Tale of Two Water Bottles

I finally broke down and bought a brand-new Klean Kanteen water bottle, replacing the giveaway bottle I'd been putting up with for far too long.

I know some Compacters are so cool they manage to find stuff like pristine-with-the-tags-still-on Sigg water bottles at Goodwill for like 2 cents, but I am not that cool. And I was determined it was past time to be both green and healthy by using a stainless steel water bottle.

After carrying that bottle on the right around for about a year, my husband finally convinced me to fork out the $22 (!!) to buy the pretty green bottle from REI. He was sick and tired of seeing me deal with the various eccentricities of the giveaway bottle, namely that it leaked and spilled out large amounts of water every time I used it. It's amazing what I'll adapt to if necessary. But clearly this wasn't necessary.

The question now is: what to do with the old bottle? I was going to give it to Goodwill but my husband says I shouldn't subject anyone else to dealing with it. I hate to send it to a landfill, and hold out hope that maybe someone will be able to fix it or use it in some way. Is it tacky to give what most people would consider trash to Goodwill? Or is it possible that someone will get some use out of this thing?

Readers, what do you think? There are some things I wouldn't give to the Goodwill, like used slippers or undergarments or permanently stained clothing. But what about a less-than-functional water bottle? I need your advice. Please leave your thoughts in the Comments section.

Goodbye to lim(b)

My friend Danielle, creator of the excellent blog Less is More Balanced, is hanging up her blogging hat to focus on other writing projects, but the blog link will remain active indefinitely. I'm leaving it up on my sidebar because it's one of my favorite resources for organic and green issues, projects, and inspiration.

So if you have a question like:

1) Where can I recycle my cosmetics containers?

2) Is it possible to go car-free in Los Angeles? or

3) Where can I find sustainable seeds?

Check out lim(b). And those are just a few examples from an archive jampacked with useful information.

Some of my personal favorites:

Life on a scooter

Groovy green goings on in my community

Demanding Organic

lim(b) Project #22: Keepsake Box

lim(b) Project #19: Healthy, Healing Eco-Bedroom

Buy Something Beautiful, Build a Nest

Alternative Gift Ideas for Simple Greenies

Heirloom Design

So if you've got a green project in mind, are trying to simplify your life, switch to organic, or looking for sustainable options, check out lim(b) and you might just find exactly what you're looking for. It's happened to me more than once.

What are your favorite simple living/green blogs? Please tell us in the Comments section.

The Recycling Queen

Meet Ann Lesch. She recycles just about anything she gets her hands on. And what she creates out of what most of us would consider junk is fabulous.

Ann collects used plastic bags friends bring home from stores. She washes them, sorts them by color, and cuts them into strips. Then she crochets them into these beautiful purses, book bags, beach bags, and mats for lying out at the beach. She also passes the mats out to homeless people to give them something to help keep them dry.

Ann creates these treasures by covering boxes and containers with upholstery and drapery samples that she gets from interior decorating companies. Tons of these samples are tossed in the trash each season. Ann turns them into purses, beach bags, pillows (which she tightly stuffs with recycled plastic bags), and lovely keepsake boxes.

She collects outdated tiles from ceramic tile companies and covers old tables like this one. She also uses this technique for benches and chairs. If I had Ann's talent, I would have saved a lot of time searching for a tile table for our backyard.

Ann's husband John clearly supports her talent and resourcefulness.

Believe it or not, these beautiful containers are made from magazine pages. Ann turns them into lovely flower pots, vases, and fruit bowls.

And these creations were made with repurposed yarn from scraps and sweaters.

What an inspiration! Talk about spinning gold from straw and turning trash into treasure. Ann's projects are the ultimate in recycling: an artist working with found materials.

Ann's daughter Janice says she is so proud of her 80-year-old mother. She doesn't need a facelift to stay young. Her secret is appreciating the little things in life.

Thank you Ann, for being an inspiration to all of us! Your talent is remarkable.

Do you turn trash into treasure? Tell us about it in the Comments section.

Annie Leonard: hero or communist sympathizer?

Annie Leonard's video "The Story of Stuff," was the single strongest influence on me during my first year on The Compact (I'm almost halfway through my second already).

