Greening Up Your Graduation



Dreamstime Stock Photos / Graduation Robe © Uciekinier  ID: 5257063

Congratulations graduates! Graduation is here and so are the graduation celebrations. There are many things you, your family and friends can do to green up your festivities!

 

Whether you are graduating from high school or college, jobs are probably one of the things you’re thinking about. Did you know that your bottle really means jobs? Recently, the Carolina Plastics Recycling Council created the Your Bottle Means Jobs campaign which was launched in the Carolinas. The goal is to capture more of the 3 billion plastic bottles thrown in the trash each year. By recycling only two more bottles a week you’ll help create jobs, grow the economy, support local businesses, reduce energy and other natural resources, and save valuable landfill space right here in your own backyard.

Chances are you might be wearing some of the fruits of your recycling efforts to your graduation. North Carolina based company Unifi Incorporated, creator of REPREVE ® recycled fiber, in partnership with Oak HallCap & Gown have created green graduation gowns. Each Oak Hall GreenWeaver® and NuHorizon® gown is made from about 27 post-consumer plastic bottles. As of today, over 87.7 million plastic bottles were recycled and made into new, recyclable graduation gowns. Now that’s getting off to a green start for your next journey!

Don’t stop there! Greening up your graduation festivities starts with the invitations and announcements. Consider emailing...not only will it save you on postage, it will save money from ordering the paper invitations as well. Do you still want to go the paper route? That’s ok! Be sure to ask everyone to recycle the announcements and invitations when they no longer need them.

Dreamstime Stock Photos | Wild Flowers Including Daisies And Corn Flowers

ID: 82988084 | © creativecommonsstockphotos

Decorating can be beautiful and environmentally friendly. Instead of buying new decorations, ask family or friends if they have any you could reuse. If they don’t, try incorporating nature into your decorations with greenery, flowers, shells or other natural materials.

Dreamstime Stock Photos Free Picture | Fruit Market

ID: 4369081 | © Michael Zysman 

A little preparation can go a long way! When you are planning the meal, first get a list together. Then try incorporating local foods into the menu. Local farmer’s markets are a great source of local food. Once the meal is over, don’t throw away those leftovers, reinvent them into other meals or compost them.

Dreamstime Stock Photos | Festive Table Setting

ID: 84940824 | © creativecommonsstockphotos 

Take steps to reduce the waste from your celebration. At your party, consider reusable dining ware and cloth napkins and table cloths. Can’t get away from using disposable items? Use one-time use items made from biodegradable or compostable materials where possible. Recycle all other materials such as plastic, aluminum, paper, and if possible try to avoid using Styrofoam.

Whew! Now that the festivities are over it’s time to clean it all up. Clean post-graduation messes with environmentally friendly cleaning products. Carefully pack away any decorations and excess supplies that may be used again.

 

As always, Reduce-Reuse-Recycle as much as possible. Now got get ‘em graduates: the world is your [recyclable] oyster! 

Dreamstime Stock Photos | Graduates Throwing Graduation Caps

ID: 84994878 | © creativecommonsstockphotos 

 

Home Improvement Tips

My husband and I are making some updates to our kitchen. The room has not been updated since its construction in 1984, so we thought it was time to replace some of the features. As we are undergoing the DIY renovation, I have thought of some environmental sustainability tips you may want to consider when planning your own home improvements. These suggestions are meant to help you save money and reduce waste.

• First, I must acknowledge that the most environmentally sustainable thing to do is keep using what you already have. If the only thing wrong with your old linoleum floor is its visual appeal, then is replacing it really necessary?

• If you decide that certain things in your house simply have to be updated, try to replace them with secondhand materials. The Habitat for Humanity ReStore is the first place I browse when I am updating anything in my house. You can find great-looking kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, ceiling fans, light fixtures, doors and windows. My friend even found enough hardwood flooring at the ReStore to redo her whole downstairs. You may have to go and look around a few times to find what you are looking for because new materials are donated to Habitat every day. You’ll save a lot of money by not buying first-hand retail. For instance, I just bought a light fixture to go above my kitchen sink. I got it in good shape from the ReStore for $25. The last time I was at a large hardware store, I found the exact same light fixture for $100. I think a 75 percent savings is pretty good.

• One of the kitchen updates my husband and I are undertaking is replacing the cabinets. When you are removing your existing cabinets or any installed feature, resist the temptation to demolish them with a sledgehammer. No matter how ugly and outdated the cabinets, countertops or bathtub may be, take the time to unscrew, cut the caulk seals and remove them carefully so they can be donated to places like Habitat for Humanity. You may be able to make some money by selling the items to a neighbor or placing them on Craigslist. My husband and I put an ad on Craigslist advertising that we had kitchen cabinets for free for anyone who would haul them away. The man who ended up taking them said he was going to install them in his garage to store his tools. If we had busted the cabinets apart during extraction, the only place the cabinets could go is the landfill. The landfill should always be your last resort.

