Baby Paper Bag was born to a purpose: to carry things.

Smooth and flat at birth? No one believes me on that one.

Her destiny was the lifespan of a mayfly: a 24 hour period.

A carpenter stuffed so many nails into baby paper bag that she aged over night and even developed a small tear in her hindquarters.

The carpenter threw baby paper bag out because of the damage.

But, a homeless woman came along and plucked baby paper bag out of the trash barrel and put some socks in it and put it in her pocket.

The homeless woman then died and the paperbag in her pocket fell out of another bag that all her belongings had been put into by the hospital.

A squirrel found it and took the socks, one by one, to the tippy top of the tree where his squirrel house was built. The squirrel used the socks for curtains.

Baby paper bag, now empty and middle aged, blew down the street, light as a feather and got run over by an 18 wheeler tractor trailer that had new tires. And, that was the end of baby paper bag.

The wrinkles were now deeply grooved and permanent and baby paper bag was squished totally flat just like a newborn paper bag, BUT wasn't dirty--which would have pleased baby paper bag's mother (now in heaven) no end because she taught her children always to wear clean underwear because you never know when you are going to be in an accident.

And so that is how I came to find this paper bag: on the side of the road, wrinkly and discarded, but near some grass, a very pretty green color.

I took a picture and went home. When I came back the next day, baby paper bag was gone.

I think S. Le found it and recycled baby paper bag.

©Pat Coakley 2008

PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION

A South West recycling company is launch a revolutionary device to process metal cans on the move at a national trade show next month.

The new product, called KerbCan, is designed to save time and money for councils and recycling businesses by sorting and crushing the cans as they are being collected.

Currently collection vehicles have to return to their depot part-way during their collections as they become full. Crushing the cans en route means they take less space, and the blocks, or bales, of crushed cans can be sold on straight away, with no need for further processing.

The simple, yet pioneering, concept has been developed by Advanced Recycling Solutions (ARS), based at Tolvaddon near Camborne. It will be launched at the national Recycling Waste Materials trade show in Birmingham’s NEC next month.

The company has been making a range of devices to recycle metal, paper, cardboard, and even tyres for the last 30 years.

Using ‘KerbCan’, cans from domestic kerbside collections or commercial premises are emptied into a hopper at the rear of the vehicle.

From there they are carried on a conveyor belt with non-metal items automatically collected in an easily removable bin.

The remaining cans are separated into steel and aluminum before each type is crushed into bales and placed in a storage area. The bales are then ready to be smelted down or sold on.

The ARS system increases the capacity of each collection vehicle four-fold.

Brian Hattam, ARS’ Managing Director said: “We believe this system is nothing short of a revolution in kerbside can collection. The handling, storage and processing of cans is extremely labour intensive. This automates virtually all of that process, producing valuable, saleable bales at the end of every shift.”

One person can operate the vehicle where collection points are some distance apart, or up to three people where the points are closer together and the flow of cans is more rapid.

Waste energy produced by the vehicle when it is idling powers the system. KerbCan has been assembled from ARS’ existing range of modular recycling products.

For more information visit ARS visit www.ars-chs.co.uk, or call 01209 611898.

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The designer is a talented visual artist, but she should definitely be doing more of these too!

The first one is My Green Electronics which gives ideas of how and where to recycle so that your electronics do not impact our environment. Another good site is Share the Technology which has listings of places, including nonprofit organizations, schools, and people with disabilities who can make use of your old electronics.

Maybe instead of donating you want to trade! There are places to do that online too! One of them is Zunafish.  According to the website, "Zunafish^® lets you trade your old media items for new titles you’d rather have. And, oh yeah—it’s fun, simple and dirt cheap: just a buck a trade!" Doesn't sound like a bad deal, does it! Finally, there is GreenDisk which can handle all your technotrash (don't you like that word?) disposal needs from a CD to a PC and just about everything in between. So there you have it; there is no way you need to throw any technology related stuff away! There is a place to recycle or exchange everything. 

Oh and by the way, while I was looking at these sites, I also came across this site which recycles crayons, yes that's what I said, crayons! The site is Crazy Crayons where you can send old, broken crayons to be recycled into fresh, new crayons! They even want you to leave the wrappers on!

Been listening to the delightful sound of Pandora radio. Listening to the indie station. Some of their choices earlier were rather suspect when it came to the issue of taste, but now the station seems to have picked up on my likes.

