BLULOW (All About Living Green)

For pet owners who don’t compost, maybe you should consider recycling your fruit and vegetable peels for your dog.

The other day I was making a batch of carrot, apple, and raisin salad (the only way I can get a vegetable into my daughter). I used untold amounts of organic carrots. After thoroughly washing the carrots, I peeled off the outer skin and proceeded to make the salad.

I looked at the heap of perfectly healthy carrot skins and decided to recycle them by running the skins through the food processor so that I could mix some in with the dog’s food. Fido, being the dog that he is, thought he was having an early Thanksgiving meal. He lapped it up looking for more.

There was such a large amount of carrot skin that I put some of the chopped carrots in the freezer for a later date and some in the fridge for tomorrow’s meal.

Fido was happy and so was I. So, before you throw away certain fruit and vegetable skins, think about recycling them to mix it in your dog’s food. Recycling your peals not only helps to stretch a bag of dog food, but the fruits and vegetables are healthy for your dog and dogs love it.

Word of Caution:

Give Fido a little at a time. Their short digestive tracts can wreak havoc in your household if the food upsets their stomach.

I’m not quite sure, but the Bio Bag might be the solution to one of my composting problems.

If you’ve read any of the earlier posts on this blog you’ll know that I’m a proponent of composting, but have a few logistical issues to iron out. One such issue is collecting all of the lovely household waste.

I used to collect the waste in a lidded container. When it got full, I’d cart it out to the compost bin, open the lid and dump it out. The problem was I would get dizzy from holding my breath in an attempt to avoid the less than aromatic odor that opening the lid would release. Even the dog had to back up a tad when I opened the lid (this from the mutt who sleeps with his nose on his derriere).

Reading about the biodegradable bags raised a glimmer of hope. These bags are perfect for holding compostable household and yard waste. The beauty of Bio Bags is that once you fill it up, you don’t have to open it to dump the contents. The bag is biodegradable and will decompose on its own. What a great concept (Download their technical specs).

Bio Bags come in various sizes ranging from 2 gallons, 13 gallons to 33 gallons (with a few additional sizes in between). They even have kitty pan liner bio bags and doggie pick up the poop bio bags (not the technical name, but you understand what each bio bag does).

I’m starting small. I ordered the 3 gallon size bags. If they do well, maybe I’ll get the larger ones. After all living green is about making one small green step at a time. Today is a 3 gallon step…tomorrow who knows…

As I look at some of the things we tend to throw out I was trying to figure out how to use them again. Just how many plastic water containers can one creatively include in a home’s décor? There’s got to be a better way to reuse some of our containers.

One day while surfing the web, I realized that papier-mâché is the perfect art form for the environmentally conscious individual. You can use discarded plastic containers as a form base and old recycled newspapers to make the papier-mâché. Now, I haven’t tried it as yet, but here’s my thought process:

Depending on how creative you are or how creative you can become you can turn your trash into a wonderful art form. If you become really good at it, you can sell some of the artwork at a local flea market or tag sale or wherever somebody might be in need of the artwork you’ve produced. You can even give them as gifts.

Before starting my papier-mâché quest, I decided to do a little searching on the Internet to see how other people have created papier-mâché items. Here are a couple of sites that I looked at:

www.nataliewargin.com
www.liatart.com

Wow…they’re really good.

Hmm, maybe I should try something else. Oh what the heck. For the good of the earth, I’m willing to embarrass myself. When I finally create something that is not totally laughable, I’ll post a picture. In the meanwhile, I’ll keep looking for other ways to recycle our discards.

To anyone who thinks that the recycling efforts are a bit overwhelming and is contemplating quitting the living green lifestyle, my suggestion is to take a walk around your neighborhood on trash day. Take a look at the contents in your neighborhood’s recycle bin (Just a look. Don’t go poking around in your neighborhood’s trash).

If I don’t walk the other 6 days of the week, I make sure to take a walk around the neighborhood on trash day to reinforce the need to think and live green.

If your neighborhood is anything like mine (and I’m guessing it is), the two major items you’ll find in your neighborhood recycle bins are:

1. Water bottles. Lots and lots of disposable water bottles. The good thing is that we are getting healthier by drinking our share of water, but the bad thing is we’re throwing away countless numbers of plastic water bottles.
2. Liquid laundry detergent containers and liquid laundry softener containers. Our clothes are cleaner, whiter, brighter, softer and smell great, but our landfills are getting fuller and fuller with the plastic from the detergent and softener bottles. I read that only 9.5% of the plastic we used is recycled. Here’s some info that bursts a few of the plastic recycling myths.

