Junk Mail, Snail Style

Now that most of the country has email, most snail mail can be considered 'junk' mail. I have been letting my mail pile up throughout the week just to see how much I actually accumulated. The results were astounding.  Half of my counter was covered with bills, magazines, advertising flyers and so much more.  Electronic mail is easy to reduce, all that you have to do is click unsubscribe at the bottom of the email and you will not see that chain of emails ever again.  Snail mail is a little different.  In order to take one more step in shrinking my ecological footprint I am questioning the norm of excess snail mail. 

Don't get me wrong, there is something exciting about going out to the mailbox to see what has been sent to you, but 9 times out of 10 it is garbage.  My goal is to eliminate those '9 times' and just leave the goodies like birthday cards, packages and letters (unfortunately, I don't think anyone still writes letters) so that every time you go to the mailbox the chances of it being something exciting are much higher.  It sounds silly, but it is the little things in life that mean the most.  

Step one - Bills and statements.  Most companies offer electronic bill pay and statements because it saves them paper and postage.  Take them up on that offer, you will save a 46cent stamp, a check and the chance of contracting disease from licking the envelope.  I have been against switching for the past few years. My husband has been on my case about it, but there is just something about writing out a check that....Well, that already sounds stupid.  So, this week I plan to go paperless with my statements and bills.  Just think, in stamps alone, that could be a savings of $50 a year. Action: This will require 20 minutes of visiting each website and selecting the paperless option.

Step two - Magazines. Somehow I have about five different magazines being sent to my house. We don't even read a quarter of them.  Action: This will take 15 minutes on the phone canceling the subscriptions that we don't read and another 5 minutes of gathering old magazines to donate to a local business or doctors office. 

Step three - Junk Mail. There is a website that helps you opt-out of junk mail. Catalog Choice is all about sustainability and allows you to take your name off of company mailing lists. It does take a little bit of time, but it is free. This will take care of most of the credit card offers, advertisements, etc. Action: This will take 5 minutes every time I come across junk mail from a new company. Just set up an account and start entering each of the companies information as the mail arrives. 

Step four - Enjoy. Enjoy the excitment of going to the mailbox again.  It might not be a bad idea to send a little positive energy into the universe by hand writing an actual letter yourself and surprising someone else when they open their mailbox! Who knows, you might get something back in return. Action: Hand write and send a letter.  Make someone smile. 

I will check back in a few months to let you know the difference that I have seen in my mailbox.  Until then, think green!

Scrappin' for Cash

Not only have I found ways to SAVE money by challenging the norm, I also (with the help of my husband) found ways to MAKE money. By recycling old appliances and scrap metal you can get paid. Yet another win-win.

For past few years we have been salvaging any aluminum, nickel, copper and brass that would have typically ended up in the trash and instead turned it into cash. We collect the metals and drop them off at the scrap yard.  By taking these metals to the scrap yard we are recycling and making money. Anyone can do it and it is an easy process. We have never left the yard with less than $300. Just look up your local metal scrap yard for details. It does help to pre-sort the metals to get the best value. For more information visit the site Scrap Metal Junkie .

Recently, we also learned that you can make money off of recycling old refrigerators and air conditioning units too! Every electric company has their own rules, but ours allows us to turn in two refrigerators and two air conditioning units units per year. They even send someone to pick them up for you free of charge. All that you have to do is schedule a pick up on their website. Six weeks after they pick up your appliances a check arrives in the mail. We were able to get $75 for each fridge and $25 for each a.c. unit. Easy money! It is exciting too, where else can you drop off a boat load of trash and leave with a wad of cash?

Go Green, Save Green

What is the point of trash pick up service if you don't have any trash? I pay $26 a month for a trash truck to take my waste out of site out of mind so I can maintain a clear conscience. After the past few weeks of learning to reduce waste by recycling and composting, I found that there really isn't anything left to throw away. So again, not only am I reducing my ecological footprint, but I'm going to save $312 a year in trash pick up by canceling my service (not to mention the cost saved in purchasing trash bags). Try it, you will be surprised.