The music is really mellow. Perfect for the billowy, blustery day that is today. The clouds can't seem to make up their minds as to whether or not it should storm. I think they're just content to confuse the masses today and move across the sky at such speeds that it seems they have somewhere to be. I wonder where a cloud would be heading? If I were a cloud, I would head up towards Alaska to see the northern lights and play in the mountains. I hope that's where these clouds are heading.

Cleaned my office today and felt so productive. Threw away papers I didn't need and it made me long for a recycling bin. I still have a box of documents to go through and file. That may take a while because I'm still trying to figure out the filing system my predecessor left me with. Some is in alpha, some in numerical, and some seem to be by his special preference. Who knew. It kind of makes me want to make up my own system. My specific Amy decimal system. No Dewey here.

Listen a second, you smell that?

It's been a good week thus far, all things considered and today, I met with a nice man who works for a rather large supermarket and who has the potential to be a very nice man. Buyers aren't all bad you know and sometimes you have to trust your instincts and speak from your heart. Only time will tell if we get a listing with the company in question, however, it still feels completely liberating to come out of a meeting knowing I'd given something my honest best shot, and seen a buyer smile in the process.

Can't forecast the future too specifically; nonetheless, we remain eternal optimists and preparations are well underway for Hagar and I to travel off to the Wokingham Food & Drink Festival from tomorrow, while our wonderful friends in the ChickPea Charriot are taking their Aquapax off to visit Camp Bestival on ye magical Isle of White.

Irrespective of the weather, there’s always someone to talk to and engage with as we continue our revolutionary quest to change the bottled water market, with or without the supermarkets in support.

Besides those people we meet who have real ecological passion, there are always more than enough folk looking for freebies – some of whom delight in tasting things they already know they’re never ever going to buy. If you’re in the neighbourhood, why not come on down, as some cheesy game show host once said. We’re not too cheesy and we would relish your company.

ps. for those loyal customers who keep me smiling, I'll be doing a tasting at Fresh and Wild in Clapham on Friday, in case you can't make it along over the weekend. :-)

Yesterday we got our composters dug out. They obviously hadn't been used in a while. They were too overgrown with no path to them. But they're cleared out now and are being fed regularly.

In our freezer we have a pail for meat and bones. Honestly, we're not sure what we're going to do with those, but freezing them will give us time to think about it.  We have two dogs, but that's an awful lot of people food to be giving them. Our one dog has a very sensitive stomach and I know he wouldn't handle it well.

And lastly for today, we purchased a water dispenser and a bottle of water. This is not only going to save us money, it's also going to cut down on our plastic recycling and help the environment at the same time.

So, all in all, it's been a good day so far!

If I should die before I wake,
All my bone and sinew take
Put me in the compost pile
To decompose me for a while.

Worms, water, sun will have their way,
Returning me to common clay
All that I am will feed the trees
And little fishes in the seas.

When radishes and corn you munch,
You may be having me for lunch
And then excrete me with a grin,
Chortling, "There goes Lee again."

'Twill be my happiest destiny
To die and live eternally.

Words by Lee Hays (1979) Music by Pete Seeger (1979)
© 1981, 1982 by Sanga Music Inc.

So, you do your part, right?  Possibly, but paper and plastics are still the most thrown away item in the dumps.  According to Wikianswers; "The packaging that you buy makes up 80 percent of most household trash."   Think about it for a second, when you buy a package of turkey at the store, do you take the plastic and the paper product and recycle it?  Or, how about when you buy grabage bags, so you take the box that they come in and recycle it?  We think that the majority of people don't think about that stuff.  That is why we are here, right?  "Take a stand, make a difference" ring a bell?

So, let's take a look at what you are all reading this post for....the $$$$

Instead of putting your cans and bottles at the curb(if your county has that option, save them.  It takes a little extra time to take a gargabe bag or two full of cans and bottles down to the recycling company.  They DO still pay.  Boxes, boxes, boxes.  Boxes are typically good strong cardboard.   Why not take all the cardboard you get from packages, moving supplies, etc down and make a couple dollars.  When you go shopping at your grocery store, ask them if they purchase bags back.  If they do, you are going to the store anyways, why not make a little change while going.  Toner cartridges...Staples if offering a "reward" for any information regarding the where-a-bouts of toner cartridges.  What about your old jeans that don't fit.  You could sell them, or just donate them to a thrift shop.  These are all forms of recyling.  Now, you may not be the Bill Gates of the dumpsters but, you could make money AND feel good about what you are doing.

HERE is a post about making money off recycling newspaper.

HERE is another way to make money recycling.

Scrap Metal Recycling, click HERE

For those extra ambious money makers, you can certainly do THIS

Even Entreprenuer.com has some tips on making money with Recycling.

