I am most like recycled paper

"What item symbolizes me most" was the prompt for my 7th grade daughter's Language Arts class. I am so proud of her essay. I think it is cute and funny and I wanted to share. Sometimes I wonder where she comes up with this stuff. And sometimes I wonder how she totally memorized my coffee order!

"What item Symbolizes Me Most" By Audrey

“Woo hoo!” I shouted gaily as my face lit up like an invention by Mr. Edison. From the expression on my face many would have thought that I had just brought home Olympic gold. I was, instead, headed to the office supply store. The thought of going and finding colored staples, sticky notes, cash registers and an array of sharpies in the colors of the rainbow warmed my heart. As we filed into the car and headed to the Office Supply Wonderland, I was filled with eagerness and excitement. When we got there I grabbed a short yellow cart and raced my mom and my sister to the back wall. There I found colored, parchment, construction and lined papers filled in boxes and packages made of the same material all on the back wall. I thought to myself, “Wow, I am a lot like paper”. The thing that symbolizes me most is a piece of recycled paper, because I feel that I am simple and eco-friendly.

To begin with, I like to think that I am most like a piece of recycled paper because I am plain and simple. One day I was at the swankiest coffee house in town. It was filled with velveteen walls and paisley booths and had some soft jazz playing in the background. My mom and I were there for her usual morning roast. We hopped in line behind a grandpa, three business women, a soccer mom and a couple of construction workers. To top it off the waitress behind the cash register thought that the elderly bald guy who was giving his order was a nuisance for changing his order four times. I hopped out of line and went to the oasis on the other side of the café where a lit cooler was standing with my favorite bottled tea. I pulled out a Ginger Peach Tea and swiftly jumped back in line with my mom. When it was our turn I gave the barista the tea to ring up and my mom stated her lengthy, but simple if you were listening, order. “I’ll take a Venti Half Caff, Non-Fat, Iced Mocha, One pump of Hazelnut and No whip, Please”. The cashier gave my mother a blank stare followed by a dumbfounded look and simply inquired “What?” with a half sarcastic and half annoyed facial expression. I also stood there to the side and saw the barista say to my mother “That order was far more complicated than that of your daughter’s,”. Later, I heard about that one. Obviously, I am most like paper because I am plain and simple.

In addition, I am most like a piece of recycled paper because I am environmentally conscious. For instance, I was at summer camp at Lake Woebogon. It was basically all of these cabins out in the middle of the woods centered around this mighty oak tree. None of my activities involve the coniferous beast Then, I had heard the news from the bottom bunk of our cabin that they were chopping down Mertle. “Who is Mertle,” the top left bunk questioned. “Mertle is the oak,” I thought, at first that I would give my best effort to stick up for that tree, but then I found out that it had a name and it was a done deal right there. So I did a little research on my old, wheezing, monstrosity of a laptop computer and I found out that “Mertle” was where Andrew Jackson had his first home stead. Therefore, I took it upon myself to send a letter to Woebogon city hall with the customized stationary my mom gave me before I left home. The day the builders were supposed to come, instead, the head of the zoning department came and cemented a plaque in front of Mertle that stated that she was an official landmark. Obviously, recycled paper is just like me because we are both environmentally friendly and we like saving trees.

In conclusion, the thing that symbolizes myself the most is a piece of recycled paper because it is simple and it is environmentally friendly. As I picked up a box of 100% recycled paper, my mom rushed after me and stated out of breath “You, my dear, have got some wheels,” I looked down at the paper and I said “Maybe I am a lot like paper, maybe, if only because paper wins 33.333% of the time, in that famous game, too.

"Throwing" out recycleables

Are there others out there like myself that cringe when they see someone throwing a recyclable in the garbage?

We are recyclers. Luckily, our county even has mandatory business recycling. (I'm curious as the consequences because I there sure are a lot of businesses that still don't)

I have been known to pick up bottles and cans that I have found in parking lots, put them in my car, only to have them roll around the floor until I take them home and throw them in the recycle bin.

My grandparents don't have ANY recycle pick up at their home in rural Tennessee. I had to be talked out of my filling my suitcase with recyclables this summer and bringing them home with me.

But when I see people deliberately throw things away because of laziness it really irks me. I have a friend who refuses to separate her garbage because she thinks it is so much extra trouble. I get so bent out of shape. "The bins are right next to your garbage shoot, you don't even have to walk outside," I tell her.