Win-Win

My first shipment arrived! Luna is now wearing Bum Genius cloth diapers 80% of the time. That will hopefully change to 100% when I get more diapers. Right now my $100 only got me seven sets, seventeen more to go to make life a little easier. Even though that seems like a big investment, these diapers are for all sizes so they will last her until she is potty trained and will be able to be reused for another child. This will be a HUGE SAVINGS to my pocket and the environment. It's a win-win if you ask me! Not to mention, they are EASY and she loves them! Thanks to everyone for all of the advice. 

On a side note, I recently was sent a text of a newspaper article on The Great Cloth Diaper Change Challenge (no lie) which  is being held on April 20th at 11:00am in efforts to beat the world record of the number of cloth diapers changed at one time.  See this site for locations near you, find it on Facebook or just enjoy knowing that there is such a thing!

Spring Cleaning

Motherhood, working fulltime, and a million other lame excuses have put my house in dire need of some attention. I am big on zero clutter and crazy about organizing so spring cleaning is like a holiday for me.  So, the 'holiday' that typically would take me a weekend will probably be extended a couple of weeks due to my new awareness of waste.

Spring cleaning and the 'American norm' usually results in a mound of full trash bags waiting on the curb for pick up. Fortunately for the earth and unfortunately for my time, I am challenging my norm and spring cleaning with hopes to make a smaller ecological footprint than years before.

So far, with a room and a half complete I have not thrown anything away. I posted an ad on +Craigslist ad posting service and thirty minutes later I had a truck load of my stuff hauled off to its new home. If you haven't used it, Craigslist is a great way to recycle your things and help people in need, "one woman's trash is another woman's treasure".  Don't commend me yet, I still have all of my other unwanted clutter awaiting its fate in boxes. Sorting will be the next task.

I am finding that if I want this to become a lifestyle for me and my family I am going to have to make it easier for us to 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' ("3R's" Luna's favorite song by Jack Johnson) or it is going to be an epic fail. 

Wasted

Let's dive right in...

I ran out of trash bags this morning. I was forced to watch what I wasted for a full 12 hours today. That doesn't seem like a long time, but you would be surprised how much stuff you actually throw away without a second thought.

In a typical week my family throws away almost a full 100 gallons of trash. For $26 I have my waste picked up once a week and taken out of site so I can carry on with a clear conscience. Keep in mind, my family consists of my husband, step daughter (half the week), 6 month old daughter and me. That's not exactly a huge family, but a huge amount of waste. I am ashamed. I live two miles from a land fill so the effects are somewhat visible.

I had an 'opportunity' to clean out a hoarders house last month and see the effects first hand. We threw away 30 years of trash equaling five construction size dumpsters from one small 1000 sq ft house. At first I was angry at the family and how much we were forced to dispose of. Then I realized, that is probably the typical amount of waste from an average American household for that time span just hidden by the innocent trash truck that tow it to Neverland. Wow, there is so much wrong with that mentality and that was my mentality.

So, in that 12 hours without a trash can I began to second guess the things that I was using. It sounds gross, but I stacked a pile of trash by my front door in a box. I was forced to make better decisions. Instead of paper towels I used rags. My moldy bread went to the birds. Cans, bottles and bags went in recycling. The rest of my meal went to the compost. Any papers went in the burn pile (I know, I know, but one problem at a time). By the end of the day I was left with only dirty diapers to dispose of. What would have been a half full trash can remains almost empty. I guess it's time to consider cloth diapers, yikes!

Finally, since I am not prepared to become 100% environmentally friendly I went to buy trash bags before dinner and I came across the brand "seventh generation" that uses 55% recycled plastic. It is said to "dramatically reduce toxic pollution." Out of the many options, this was the only trash bag geared towards slowing down our wasteful devastation, so I bought it. I haven't researched the brand yet, but I like what I have read.

What a small step in the opposite direction, but it is a beginning. If we remain complacent, my daughters generation is going to end up in a world like the movie Idiocracy. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the $1 at RedBox. I challenge you to question your norm and share your stories of waste and what you are willing to change to make this world a better place for generations to come.