The Only Good Use for Plastic Water Bottles!

 

Plastic water bottles are such a problem for our environment. It takes a lot of energy to process them for recycling. Collection, baling them, trucking them for recycling, cleaning, chipping, melting and re-manufacturing.... and that is the ones that actually get recycled. Many don't end up getting recycled.

If you aren't aware ofthe problem plasic is creating for our world type in Great Pacific Garbage patch in google. It is so nasty.

I was pretty excited to see something beautiful come out of a water bottle... the project is here.

I actually used a smaller bottle (the bases of tennis ball containers) than they used in the example, as we didn't have any big bottles around. If you make these, please be sure to recycle the rest of the bottle!

Placer Recycles Day

We had a great time making art at Placer Recycles Day. There was an amazing fashion show by Haute Trash (Clothes from trash)... but I think the highlight of the day for me was the Trash Can Band called the Petting Zoo. I loved the great sounds they made from trash! Here is a short clip from them.

Upcoming reCREATE Events

reCREATE at the Utility Exploration Center


Kids Activities:
Holiday Green Gift Making Workshops Ages 8 to 12

Design and construct gifts for family and friends from repurposed materials in our Green Gifts Workshops led be reCREATE. Drop in between 10:30am and 2:30pm. Parents – drop off your kids and get a little shopping done on your own, or enjoy some quiet reading in the adjoining library.

Dates
Saturday 11/29
Saturday 12/13
Saturday 12/20

Fee for each day $30.00 / $26.00 Resident Discount


Adult and Family Programs
Sustainable Gifts – Jewelry Making Workshop
Avoid the mall and join us to create a one of a kind piece of jewelry from beautiful and repurposed materials. You will design and complete at least one piece of jewelry during the course. $12 material fee due at class.

Saturday 12/6 10:30am to 1:00pm
Fee $24/$20 Resident Discount plus


Sustainable Gifts - Garden Treasures – Gift Making Workshop
Forget the garden gnome. Join us to make a decorative bird house from repurposed materials. The perfect gift for the gardener on your list. $5.00 material fee due at class.



Wednesday 12/10 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Fee $18/$14 Resident Discount

For more information email donna@recreate.org
To register call 916.746.1550

Fun in the Classrooms

I am having such a blast in the classrooms in Rocklin. We got a grant through the City of Rocklin and the Department of Conservation. 2000 Rocklin elementary kids are getting the chance to particiapte in our environmental lesson, "shop" for treasure in the truck, and then make art. There are always a few kids that just make me grin ear to ear with how they respond to our program. Highlights of my class visits include:

The 3rd grade boy who spontaneously gave me a hug and said, "Thanks for letting me do art with your neat stuff!"

The reCREATE "groupies" who come and talk to me at lunch time and want their experience to last longer. Love these kids!

The girls who used their materials to make me a gift for the truck.

The Giant Thank You card I got from the kindergarten class at Stoneridge after my visit.

I had a nice meeting with the Assistant Superintendent with Roseville City School District. He had some great ideas about how to move our project forward. It is not exactly the best time to start our program, with the economy being what it is... but people are embracing it anyway. If we can make it now, we will be GREAT when the market turns around.

Ready to Visit the Classrooms!

 

 

 

We got the truck back today with the wonderful vehicle wrap - I am so excited - I think it came out great.
What do you think?

And the Winner to our Vehicle Wrap Design is

Side of Truck


Back of Truck


April Dawn - with this entry.
I'm not sure we will use all of you design - but you definitely win the inspiration prize. I have the desgn at the wrap company - and should know exactly what they come up with shortly!

April Dawn, Please email me your favorite digi store and we can arrange your prize!

Thank you to everyone that submitted entries!

Vehicle Wrap Contest

 

 

 

Here are some more pictures of materials that could be used.

reCREATE Vehicle Wrap Contest

(pictures except Zach and the truck are from Jen Stewart Photography)

We need help coming up with a design for our vehicle!!!

Here are the things you would need to help us design our vehicle wrap:
1. We want the design to be "clean" like our logo
2. The vehicle is going to schools
3. We want the design to give a sneak peek into the fun of our program (attached pictures)
4. While what we collect is "trash" - it is actually good stuff.
5. The both sides of the vehicle and the back will be wrapped... The back is basically square - and I need room to thank our sponsors.)
6. You can integrate the existing paint job - or cover it.


Possible names for our truck:
Rolling reCREATE
ReCREATE's Truck of Super Stuff
??We are open to ideas!