My husband has a bad habit of assuming everything goes into the garbage. I take things out and put them in our recycle bin. We have an understanding at this point. If he throws away something that should have gone in the blue bin, I will pull it out of the garbage and give him the stink eye. He knows what that means. It means start running, because our understanding is that if he threw away a recyclable then I get to throw it at him. Plastic is not so bad, even diet coke cans, but if he throws a glass bottle in the garbage I will look up at him and he smiles the -uh-oh-I-did-something-bad smile and says"Oh Crap!" and he takes off running.

www.Repurposed4you.com April Newsletter

We, at http://www.repurposed4you.com/, encourage you to attend some of the events going on all around the country this month. Here are a few that we have found. Show your support and GO GREEN!

Try our organic teas, support our artists that work in recycled, reclaimed and repurposed materials. See our hundreds of eco chic pieces! There is always something new in store! Enjoy $10 off of any purchase $50 or more this month! Use code - EarthDay08

If you are going to be around the Kansas City area April 19, why not participate in the EarthWalk beginning at 9 am and the Earthfest from 10-2. Check out http://www.bridgingthegap.org/ to register or for more information.

April 19th is an exciting day in Harrison County, Kentucky! Cynthiana is hosting a group of young environmentalists and other enthusiastic individuals are coordinating an inaugural Earth Day celebration. http://www.cynthianaky.com/

April 19, if you are in the Holland, Michigan area, come to the Earth Day Community Picnic. Bring a picnic lunch, lawn chairs and all weather gear. Highlights include: free trees, live animals, Earth-friendly displays and info. http://www.outdoordiscoverycenter.org/

The California Earth Day Run and Walk, in Sacramento, California, on April 19, will be a great event for runners, walkers and kids. Help us raise money for environmental education, conservation, and restoration efforts in the Greater Sacramento area. Please also consider bringing a lunch and helping with the river clean-up. http://www.theearthfoundation.org/*

April 19th will have an EarthDay event in Jupiter, Florida like none before. Just North of Turtlefest on A1A something exciting will happen. 3 large beach tents, lots of banners and Kite*s flying high. Visit http://www.earthrehab.com/

In the San Diego area on April 20? Visit the Earthfair in Balboa Park from 10-5. With expected attendance to be around 60,000, this event includes a children*s parade, a clean car concourse, exhibitors, eARTh gallery and more. http://www.earthdayweb.org/

Cleveland*s Metroparks Zoo will be hosting their annual Earthfest on Sunday April 20. The event includes booths of eco friendly products, education and conservation. The festival will be held on Zoo grounds from 10 am * 5pm. Visit http://www.earthdaycoalition.org/ for event info.

Sunday April 20, Earth Fest will be held in Key Biscayne Florida. A large festival of bands, businesses and green products, Earthfest expects to draw thousand visitors in Crandon Park this year. Admission is free with $5 parking. http://www.earth-learning.org/

Earth Day and Arbor Day will be celebrated at Ben Brenman Park Sat, April 26 10am-2pm in Alexandria, Virginia. Earth Day has become an important educational experience for our city's youth involved in environmental programs. http://www.alexearthday.org/

April 26, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Party with Hogle Zoo and other zoo*s and aquariums around the nation as we celebrate the planet. Learn about what Hogle Zoo is doing to help the planet, from recyclable plates in our concessions to solar panel use, and what you can do at home too! http://www.hoglezoo.org/

On April 27, between 12-4, Learn about climate change and how to protect the environment at the South Shore Natural Science Center's Earthday celebration in Norwell , MA, there will be Green Fun for the whole family with kids' crafts and games, musical entertainment, nature walks, live animals, environmental exhibitors and demonstrations. http://www.ssnsc.org/

For more information about Earth Day events and what you can do to participate go to www.epa.gov/earthday/

Global Warming : Fact or Fiction

Is Global Warming Fact? Did we as mankind have anything to do with it?

My short answer : Does it matter?

My long answer: Taking the time and the energy to be neater, cleaner people on this planet could not possibly be a bad thing. Does it matter the reason that you are buying recycled products and composting? It couldn’t hurt. You are reducing your waste, does it really matter why? You are reusing whenever you can, could that ever be an issue? You have started recycling everywhere you go, could that in any way be a problem? Shopping your local fruit farm or market? What’s wrong with that?
The way I see it, these are all healthy good habits to be in regardless of your reasons for doing it. Even, if you believe it is a conspiracy and all of the researchers and scientist are phony, does that mean it is a bad idea to starve a landfill? Or to eat things that aren’t covered in pesticides? Or to turn off your lights when you leave a room?
I just can’t see where any of this political finger pointing matters. Didn’t we learn in kindergarten that if you make a mess, you need to clean it up? Being a responsible person should carry over to how you live your life, in your home, in your neighborhood, on your planet. So be responsible, for no other reason than you should. It’s the right thing to do.

