Reusable Gift Wrapping

Gifts are given to celebrate special occasions throughout the year. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations and religious holidays are all special occasions that are enhanced by gift-giving. Each of these gifts is carefully wrapped in all types of materials, with paper being the most popular. Once the wrapping paper is ripped open to reveal the gift inside, most often, the paper is discarded in the trash can. Even the beautiful bow is frequently thrown away. Gift wrapping materials are, for the most part, considered to be disposable. But with our landfills growing, our natural resources waning and the cost of everything increasing, the concept of reusable wrapping is very appealing.

Recycle Now offers a great idea for reusable wrapping. Furoshiki is a Japanese style of wrapping. As recyclenow.com explains, “Furoshiki is a fun and creative style of gift wrapping using a large piece of cloth to create elegant looking presents. The good news is, when the present is unwrapped, there’s nothing to be thrown away!”

Watch the video so you can start Furoshiki wrapping for your next special occasion!

Tell us what you think!

Last minute green Educator gift ideas - Part 2

Guest Bloggers -
Beth Almy is the Educational Resources Coordinator at the Natural Science Center. She lives in Greensboro with her husband and three children. Jeanne also lives in Greensboro with her husband Tom and two children. She publishes The Green Samaritan, an eco-friendly blog. You can follow on Twitter @greensamaritan and become a fan on Facebook.

Farm Charm
Surprise your favorite teacher with a basket of fresh produce from your local farmers market. Include a sweet treat along with a set of recipe cards.

High Tech To-Go!
Data storage devices are great gifts that allow teachers to transport less paper back and forth between school and home. Not only do they come in a wide variety of colors and designs, but they are very affordable.

The Gift of Time
Share your time and talents with your child’s class. Give the teacher an hour off by teaching a special lesson while she enjoys a cup of coffee and her favorite book. If teaching is not your talent, offer to help her organize a project, clean the classroom or decorate a bulletin board. You can even bring her a home-cooked lunch to enjoy while you take the class to the cafeteria.

Gifts that Keep Giving
Donate to a teacher’s favorite charity, PTA or community organization in their honor. You can even gift a favorite book to the school or public library. Zoos and science centers also run programs where you can honor someone by providing enrichment toys and treats to the animals. The possibilities are endless and will be appreciated long past the holiday season.

That’s a Wrap
When wrapping homemade goods and gifts for anyone this holiday season, think re-usable. The variety of inexpensive totes, decorative containers and fabric gift bags is truly inspiring. Think outside the box…and the wrapping paper.

Faces of the Earth
Written by Beth herself, she was inspired by many of the animals she interacts with at the science center. Faces of the Earth highlights the unique qualities of the featured animals, encourages support of local zoos, museums and science centers as well as fosters greater awareness of wildlife worldwide. Having each student sign the book and adding a special note will make this a gift a teacher can treasure and share with classes to come. Available at the Thesaurus Gift Shop, all proceeds are donated back to the Natural Science Center.

Whatever you choose, think resourcefully so we can keep our holidays ever green.

Last minute green Educator gift ideas - Part 1

Guest Bloggers -
Beth Almy is the Educational Resources Coordinator at the Natural Science Center. She lives in Greensboro with her husband and three children. Jeanne also lives in Greensboro with her husband Tom and two children. She publishes The Green Samaritan, an eco-friendly blog. You can follow on Twitter @greensamaritan and become a fan on Facebook.

Black Friday has passed. Cyber Monday has come and gone and in a few more days, school will be out. What to do for those wonderful teachers who spend such critical time with our children.

Beth Almy, educational resource coordinator at the Natural Science Center has put together a few ideas. As an instructor herself, she really knows what would bring a holiday smile to an educator’s face while being kind to our environment as well.

Words from the Heart
Take the time to let the administration of your school know how much you appreciate your teacher. Send a note to the principal about something kind she or he has done for your child. Make sure you give the teacher a copy!

Keeping It Clean
Purchase a refillable hand sanitizer container. Peel the labels off of the bottle and decorate it with scrapbooking stickers and ribbons. This personalized gift will be appreciated by the entire class throughout the winter season.

“Go To” Gifts
Teachers need a little fun time too! Gift certificates to restaurants and movie theaters are wonderful treats for educators who rarely get to treat themselves to lunch out or a matinee.

For Nature Lovers
Encourage educators to investigate their local parks and green spaces by giving them local trail books and field guides. Include these items with bird feeders, an assortment of seed packets or a gift certificate to choose a tree at a nursery.

Vote for TOTES!
Re-usable tote bags are great gifts for everyone….not to mention the environment! Many retailers carry a variety of trendy packable totes. You can even purchase totes at the craft store ready to be personalized by the kids. Totes are a great substitute for paper wrapping and gift bags.