The winning design will be given to a professional vehicle wrap designer to professional design it for the truck. Winner will get a picture of the final product for bragging rights! Winner will get a $50.00 gift card to their digi shop of choice. If no design is chosen - the most inspirational will get a $25.00 gift card. I will post the final vehicle design - once the vehicle is wrapped.

reCREATE is a registered non-profit in California. More information on reCREATE can be found at www.recreate.org

Questions? email me at donna(at)recreate.org

Contest Deadline tomorrow (Sunday September 21st) at midnight Pacific Time. Winner will be announced Monday.

Please remember you can't use most digi scrap papers/embellishments, etc. on the design - but textures/ideas can be integrated into the design. I don't want to get into trouble!

Oh! You can email me your submission - or post it on you blog and give me a link through the comments here.

Challenge - a month without plastic

Yesterday I was out picking up some treasure and heard this woman on NPR radio talking about trying to go for a month without plastic. She is blogging about it for the BBC.

I have pondered this exact challenge several times but have always opted to "severely limit my plastic" - because it is EVERYWHERE in our daily lives.

You can read more about her journey - and also some other inspiring people who have decided to seriously look at their trash behavior here.

What do you say - can you stay off plastic for a week?

Backyard Garden!

It is amazing what you can grow in your backyard with a bit of patience and a green thumb. I am "babysitting" a garden at the moment and the bounty has been amazing. The BEST heirloom tomatoes of the season, and my kids are eatting the cherry tomatoes like candy. There is nothing better than cleaning the dirt off the food you brought in from your own yard.

Gorgeous reuse art

I have an incredibly talented woman on my board name Vicki who makes GREAT jewelry - green too! Not only has she made masterpieces from old watch pieces, she even patented a new type of concrete from slag and fly ash.
You can check out her stuff here. Go ahead - buy something you deserve it!

Greenraising!

My son is heading off to kindergarten this year, and I was dreading the inevitable fundraisers. Really - who needs a bucket of cookie dough, or more wrapping paper? It seems so wasteful.
So I ran across a really really cool idea called green-raising. This group lets school and non-profits (reCREATE is already signed up) sign up to sell/refer shoppers- and they get from 25 to 40% back on the purchases, depending on the program chosen.
As I mentioned, reCREATE is signed up, so if you need any Sigg Bottles, or reusable shopping bags, green cleaning products, or eco-friendly wrapping paper, you can shop here, and help us fund our vehicle!

Fun thing I stumbled upon

I stumbled upon this site after seeing a business card someone made from this program. It is called wordle. I want to play with it more another day.

Sacramento News and Review

Got some really nice press on our program today!

Celebrating our Greeness!

At art camp this week, we made art from repurposed materials all week long. On Friday the kids made their own Green Trophies - all from treasures we saved from entering the landfill. Here is a picture of the class with their trophies! The kids were so great all week long. We had so much fun. We also came up with a list of 50 ways to be green that they took home so they could implement some of what we talked about.

Some good Press :)

This is a great telephonewire tree scultpure made in art camp.
We got a nice write up in the Placer Herald - the local paper for Rocklin today...

Here is a link

http://www.placerherald.com/detail/88439.html


I was misquoted - I said "millions of pounds" - and it was written as millions of tons... but still all in all a nice write up on the program!

Your Favorite Green Tip?

Ok... What is your favorite green tip?
It could be something small - like turning off the light when you leave the room - or something big - like the hybrid you are cruising around town.
Don't have a fav? Do you have a question on how green a particular bevhavior is? Post it and lets talk!

Green Clothing Choices

See that rack of endless t-shirts for $3. Seems pretty harmless right?

But if something is too good to be true - it probably is.

-Think of the amount of pesticides used in the cotton.
-Who made the t-shirt - how much could they have been paid if the shirt is that inexpensive... what could their work conditions be like?
-Will life be better if you own that shirt? What are the unseen costs associated with buying it?

Organic t-shirts are a lot less expensive than they used to be.
Also, take a look at your local reuse store - they're often lots of cool fashions there, and for a lot less money.

Kudos to a local business

So, besides trying to be green myself, I have been trying to encourage others along my journey- in a happy, non-preachy way. Last night I had a green moment and they were in that green place already!

Last night we went to Utopia Grill in Roseville for dinner. It is natural, organic fare cooked without all the yucky stuff that is bad for you. First the food was excellent -yum! The portions were very generous, and I forgot to bring my own container... and was feeling guilty for asking for one, and so the server came back and she had a compostable container. I wanted to dance - it made me so happy!

We gobbled up our left overs today, and washed those containers so they are ready to take them next time we eat out!

