Making compost pile and save the environment

Nov 28th, 2010
by admin.
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I’ve been thinking about a compost pile for a long time and finally made myself to start one. It’s not as hard and time consuming to start one, the harder part is to save veges and fruits to put them in the pile. For starters, it’s a lot easier to do a simple compost pile that only composts fruits, veges, leaves, and papers. Don’t even bother with meat and leftover food, it’s just way too much work for a newbie.

Find an area in your backyard away from the house and your well, purchase a compost bin or build a composting pile. Get a smaller compost bin and place it in your kitchen so you can save raw veges and fruits. I find it hard to empty the bin in the backyard once every few days. If you have children, make them do it as part of their chores.

Posted in: Composting, Recycling.
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Where to set up my own recycling center?

Oct 1st, 2010
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You have made a commitment to recycle and got some container and bins. Now you wonder where is a good place in the house to set up as your own recycling center. A place where the whole family knows and it is convenient for everyone to put recycled stuff in.

There are two good places, garage and the kitchen. Since most family activities start with the kitchen in the morning and ends in the kitchen after dinner, in my opinion, it is the perfect place. If you have a large size closet, place your bins and containers on the shelf and large ones on the floor. Mark them clearly and let everyone know what goes into where. You need to teach your children if they’re old enough. It’s a habit that everyone can develop.

Posted in: Recycling, Recycling Process.
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Reuse tips that can save you money and the environment

Sep 18th, 2010
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If you are like me, who take at least one coffee break each work day, here’s one simple tip that can save you money. Instead of going to the corner coffee shop or Starbucks, make your own coffee and bring it to work. Or make one in the office, although those don’t usually taste good. So bring your own. If you don’t feel like bringing your own coffee for some reason, and don’t want to office coffee, then at least get a reusable cup instead of using paper cups.

The other big saver is using sponges or rags instead of paper towels. For cleaning the kitchen counter, bathrooms, or any other cleaning jobs, use rags and just rinse them off after each use. That’s most people in the world use.

Lastly, use reusable grocery bags instead of the paper or plastic bags because neither saves our environment.

Posted in: Recycling, Reuse.
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Use reusable towels instead of paper towels

Aug 17th, 2010
by admin.
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Did you how much you can save by using reusable towels instead of paper towels? Not to mention the environmental cost, just money alone. For example, if you have a family of four and go through 2 medium rolls each week at the retail price of $3.15. With 52 weeks a year, you can save $163.80.

Try one great idea and then you can find out the practical use of savings. Get a jar and each time you skip the paper towel purchase, put the savings into the jar. By the year end, go out and spend that money on whatever you want. For the family and for the children. There’s even a better way to do this, ask each member of the household to get a jar and every time someone saves by reusing, put the savings into the jar. And that person gets to keep that money.

Posted in: Reuse.
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Do I need to separate my recycling materials?

Aug 10th, 2010
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We often get confused that we carefully sort out papers and plastic recycles and put them in different bins and then find out that the trash collectors just threw them into their truck without any separation. The question is, do we really need separate the recycles?

The good news is, not really. We can put all recycles in the same bins. After the waste management truck dumps them to a materials recovery facility, they will be sorted and prepared into marketable commodities for manufacturing.

Once cleaned and separated, the recyclables are ready to undergo the second part of the recycling loop. Common household items that can be recycled are newspapers and paper towels; aluminum, plastic, and glass soft drink containers; steel cans; and plastic laundry detergent bottles.

Did you know that recycled materials can also are used in innovative applications such as recovered glass in roadway asphalt (glassphalt) or recovered plastic in carpeting, park benches, and pedestrian bridges?

Source: EPA

Posted in: Recycling, Recycling Process.
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Composting is not actually considered recycling

Aug 6th, 2010
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This sounds strange, but composting is actually not considered recycling. Materials that can be gathered and reprocessed into new materials are called recycling. Materials such as glass, metal, plastic, paper, etc.

Things that are biodegradable are not considered to be recycled. So don’t mix up your garden waste, trees, food waste, leaves with recycled materials. Making a compost pile is the best way to get rid of biodegradable wastes. Instead of adding more stuff to the waste treatment plant or landfill, compost them in your backyard.

Buy a small compost bucket and put on your kitchen counter and a large compost bin in your backyard. Although you probably can do just fine making a designated area in the backyard, but it’ll cleaner if you have a heavily wooded area with wild animals. They can definitely make a mess of your compost.

Posted in: Composting, Recycling Facts.
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Create a recycling environment for your family

Jul 21st, 2010
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It’s easier to get the whole family to start recycling than you might think. Just telling everyone to recycle if not enough. You need to get organized and organize the closets and kitchen to encourage your family to recycle.

Buy plastic bins and mark them with “newspaper”, “paper”, “plastic bottles”, “cans” and place them in the kitchen. To keep the kitchen clean, you can place them in the closet. They don’t have to be super big, just enough for a few days to a week’s recycling. Then teach you children and husband where to find them and how to fill them up.

But a composting bin and place in on the kitchen counter and place all unwanted vegetables in it and empty it in a designated composting pile area in the backyard.

Make recycling fun for your children. You can do the same with unwanted toys and clothes. Place two medium sized plastic bins in children’s closets and ask them to place unwanted toys and out-grown clothes in them. Then take the items and donate them to the salvation army. This way, the house stays neat and organized and everything is recycled.

Posted in: Recycling.
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Use plastic egg containers for children’s paint project

Aug 27th, 2009
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Having to keep grandchildren busy during rainy days, I like to pull out the childrens paints, but you can imagine how messy it can be unless you have an easy way to put different colours of paint in a non spill environment. Well the best thing I have found is the plastic egg containers that are very popular with Omega 3 eggs. When you flip it open you actually have 24 spots for paint. Kids love it and there’s no mess.

Posted in: Recycling.
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Simple home recycling procedures and tips

Aug 20th, 2009
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1. Buy a recycle container and place it in the kitchen. This makes you to remember to recycle.

2. Make sure bottles and tins are cleaned before putting in the recycling bin. This prevents flies both at home and the recycling place.

3. Reorganize the kitchen so it has an efficient recycling area with good sized containers to help with sorting and holding. This will encourage everyone in the family to remember to recycle.

4. Cut both the tops and the bottoms off metal cans and squash them makes them smaller to fit into the recycling bin.

5. Put a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on your letter box. You’ll be amazed at how much this reduces your junk mails.

6. Spread the word and set an axample in your community. By telling other people and helping them to get started, we increase the savings that can be made. Get your kids involved , if we can educate them early, they will grow up and appreciate waste reduction and will be able to apply these skills in later life.

Posted in: Recycling.
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Make your own greenhouse using recycled plastic bottles

Aug 15th, 2009
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Why not make your own greenhouse using recycled plastic bottles. First you need to build a timber frame to the size of the greenhouse you desire, do not forget that you will need to make a frame for a door!

Then collect lots and lots of plastic bottles. 2L bottles are ideal and you will need to use bottles that have straight sides, shaped bottles will not work for this. Whichever size you choose don’t forget that all your bottles will need to be of the same size.

My greenhouse took approximately 1,500 bottles to make) Simply cut off the bottom of each bottle and then thread them onto metal rods, you will need to make sure they are all threaded on in the same direction so that the top of each bottle fits snug into the underside of next bottle. Next fix metal rods (top and bottom) to framework, butting up each column of bottles to the next until all walls and the door are created. The use of a few coloured plastic bottles above the door will give an interesting stained glass effect!

Posted in: Recycling.
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