• Most items you buy new, like cabinets, vanities, windows or microwaves will most likely come packaged in lots of cardboard and Styrofoam. The way in which you dispose of these materials is important. Take the time to cut the cardboard down to the size that is accepted by your community’s recycling program. If your community does not accept Styrofoam for recycling, be sure to bag it all up and secure it in your outside trashcan. Don’t let any of it blow out and become litter. Or, instead of throwing them out, you could store the cardboard and Styrofoam in your attic to avoid having to buy as many expensive packing materials when you move.

• When I am picking out features that are expensive and have to be installed, like kitchen cabinets, sinks, light fixtures or faucets, I choose designs that are less trendy and are more neutral, timeless designs. My thinking is that the trendier something is, the sooner I or the next owner will want to replace it. To avoid dull and uninteresting rooms, I add interest by accenting with eye-catching pillows, artwork or curtains. As styles change, these items are less expensive to switch out, they can easily be donated to a place like Goodwill, and the likelihood of unintentionally destroying them during extraction is minimal.

As the weather begins to cool down, it is a great time to start a home renovation. Go ahead and make your home a place you are proud of, but make the renovations as environmentally sustainable as you can.

Children’s Consignment Sales

Parents know how quickly children outgrow their clothes. Many parents say that in only one month, their baby outgrew all of the newborn clothes they received at their baby shower. Parents are left with piles of barely-used clothing and the need to go buy more! Parents don’t need to worry, though, because a simple answer awaits them: consignment sales. Children’s consignment sales are a great place to find everything you need for your baby or toddler.

Consignment sales are the place to shop for several reasons:

1. Buying secondhand clothing and baby gear prevents new items from having to be produced. New plastic, metal, wood and cloth does not have to be used to produce a new product. Also, coal does not have to be burned to produce the electricity that fuels the production of these items.

2. Parents who sell their children’s outgrown clothing prevent the items from ending up in the landfill. The less we send to the landfill, the slower the landfills grow, and the less open space we have to devote to them.

3. Parents who sell their children’s outgrown clothing and baby gear are provided with income. Parents who have several children and participate in several consignment sales each year can make significant money to supplement their income.

4. Parents who buy secondhand save a lot of money compared to those who buy first-hand retail.

Do your family and the earth a favor and shop the consignment sales.

Here are two sources to find consignment sales going on in North Carolina: http://consignmentmommies.com/ChildrensConsignmentSalesbyState/NorthCarolina.html

http://www.kidsconsignmentsales.com/nc.htm

My Trip to Australia, Part 4: Energy Conservation

Kristen Aubut

During our three-week trip to Australia, I observed that energy conservation seemed to be a top priority for most Australians. Clothes lines could be spotted behind almost every house, whether in the country or in the city. During our stay, we hung our laundry on the huge clothes line in the back, as you can see in the pictures below. Air drying prevents fossil fuels from being burned to make electricity, it prevents all that heat from being produced by the clothes dryer, it slows the wear and tear of clothes and it gives you a reason to go outside and enjoy the fresh air!

My husband’s grandmother gets annoyed when the bower birds steal the blue clothes pins right off her line and drop them in the woods behind her house. When she goes out walking, she collects the pins and brings them back to the line. She is not sure why they only go after the blue ones.


























































Every electrical outlet I came across, whether in the old farmhouse, in the new construction home of my husband’s aunt, or the hotel in Sydney, was fashioned with power switches. If the outlet is not being used, you flip the switch to off to save energy.


















With the global population increasing at such a fast rate, we all need to be wiser with our energy consumption. Unplugging appliances that are not in use and using clothes lines more and electric dryers less are good ways to conserve energy.

My Trip to Australia, Part 3: Water Conservation

Kristen Aubut

During my visit to New South Wales, Australia, I saw that water conservation is a top priority for Australians. They are wise to be water conscious because Australia is one of the driest continents in the world. My husband’s cousin, who lives a couple hours outside Sydney, could recall when his area went four months without rain.

My husband’s grandmother’s house where we stayed three weeks is not hooked up to city water. Instead, her water comes straight from the sky. Rain water collects in the three large cisterns right next to her house. You can see the two teal-colored cisterns and the concrete cistern in the pictures below. All of her drinking, cooking, washing and irrigation water comes from these cisterns. The rain water runs through a filter before coming into the house, but still, the water consumed by my husband, son and I was boiled because we are used to treated city water.