Recycled Art Camps

reCREATE is co-hosting some cool art camps with reuse materials this summer over at the Utility Exploration Center in Roseville. The folks from Good Day Sacramento came over to do a little teaser about our classes... that was kind of fun!

So why reuse materials for art? Using every-day, non artsand craft kit type items pushs the creativity of kids. I observed some students with tennis ball containers, and saw them each see something different - a fish, a rocket, a race car.... it was awesome! Also - your child just might rethink asking you to make that trip to Michaels (no offense to Michaels - I make plenty of trips there too), and grab a box and some popsicle sticks and start creating.

Here are a few examples of the art that was made on TV.





More info about the classes is on the reCREATE website. We still have space for a few more kids!

Awesome Compost Option

Wow... I must admit I found this cool composter over at the LJ Urban Blog. I am just really impressed with this undersink option. The price is right, and it can handle a good amount of food waste. I was most impressed when I read the Earth Facts. here

Composting has been one of those things I haven't done well, but after reading that information, I am going to make a committment to do it better. They offer discounts on orders of 3 or more, anyone want to join me in my purchase?!

Back on my Plastic Soapbox

A few months back, I went to observe Art from Scrap, and learn about their art reuse program. One of the things they told the children is that you can find the little pieces of plastic (the little beads used in plastic manufacturing - called Nurdles) on any beach in the world. I was appalled at this claim, and wondered if it was true... so when my family and I made a trip to Monterey, we stopped that the beach in Sand City to fly a kite, and sure enough, I found those little beads of plastic where all along the shore.

So, why is this a big deal? Take a look at this. It might make you reconsider accepting a plastic bag or buying a bottle of water.

So, to make ourselves feel a little better about the state of our beaches, my 5 year old son and I gathered up a huge bag (that we found on the beach) full of plastic garbage that others had left, in hopes the high-tide wouldn't add it to the sea debris problem. The lifeguard on-duty told us we got good karma for what we did. Me? I wanted to pass my karma on to the ocean - it needs it.
PLEASE pack out every single piece of plastic with you when you leave the beach.

To learn more about the problem of nurdles - you can click here.

Ways to a Greener Birthday Party

My daughter just had her birthday and we made an effort to green it up as much as possible... here are some of the things I did...

1. Asked a friend to pass on her Princess Decorations after her party - so at least they are used more than once. Now that our party is over, I will offer them up on Freecycle and then at least 3parties got to enjoy the princess decorations.

2. Goodie bags made from recycled paper and reuse ribbon.

3. In the goodie bags - I gave the girls a glass beaded bracelet...one they could wear into adulthood - one that shouldn't break anytime soon.

4. I requested no gifts on the invitation... and while virtually everyone ignored my request, She got hand sewn clothes, and beautiful hand crafted picture wall hangings, and while my friends gave me a hard time for writing that on the invite, they were definitely greener in their gift choices. (keep your gift bags and tissue and use them again.)

5. I emailed the invitation... and I have to admit this didn't work perfectly - so I would encourage you to use Evite or send it as an attachment - not embedded in the email.

Other things you can do? Use real plates,forks and cups, or at least use ones that compost easily. (Chinet works for the plates, there are also choices for the other stuff here... .)
Serve water from a pitcher - not bottles of water. We had a jug of juice - not juice boxes. Forget about getting balloons - or at least just get a few, and give them out to the kids as they leave.

I was really surprised at the lack of eco friendly choices at the party store - there really wasn't a green option there... so save yourself the trip.

The Story of Stuff

Have you watched that video? I have been thinking about one part of it alot. The part where she (Annie Leonard) is talking about going to buy an alarm clock, and it is just too cheap for what she is getting... and bascially realizes that if she isn't paying for it, someone... somewhere is - by providing cheap labor, or maybe the materials were gotten in less than stellar circumstances. I was thinking about this ALOT lately... because our society really doesn't make it easy to buy the "right" product we need. I'm so frustrated by it, that I have started just not buying. I look at my options and say - none of these are a good choice.. .I'm just going to wait. I'm sure it isn't what our stores are hoping we do... but honestly it feels great! For one I realize hat much of what I "need" I really don't.
If you haven't seen the Story of Stuff Yet, you can find it here.

Improve your Vocabulary and Help Feed Others

Have you been to Free Rice? It is a cool site where you play a vocabulary game and for each right answer, 20 grains of rice are donated to those in need. The link is on here, or you can click the banner to the left.

