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Coffee cup conundrums.

November 14, 2008 By 9 Comments

I wouldn’t consider myself much of an earthy or ”green” person. I mean I do recycle, turn off the water when I brush my teeth, walk to school every day, I bought Kent tupperware sized perfectly for all of the food he brings home from the restaurant for us (which he NEVER uses if I’m not home to wash it for him and physically put it in his bag…grrr), only shower every couple of days (okay, this has nothing to do with trying to be green but still), and give my old clothes to thrift stores (though I still can’t see how giving my ugly old out of style clothes that honestly, no one should be wearing, away is doing the world any favours). 

But I also drive 2.5 hours home almost every weekend, almost always forget to bring recyclable bags or my own plastic bags to the grocery store (and we do bring them, it’s always my roommate Jen who remembers), buy a lot of clothes that 99.99% of the time are not from thrift stores, always have to have the lights on in the house in the room that I’m in even if I’m just on the computer or watching tv, and live in an un-insulated house when I’m away at school. Which is against every single thing I stand for because I hate being cold. However, it’s getting insulated on Monday which will be amazing.

So, I’m not perfect. But I do try in ways that I can. I could try harder, definitely. When Jen got me a reusable travel coffee mug for my birthday last weekend, I was very happy because I had been meaning to get one for a while. I’m a student. We drink a lot of coffee. I was even happier because it was one of those ones you could personalize and she filled it all up with black and white pictures of my friends and family.

So today after class at about noon, I happily walked to Tim Hortons on campus to get my coffee mug filled up for the first time and get my 10 cent discount for using a reusable cup. The lady behind the counter smiled at me when I gave it to her, and I was sure the smile was about how all earth-friendly I was, and also because she loved my totally adorable cup. She filled it up and – THEN – she took a big long straw out of the wrapper, stirred my coffee, and threw out the straw and the wrapper. I was shocked – isn’t the point of a reusable cup to not create waste? Shouldn’t they have some sort of extra-long spoon for that purpose? I mean I know I am in NO position to judge considering the non-green-friendly lifestyle I have just admitted to, but it’s the principle of it. There are probably a lot of VERY green people that visit the coffee shop, recyclable mug in hand, that would freak out if they saw this being done and I don’t want Timmies employees everywhere to have to go through that. I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t have time to think about how to say it without offending her, I mean she was trying to be nice and make sure my milk and sugar were all mixed in. And she did sort of apologize. Still… I feel the need to address this.

What do you think about my coffee cup conundrum?

Filed Under: environment, micaela Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Too many old plastic bags? Fuse 'em!

May 9, 2008 By 2 Comments

Some of our commenters the other day said that they recycle their plastic bags after they use them. This got me thinking. What the heck are plastic bags recycled into? Well, it didnt take me long to find out. The answer?

More plastic bags.

Shocking, isn’t it? It’s not as bad as it sounds though! Many companies and people recycle them into reusable bags. As Martha Stewart would say (I can’t believe I’m quoting Martha!), it’s a good thing.

The coolest part of my lil investigation is that you can actually recycle your flimsy grocery bags into strong, reusable bags yourself by fusing them together! In fact, Etsy Labs has a whole tutorial on how to do this. Here’s what you need:

  1. Plastic bags
  2. An iron (and ironing board)
  3. Parchment paper
  4. A well ventilated area (seriously, ventilation people! You can’t fuse plastic bags if you’re passed out from the fumes!)

…you didn’t really think I was going to reproduce the entire tutorial here, did you? No way – this is all from Etsy Labs and they get the credit for this awesome plastic bag fusing tutorial.

In the US, Target is recycling their own plastic bags. Well, sort of. Their recycled bags are being sold in their US stores – the actual recycling of said bags happens in…Vietnam?

Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of recycling? OK, well not the main purpose of recycling itself, but at least one of the purposes – to cut down on unnecessary emissions produced by factories and transport vehicles. How efficient is it to collect the bags in North America, send the bags to Vietnam for recycling, and them bring ‘em back?