Between 40 and 50 years ago when this property was a working farm, the six-person family had only two small cisterns, so water had to be strictly conserved. Once the water in the cisterns was used up, the family had no more water until it rained again. One way the family conserved was by limiting water use at bath time. One bathtub of hot soapy water was filled. The youngest bathed first, then, using the same bath water, the next child bathed. The dirtiest family member, usually the one who had done the dirtiest work on the farm that day, would go last. Only one pitcher of fresh water was added to each subsequent bath. This conservation practice was still being used when my husband visited his family when he was 13-years-old. Conserving water at bath time is very important considering a 15-minute shower at five gallons per minute could easily use up 75 gallons of water.

Once the three larger cisterns were installed, the family could relax their water conservation efforts slightly. During my stay, we still made sure to take short showers and turn off the water while soaping up. One water conservation technique the family still uses is in the area of dishwashing. This form of conservation was difficult for me to get used to. After a meal, one sink of hot soapy water was filled up. All of the dishes from the twelve of us were scrubbed with this water. Then, instead of the dishes being rinsed, the soap was wiped off with a dish towel.

You can see how much of the yard is taken up by these three cisterns.

















































This rain water cistern is in the backyard of my husband’s great aunt whose house is right in the middle of a suburb. Every house I visited had at least a small rain water barrel to water the garden.























Even large chain stores collect and reuse rain water.



















As the global population increases, we need to be wiser with our water usage. Our country could benefit by adopting some of Australia’s water conservation practices. We could start by making rain barrels and cisterns a more common sight in American backyards.

My Trip to Australia, Part 2: Recycling

Kristen Aubut

My husband’s grandmother’s house sits on a country road way out in the middle of nowhere. Still, her house has curbside recycling collection.

Her recycling can is slightly larger than her garbage can. I have always thought that a lot can be determined about a community based on the size of its recycling bin. Stamped on top of the yellow recycling can lid is a list of the recyclables accepted: paper, cardboard, glass bottles and jars, aluminum and steel cans, aerosol cans, juice and milk cartons, and all plastic containers #1-7. Stamped on the red garbage can lid is the statement “No Recyclables.”
Recycling seemed to be very accessible even while out-and-about. I found these neat looking rubbish (garbage) and recycling cans at a mall. From what I saw during my visit, every rubbish can was accompanied by a recycling container. The two went hand-in-hand. And, yes, I was the odd tourist taking pictures of the rubbish containers.

We drove past the Taree Recycling Center. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to tour the inside. This recycling center is where my husband’s aunt’s recyclables are taken for sorting.

This paper recycling container is inside a subway station in Sydney. I like that the containers are clear. Maybe it discourages people from throwing garbage in because others will see it!

Recycling seemed to be a top priority for most Australians, with recycling being accessible whether at home or on-the-go.

My Trip to Australia: Reuse

Kristen Aubut

I recently took a trip down under. My husband, two-year-old son and I stayed for three weeks in New South Wales, Australia. We stayed in my husband’s grandmother’s old farmhouse. Her land is quiet and still now, but it once bustled with activity as a dairy farm.

The primary purpose for traveling to this far away land was to meet my husband’s family for the first time. My unspoken secondary purpose was to keep a lookout for indications of the relationship Australians have with their environment. Is their environmental viewpoint similar to those of Americans? What value do they place on their country’s flora and fauna? To what extent do they protect their natural resources from overuse? From the people I met and the things I saw in Australia, I found that, in general, Australians appreciate and make a strong effort to take care of the unique land they call home.

My husband’s grandmother’s property was bursting at the seams with indications of environmental concern and natural resource conservation. The first indications of wise resource consumption I saw were the numerous examples of reuse hiding around every corner on her farm. When an item could no longer be used for its intended purpose, instead of throwing it in the trash, his grandparents assigned a new purpose to it. Everything had a second life.

Take a look of some of the reuse examples I came across during my visit.