So I was happy to see her on The Colbert Report and learn that she'd written a book of the same name. The idea that we should all be aware of where our stuff comes from and try to move toward a more sustainable model for the future seems like common sense to me. But of course, it's a big threat to those who have a lot invested in our endless pursuit of buying more and more cheaply made throwaway products. And it turns out what she's doing is much more subversive than it appears at first glance.

She's an author, environmental activist, sustainability expert, and consumerist critic. And now her critics are calling her a lot of other things. Check out this article from the Denver Post about Leonard, called "Crusading for Mindful Consumption," and let us know what you think in the Comments section. Is she a positive force or a dangerous radical whose ideas would cause our economy to crater?

And if you haven't watched "The Story of Stuff," you can watch it here. And click here to see her on The Colbert Nation if you want a laugh with your news.

Recycled jewelry

I admit this is a strange way to photograph jewelry, but my husband mistakenly thought I wanted to sell this pendant on ebay.

This is the recycled version of a necklace that my parents gave me when I graduated from college back in the 1980s. The old version was very "modern," and apropos of the era, it was asymmetrical. There was a lot more gold, sort of twisting and winding its way around the stones and taking center stage.

I wish I had thought to take a photo of it before I recently took it to a jeweler to have it remade. It had been sitting in a box in the top drawer of my dresser for over twenty years, and I knew I would never wear it again but didn't really have the heart to get rid of it.

Luckily I had the idea to have it remade when I realized that I might actually wear it if the design was more classic and less trendy. So I got a recommendation from a friend, and took it to a jeweler. The small diamond was from my grandmother's wedding ring, and I was going to have it set above the amethyst, but the jeweler suggested leaving it off to the side and just removing most of the gold accents. I liked the idea and this is how it came out. I love it!

And the best part is that not only do I have a lovely "new" piece of jewelry to wear, it cost me nothing because the price for the redesign was paid for by the extra gold that was removed.

So if you're craving some luxury but can't afford anything new, I suggest you raid your jewelry drawer for something that can be refashioned.

Have you ever remade/recycled fine jewelry? Please leave your stories in the Comments section.

How to generate less trash

Last night I got some tangible proof that our efforts to waste less food and create less trash are paying off. My husband mentioned that he was going to call the city since we didn't need our trash picked up every week anymore, and so maybe it would cut our bill. I asked him how much he thought we had cut our trash output, and he said we were generating less than half of what we used to have.

Awesome. I actually think it's even less than that, but either way, it's great. And it makes a lot of sense. I had a heaping plate of "produce debris" waiting to go out to the compost bin that in the past would have gone into the trash. So in addition to keeping it out of the landfill where it creates harmful gasses, and creating compost to use in a garden, our new habit also keeps the trash from smelling rotten. It's a win/win/win, one of those brilliant intersections that Katy Wolk-Stanley at The Non-Consumer Advocate calls a trifecta.

Composting is one of the main reasons we're creating less waste, the others are:

*Cooking from scratch more often and buying less packaged food
*Refusing to buy products with over-the-top and nonrecyclable packaging (as much as possible)
*Throwing away a lot less food by participating in Food Waste Friday

That's it. Those four things have contributed to cutting our household waste by more than half.

My husband generally abhors what he considers banal conversations about household management and the like, preferring abstract topics like what makes you care about a character in a short story and what makes an individual vote against their own self-interest. It makes him fun to live with, especially since he can always come down to earth long enough to perform useful household tasks like taking out the trash.

Are you creating less trash these days? Please leave your tips and advice in the Comments section. And if you need inspiration, visit My Zero Waste and follow the saga of the Green family in their attempts to cut waste.

The Trader Joe's problem

I've been shopping at Trader Joe's for a long time, maybe almost 20 years, and I love it. I especially appreciate their great deals on wine, cheese, and nuts. I like their prices and the way we can fix semi healthy food that's quick to prepare.

But some time ago I started to get annoyed by their packaging. I realized that while some of their convenience food wrapping could be recycled, like the cardboard boxes around the Indian food, most of it couldn't, like the sealed pouch the food itself was in.

Since we've been getting a CSA delivery and I'm trying to cook from scratch even more often, this TJ-generated trash has lessened greatly, but we still buy their convenience foods as backup, and veggie burgers for lunches, and my husband will never entirely give up their frozen pizzas. So I'm really starting to get bugged about their packaging ethos, which seems to run counter to their healthy food, fair trade, employees as stockholders liberal policies.