REUSE -outside the box

I am posting this picture because this lamp is made mostly from reuse materials. The Box was given to me as part of the Box Show Fundraiser Placer Arts just had. Everything else was destined for the landfill, and we saved it and used it. The point of this post is REALLY consider what you are throwing away, and examine your habits. They aren't that hard to change. I am also not suggesting to horde things. I am a big fan of clearing out the clutter - but pass it on! We have made drastic changes in our household over the last several months, and it feels good.
I took the reCREATE program to my son's preschool the other day, and the kids really enjoyed looking at the pictures from the MRF (where all trash goes to be sorted). They made some cool art too.
Here is my recent favorite picture of reuse art by a kid.



I will have a post soon on having a green birthday party!

5 Ways to Celebrate the Earth Every Day

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. I am focusing all my efforts on reCREATE,and getting it started. I have been getting regular pickups form several local businesses now, and am continually amazed at the great stuff we are getting for reuse.

Here is a copy of a poster we had out at the Celebrate the Earth event we were at a few weeks ago. Click on the picture and it will enlarge.

Easy Tip...Plan Your Errands

Wit the price of gas being so high, this is a tip that will save both your pocketbook and the earth... Regardless of the vehicle you use, you can cut down your carbon emissions, by planning out your errands. Instead of running out every day for one thing or another - make less more efficiant trips. For example, I drop the libary books when I am taking my son to preschool, then I will get the groceries I need on the way home. Some days I'll take my daughter to the park while my son is in preschool. It is all in the same place, so it is less driving than if we, say, went to the mall. PLUS - despite the price of gas, my wallet isthanful for less trips to the mall! NOW... if you can, walking or biking is the best way to go... and healthy too.

California Coastal Commission

I went to a training by the California Coastal Commission the other day. It was held for educators, and since reCREATE has an environmental message, they welcomed my attendance.
As a scuba diver, I know there are many issues going on in our oceans. But the one thing they said that stood out was this:
Pieces of plastic outnumber plankton 6 to 1 in the Pacific Ocean. Plastic doesn't bio-degrade. It breaks down into smaller pieces and then birds, fish and other sea life mistake it for food and eat it. It is not only poisoning them (think twice before ording that seafood.), it also is doing so weird stuff hormonally to the fish.

Here is a clip of a video from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation that shows more about this problem. As I live inland, I asked if the lessons showed how we contribute to that problem...
streams, rivers eventually flow to the ocean. I am also currently reading Jacques Cousteau's Book The Human the Orchid and the Octopus. I grew up watching this amazing man on television, reading his recount of the decline of the oceans' bounty is heart wrenching.

So what can we do? I'm trying to buy in bulk - less plastic. Taking my own shopping bags, and I still find it irritating how much plastic is around us. Every piece of plastic that was every made is still here. Oh... and I'm touring the landfill this week to better understand how they process our recyclables and trash.

Here are a couple more links if you want to learn more:

Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic, Are We?

Algalita Marine Research Foundation

Bottled Water... What's the Big Deal?

I had the opportunity to join a class of second graders learn about the environment this week. One of the things they talked about was bottled water. When asked what plastic was made of - they couldn't answer... and naively I thought "old recycled plastic" - which in a very small part is true... but bottled water comes in plastic bottles made from crude oil. In fact, according to the Earth Policy Institute, "Americans’ demand for bottled water requires more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel more than 1 million U.S. cars for a year.* Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year".

So you might say - Well I recycle my bottles... no big deal right?
or
I'm getting cleaner, healthier water - but there are no regulations to make bottled watter any purer than tap water.

Even if you recycle your bottle - if you leave the lid on the bottle it may not be recycled. If it gets to be recycled, it takes water to clean the plastic, the energy to ship it to a place for recycling, the process of recycling, and production of a new bottle. If you don't recycle that bottle, there it will sit in a local landfill, for up to 1000 years before it breaks down. So... grab a glass and pour yourself a big glass of tap water, and pat yourself on the back for getting perfectly good tap water, saving money, and doing your small part to make your live a little greener.

Want to learn more? Here are some other good links:

Fast Company - Message in a Bottle

Reasons to Ditch Water Bottles

(Photo by Ooodit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution)

What is this all about?

This blog is a journey of a mom and her family to do their part to live a little greener. The more I learn about the environment, waste management, sustainable living and green choices... the more I am cringing over choices I have made in the past. Yep, I've changed the lightbulbs, and I drive a hybrid. We could argue we are doing our part... only there is so much more to do. My goal is that week by week we take a look at one or two daily routines, and think about a more earth friendly way to get it done. Along my journey you will hear about the non-profit I am establishing
www.recreate.org, and why. It's all very simple really... I want my kids to live in a world that isn't choking on it's actions... AND I believe there has to be a way that a typical mom like me can make a difference - I have to - for my kids.