Here are a bathroom sink and fence post that have been bolted together to become a planter in the garden.Can you tell what this gate used to be? Old metal bed frames have multiple purposes.These old tires have been cut in half to make planters next to the garage.My husband’s grandfather was once quite the dancer. This is one of his old dancing shoes. There are two examples of reuse going on here. Years ago, when the black shoe strings snapped from constant tying and untying, he replaced the broken shoe string with a green ribbon and got back on the dance floor. Then, when his dancing days were through, a brick was shoved inside the shoe and placed in the laundry room as a door stop.
The birds of Australia are very impressive with their colors and unique voices. Many Australians keep native birds as pets. This is an old bird cage whose inhabitant has long passed. Look at what was used as the bird’s water container. A coffee mug.In their younger days, my husband’s grandparents maintained an enormous vegetable garden. To build the perimeter of the garden, wood planks and piping were extracted from old projects to serve as a new fence. Look closely and you will see that, instead of being held together by nails, wire was threaded through a hole and wound together to keep the posts in place. All of these fence materials were salvaged from around the farm. They were rarely bought new.The same is true for this shed. Look at the metal sheeting peeling off the base of the wall. Building materials were used over and over again.
Notice how this door lock was fashioned out of scraps from around the farm.
At one time, dozens of chucks (baby chickens) scurried around the yard. One of the chuck houses was made from a cistern turned over on its side. This cistern had probably become too rusty to continue storing the family’s drinking water.For many places around the world, reuse is not a concept that environmental groups have to encourage citizens to adopt. Reuse is a necessity for life. The idea that a product should be used for its intended purpose then thrown into a landfill is an idea that many in this world cannot afford.

Follow these NC Project Green tips to save money and natural resources at work

Simple Ways to Save Money and Natural Resources at Work

With the current budget reductions, state and local government agencies are looking for cost savings. Here are some ways to save money and reduce the consumption of energy and natural resources:

• Replace older inefficient exit signs with LED exit signs. LED exit signs typically cost between $20 and $40 to purchase and install, but can save up to $37 a year in energy costs and $26 a year in labor costs; payback for the initial investment usually occurs in the first or second year of installation. Once the initial investment is recovered, the energy savings may grow to $500 over the life of each LED exit sign. In a building with 10 exit signs, that’s an estimated energy cost avoidance of about $5,000.

• Travel less to meetings. Use conference calls or webinars. By meeting on a conference call instead of driving to a meeting 100 miles away, you could save $50 (at 25 cents per mile) in fuel costs and three hours of travel time equating into $75 (at $25 per hour) in staff productivity costs. This results in a cost avoidance of approximately $125.

• Slow down. Aggressive driving (such as speeding and abrupt starts and stops) wastes gas and is dangerous. Getting 30 mpg instead of 25 mpg saves an average of $445 per year in fuel costs.

• Don’t idle. Idling one car can waste $60 - $750 (depending on fuel prices, idling habits and vehicle type) per year in fuel. Generally, it is more efficient to turn off most warmed-up vehicles than to idle for more than 30 seconds.

• Save paper. At the state contract cost, each ream of recycled content copy paper costs about $3. If your office saves three reams every week, that produces a yearly savings of $470. Here are simple ways to reduce paper usage: Set the printer to print and copy on both sides of the page (duplex). This could reduce paper costs by close to half. Print memos, drafts and informal hard copies of documents on clean paper that has already been used on one side. Go electronic instead of printing. Use email, phone and overhead projectors and convert paper forms into an electronic format.
  

• Turn off computers, monitors, printers and other office equipment on weekends and holidays. If 40 people in an office turn off their computers and monitors over the weekend for a year, it will save about $2,300 in energy costs.

Use this formula to estimate energy use and cost:

• (Wattage × Hours Used Per Day × Days Per Year) ÷ 1000 = Annual Kilowatt-hour (kwh) Consumption

• Kilowatt-hour (kwh) consumption × Electric rate = Energy Cost

*Average electric rate in NC is $.0860/kwh

North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach
1639 Mail Service Center | Raleigh, NC 27699-1639 | (877) 623-6748
June 2011

Source: NC Project Green
http://ncprojectgreen.com/Documents/SimpleWaystoSave.pdf

Opening of the North Davidson Garbage Service and Recycling Center

The North Davidson Garbage Service has expanded to include recycling pickup and processing. The decision to add recycling to the company’s service was made in response to the county’s growing population and use of more space in the landfill.

The new 54,000-square-foot recycling center is located on Old U.S. Highway 52 in Welcome, N.C. With the ability to process 50 tons of recyclables per hour, the facility is the largest privately owned recycling facility in North Carolina. The “Green Machine” is the 250-foot long, 22-foot high materials sorting machine that will process the materials coming into the facility. The facility can process glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, tin and aluminum. The facility will also have an electronics recycling drop-off center.

North Davidson Garbage Service customers will receive the new recycling collection at no added cost and can expect the new recycling bins to be issued within six months.

Click here to read the article.

Source:

“Huge recycling center opens”

April 21, 2011

By Vikki Broughton Hodges

The-Dispatch.com

http://www.the-dispatch.com/article/20110421/NEWS/304219960/1074?p=1&tc=pg