Every year I try and save as much paper and ribbon from gifts to reuse the following year. It's a very simple thing to do. I am also saving money and the environment. Okay so there might be a few creases, but to me that gives it a charm because I care. You might consider the same.
Here's my little packaging. Looks pretty good to me.
Earth Day is every day in my world, but this week and especially today Monday April 22nd is the 'official' Earth Day, now 43 years in existence. I remember the first one back in the 1970's and thank my Mom for opening my eyes to being more mindful and earth friendly.
Why bother with Earth Day? Living a life with consideration for our planet's sustainability takes time, takes conscious effort and intent. My take is the effort is well worth the time well spent, it’s good to feel good about caring about our world!!
In time, even one thing done to help make a difference, does make a difference.
In thoughtful celebration, here's a free Download of my song Jungle
words + music C. Grier SESAC Singerfish publishing
Below are 10 actions for My Earth Day is Every Day: Call it sacrifice, learn to embrace it, or better yet, find a solution. But….Doing nothing is the wrong option.
!0 Actions to consider: it's not if but when you...
1) ...will decide it's too expensive to drive alone for one trip you could easily consolidate with other trips. Rethink your relationship with your car and consider some kind of commuter transportation.
2) ...unplug all the electronics in your home when not in use, and do anything you can to truly understand your energy consumption. Then make adjustments.
3) ...reduce, reuse and recycle. How many bags do you throw away, how many items could you reuse but find too time consuming to do anything about. What do you do with all your now obsolete gadgets? Find an e-waste depot near you.
4) ...ask local and national government to consider next generations, not next election cycles. If you find resistance, vote for change.
5) ...switch to homemade or non-petroleum based cleaning products (yes most household products from dish detergent to shampoo use petroleum). And no fooling, switching is much healthier for your home environment.
6) ...support your local economy. There is a reason you can get cheap goods at big box stores-off shore corporations pay labor cents per hour and get huge tax breaks to do so.
7) ...eat out less and use what you have in your cupboard more.
8) ...update appliances and recycle the old (do not reuse those energy guzzlers).
9) ...take advantage of state and national tax credits for updating your energy systems and home weatherizing.
10) ...teach a child to care about the environment and they will carry it with them throughout their lives. It's their future.
One thing is certain: the world of today will be different tomorrow - and the day after that, and on and on ad infinitum. The question is not whether we must learn to live sustainably, but how fast we can do so. from University of North Dakota
UPDATE Lower East Side Ecology Center now accepting drop off e-waste Tues-Sat in one location
In many of my previous blogs I write about the Lower East Side Ecology Center and their amazing E-waste events in NYC. This January celebrates their 9th year of "After The Holidays" E-waste events. My favorite is being held Saturday January 21st in front of Tekserve, the 1st Apple store-support center in NYC (before there even was such a thing as an Apple store,) @ 24th st bet 6th and 7th avenues. Follow links for other events near you.
Check out the list of what you can bring, I went to one with a full box and even brought my pups along for the trip (why not, it was a teachable moment). If you're in a car, it's simple, because they block a section of the street for cars to pull up-you don't even have to get out of your car or taxi. Some even come on a bike.
It would be great to get your neighbors and your Apartment Building or Small Business involved.
All collected electronics will be recycled by WeRecycle!, an environmentally and socially responsible local recycler. The Electronic Waste Recycling Program is made possible by Tekserve, Con Edison and The New York Community Trust.
here's a clip I made of from my September recycling e-waste trip:
On September I7, 2011 I walked to an LES Ecology Center e-waste event in front of Tekserve. With my pups in tow, we brought a box of old cell phones, cameras, a fax machine, transformers and cables to be properly disposed of. It was a true NY moment. When we arrived I met Development Director, Caroline Kruse who shared with me just how easy it is to recycle electronic waste.
It might take a little of your time, but recycling e-waste is so important. It feels good to know there's something you can do to reduce the massive amount of toxic waste we produce and discard without much thought. The Lower East Side Ecology Center leads the way.
Here's the 2nd installment of my Green Apple blog for Busker site The Noise Beneath The Apple. Today, I thought I'd share some tips on 2 things most NYC buskers use every day on the job, Batteries and Metro cards.
Batteries: Street/subway musicians for the most part use battery powered amplifiers and playback units. It's a must to use rechargeable batteries. Of course the initial expense is higher than using alkaline batteries, but the result does mean financial savings, more hours on one battery and less waste.
There's no easy solution where and how to get rid of used/dead batteries. Do not to throw batteries in the trash. If the law is an incentive, as of 2006 it's illegal in NYC to discard rechargeable batteries. Batteries are toxic that leach serious metals/chemicals into landfill if not properly discarded. It's amazing that we still don't have a great way to return/recycle batteries, follow the links to sites in your area that do. The good news is that most companies will take your rechargeable batteries for recycling. Just ask. If they don't, your asking might finally prompt them to do something and make a new policy. That's how it's done folks, old-fashioned care and demand for change.
These sites can help: The Lower East Side Ecology Center and Call 2 Recycle both have local e-waste information(collection of batteries, small personal devices and larger items like computers and printers).
I save my used batteries in a take away container and return when I have enough to make the trip worthwhile.
The BGA, Broadway Green Alliance, made a fantastic campaign and got Broadway houses to switch their Marquee's to LED lights and rechargeable batteries for all their body mics. Imagine the amount of eco-energy savings. And there's still juice left over, enough to use in ushers flashlights. Cool.
