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When ordering hot drinks at a coffee shop this winter, hand them your own travel mug to use in place of their styrofoam or paper cups

12/23/2016

 
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Bring your own mug to your favorite coffee shop to reduce waste and save money. Some coffee shops offer a small discount for using a reusable tumbler.  Using a reusable coffee mug instead of disposable five times a week will reduce your CO2 emissions by 1.25 lbs per week.  You can also check to see what parts of your drink holder might be recyclable.  The plastic top, if relatively clean (no sticky food), and the corrugated cardboard sleeve can be recycled in our area.  

Source:
www.carbonrally.com



Reuse packing peanuts and bubble wrap or donate them to mailing stores for reuse.

12/15/2016

 
Have you accumulated lots of packing peanuts and bubble wrap from all those packages delivered during the holidays?  

Packing peanuts, made of expanded polystyrene, are not recyclable, take a long time to degrade, and are toxic to human health and wildlife.  Keep them out of landfills by saving them to use again or by using biodegradable packing peanuts or paper to ship your items.  If you have too many to store and reuse yourself, give them to The UPS Store or Mail Source where they will put them to good use.  If it lasts forever, let’s use it forever.


The UPS store only accepts white packing peanuts, and all material must be clean.


Give your holiday gifts in reusable gift boxes and bags, and save wrappings to use again next year 

12/15/2016

 
Produce less waste over the holidays by using and reusing gift boxes and bags.  

Have you received lots of those plain white clothing boxes?  Hand your kids some markers, stickers, or ink pads and stamps and have them decorate the boxes to be used again and again for holidays, birthdays, or for whichever occasions you give gifts.  Do you have a sewing machine?  Make your own sturdy, reusable bags out of fabric.  Using fabric scraps or old clothes (t-shirts work great for this), make bags of various sizes.  Cut fabric into rectangles of desired bag size, sew together three sides, and hem the edges of the fourth side.  Use another strip of fabric to tie the top in a neat bow.  You can even sew that strip of fabric into one side near the top of the bag to use as a permanent tie.  Make gift tags on small pieces of paper or cardstock, punch a hole in it, and tie it to the gift bag with a scrap of yarn.  Once you have a supply of these bags on hand, wrapping gifts becomes faster, taking only the time to tie the bow, and you save lots of money on gift wrap and tape.


Do you receive lots of paper wrapped gifts?  Open gifts carefully and save the paper to use again.  


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