Cloth Napkins Are Nicer Anyway

On average, an American uses around six napkins each day-2,200 a year! If every American

used even one less napkin per day, more than one billion pounds of napkins could be saved

from landfills each year. Using cloth napkins can be even better!

Reimagine and Reuse Every Chance You Get

In addition to recycling, you should also strive to reuse. When wrapping presents, use old maps or even newspapers-or open up a paper grocery bag, flip it over, and have your kids customize the paper with their artwork. You can also keep and reuse gift bags and tissue paper you were once given. This will save you money on buying gift-wrap while helping the environment save a few more trees.

Walking Your Talk (I Am a Bag Lady)

• Keep a compact, reusable bag in your purse for those spur-of-the-moment purchases.
• Refuse a plastic bag for five items or less.
• Fit purchases from different stores into the same bag wherever possible. There’s no reason to have eight shopping bags with only one item in each.
• Put your cloth bags back in your car as soon as you’re done unloading groceries. There’s less chance of forgetting them at home that way (and you’ll be one step closer to using them!). Keep them on the front seat, rather than in the trunk. If you see them, you’ll be far less likely to forget them.

Making the Most of a Rainy Day

Get a rain barrel:

• Install the rain barrel at least six feet from your house. Locating it near an area you’ll be watering the most makes for convenient use later
• Ensure that your rain barrel has an overflow at least as large as your inflow-for example, if you have rigged it so that water is collected directly from your eaves’ trough downspout, your overflow valve should be as large as your downspout as well. This will allow your rain barrel to get rid of excess water as fast as it collects it, which might be necessary if you live in a city with crazy, unpredictable weather like my brother does.
• If you are using the rain barrel to water your garden, consider using a soaker hose. You can attach the hose to the rain barrel and then run it through your garden so that it covers the area you’d like. Now, every time you see a rain cloud, you’ll get really excited!

Save Seeds

My Aunt Ruth in Flat Rock, West Virginia raised me to save seeds. A child of the Great Depression, my aunt Ruth was teaching me the virtue of thrift when she showed me how to harvest, dry, and save seeds from veggies and flowers. Thrift was an important survival skill for that time and I see it as a forgotten virtue whose time has arrived once again. I remember being very impatient about how long it took for spring to come so I could sow the marigolds, alyssum, and four o’clocks that I had collected.

Terrific for Terra

https://refreshglass.com/

If you are anything like me, this is the time of year you suddenly realize you don’t have enough flutes and glasses to properly toast in the New Year. Why add to the already burgeoning mounds of recycling or, God forbid, landfill? The cool company Refresh Glass (refreshglass.com) creates pretty and eco-efficient drinking glasses from rescued wine bottles. Cheers!

Rescued Treasure

At the El Cerrito Recycling Center, they have a lively reuse center where you can donate things that are still viable for others. I have seen amazing donations like washers and dryers being hauled away by a family who could not otherwise afforded a set. My favorite moment there was the time a donated sitar’s new owner gave a free concert to all us recyclers.

More Ways to Avoid Plastic

• Jars. So many jars. For salads, soups, sauces, juice, opened packages of things. Justy jars. Lots of jars.
• Aluminum foil is a great stand-in for plastic wrap and can be easily recycled or saved for reuse.
• Wax paper is great for wrapping sandwiches. So are reusable sandwich pouches you can make or purchase. Many close with velcro and are easy to launder or wipe clean.
• Reuse empty yogurt, sour cream, or cream cheese containers. You’ve already got them and you have to wash them before tossing them into the recycling bin anyway, so you may as well use them again.
• Invest in reusable lunch containers like bento boxes or tiffins to avoid waste when sending off your little one (or yourself) with a bagged lunch.

Hold a Closet Swap Soiree

    You can share your surplus clothes with friends and acquaintances by throwing a “naked lady party.” This is a fun way to exchange clothes as well as other items. First, set a date, and invite a group of friends to your house (we do ladies only, but men could be included, too) and ask everybody to bring some clothes that they don’t want anymore. Set up your living room as a shop, designating different areas for guests to deposit their items-dresses in one pile, sweaters in another, and so on. Be sure to make a bedroom available to those friends who are too shy to try on clothes in company. We usually have wine and some snacks, and we end up bags of new-to-us clothing. Don’t be bashful-things that you are heartily sick of will be starring in somebody else’s wardrobe, and the surplus can be dispatched to the thrift store.

