being green pays off

I have always wondered how this whole recycling thing works. This is a very cool animation that explains the whole RecycleBank process (one of the processes, which allows mixing recyclables). Brought to my attention by Sustainable Dave (he's cool, check him out!).

Plus, evidently, you can rack up points by recycling. Which I'm probably not going to do (rack up points, that is, not recycle), as I don't think this program exists in my area. :-( And even if it did, it sounds like you have to sign up for trash pickup in order to do this. We go to the dump. Which is fine. And getting points wouldn't make me recycle more, although who knows... maybe I'd be more assiduous about finding out how many more of those things that we have are actually recyclable.

Anyway, if you live in parts of: VA, MA, MN, PA, NE, CT you may have access to this program. (Sorry, I really have no idea if something similar is available in Canada. But if any Canadians want to suggest something, I'd love to hear it.)

One of the things that I thought was really super-cool was that they developed a program for universities to encourage students to recycle, where they have kiosks on campus, you have a little passcard (like those FastPass?? things at the Mobil station) to get credit for your recycling efforts. You rack up points and redeem them. Evidently, they also have kiosks in some cities for people who live in apartments. Hmm.

One thing that I thought was a little annoying about this video is that they show Ikea as one of their rewards partners, but I couldn't find anything about Ikea on their website. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm obsessed with all-things-Ikea, but still, I expected to find them on their list. Maybe they just left the program, but then that makes me wonder why....

P.S. I don't think this is an April Fool's thing. But I have been told that gullible isn't in the dictionary before. Does anyone have any experience with this company?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (and some other stuff)

In case you're out of the loop (the way I usually am), here's the scoop about the Obamas' new vegetable garden. Here's the layout of the new vegetable garden at the White House. Yum. I want to eat there. Aside: Except the rhubarb part. I'm still convinced that that stuff is poisonous. My mom told me repeatedly not to touch it when I was a kid (I guess the leaves are toxic or something?), and I'm still listening to her. Of course, you know, when she offered me some of that rhubarb pie she made, I wouldn't touch that either: I mean, come on, she just said it was poisonous. (Yes, I'm still six. Logic will not rule in this instance.) They were pretty smart to put the mint in a patch by itself. That stuff will take over otherwise.

And I'm a bit jealous. I really want to have a real garden here. I get paralyzed by all the choices and by the lack of choices.

Fu of the week

Hey, don't ask me what "fu of the week" means, but I thought this was pretty cool. Sustainable Dave is pretty cool, if you ask me.

take care of your plants

Have I mentioned that I love composting? Seriously, it rocks. You should try it. Oh, but I live in the city, or I don't have a yard. Not a problem! You can have your own pet worms....

I did try this when I lived in Chicago, but I didn't really know what I was doing, and I think I killed the worms. There wasn't enough oxygen getting in there; I remember there being a lot of condensation. It's much easier with a compost bin/area outside.

But even though I have several of those, I am sorely tempted to have one of these composting "systems," too. It looks like "fun." OK, maybe I have a strange idea of fun, or maybe I'm just easily amused?

I worry, though, that we produce too much composting material for something like this. Plus, can you get a bucket o' worms via the mail when it's still cold (freezing) outside?

Almost forgot to mention: the video up there is from Sustainable Dave over at 365 Days of Trash. This post has been sitting in my drafts for a while....

waste not, want not

I heard this story about a guy who plans to not throw anything away for an entire year on NPR on my ride home today. Fascinating. Here's the link to his blog, where he'll describe the process for a year.

It's hard to imagine not throwing anything away for a year. Including recycling. Yikes! We don't have much trash (considering), but our recycling bins overflow.

I love composting, and having a yard (finally!), makes it (relatively) easy to do. I once had a worm composting system, when I lived in an apartment in the middle of the city, but it didn't work very well for me. I guess I didn't have enough worms or something. But composting outside rocks!

I'll be following his progress when I can make it to the computer. Yeah, you know, I'm not here very much any more.