Metro cards: Unless you like to use them to clip on you bike spokes, learn to reuse your metro card. Cards are good for 1 year so that's one years worth on 1 card. Think of the eco-savings. Then you can use on your bike. Make sure to check the expiration date on the back because unfortunately you have to send the card in for a refund after expiration date.
That's all for now folks and always remember to be mindful of the 3 R's. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Earth Day is every day in my world, but this week and especially tomorrow April 22nd is the 'official' Earth Day, now 41 years in existence. I remember the first one back in the 1970's and thank my Mom for opening my eyes to being more mindful and earth friendly.
Japan's tragic earthquake and tsunami have had horrific and catastrophic repercussions on shortsighted human made environments i.e building nuclear power plants on earthquake fault lines, and ignoring tsunami calculations. It's one year since the BP's Deep Water Horizons off-shore drilling disaster. Drilling is not the answer. Finding new technologies away from our deep addiction to oil, is. Hey we moved on from the horse when there was great resistance to automobiles. I've just returned from a trip to France, gas there is $8+ per gallon. I took a high speed train from the south of the country to Paris, it was efficient, comfortable and cheap.
Along the way I passed a field of wind turbines. They might not be pretty to some people, and there is that whole NIMBY (not in my back yard) rage, but we have to do something to counterattack oil consumption. And let me add this thought, if a wind farm was hit by an earthquake and tsunami, no one would be evacuating for miles or stopping to eat livestock or agricultural harvests for seasons/generations to come.
Why bother with Earth Day? Living a life with consideration for our planet's sustainability takes time, takes conscious effort and intent. My take is the effort is well worth the time well spent, it’s good to feel good about caring about our world!!
In time, even one thing done to help make a difference, does make a difference.
One thing is certain: the world of today will be different tomorrow - and the day after that, and on and on ad infinitum. The question is not whether we must learn to live sustainably, but how fast we can do so. from University of North Dakota website
My Earth Day 2011 thoughts to consider, it's not if but when you...
1) ...will decide it's too expensive to drive alone for one trip you could easily consolidate with other trips. Rethink your relationship with your car and consider some kind of commuter transportation.
2) ...unplug all the electronics in your home when not in use, and do anything you can to truly understand your energy consumption. Then make adjustments.
3) ...reduce, reuse and recycle. How many bags do you throw away, how many items could you reuse but find too time consuming to do anything about. What do you do with all your now obsolete gadgets? Find an e-waste depot near you.
4) ...ask local and national government to consider next generations, not next election cycles. If you find resistance, vote for change.
5) ...switch to homemade or non-petroleum based cleaning products (yes most household products from dish detergent to shampoo use petroleum). And no fooling, switching is much healthier for your home environment.
6) ...support your local economy. There is a reason you can get cheap goods at big box stores-off shore corporations pay labor cents per hour and get huge tax breaks to do so.
7) ...eat out less and use what you have in your cupboard more.
8) ...update appliances and recycle the old (do not reuse those energy guzzlers).
9) ...take advantage of state and national tax credits for updating your energy systems and home weatherizing.
10) ...teach a child to care about the environment and they will carry it with them throughout their lives. It's their future.
Regarding my 10 actions to consider: Call it sacrifice, learn to embrace it, or better yet, find a solution. But,
Doing nothing is the wrong option.
If you're someone who likes to make New Years resolutions, here's one that worth sticking to. Learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle in NYC. The Lower East Side Ecology Center is just the place to show you how. Their mission is to work towards a sustainable New York City. If you're like me, you cringe every time you see the curbs full of garbage that could and should be recycled, and transformed into something else. I've seen far too many garbage trucks filled with easy recyclable items heading to landfill because so many citizens of this amazing city can't be bothered. The city is growing and with it a huge amount of construction creating vast amounts of waste. There should be a comprehensive plan to reduce, reuse and recycle the tons of construction debris leaving sites heading for burial and not rebirth. And why is it that office buildings having the lion share of waste are not mandated to recycle?
Funny how another term for garbage is refuse, is it because we refuse to accept our responsibility for dealing with our own excessive waste? Why are we so apathetic? Waste has to got to go somewhere, and in the city we cart it away making grotesque toxic mountains in a whole lot of someone else's back yards. Or it's shipped onto floating barges to nowhere-and if some "accidentally" gets dumped into the sea, who's being held accountable? Garbage costs the city=us so much. We waste with our waste. But wait, there's money in them thar hills and garbage islands floating off the starboard bow!
The city's waste should be revenue based. It's a mountain of a challenge (pun intended) but we have to be up to the task, because sooner or later we'll come to our collective senses and see the value in making our city landfill free.
Here's one action to start the New Year: learn how, where and when you can recycle your e-waste. Make it a point to collect your junk together and instead of easily dumping onto your sidewalk, take a tiny bit more time and take your stuff to one of the listed e-waste locations. Feel good about being part of the solution.
The Ecology Center offers free public compost collection and education, electronic waste recycling, stewardship of public open space, and environmental education. Their programs focus on offering opportunities for all New Yorkers to learn about environmental issues facing NYC and to take responsibility for solving those problems.
So here's to the resolution to think before you throw away, and my bet you'll have a better time sticking to this resolution than giving up chocolate and you'll feel much better for it.
Tekserve is hosting an e-waste event this Saturday January 15th. Here's the info and more to learn about waste.