I'm thinking of asking for a meeting with my local store manager, but I want to do some research first. And since my readers are some of the smartest people around, I thought I'd start right here on this blog. Please leave your knowledge and opinions on the following in the Comments section:

Is there a movement to get Trader Joe's to use more eco-friendly and/or recyclable packaging?

Have you or anyone you know addressed this issue at a Trader Joe's store, on a blog, or in an article?

Have you read anything on the topic?

Do you find their packaging excessive, or is that just the "normal" state of affairs with food in grocery stores these days?

Thanks in advance for your comments. I'd like to get involved if someone is addressing the issue, or get something going if not.

How soft must TP be?

My sister-in-law brought this article and video from Planet Green to our attention recently, after my husband had complained about her slightly scratchy toilet paper. The article is about how old growth forests are cut down to make the softest toilet paper. The video is from Consumer Reports - an investigative type of piece on how to find the softest toilet paper out there, with many of the best scientific minds around working to solve this pressing problem.

Being consumers of soft toilet paper (though not Charmin), my husband and I were both horrified by this. Of course I knew that toilet paper was made from trees, but I've driven and taken the train across country many times, and there is no lack of trees on this continent. But old-growth trees are another thing entirely, and I still cannot believe they would be cut down for something so... what's the word I'm looking for? Trivial? Mundane? Banal?

My husband is in charge of buying toilet paper and other paper products, and he generally gets the best price at places like Smart & Final. But we agreed immediately to switch brands to a recycled toilet paper that wouldn't endanger old growth forests!

This is the kind of thing I'm glad to learn about but feel so upset that I didn't know. How can this go on? I'm raving, I know. But if you feel like I do, please switch brands immediately. I don't think anyone thinks soft toilet paper is important enough to fell giant trees.

Click here for a guide to where to buy "green" toilet paper. Until we find the cheapest/most convenient item on the list for us, we'll buy the Trader Joe's brand.

Thanks sister-in-law, for helping us Do The Right Thing! And hopefully some of my readers will be inspired to make the switch as well. I'll bet a lot of you knew about this already. Please leave your thoughts on the issue in the Comments section.

Reusable bags

Those are some, but not all, of our reusable bags. I just grabbed the ones I could find easily. Lately I've been encouraged by this story about Target and CVS promoting the use of reusable bags, but at the same time I'm still surprised and saddened by how many people still use plastic bags at the supermarket.

If they knew the cost of those bags on the environment, I don't think they would do it. Sure, some of them wouldn't care if every baby seal on earth was strangled by their plastic beer rings. But most people would be shocked and alarmed and immediately buy a reusable bag. I think a lot of people just think it's some kind of a scam to charge them more money.

I recently read this fact on my friend Leigh's blog, Compact by Design:

"An estimated 1 million birds and 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals die of starvation each year after ingesting discarded plastic bags which block their digestive tracks."

Oh, that's so sad. Why, oh why, is it so hard to stop the madness?

If you're like me with the stupid paper towels, and have a hard time developing this habit, here are a few tips that helped me. I switched over several years ago and virtually never need to use the plastic anymore. The key is to have plenty of bags and to remember to bring them into the store.

1. Buy bags every chance you get, in lots of different sizes. If you only have big bags, you might not bring them in for just a few items, or if you only have small bags, you won't use them for larger items. My husband and I both have huge IKEA bags in our car (although I haven't used mine during my Compact year), and we each have lots of different-sized bags in our car, and in several rooms in the house. My husband keeps a few on the back of his office door, and I keep a bunch in my armoire. But the main thing is to have them in the car trunk. That way you can use them for any kind of shopping.

2. Once you get in the habit, it will be easy to remember to grab a bag when you're walking into a store. But until you do, make sure they're always in the car. If you've left some in the house and forgotten to return them to the car, it won't matter if you have five other bags in the car.

3. If you realize you've forgotten your bags while you're in the store, go back out to your car and get them. You'll probably only need to do this once.

4. If you only have one or two items, you don't need a bag at all. We've been so trained that we need bags for everything, and that's fine if they're reusable cotton, but NOT if they're plastic.