Holiday Recycling News Release

Feel free to use this news release in your community.

STATE ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICIALS ENCOURAGE “GREEN” HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS

RALEIGH—The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources encourages North Carolinians to practice environmentally-friendly holiday habits this year.

By reducing waste and “going green,” you may be able to save some green in the process. Studies show holiday preparations, including gift-giving, holiday decorations and food preparation, increase the nation’s trash by an extra one million tons per week during the five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

“Now is the perfect time to implement some environmentally-friendly holiday ideas. Not only are people concerned about the economy, but the environment is also a hot topic,” said Kelley Dennings, environmental specialist with the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. “Why not make a ‘green’ New Year’s resolution this year as well?”

Some environmentally-friendly and cost-saving ideas include:
- Give home-baked goodies in reusable containers like baskets, tins or jars.
- Give non-materialistic “green” gifts that do not require wrapping, such as gift certificates for massages, to restaurants, cooking classes, sailing lessons, etc.
- Give a gift of time or talent. Take someone to a play, concert or movie. Make gift certificates for a special dinner, pet-sitting or house cleaning. Offer your talents at gardening, photography or financial planning — or better yet, teach someone a skill you possess such as knitting, woodworking or playing an instrument.
- Send holiday e-cards instead of paper greeting cards or make sure the ones you buy have recycled content material.
- When shipping, reuse foam peanuts or other packaging materials.
- If you have several events or parties in a short amount of time, buy food items in bulk. You will save a trip to the grocery and use less packaging.
- Shop at thrift stores for unique gift items or holiday decorations.
- Save all gift-wrapping and decorations to reuse later or wrap gifts in old maps, posters, sheet music, fabric or wallpaper scraps.

Other environmentally-friendly ideas include:
- Give a compost bin, can crusher, water timer, programmable thermostat, rain barrel, house plant, bird feeder, light timers or bat house.
- Use reusable grocery and shopping bags and make sure to recycle the non-reusable ones.
- Try not to use disposable plates, cups, napkins and silverware. If you do buy disposable products look for ones with recycled content.
- If a tree is part of your celebration, buy one that can be replanted in your yard. If you can’t replant your tree, compost it after the holidays.

For additional environmentally friendly holiday tips, please visit the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance Web site at: http://p2pays.org/recycleguys/generalholidaywaste.html.

Happy New Year!

Remember to recycle your glass champagne bottles, your empty beer cans and your plastic water bottles at your New Year’s festivities. In fact, why not make it your New Year’s resolution to recycle more, or if you are already recycling all you can, resolve to tell more people about recycling and its benefits to the economy and environment. You can make a difference!

Holiday Waste Reduction Tips – Part 5

It’s easy to be green no matter what holiday it is-

Waste Reduction
-Send holiday e-cards instead of paper greeting cards or make sure the ones you buy have recycled content material.
-When shipping, reuse foam peanuts or other packaging materials.
-Use reusable grocery and shopping bags and make sure to recycle the non-reusable ones.
-Use rechargable batteries for cameras, flashlights, etc.
-If you have several events or parties in a short amount of time buy food items in bulk. You will save a trip to the grocery and use less packaging!
-Eliminate using disposable plates, cups, napkins and silverware. If you do buy disposable products look for ones with recycled content.
-Instead of buying new items (e.g., a dress for a party, more chairs, etc.) consider borrowing or renting things.
-Shop at thrift stores for unique gift items or holiday decorations.
-Compost your leftover food - it’s easy and a great fertilizer!
-Save all gift-wrapping and decorations to reuse later or wrap gifts in old maps, posters, sheet music, fabric scraps or wallpaper scraps.

Recycling
-Have clearly marked recycling containers at your holiday party.
-Cook holiday meals in recyclable and recycled content pans such as aluminum.
-If your holiday gifts include new electronic gadgets and you need to discard your older electronics, recycle them instead of throwing them away. Contact your local recycling office or visit http://www.p2pays.org/localgov/PAYT/ncwaste.asp to find out how to recycle your electronics.
-Recycle or properly dispose of all cooking grease. Do not put it down the drain.

Energy Conservation
-Make sure to turn off or unplug holiday decorations when they are not in use.
-Be sure holiday decorations are not placed on or obstructing air vents.
-When cooking, use your microwave oven as much as possible or plan your oven baking to avoid continuously reheating the oven.
-Use LED holiday lights. They use about 99 percent less energy than larger, traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors.
-Reduce your light display by one or two strands. You may not even notice the subtle change.

