Update

Well I haven’t been walking as much so I haven’t been collecting as many cans. Blame it on laziness.

I came up with a new word for collecting cans – “harvesting.” :) The fruit of the trash gods.

We did walk to the grocery store last week and found 4 bottles. Plus one we found while driving. That makes five.

I almost found 3 more glass bottles at my sister’s house. We were drinking sodas from a glass bottle and I found some old ones in her trash can (yes, I look in trash cans). They didn’t have recycling in their area so I thought I’d take it with me. I put them out on the table and my brother-in-law went to throw them away and I had to shout “nooo!” I told him I’d take them home to recycle and he told me they just started recycling in their city (yay!) and he wasn’t used to putting them in the recycle bin yet. I didn’t take them but I still saved 3 lonely little bottles from the landfill.

New Total: $1.50

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them

Update

Well I haven’t been walking as much so I haven’t been collecting as many cans. Blame it on laziness.

I came up with a new word for collecting cans – “harvesting.” :) The fruit of the trash gods.

We did walk to the grocery store last week and found 4 bottles. Plus one we found while driving. That makes five.

I almost found 3 more glass bottles at my sister’s house. We were drinking sodas from a glass bottle and I found some old ones in her trash can (yes, I look in trash cans). They didn’t have recycling in their area so I thought I’d take it with me. I put them out on the table and my brother-in-law went to throw them away and I had to shout “nooo!” I told him I’d take them home to recycle and he told me they just started recycling in their city (yay!) and he wasn’t used to putting them in the recycle bin yet. I didn’t take them but I still saved 3 lonely little bottles from the landfill.

New Total: $1.50

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them

3 more today

I had a slow day yesterday so I was determined to find some bottles today. I didn’t have to try too hard though.

On my way to pick up a pizza I found a plastic bottle in the parking lot.

Then when I got to my friend’s house I saw an empty beer bottle lying next to the curb. Maybe they had a wild party the night before and didn’t tell me? :O

On my way home I saw a can lying in the road. So like the mad-woman I have turned into, I quickly stopped the car and picked it up making a grand total of 3 cans and bottles for the day.

New total: $1.05

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them

Found

I found one bottle in the parking lot of the school I was working at and popped it in my trunk. I saw another bottle, but it was behind a locked gate and I couldn’t get at it. I contemplated climbing the fence to get it but decided it would be best to not look like a crazy lunatic at work. :)

New total: $0.95

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them

Made in U.S.A.

It is Both environmentally and economically wise to buy products manufactured in the U.S. (that is if you are living in the U.S.). Not only does it support keeping jobs in the country, but it reduces the distance that a product has to travel to reach the consumer.

Lately, I’ve been trying to determine where the products I consume come from. It is not an easy task because most products do not disclose where they were manufactured. I have noticed that the new grocery chain called Fresh and Easy clearly label their produce so that you can see what country they come from. I have been trying to pick any produce grown in California over say Mexico.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of the Target generic brand products like face wash and shaving gel are made in the U.S. That is good news!

Other products made in the U.S.:

Tigi Bed Head hair products
Garnier hair styling products
Biolage shampoo

Not made in the U.S.:

Clearasil
Oil of Olay

And then there are tons of products that are unknown. I’ll be trying to e-mail various companies to see if I can find out where they come from. It should be interesting!

See more progress on: Shop consciously

3 more

The same night I found a record-breaking 12 bottles I went to the beach to watch the grunion run. While walking from the beach to the car I end up finding 2 bottles. 14 bottles in one day…not bad.

Yesterday, I was driving and saw a bottle on the side of the road. I decided it’d be easy enough to stop and pick it up so I quickly ran out and got it. My behavior is starting to get a little obsessive, no? :)

New Total: $0.90

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them

Jackpot!

Wow! I thought yesterday I found a lot of bottles and cans but today I hit the jackpot. I decided to walk my dog around the elementary school nearby and managed to find a total of 12 bottles and cans. I guess people visiting the school for little league games and students don’t know how to use a recycle bin!

12 x .05 = .60 cents!

New Total = .75 cents

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them

Something to think about...

Imagine how much we could reduce waste by eliminating bottled water.

See more progress on: use a resusable water bottle instead of disposable ones

Cutting down on waste

Isn’t it wonderful that you can reduce the amount of waste that goes to the landfill while simultaneously creating wonderful rich soil to use in your garden? I love it!

I’ve had a composting bin but haven’t been using it until recently. I found collecting the scraps and taking them down to the bin to be rather inconvenient. Luckily, I found a small trash can with a lid to keep under the sink so that food scraps can be easily saved to been taken down to the composting bin.

So far I’ve been saving things like cuttings from fruits and vegetables, egg shells, coffee grinds, and green material from the gardener. I’d like to read more on what kinds of things can mix together to create the perfect PH balance for a compost pile.

I can’t wait to have beautiful compost!

See more progress on: Compost

Homemade Aloe Vera Moisturizer

I’m interested in trying this recipe for a moisturizer. It sounds relatively simple. I wonder if it works? We have some aloe vera growing in the backyard so it shouldn’t cost anything so it won’t hurt to try.

Take equal quantity of aloe vera and mineral water. Heat in boiler till it forms a cream. After cooling, put it into a container.

See more progress on: learn how to make my own beauty products

Vegetable Garden

Spring is coming and today was a beautiful day for gardening. I decided it was time to plant some vegetables…the only problem is that every time I’ve tried to start a garden my dogs find a way to dig it up.

My solution was to plant things in large pots as opposed to planting them directly in the ground. Thankfully, we had one large pot that wasn’t being used and I found a large bucket to use as a planter instead of buying a new pot. We had some potting soil lying around so all I needed to buy for my little vegetable garden was the plants! Yay! I ended up choosing eggplant and bell peppers so in a few months I’ll have fresh veggies from my garden!

See more progress on: buy less

Today's total

Today I found an amazing 3 bottles and cans just walking my dog around the block. 2 beer cans that looked as though they had been chucked by mischievious teenagers hiding the evidence and one bottle of Sunkist orange type drink.

I thought it would be interesting to keep a running total of the money that could be earned from recycling what I find on my walks. I’ll calculate each bottle/can at .05 which is the California Redemption Value. I wonder how long it will take me to reach $100? =)

Starting Total: .15

See more progress on: pick up bottles and cans when i see them on the street and recycle them