What about you?  Have you taken a stand?  Have you made a difference?

Tell us about it...we would like to hear how you made a difference, or maybe you profited off it...

Let us know

The dehydrator is only supposed to spend pennies every hour to dry. But even three cents per hour would be a good $20 per month if run 24/7. Now $20 to $30 per month is still a great price to pay for preserving the pounds of fruit and greens/herbs foraged, but I'd still like to find out how to do this using the sun to dry, rather than electricity.

Checking out Mother Earth website brought some pretty nice ideas about solar-powered food dehydrating. The most temporary, simple, cheapest one is by using some cardboard boxes with plastic covering. Today I'll try putting the cardboard stuff together for this. We get so many ants around here. Hopefully this won't be a problem with the hot flow of air where the fruit will be drying. We'll give the cardboard design a shot while I start gathering the ingredients to create another design by John Vivian.

I'd like to change the top and replace this one with a glass or pexiglass top though. So while I build the cardboard set up, I'll start keeping an eye out for scraps to build this with. Things like tossed window screening or doweling/molding for the shelves. Plus something to screen the open holes in the bottom, to keep out ants, like maybe the stuff used in clothes dryers where the lint collects.

So today, I'll get on the cardboard set up, soak up some hazelnuts, bake the apple pie I promised and use up the last of the blackberries for more muffins. Which means I need to go pick more blackberries :) soon.

Tyler, my six-year old son, lives in L.A. with Mark, his dad. I've been away from him for a week now. Last night we set up Battle for Wesnoth to play online with each other. What a trip. It was so cool. As much as I love gaming, I've never done any online gaming. Even video gaming is something I've only started to play with last Christmas - LUV Rockband and Guitar Hero. But with Ty, it was soooooo incredibly cool to see him move his characters and play while it's his turn, 800 miles away. This is probably the single most incredible reason why I would support internet tech. Crazy. Amazing.

Deconstruction as against demolition offers a way to sustainably harvest a building for raw materials and in effect reduces waste and increases the viability of the materials by bringing them back into the cycle. As against the 65 million tons of waste generated annually courtesy demolition, nearly 24 million tons of materials could be reused and 6 million tons recycled by following deconstruction.

Deconstruction: A More Natural Way to Demolition

Posted at AboutMyPlanet.com by: Saikat in Environment

According to the reuse advocacy website Waste to Wealth, the construction and demolition (C&D) industry disposes of almost 65 million tons of waste annually, much of which is reusable or recyclable. With demolition tons of re-usable materials like timber, bricks, and metal end up as landfill fodder. This is an absolute waste because some components are valuable (like lumber, metals ad even glass) and can be easily recycled. Agreed, demolition is a relatively inexpensive way to bring a building down but it generates tons of waste, some of which may be of more value than when they were initially used.

Read More at About My Planet >>>

     lacivet@gmail.com   

*Sigh* The first day is always a tear jerker for this Mama. One kiddo in First Grade and two in Third. One preschooler at home and One High Schooler embarking on her first year of home school.

Having these sitting on my counter help me feel better. That's 24 roses in red and yellow from my darling husband.

I walk past those flowers into my laundry room where I am greeted by this RECYCLING dilemma. As you can see, I have a small space in which to contain our recycling. Curbside picks up once a month. We always have at least 6 totes to put out. I have NO garage to store this in. If you have some FABULOUS suggestions... please do share! I am overwhelmed! (Oh, and our nearest drop off is a 20 minute drive each way and requires our gas guzzling TRUCK...)

Not only was today the first day of school, it was also the first day of Ballet for Little Critter... She managed to get dirt all over the backside of her leotard and rip a giant hole in her tights all before class even started. That's my girl.

K3 had her first soccer game today. Could they have picked an UGLIER color? I think not. GAH.

Tomorrow K-Man starts Football practice... MUST FIND BUBBLE WRAP ASAP. I don't know if I will be able to watch.

On another note... Check me out over at Eco Child's Play.

And that's a wrap... I need my bed.

Holyoke has recycled a total of 815.22 tons of recycled material and receives a flat rate of $15.67 per ton, plus revenue sharing when the markets are up. However in contrast Chicopee has recycled 1,575.73 tons for a disbursement of $67,857.

So a call to 'Action' or Challenge is in order to Holyoke's Citizens to reach a tonnage of 1200 for the last 6 month of 2008 and to reach a total tonnage of 1600 for the first six months of 2009.

Why should we recycle in Holyoke? besides the obvious of helping to save the environment.