Until they completely stop making plastic bags, you can do your part by getting a few reusable ones. If you don't like the idea of paying for them, I'm sure you can pick some up for free somewhere. Many of mine come from environmental organizations I donate to.

Do you use reusable canvas bags? What are some of your tips for making it a habit? Please share your thoughts in the Comments section.

Doing the Right Thing

Sometimes, the news is good. Like this story about how Target and CVS are going to pay customers to use their own reusable shopping bags. If you turn down their plastic bag, Target will take 5 cents off your purchase. And CVS drugstore plans to give a $1 cash bonus for every 4 times a customer doesn't request a plastic bag.

That's good news that will add up to a lot less plastic. And maybe get people more into the habit of using cloth bags.

A spokesperson for the Natural Resources Defense Council says the two retailers could keep billions of plastic bags out of the environment, as well as encourage other retailers to take similar steps.

Smaller chains like Whole Foods have been giving their customers incentives to use cloth bags for a long time, but this marks the first time a big retailer is following suit.

It's a giant step in the right direction, with no downside I can see. Even if the motive is to cash in on people's desire to go green, in this case market forces are working. A marketing professor in the article says these days, retailers who want to connect with the consumer have to show they're sensitive to environmental concerns.

Have you heard any good news on the environmental, green, or nonconsumer front lately? Tell us about it in the Comments section.

Our mini kitchen remodel

It's a mini remodel, not a mini kitchen. This photo shows off the brilliant "Lichtenstein style" painting my husband did of me.

These are all "after" photos. I know, I realize the main attraction of these transformation stories are the "before" and "after," but neither my husband nor I had the forethought to take any "before" photos.

You'll just have to use your imagination. This 60's era kitchen had a dropped flourescent ceiling, hideous brown particleboard cabinets, and a white lineoleum floor that showed everything.

Here's the view into the dining room/living room. We ended up having to use two different colors of paint on the cabinets because we liked the lighter color, but thought the kitchen would be too bright if we painted all the cabinets that color.

This one was taken at night, so the lighting is a little different. I spot evidence of my baking habit!

I really wish you could have seen this kitchen. For seven years we've put up with the most inefficient and ugly kitchen I've ever lived in (and I've lived in a lot of different apartments and houses!)

First of all, I'm not trying to claim that this was a non-consumer remodel. My husband isn't doing The Compact, and he had saved some money from a big job to put toward this kitchen. He's a great partner in my commitment, but he hasn't taken it for himself. So he did purchase some new items, but did all of the work himself (with a bit of help from a friend), bought some of the items used, and was able to sell or give away virtually everything we replaced.

The cost? Under $2500 total. Here's the breakdown:

First, we had a color scheme we'd seen in a magazine and both liked: the bright yellow walls, red floor, and turquoise cabinets. We agreed that our best resource without funds was to use color to our advantage. The bright colors make it fun.

Next, my husband wanted a stainless steel side-by-side refrigerator. He was prepared to buy one new, but I suggested he check Craigslist. He did, and spent about five or six weeks searching, to no avail. He actually even looked at 3 different refrigerators, but there was some problem with each of them. He was glad he'd tried to buy used, but ended up purchasing a new model at a greatly discounted price. Cost $1100, including tax.

The stainless steel tabletop he was able to find on Craigslist because he'd already been checking for several months. The table cost $85.

The stools were a complete luxury, he purchased them new for $125 each, for a total of $375.

The sink, which replaced the most hideous avocado-colored monstrosity I'd ever seen, was about $200.

The lineoleum flooring, which he put down himself with the help of a friend, cost about $400.

I have to confess that I was responsible for buying the simple cabinet handles new. I had been looking on Craigslist and was planning on visiting a salvage store, when I drove by a hardware store that was going out of business. The sign said "75% off" so I went in and found these. I didn't want to spend weeks searching for something I might never find when I could get it all right now, and for only $23 for all 41 handles! An incredible deal. One of my main considerations was that I wanted to find the same size so that my husband wouldn't have to do more work filling and drilling new holes.

Total cost: I think that comes to $2283, plus a couple of hundred for paint, plus A LOT of labor. We spent 10 days prepping and painting those cabinets. And my husband had spent countless hours prior to that putting in the flooring, moving in the refrigerator, etc. But it was worth it! We love our new kitchen. Our favorite thing is drinking martinis at that cool table.

