i’ve become the woman who picks things out of the garbage…
May 15th, 2008 at 07:04am Jennie Pollock
so far at work this morning, i’ve taken the plastic bag off the coffee filters in the kitchen and found a metal binder clip and a plastic bottle of hairspray in the garbage can of a departing co-worker who shall remain nameless.
i’ve started bringing a recycling bag to work so i can throw things like that in and then take them home.
speaking of bags, whenever i can find a memory card reader here at work, i’ll show you my bag of recycling bags at home. UPDATED: SEE BELOW. i separate them. one side is ones i know i’ll just recycle. one side is bags i’ll reuse.
not only do i recycle plastic shopping bags when i go to the grocery store each week, i also pack away things like newspaper bags or tortilla packaging or carrot bags (below).
Entry Filed under: Living without plastic
4 Comments Add your own
1. Mike Logan | May 16th, 2008 at 7:09 am
I congratulate your discipline. This is not an easy thing to do with kids. I also have bedrooms filled with plastic toys. I have never attempted to clean up my daughter’s room, filled with Dora and princess “stuff” but I do pick up and vacuum the rest of the house. My Julie appears to be ok with that. Where I really work on the green issue is food additives like msg and high fructose corn syrup. I have made all of them cringe with my nagging. Mike Logan
http://www.askmikethecounselor2.com
2. hokumboy | May 18th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Good job and keep it up!
Try asking for “no bag please” when making small purchases. Just hold the receipt in your hand with the purchase in case you’re challenged while leaving the store. You’d be amazed at how many fewer bags you have to recycle.
Also I’ve begun to use empty cereal boxes to hold my recyclable papers for pick up. They hold quite a bit and are surprisingly sturdy.
I’m still trying to figure out which leaves less of a carbon footprint. Using paper coffee filters, or the metal screen reusable insert.
3. Jennie Pollock | May 19th, 2008 at 8:57 am
hokumboy,
thanks for the note. yes, i do avoid bags when shopping when i can, and that helps. now if only clerks would just stop automatically throwing little things in bags all the time.
good idea on cereal boxes. i’m going to try that, since i often am short on paper bags.
4. Mike Logan | June 12th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hi Hokum Boy,
I will also try the cereal box idea. That is good. Believe it or not, we are also saving lint from the dryer to make starter log facsimiles for the fire place next winter. Mike
www.askmikethecounselor2.com
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