The more money that Holyoke receives from sources such as recycling, we can continue the free services such as trash removal.

I went down last year to pick up a new recycling bin or 'blue bin' and let me tell you they are very small. I will check with the DPW and see what kind of alternatives can be supplied and post here later.

Also remember that PET 1 plastics are in High Demand, so throw all your clear water and juice and soda bottles in the bins. According to the Springfield Materials Recycling Facility, they receive $300 per ton for PET 1

Crumpled Cans

Not too much going on today. I had hoped to make it out to Busey woods and see what I could find. But, mother nature had other plans for me. The heavens opened up and rain came down in torrents.

While warming my lunch I happened to see our can recycling box.

I'd like to think that this somehow speaks to positive recycling. The cans are sitting in a repurposed box, waiting to be recycled. But, I suppose that the darker message is that we're using all of these natural resources and this is what it's come to. Crumpled cans sitting in a used box.

Food for thought.

CDs, as in compact discs.

I had an epiphany a couple days ago; with iPods & mp3s on the move and CD sales falling back where are all these discs going?  If you throw away a CD of music, photographs, computer programs, etc. , how long does it take to biodegrade, or does it? Can you even recycle CDs?  With all of these questions rolling around in my head I hit up Google, *errrr, freeze right there*

Does everyone know about EcoSearch? EcoSearch is a search engine provided and powered by Google, it works to save our environment by donating proceeds to other nonprofit environmental groups. You can read more about it here. Same search engine as Google but you're helping our environment while you search, it's a win-win guys. Make the switch.

So, I was ECOSEARCHING, and found out some interesting facts and the answers to my questions above!

• Consumers buy over a billion compact disc each year.
• AOL has produced over 2 billion CDs for free distribution alone; It will take the natural gas equivalent of heating 200,000 homes for 1 year to manufacture that many compact discs. 
• The estimation for full decomposition of a CD will take over 1 million years in a landfill.
• Compact Discs CAN be recycled.
• CDs and DVDs are class 7 recyclable plastics.

Where can you recycle them? Here's a list of websites for more information on free recycling of compact discs. Know of another?  Please share!

Back Thru The Future

CD Recycling Center of North America 

If you can't use one of the great sites above, for whatever reason, then drop off any used CDs, DVDs, programs, etc. to Goodwill, list them on Freecycle , Freepeats, or Craigslist for free. 

Whatever you do with your disc, just don't chuck it! Recycle it!

I will not give specifics to protect the innocent and the…not so innocent.

We had a meeting with a minister of the environment – who well, let’s just say was quite a character. He seemed to be completely unaware that India was receiving electronic waste (e-waste) from the U.S. As he stated emphatically, this is a violation of the Basel Convention signed by India.

Understandably, anyone would be curious about why we would ask another government about something that is completely illegal. However, we do know that India is one of the top 10 places California exports e-waste. He also mentioned the continuing problem of countries shipped e-waste under the guise of reuse.

We met with Dr. Lakshmi with the Society for Development Alternatives. Their organization works mostly on policy. What I found truly refreshing was the recognition of the need for a variety of methods to solve problems – whether it be policy, campaigning , etc. that everyone needs to work together.

Today we also met with Dr. Shyamala Mani with the Centre for Environment Education who probably out of everyone we have met, seemed to have a similar vision as us and Chintan on what needs to be done and the need to integrate the informal sector. From there we had a meeting at TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute). The person who runs the organization is Dr. R K Pachauri who received the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Just to synthesize my thoughts on all of this…it seems that the information sector needs assistance to create the infrastructure they need to have safe working and living conditions to protect them, their communities and the environment. My feeling is the corporations need to be held responsible and invest in them.

This has all been very interesting and although we have been meeting with a variety of NGO’s (from large to small) and government officials, we are definitely getting a detailed idea on what is happening here in the recycle realm. In some ways, a number of the problems exist both in the U.S. and in India – getting people to recycle, the safety conditions of those dismantling the electronics and the problems of obsolescence. It seems to me, that is behooves the corporations to recognize that they are creating a global crisis and the power is in their hands to change it.

In other news, we saw monkeys!! Real live monkeys – maybe less than a foot or so away from me. They were sliding down the lamppost. About 6 – they scared me! But I was entranced and barely had time to snap a picture or two. And then here at the hostel, I have fallen in love with a cute orange kitten. (don’t tell my cat Malcolm!).

Although it is hard to get past the suffering and the poverty - it is easy to find things here to make you smile.

-Lauren Ornelas (Campaign Director of SVTC)