would be used to make the new item. 🙂
We try to eat really healthy and avoid stopping at fast food high fat places (well most of the time anyway!), so I pack lots of snacks to take with us when we are out and about. While I have tried some reusable snack bags, nothing seems to surpass the mess-less security of a ziploc. So to avoid waste we rewash our ziplocs with a little soap on water. To avoid having a bunch sitting around to be washed and dry, I take a small kids cup and put a bunch of wooden grill skewers or even straws in the cup. Once you wash the bags you can hang them on the skewers to drip dry. We also spent a one time expense of buying those cute juice drinks with character (tinkerbell, thomas the train, ect.) sippy tops on them at the grocery store. Once you peel off the label they can be rewashed in the dishwasher and reused. It is amazing how much water my kids and the nieghborhood kids will drink if Bob the Builder is sitting on top. These two ideas not only save us money but help promote a healthy life for my kids!
Well, being book people, there are always books that I have that seem to have out lasted their usefulness. Torn covers, missing pages, etc. I like to take these and use them as wrapping paper for gifts. I just tear out as many pages as I need and use them to wrap up gifts. I then make sure to let people know that they can recycle the paper when they are done. This reduces the amount of wrapping paper used and gives a book a second chance to thrill someone. Give it a shot.
I buy most of my family’s clothes at the nearest resale shop (conveniently within walking distance) I then recycle those clothes by giving them to friends whose children are just growing into those sizes, my husband’s old white shirts and t shirts go to the art teachers at school and my old towels go to the local pet shelter.
I try to think up new uses for old items — am a real favorite of those aforementioned art teachers as I am always bringing up new and exciting ideas for their class. (My son just made the cutest knight in shining armor out of old boxes)
When I find a bargain on a watermelon or large packages of food, I share them with my neighbors —
many are elderly , on fixed incomes or just low income — so it is always appreciated.
Pass it on is the slogan for our house!
Use of cloth diapers. Especially the one sizers, they are great. Buy 12 diapers when born use till potty trained can even get swim diapers. I also recommend reusable wipes this way only one bag. I even hang dry my diapers or piggy back the drying on other loads works great saves money and the enviroment.
Also in family my sister’s son is in the 4th grade he sends his old clothes to my 5 yr old. Then they go to my sister-in-law’s son who’s four then back to my newborn. We also share some bigger toys like bikes with the four year old.
Books not picked up by paperback-swaps or have more wear have been placed in the town’s postoffice lobby on a built in shelf/seat. Anyone may take book(s) or magazines and many do. Some people even return the book after reading. Large traffic to the postoffice and it’s rare to see someone pass by the books without looking, dropping off and or taking a book. Families, individuals, young and old, kids waiting for school bus, moms with toddlers, the elderly all look. Many good comments about our books.
styrofoam packing peanuts- I use them in spring when planting my annuals in large pots. I fill the bottom third of the pot with the peanuts and put the soil on top. Makes them lighter if you want to move them and you use less soil.
Old magazines and papertowel rolls- Make boot trees- roll up the magazine lengthwise and stick inside the papertowel roll. You can use it like that, but if you want to decorate it, wrap with a scented drawer liner.
I use everything from junk mail to magazines and old calenders to make envelopes to mail things in. I never buy envelopes anymore….
I use old pill bottles for storing small things like buttons, pins etc.
I buy things in bulk like pickles and then use the jar for storage instead of buying plastic storage containers…
I use old clothing to make rugs, quilts and patch other things with.
I belong to several re-cycle groups
I make my own laundry detergent now. I will never go back to buying store brand. This stuff cleans so much better….
I have started a new Christmas tradition. I am making shopping bags for Christmas. Family use them instead of plastic. The family loves the homemade gift and it is spreading the green idea….
I love my Green Earth and all my Green Friends…..OlieAnn
Directly related to PBS – I recycle the paper boxes cereal etc. come in – and use them to wrap around the PBS books I send out as extra protection, then I put the PBS wrappers around that. Gets the books to their new owners in fantastic condition!!
One of the easiest things to do is reuse old copier paper. Lots of times at work (public library’s rock!), people make extra copies, so we just make a scratch paper pile, so if you ever order a book from me, expect to see the label printed on pre-used paper!
What do you do with old suitcases?
Believe it or not, I have found it is one of the best ways to store holiday decorations. The cases are lightweight, padded, have handles, and many can roll. Some can even expand. It is better than buying the plastic totes that can crack and ‘never seem to hold enough.’ Suitcases stack better as well in the garage, basement, closet, etc..
Give it a try!
Once I read them I donate magazines to the local hospital; when they’re later removed from the waiting areas they are put in the hospital’s recycling bin.
We also recycle envelopes from our mail, using the letter sized ones for anything we mail, and the larger ones for sending books.
We’ve unsubscribed from every mailing list we can, and have gone paperless on every bill we can.