So go ahead and buy a hybrid, starve a landfill, shop for solar panels and look for things made from recycled goods (like www.repurposed4you.com’s line of handmade recycled art). After all, as long as we are thinking first about what we do, consume and waste, regardless of your political or scientific affiliation, how can we go wrong?

Christmas Gift Wrap Contest

What do you do with your gift wrap on Christmas morning?
Do you throw it in a big black garbage bag and pitch it?

Did you know that the average American increases their waste by 25% between Christmas and New Years? That is enough to cover 45,000 football fields!
What can we do? Simple, You've Heard it Before - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Tell us what you do with your Christmas wrapping paper after all of the carnage on Christmas morning. Do you save it for next years gifts? Do you pack your holiday decorations in it? Do you get creative with it?

Send your entries to Shelly@repurposed4you.com. We will choose some to include in next month's www.repurposed4you.com newsletter. Our favorite will be featured on www.repurposed4you.com and newsletter and will receive a $10 www.repurposedyou.com gift certificate. Submit as many times as you'd like. Good Luck!

How the Depression Taught Grandma to be Green

This past fall, an anniversary has come and gone that I have heard little fanfare about. Black Thursday. Not the famed best shopping day of the year, where retailers open at 4 am and sale catalogs weigh 5 pounds a piece. But the infamous anniversary of that fateful day that took us into the Great Depression.
I am not a political analyst touting the cautions and comparisons to our times and those that lead up to that dark day. I really pay no mind to the issues that flood the internet linking the Depression to present day concerns. However, there is one thing that caught my attention as I sat down to write my “Green Christmas Tips “article for the www.repurposed4you.com newsletter. I couldn’t get this thought out of my head. Did Grandma start going green in the 1930’s and no one noticed?
The Great Depression was a terrible time in our history, full of homelessness, joblessness and poverty. To my amazing discovery, it was also a time of being frugal, being thrifty and going green. The environment wasn’t the issue. Al Gore wasn’t standing on his 100% post-consumer recycled soap box warning of doom and gloom. It wasn’t an option to reuse items. There weren’t green stores, green art and green articles teaching us how to be more green. There wasn’t this type of save the earth mentality that made people change their ways. But instead the Great Depression was a time of conservation based out of necessity.
"Repair, reuse, make do, and don't throw anything away" was a motto during the Great Depression. Look how far we have come. Look how gone to the other extreme. Is it only the” tree huggers” and the “environmentalists” that see the usefulness in that phrase today. That slogan could easily be on any Eco Friendly Website and no one would know that it was regularly tossed around in homes 70 plus years ago.
Their green behavior is clear; their environmentally sound practices are shown through their resourcefulness. These lessons that they taught their kids have since gotten lost in an age of waste. Grandma became the nutty one for reusing cloth ribbon on her packages and neatly folding her gift wrap and saving it for the following holiday. And we became so superior for showing her how we can mindlessly discard anything that isn’t shiny and new any longer. Remember, Grandma was the one who wore dresses and sometimes even undergarments made out of feed bags and flour sacks because her mom wouldn’t toss out the colorful cotton. Our grandparents were taught that once socks could not be patched any longer they could be tied to the end of a long handle to become a mop. Glass jelly jars became everyday drinking glasses, geese would have their bellies plucked for the family to have a softer bed and oh, those beautiful handmade quilts and rugs made from worn out clothing. Everything outdoors became the kid’s entertainment. The garden was their grocery store. There was no thought to how much pesticide was on the produce or how much fuel it took to ship it across the country to your local neighborhood market. The electricity was limited to illumining the house at night, if that, and not for mindless hours of television, video games and lighting rooms we aren’t even in. They composted. They recycled. They did the things everyday that we pat ourselves on the back for; Repurposing, Reusing and Recycling. They were the first environmentalists, without even knowing it.
Every “Going Green” Holiday article you will read this season will tell you to start folding your paper to save it for next year like it is a new concept. Remember, Grandma still does this now. This is not a new concept. Grandma may have had this one right. And you never know she might just be right about her bee hive making a come back too.