My husband was able to sell or give away everything, including the absolutely hideous, grime-encrusted handles that adorned the horrible cabinets. Someone paid $26 for them on ebay, which was more than we paid for the new ones! He sold the old refrigerator and kitchen table and chairs, and gave away the sink. Someone was actually going to use it! Yay! Nothing went to the landfill. I'm SO pleased about that. Craigslist and Freecycle are a brilliant way to recycle and to find things secondhand.

I should also say that we had already done the lighting and replaced the windows many years ago, so the true cost of our remodel from the kitchen we moved into seven years ago would probably be closer to $6000.

Sorry for such a long post, but I really wanted to share this with you!

Have you done any remodeling projects lately? Tell us about it in the Comments section.

A Note About Recycling

Keep in mind that most city's recycling rules are constantly changing.

For example, we had a list up on our refrigerator of what could be put into our blue recycling bin for pick up, which included plastics #1 and #2. But I recently went to the Department of Sanitation website for something else, and found out we can now recycle ALL numbers of recyclable plastics, plus a lot of other things, including some styrofoam. Good to know.

Click here for the link to the Department of Sanitation in Los Angeles. There's a complete list of everything that CAN and CAN'T be recycled. Otherwise, just do a google search to find the Department of Sanitation in your area.

Does your city have a recycling program? I remember the old days of saving newspapers and bringing them to a recycling center. I'm so glad Los Angeles has progressive recycling policies.

Make your own envelopes

I made all these envelopes from an old World Wildlife calendar in about 10 minutes! I love them!

It was actually fun, and I can't wait to use them. My mom is definitely getting the panda face.

One of my favorite things I've been doing this year is making greeting cards, mostly for birthdays and holidays. Usually I use a photo and print it out on photo-quality paper, or make a color copy from an old photograph, like this card I made for my dad on Father's Day. They're fun to make, more personal, and people have told me they really enjoy them. And of course, I'm not purchasing new (as per The Compact) and I'm saving money.

Now I'll be making my own envelopes too. The sky's the limit as far as what to use, but old calendars work great. Other options are catalogs, sheet music, maps, and just about any kind of junk mail, as long as it's at least 8 1/2" X 11".

I used the tutorial from this post on the great blog Compact by Design. Leigh is a fellow Compacter, plus she's a designer so she often posts fun DIY projects.

Did I mention that it's super easy? And you hardly need any supplies. Basically just your paper plus scissors and scotch tape. If you get really good at it, you won't even need the scissors. You'll see what I mean when you try it.

I love this because it's a perfect win/win: I get to recycle the old calendars or other paper products, and I get some "free" envelopes. Oh, and since it's also fun, I guess it's a perfect win/win/win.

Have you ever tried making your own envelopes? I promise you, it's even easier than making a paper airplane! Tell us about your favorite easy DIY projects in the Comments section. And let me know if you try the envelopes!

Los Angeles Rocks at Recycling

If you don't think Los Angeles is serious about recycling, think again. It's not all sunshine and starlets here. According to a recent survey, Los Angeles was ranked the top recycler out of the 10 largest U.S. cities. We have an awesome recycling rate of 65 percent! Click here to see the list, which includes New York, San Diego, Chicago, and Dallas. We beat them all!

The great news is that Los Angeles has such a high recycling rate. But what's going on in places like Houston, with a 16 percent rate, and San Antonio, with a dismal 4 percent? Not such great news. As a nation, we've got a long way to go.

I had logged on to L.A.'s Department of Sanitation site to give you a few recycling tips and found that survey and list. Most of you probably already know this, but cities are constantly changing and updating what you can recycle. The best way to know what you can throw into your bins is to check your city's Department of Sanitation website. For example, we had an old refrigerator magnet that said we couldn't recycle things that we now can, like yogurt containers and styrofoam.

So make sure you're up-to-date on what CAN be recycled and what your city accepts curbside. And speaking as a Los Angeleno, Portland and Seattle: we're ready to take you on!

Where do you live and do you know the recycling rate? I was pleasantly surprised to find out ours was so high. Let me know in the Comments section. And I would love to hear from anyone who lives outside the U.S. When we stayed in England last year, they were lightyears ahead of us on this front.