I save old calendars & catalogs to use as wrapping paper.
I have found a ton of great ideas from these postings–there are some highly intelligent, responsible & caring people on here! I’m both humbled and inspired!!
Some of my best ideas:
Share:
Share as much as you can/feel comfortable with. For example, a good friend and his landlord share a wort chiller (for making beer), rather than each purchasing one. That same good friend and I share meals, tupperware, and board games (he has some, we have others, anyone can take anyone else’s to a party or something).
We would share housing with people, but few of our friends are willing to do so, and we’re not comfortable sharing with strangers.
When I had a yard, I shared tools with the neighbors. Many people share things like lawnmowers and snowblowers (I’ve never had that much yard).
Swap:
Well, we all know this one. If we’re on this group, it’s because we’re prepared to swap books. But I’ve seen friends and family with kids of different ages (kind of integrated ages), swap clothing as is appropriate for the growing kids.
Bags:
I carry two to three collapsible bags in my purse at all times. This means I rarely, if ever, need to take a plastic or paper bag from a store.
The few plastic or paper bags I do get are reused as well, in basically the normal ways. Like many people, I use them as small trash can liners. Assuming basically “dry” trash, these can all be emptied into a bigger trashcan, allowing the bag to remain as the liner for a very long time.
I also have some extremely lightweight resuable bags (kind of a tulle material, but not quite) for picking out produce, so those plastic bags are eliminated too.
Eating out:
If you know you’ll be eating out, take containers with you, so you can avoid disposable carry out containers. This one’s harder, but it IS doable. I have considered getting some collapsible containers to carry like bags.
Request no napkins or plastic cutlery when getting delivery. They won’t always comply, but often.
Food:
COMPOST! All of that food can be “reused” into nutrients. Depending on your method, you may or may not be able to compost high-fat or dairy or meat waste, but bread, peels, egg shells and so on can often be composted. Even if you live in an apartment, you probably know someone you can pass that compost on to. (This is the situation we find ourselves in.)
I’m sure there are so many more, and I’m sure I’m replicating others’ ideas, but that’s the “off the top of my head” set.
It seems like a very small thing, but I save the tubes from my toilet tissue and my paper towels and use them to bundle my electric cords with. It works great if you have applicance items in a drawer (like a hand blender, waffle iron and a crock pot) that are attached to the actual applicance or with separate, singular cords (maybe the cord that plugs into your camera and then into your computer to download pictures – that I can never find! ) There is plenty of space to write on them (i.e. “cord to Canon Camera”) and they are not bulky at all. Just bend the cord several times (kind of like a figure 8 shape) and push through the tube. Voila! Works great for other items like curling irons and hair dryers that have to share the same drawers, too. No more messy cords to unravel!
Instead of throwing them away, deflate and roll up the puffed air packers that come with shipped materials. Most of them are just the right size to use as a baggie instead of plastic wrap when you’re sending out your paperbackswap books during the rainy season.
During the holidays, buy or make gift bags. Unlike wrapping paper, they can be used again year after year. Same goes for fabric ribbon instead of the disposable stuff. Some bags and trimmings that show up under my family’s tree have been around longer than some of the family!
Lastly: if you’re still getting your take-out coffee in a paper cup, whatever for? There are travel mugs to suit all tastes, and it’s not hard to get in the habit of taking one along with you.
I send the kids snacks for school in containers rather than baggies, send them with cloth napkins, and a reusable drink bottle! I also re-use the plastic bags from the newspaper to put the umbrellas in when they are wet from rain and I always have a few in the diaper bags for those dirty diapers. We also have a compost bin in the back yard for all our fruit/veggie scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds and anything else compostable, then we use the rich soil when we plant flowers in the spring!
For the past few years I have totally changed my buying habits and now I will not buy anything that is not absolutely essential (both for the health of my wallet and for the planet).
Summer is the best when I can shop garage sales for everything from clothes, books, magazines, even toys and other gifts for my nephews and niece! I also cut up old t-shirts for dusting, wipe electronics with used dryer sheets and always reuse plastic shopping bags as garbage liners.
But most important, I used PaperBackSwap to get almost all of my and my family’s reading needs filled!
Re-purposing is the way to go! I love buying things for my home, but my budget and I are not always on the same page. I have discovered that I can take things I already have or can get at very low cost and “re-make” them into new decorating ideas. This is not a new idea, I know, but it is my favorite “green” idea.
My daughter and I used old pieces of wood from a neighbor’s house remodel to build a bookshelf. Very simple design but a great “new” item for my daughter’s room. I use old bottles, jugs, or bowls for flowers or candy dishes and guests always comment on them. Gallon-size metal cans (like restaurant size veggies come in) can be used to make footstools by taping together, adding padding from old cushions, and covering with extra material. Younger kids love these. They are just their size.
I love being able to look at everyday things and imagine new possibilities for them. Who knew that saving money and the planet could also be so much fun? Go Green!!