Water Conservation
-Defrost frozen items in the refrigerator, not under running water.
-Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwater.
-When washing dishes keep washing soap usage to a minimum. It helps reduce the amount of rinse water needed.
-Don’t run the kitchen faucet continuously while washing dishes.
-Let pots and pans soak instead of letting the water run while you clean them.
-Minimize the number of dishes used at holiday parties.

Holiday Waste Reduction Tips – Part 4 - More Gift Ideas

- Check out this cute dog jacket made from plastic soda bottles. I heard it was purchased at Target but I can’t find it online.

- Teva has a new collection of shoes called "curbside" that feature recycled content materials

- Coca-Cola has some recycled PET T-shirts for sale on its Web site

Other Alternative Gift Ideas
-Give home-baked goodies in reusable containers like baskets, tins or jars.

-Give non-materialistic “green” gifts that do not require wrapping, such as gift certificates for massages, to restaurants, cooking classes, sailing lessons, etc. Theater, sporting event, concert or movie tickets are always appreciated. Experiences are remembered long after other presents wear out.

-Give a gift of time or talent. Take someone to a play, concert or movie. Make gift certificates for a special dinner, pet sitting or house cleaning. Offer your talents at gardening, photography or financial planning — or better yet, teach someone a skill you possess such as knitting, woodworking or playing an instrument.

-Make a charitable donation in the recipient’s name or give a membership to a museum, environmental or other nonprofit organization. -Give fair trade coffee and teas or local and organic fruit and vegetable baskets.

-Give a compost bin, can crusher, water timer, programmable thermostat, rain barrel, house plant, bird feeder, light timers or bat house.

-When gift giving think durable. Consider how long the item will last before you make a purchase.

Holiday Waste Reduction Tips – Part 3 – Radio Show

Bianca, with the City of Raleigh, and I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do a radio talk show that aired on all Clear Channel stations last week. What was the topic? Holiday waste reduction and recycling, of course. A podcast of the show has been put on Clear Channel’s Web site. Call your local radio station to see if you can do a short radio show about this issue.

Holiday Waste Reduction Tips – Part 2

VIDEO OF THE WEEK - Craft videos- recycling trash into treasure
These videos will give you some last minute gift ideas that you can make at home. If you decide to create one of these do-it-yourself crafts, please e-mail me or comment on the blog. I would love to know how it goes.

Record albums melt into decorative bowls

CD’s become a disco ball

Origami gift box

Fish Trap – For the guys on your list

Chains and jewelry from soda can tops

Sea Creature do-dad

Self-watering flower pot. The dog barking in the background of this video makes it pretty funny.

Holiday Waste Reduction Tips – Part 1 - Resources

Check out the Holiday Recycling and Waste Reduction information that we have compiled below.

-Recycled holiday crafts
Each month we put up a new craft idea depending on the holiday. All crafts include a reuse component. So get creative and create!

-Recycle Guys Holiday graphics
Print out these cute Recycle Guy graphics and put them on gift tags.

-Holiday Tips poster
Put this poster up at your school or place of work to remind others to think about being environmentally friendly at this time of year.

-Recycle Guys Holiday Coloring Page
For the kids in the family . . . print out this coloring page, give them some crayons and let them go wild.

-Christmas Tree Recycling information
Remember to recycle your greens this holiday. Check out this Web site for tree recycling locations in your community.

How did you spend the Fourth of July?

I worked the recycling booth at the Eno River Festival on the 4^th. I like getting out and meeting folks. Sometimes the questions are easy to answer and sometimes they aren’t.

One common question I receive is, “I see all my recyclables being put into the same truck at the curb or in the same container at my drop-off site. How can I guarantee they are being recycled since they are all mixed up?” Rest assured!

This is called commingled recycling. Many communities are converting to this method by taking their material to MRF’s – Material Recover Facilities. The metal cans are separated by a magnet and the aluminum is taken out by an eddy current. The plastic has different densities so it can be separated out by puffs of air. The different colored glass can be separated using optics. Light that shines through the clear glass goes off in a different direction than the colored glass. Paper is separated by sticky conveyor belts. It is all very high tech now. These materials have value and should not be thrown away!

Guest Blogger - Ellen

I went to the beach over the weekend. It is, as it always has been I'm sure, a truly beautiful place. The waves in the ocean, the vast expanse of sand, it never fails to enchant me.

Now there is a law on the beach that you can't drink alcoholic beverages. Why? Because last Fourth of July the beach was so crowded and cluttered with remnant trash from the day of celebrating, that the officials threw in the towel and said enough is enough.