I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

    Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines that are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than those flimsy paper and non-biodegradable plastic bags. Reusable shopping bags help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down fewer trees.

Be a Visionary

    Did you know your old specs can have a second act? Old prescription eyeglasses can be donated to a LensCrafters store. Every LensCrafters business supports OneSight, which provides glasses to millions of people around the globe. Learn more at lenscrafters.com/onesight.

Cloth Napkins Are Nicer Anyway

    On average, an American uses around six napkins each day- 2,200 a year! If every American used even one less napkin per day, more than one billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.

America Recycles Day

    According to 50 Ways to Help the Planet (50waystohelp.com), “Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20% and related water pollution by 50%. If it isn’t recycled it can take a million years to decompose….20 recycled aluminum cans could be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one. Every ton of glass recycled saves the equivalent of nine gallons of fuel oil needed to make glass from virgin materials.

George Washington Liked Hemp, So Why Shouldn’t You?

    Some eco-smart Canadians created a completely cool substitute for plastic wrap called Abeego. This hemp and cotton fabric is infused with a blend of beeswax, resion, and jojoba oil. It’s flexible and able to stick to itself, and can seal bowls and wrap cheese, sandwiches, and snacks. It even looks good! Check it out for yourself at abeego.com.

Walking Your Talk (I Am a Bag Lady)

• Keep a compact, reusable bag in your purse for those spur-of-the-moment purchases.
• Refuse a plastic bag for five items or less.
• Fit purchases from different stores into the same bag wherever possible. There’s no reason to have eight shopping bags with only one item in each.
• Put your cloth bags back in your car as soon as you’re done unloading groceries. There’s less chance of forgetting them at home that way (and you’ll be one step closer to using them!). Keep them on the front seat, rather than in the trunk. If you see them, you’ll be far less likely to forget them.

Rescued Treasure

    At the El Cerrito Recycling Center, they have a lively reuse center where you can donate things that are still viable for others. I have seen amazing donations like washers and dryers being hauled away by a family who could not otherwise afforded a set. My favorite moment there was the time a donated sitar’s new owner gave a free concert to all us recyclers.

Save Rare Earth

    Cell phones and batteries are some of the largest contributors of toxic substances to our landfills. More than 13 million cell phones become obsolete in California every year, and historically only seven percent have been recycled. Over 80% of reusable batteries are composed of the hazardous heavy metals nickel and cadmium. Mobile phones contain hazardous levels of lead, nickel-cadmium, and other toxic materials. While these and other rechargeable batteries have been banned from disposal in California for several years, recycling opportunities have lagged. According to Californians Against Waste, for every million cell phones we recycle, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered. Go to epa.gov for more information on how to recycle your cell phone.

Moving and Grooving

    Moving? Use clean sheets, pillowcases, and towels to pack breakable items dishes and framed artwork. The soft material will help cushion your breakables, reducing or eliminating the need for bubble wrap. As an added bonus, linens and kitchen items are usually among the first things you'll need to unpack at your new place, so using one to help pack the other means you'll find everything you need in one box. Clever, eh?

More Ways to Avoid Plastic

    *Jars. So many jars. For salads, soups, sauces, juice, opened packages of things. Justy jars. Lots of jars.

    *Aluminum foil is a great stand-in for plastic wrap and can be easily recycled or saved for reuse.

    *Wax paper is great for wrapping sandwiches. So are reusable sandwich pouches you can make or purchase. Many close with velcro and are easy to launder or wipe clean.

    *Reuse empty yogurt, sour cream, or cream cheese containers. You've already got them and you have to wash them before tossing them into the recycling bin anyway, so you may as well use them again.

    *Invest in reusable lunch containers like bento boxes or tiffins to avoid waste hen sending off your little one (or yourself) with a bagged lunch.

I Love Big Bags and I Cannot Lie

Bring reusable shopping bags when heading to the store. Whether you are grocery shopping or heading out with friends, masked up, to splurge on clothes, take your own bags with you. Many stores have totes and reusable bags for a few dollars by the checkout lines that are more durable, hold more objects, and last much longer than those flimsy paper and non-biodegradable plastic bags. Reusable shopping bags help the environment by using less plastic and cutting down fewer trees.