When I finish my walk I always wonder if my neighborhood is any different from all of the other neighborhoods around the country…probably not.

If we set our minds on buying reusable water bottles and making our own laundry detergent, we can make an impact on our non-reusable waste.

Buying reusable water containers is pretty easy to do. If you don’t have a water treatment filter on your home, or in your apartment, there are portable ones like the Brita filter where you can use tap water rather than store bought water.

As far as the laundry detergent goes, it’s really easy and economical to make your own (see my earlier posts on homemade laundry detergent) and I’ve found that adding about 2/3 cups of baking soda to my wash helps my clothes to come out softer.

I haven’t quite given up totally on softener, but I do dilute it 2/3 part water to 1/3 part softener. I admit, I’m hooked on the way softener makes my clothes smell.

Take a walk around your neighborhood on trash day to motivate yourself to continue your greening efforts.

I was about to throw the egg carton away and I looked in the recycle bin and wondered, “What else can I do with an egg carton?” After all, I’m trying to live the BLULOW life, I can’t go around throwing away all of the egg cartons.

So, I decided to get on the internet to see if I could find practical uses for egg cartons. I found plenty of information and ideas on what to do with them. Below are my favorites:

Desk organizer:

A recycled egg carton is great for holding paper clips, staples, safety pins and other small items that accumulate in the drawer. Every kitchen has a “junk” drawer. Why not organize the small stuff with an old egg carton.

Christmas Decoration Storage:

Recycled egg cartons are great for the small delicate items. Line the carton with cotton or tissue paper and place the breakables in there for storage.

Paint Palatte.

This only works for the Styrofoam egg cartons. Rip the top off and use the egg carton to hold and mix paint. This is especially handy for kids. It works better than buying small paper cups.

Storage for Barbie Accessories:

Anyone who lives in a house with a Barbie doll and her accessories knows that Barbie is not a neat freak. Her shoes, hair dryer, makeup, etc tends to be left all over the house. A recycled egg carton is a perfect storage receptacle for Barbie’s accessories.

Fire Starter:

Here’s one that I’m particularly fond of. Use the cardboard egg container to house fire starter. My neighbor introduced me to this idea a few years ago. She placed pieces of wood chips into each pocket of the egg container and then filled it with melted wax. She let it cool and broke off a pocket or two to help start the fire in the fireplace.

There are various recipes for the fire starter option. Some people use dryer lint, while others use charcoal as the base for the fire starter. NO matter what base they use, they all pour wax over the coal/lint and use it either for camping, starting the indoor fireplace or grilling.

I particularly like reusing the egg cartons for fire starter because there is more of a need for fire starter. You can save your egg cartons and make a large batch of fire starter at one time, or make them as you acquire the materials.

Children’s Crafts:

Using recycled egg cartons for kid’s crafts is especially useful for pre-school and school aged kids. Not only does it keep them busy, but can potentially recycle a large number of cartons.

This one is a tricky one, however. Being a mother, I know what its like when your little one brings home an egg carton craft. You display it for a few years, and then you store it. You don’t want to get rid of it because it’s so precious. Depending on how many children you have, you may have a menagerie of egg carton animals and crafts. Hmmm, you see the problem? Although the carton was recycled, it will forever live with you.

Packaging:

You can shred the egg carton and use it when mailing delicate items.

Compost:

You can always shred the cardboard egg cartons and put them in your compost pile/bin.

There are more uses for recycled egg cartons around the net. Here are a few sites with ideas.

• Make Stuff
• Green Planet
• Egg Carton Heart (Craft) This one is really pretty cool!
• Enchanted Learning

Part of the challenge with living green is to continually find ways to re-use our unwanted items. Using an egg carton to organize a junk drawer is great, but how many junk drawers does one household have? Even if there are 10 junk drawers, what will you do with the rest of the egg cartons?

That’s why I like the fire starter option because it is not a ‘one hit wonder,’ so when I go to the grocery store, I already know what I’m going to use the egg carton for. I can buy eggs without having to worry about how to discard the carton.

Whew, one product down, so many more to go… (This BLULOW thing isn’t always easy)