Is that really how we celebrate independence and freedom? By acting destructively toward our home? If freedom is your niche, then think about the things you do with your life that may go against that which defines being free. Beyond that, we ought to all think consistently about whether our own independence is coming at the cost of another, in any regard. To me, that doesn't seem all that free.

HOLIDAY WASTE REDUCTION TIPS – Part 6

Now that the big holiday is over, what can I recycle during this time of year?

- According to the EPA, approximately 33 million live Christmas trees are sold in North America each year. After the holidays, look for ways to recycle your tree instead of sending it to a landfill.

- Return plastic bags to stores for recycling.

- Recycle holiday cards, catalogs and possibly wrapping paper.

- If you received a new electronic item for the holiday, the old item can be recycled in some communities.

Contact your local government to see what they collect.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

- Raleigh Christmas Parade Video
I attempted to tape the Raleigh Christmas parade off TV.
Why? Because the Recycle Guys were in the parade.




- Black Mountain Christmas Parade
On December 2, Rainbow Recycling’s Marilyn, David and Joan participated in a holiday parade in Black Mountain, N.C.


“We took it up a notch this time 'round, having begun our second year, sporting banner, mini-float and bio-diesel truck. We are keeping our presence and the message out there, using what we have to work with. It felt good to get nods, cheers and thumbs up from folks along the parade route”.








- Recycle Guys Holiday Recycling Commercial
The beloved Guys have a 15-second holiday recycling message for you.

HOLIDAY WASTE REDUCTION TIPS – Part 5

How can I reuse material during the holidays?

Here are some ideas:
- Use artificial trees or wreaths.
- Reuse the Sunday comics to wrap gifts.
- According to the EPA, about 40 percent of all battery sales occur during the holiday season. Buy rechargeable batteries to accompany your electronic gifts.
- Purchase lights wired in parallel so that even if one bulb burns out the strand can be used.
- Use reusable plates, cups and silverware instead of disposable ones.
- Shop at thrift stores.

Check out lots of other great ideas on the Recycle Guys web site.

HOLIDAY WASTE REDUCTION TIPS – Part 4

If you buy someone a gift this year make sure it is durable and of quality material.

Another good idea is to look for products that contain recycled content which help complete the recycling cycle.

Examples include:
- Recycled content holiday cards and wrapping paper
- Soaker hoses made from old tires
- Outdoor furniture made from recycled steel or aluminum
- Clothing made from Eco-Spun a mixture of cotton and old soda bottles.

HOLIDAY WASTE REDUCTION TIPS – Part 3

Stat: According to the Use Less Stuff Report, Americans throw away 25 percent more trash during the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's than any other time of the year. This amounts to an extra million tons of waste being generated nationwide each week.

Here are some simple gift ideas from the New American Dream on how to REDUCE WASTE GENERATION:

1) Give the gift of time -
Examples: Babysitting, A month of cleaning the cat box or other household chores

2) Homemade gifts -
Examples: Baked goods, photo collage, plant clippings. Make a rope swing, wooden blocks or a sandbox for a child. An emergency car kit

3) Gifts of experience -
Examples: Teach someone how to knit, play a sport, speak a new language, swing dance, change their oil, roller skate, take photos, etc.

4) Donate gifts to charity - This year consider giving gifts of charity that help the lives of those less privileged.

HOLIDAY WASTE REDUCTION TIPS - Part 2

Check out this great newspaper article from Carla Parks in Iredell County about how to make an Earth-Friendly Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are some great Turkey Day tips from Lisa Grant in Onslow County.
- Buy Organic – Organic foods are grown without harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and synthetic fertilizers. Many grocery stores are now offering organic products as an alternative to non-organic products.

- Buy Locally and Give Locally – Support your local organic farmers by buying their foods and if you can contribute to your local Food Bank, please do.

- Use Reusable Silverware and Dishes – Save landfill space and your environment by REUSING over and over again. Reusable dishes and silverware are more attractive and better for the environment. Your guests will appreciate the real deal. You can gather a set of dishes and silverware at your local thrift store for a small price and you would be reusing even more than if you bought a new set.

- Compost Your Leftovers – Compost your Thanksgiving dinner leftovers and make a wonderful organic fertilizer for your garden.

- Remember to be Thankful for a Clean and Healthy Environment.

HOLIDAY WASTE REDUCTION TIPS - Part 1

This week I was fortunate enough to do a radio show about Holiday Waste Reduction Tips for Clear Channel stations in Raleigh. It will air this Sunday morning (11/19) on G105, 100.7 The River, 106.1 RDU and Sunny 93.9. If you don’t get these radio stations in your area, you can listen to the interview on-line at 7:30 AM on Sunday on G105 - just click listen live in the top left corner.

Thanks to the following sources for information.
- The New American Dream
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Bianca