Save used onion-bags from the grocery store, and stuff them with hair clippings, pet hair, and drier lint. Hang these “ornaments” in back-yards trees to provide neighborhood birds with warm nesting material!
I recycle everything I can, reuse ziplock bags by washing them, and always take my own bags to the grocery store. I also use the Sunday comics to wrap presents in. I got the idea from my grandma from years ago — she was way ahead of her time! I also donate toilet paper rolls to my local Humane Society. They collect them for their rabbits (to chew on?).
We rinse out and dry the bags that cereals come in. They are VERY tough as you know when trying to open one. They are perfect for wrapping PBS books in to ship.
We save coffee cans. I use wall paper border to cover them as sets of three and sell them at our yard sales for $1 per set.
I purchase old ugly prints in frames and frame great prints from calendars to decorate with.
I save Christmas cards and trim them to use as Christmas gift tags.
I recycle everything, I buy used furniture, books and clothing.I also reuse the mailing packages from books that I receive so they are being used at least twice.
The first, and mos effective step is to reduce. By limiting the amount of packaging that you buy with your products, you can limit the amount of waste you put out into the landfills. Quite often, products are even cheaper this way since the manufacturer doesn’t need to pay for the extra packaging!
Instead of putting all your laundry in the dryer, hang it up outside on a clothes line. You get fresh smelling clothes and save lots of electricity/gas. If its raining or yucky outside, hang them up inside. If you don’t have a clothes drying rack, put your clothes on hangers and hang them from the shower rods.
One way to cut down on padded envelopes is using paper to wrap and send books, CD’s, and DVD’s in the mail.
Our greenest effort to keep things out of the landfill is to use http://www.freecycle.com to give away things instead of throwing them in the trash. Also, we receive things other don’t want so they don’t throw them in the trash. Give what you don’t want/ask for what you DO want. By receiving items from someone else, we’re not buying them, which is a way to reduce the demand on the manufacturing and in turn will ease up on the use of resources in production. Anything from cars to clothes, food to electronics, toys to household goods…you name it and as long as it’s legal, you can find on Freecycle!
Great ideas everyone! We’ve discovered that many of our cost cutting measures are environmentally friendly. Maybe our tips will be helpful to others. 🙂
If there is something that we absolutely have to have, we try to buy it at a yard sale or a thrift store first. For books and music, we turn first to PBS and SwapaCD.
We grow a lot of own own organic produce in our garden. The rest we get from a CSA or the farmers market so that we aren’t buying food that was grown with chemicals, wrapped in plastic, and then shipped halfway across the country in gas-filled trucks.
Eat with the seasons to ensure that your food isn’t being shipped in from another continent.
Buy fair trade coffee, tea, and chocolate whenever humanly possible. Use a reusable coffee mug at the coffee shop.
NEVER buy bottled water. It is unregulated, and the environmental toll is enormous. I highly recommend the documentary Tapped.
We eat a lot less meat to stay within our budget, but the only meat and eggs we do buy comes from local farmers who use organic and sustainable farming methods. We only eat grass-fed beef and lamb if at all possible.
We can, dry, and preserve our own jams, pickles, salsas, and sauces using recycled glass jars. We make our own yogurt, bread, soft cheese, crackers, popcorn, and baked goods.
We compost.
We rarely eat out, but if we do, it’s at a local (and not a chain) restaurant.
We try to buy our staples grains and beans in bulk rather than individual packages. We try to use local grocery chains, co-ops, and health food stores that carry local products.
We use an electric mover.
We keep our thermostat on 82 in the summer and 60 in the winter. We turn out lights we don’t need and unplug appliances that are not in use.
We use CFL or LED bulbs and reusable bags.
We use reusable glass containers with lids for food storage, and use aluminum foil (which can be recycled) instead of plastic wrap. We never use disposable plates or utensils.
We only use cloth napkins, towels, and disclothes. Toilet paper is the only paper product we buy. If we have another baby, we’ll be using cloth diapers.
My cleaning supplies are baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, borax, and castille soap. I can make laundry detergent and just about any cleaning product from these ingredients.
Recycle everything possible, even if that means disassembling something into its separate parts. Also, donate things which are unwanted but still usable.
I forgot to mention that we try to make our gifts whenever possible.
We save everything decompostable imaginable to fertilizer our organic garden! The garden will even compost it for you!
I make a big effort to stay green with my Paperback Swap packaging. When mailing books, I re-use plastic shopping bags to wrap books in, and I’m a college student so I save all of my school papers and package my bag-wrapped books in them. I print out all of my Paperback Swap labels on paper that is already printed on one side, meaning that the paper gets one last use before it’s recycled by whomever is receiving the books. I also reuse packaging that other PBS-ers have packaged the books they’ve sent to me in; I have a nice pile of various sizes of envelopes in my hall closet, next to my box of books.