Maybe I’m wrong about this because I do see that the recycling project is being done in partnership with Terracycle, a very cool recycling/re-purposing company. I’ve known about them for some time now – they have a great program where if you collect things like empty beverage bottles and send them to Terracycle they will donate money to charity! The bottles are cleaned and filled with organic fertilizer – “Worm Poop” – and then sold. Their recycling facility is in New Jersey.

My final note for the day – sure, plastic bags suck. But without them, there wouldn’t be that great opening scene in American Beauty, would there?

It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and… this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… and I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.

UPDATE:

Scroll down to the very bottom of this post at From My Bottom Step for links to resources regarding knitting plastic bags!

Filed Under: environment, random Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Five Busy Blondes

November 22, 2007 By 2 Comments

Wow, not much going on as of late! Finals are coming up for those of us in school…naturally an important time of year. Micaela celebrated her birthday earlier this month with a new Lululemon sweater which I have yet to see, but am already very jealous of! Paisley – I love paisley! Kate and Scott are obviously back from their honeymoon, but seem to be having the same kind of difficulties that D and I are having getting telephone and internet service worked out at their new house. Who knew the real world would be this difficult? Leah’s birthday is coming up – always a party – and I hear that Lauren is getting snowed on in Ottawa and is planning to head to Tremblant soon?!? Luck-yyy!! By the way, Lo, I see that Allison Forsyth is sitting out the ski season – there’s a spot on the national team open for ya!

D and I went to Pier 1 Imports last weekend – I was there to browse, D was there to buy a coffee table (even though we have 2 already – long story) despite my insistence that we did not need a new one.  I was holding out just fine…until he pointed out a red and brown wood chest with inlaid flowers on the side…possibly the coffee table/storage unit of my dreams.  Browsing turned into buying and we now have 3 coffee tables (though one is destined for the woodpile at the farm).

Now all we need at the new apartment is a rug for in front of the gas fireplace! I love this design for a rug – in fact I would buy that one except it is a coconut fibre doormat. I guess I will continue my search!

I”m always looking for a creative output, and I love computers, so I’ve decided that my next ‘project’ (as in, the project I will take up when I no longer have to spend evenings at school!) will be a blogging project. Or, rather, a continuation of THIS blogging project. I want to use the WordPress CMS and design our own, unique theme for the site! This goes along with a side project that I can’t mention right now. ;) I am excited to get started on it and have found some great resources already, such as those on Lorelle’s blog. I know that there are many super cool free WordPress themes available on the net, but designing one myself will give me so much more satisfaction in the end, and also skills to build on.

Speaking of designing and skillz, we’ve not shared this photograph on the blog and I think we should because it is absolutely beautiful. These are our Oma’s hands as she works on Kate’s wedding dress – she hand-stitched thousands of beads, crystals, and sequins onto the dress over the summer! I like that the photo highlights her own wedding ring. She and Opa will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in January – and we’re having a big party to celebrate next summer!

Oma’s Hands

Filed Under: environment, erica, Family, furniture, internet, life, personal, photography, thoughts, university, writing

Have You Bought Any Crap Lately?

September 7, 2007 By 1 Comment

Credit: The Onion

 FENGHUA, CHINA—Chen Hsien, an employee of Fenghua Ningbo Plastic Works Ltd., a plastics factory that manufactures lightweight household items for Western markets, expressed his disbelief Monday over the “sheer amount of shit Americans will buy.”

OK, it’s The Onion, but isn’t there some truth to it?  As a society, we have soooo much stuff!  I have things I can’t bear to throw away, although I have no idea where/when I got it.  Then, when I do decide to throw it away, I feel guilty for helping fill some landfill somewhere.

 ”I hear that Americans can buy anything they want, and I believe it, judging from the things I’ve made for them,” Chen said. “And I also hear that, when they no longer want an item, they simply throw it away. So wasteful and contemptible.”

Essentially…yes. Unless it can be sold on E-bay.  Which creates packaging waste and has a bigger carbon footprint than you might imagine, considering the exhaust from vehicles used to transport the item to its destination.

Maybe it’s time to simplify.

Filed Under: environment, erica, humour, thoughts, weird