Living Green 01-10-08

I have a mailing list of people to whom I send "E-lint". This is my label for the stuff that goes around on the Internet, stuff that one can either ignore or deal with - like dust bunnies and pocket lint. I don't send everything that comes my way, but things I think are funny or interesting or helpful in some way. And I don't usually get much feedback from the "E-linters", so I was surprised to have about a dozen replies after I sent this URL out this morning. None of the people who responded have ever had a clerk refuse their bags. One friend in San Francisco reminded me that markets can't use plastic bags in her city. If anyone has refused to use your bags you might post a comment on Green Daily.

http://www.greendaily.com/2008/01/07/have-your-reusable-bags-ever-been-refused/

I have two bags that I ask the clerks to use for my groceries (or any other type of store that I patronize). This one I made from a Nancy Ota pattern www.nancyota.com. One thing I like about it is that will stand up on its own. It is very spacious, but sometimes I need an additional bag.

Nancy Mastroianni, a member of the Book Group, made all the 'Bookies' a tote for Xmas, with fabric keyed to the interest of each individual. Mine, of course, is a dog print - pretty cute.

If I don't think these two will be enough I also take in a couple of used paper shopping bags.

I didn't post yesterday because AOL wouldn't let me online!

One more item for the environment 10-17-07

One very important reminder to help our environment...

Don't throw used batteries in the trash! They need to go to the toxic waste dump. We didn't think we used that many batteries; then, about twenty years ago, when we started NOT throwing them in the trash, we discovered just how many we do use. Clocks, flashlights, Walkman, etc., - they add up to between 50 and 60 used batteries in a year. Now I collect them in a small box in the garage and every year around my birthday I take them to the toxic waste dump, along with unused cans of paint, dead electronic stuff, past date prescriptions and old OTC medicines. It is now a month past my birthday so I need to make a trip! The picture above is a year's worth - 51 AA batteries, 3 AAA batteries and one A23 (what was that from??). Just think if three million people used just this number of batteries what a mountain of leaking lead and other nasty stuff would go into the earth. Be kind to yourself, be kind to Earth.

"Tote It" reusable market bag 10-15-07

"Tote It" a pattern by Nancy Ota www.nancyota.com

For reasons of their own Blogger would not let me post this image on the previous post. So, here in its very own post is my reusable market bag.

Blog Action Day 10-15-07

Today has been designated "Blog Action Day" by an international group of bloggers concerned about the environment. Their website is:

http://blogactionday.org/

There is a video clip on youtube with some words to say about this movement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KqxEjIoTlM&NR=1



And quite a few bloggers who are art quiltmakers are following the trend. Terri Grant in Portland, OR, has posted a list of blog addresses on her blog:

http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/

As for me....

Other than driving wherever I want to go, I make an effort to do my share. I recycle everything I possibly can, so much so that I have only a tiny bag of 'garbage' on trash day and I usually put it in one of my neighbors' overflowing garbage cans. One less stop for the huge, gas guzzling trash truck. I have a reusable bag to take to the market and somehow I remember to take it. Although I have been known to get up to the cashier's line and have to put my basket aside to run out to the van for my reusable bag!! And then get back in line (I think of it as punishment for forgetting). About once a month I take a trip to the toxic drop-off site w/anything that isn't supposed to go in the garbage. That includes a sealed container of discarded pins and needles so workers in the landfills are not exposed to random punctures.

I do what I can and hope that all of you will also.