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Please do not throw them away and contaminate out water supply with toxic chemicals. If you live in the ATL area- here is an event near downtown:
Share on FacebookHi all – this coming Saturday Aug 15 take your old electronic equipment junk to Grady High School (Charles Allen Dr @ 8th St parking lot) for recycling. They’ll take almost anything computer-esque including printers and stereo equipment.
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One of my recycling partners in crime forwarded this message to me. Even thought commodities are down (especially for recycling) they are still getting some money for them and they are not going into the landfill. Please read on to see all of the updates on recycling in Atlanta giving the new economic situation. Read More…
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Each spring we plant a new garden at our home and last year we bought a bunch of herbs and a few vegetables from a local nursery for our herb garden. The rest of the herb garden was created from propagated herbs from the rest of the yard. The soil for last year’s garden was compost that I made from waste wood scraps from our job sites that I use as mulch. It took a couple of years for it to decompose, but it worked really well as compost!
You can see that each egg holder is the perfect size for a starter plant. I put the seeds in soil and in less than a week I noticed sign of new life. You can see the Basil poking through the compost.
The lid needs to be cut off so the sun can reach the new leaves. The lid then gets placed under the carton so it can catch the water from the holes. Make sure that you put the container in direct sunlight so they can grow. I have to water mine every other day to keep the soil moist as well.
Every father wants to be able to take care of and provide for their family. That is their job. Secretly, most dads don’t mind being compared to a superhero by their kids. If your spouse calls you Superman, I guess that is okay as well!
Yesterday, I was doing my weekly honey-do-list and my son looked up to me and called me “Bob the builder.” Being a green builder, I actually appreciated the title, and to me, it was better than being called Superman. Not only does Bob get to work with talking machinery, he teaches kids about sustainable building. With the slogan- “Can we do it? Yes we can!” he runs his business with a can do attitude. When dealing with waste he emphasis the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
I remember my youth days and debating with my friends about whose dad was better. I think I finally won when I convinced them that he could build and fly airplanes, as well as build skyscrapers all by himself. While this might have been an exaggeration, my father did have the mechanical skills to build houses. He also led me to believe that I could do anything that I put my mind to as well. I still believe this! I can only hope that my sons argue that I can build house that takes less energy to operate that their friend’s dads can or build a city that is self sustaining. Luckily, for my sons this is not too far fetched!
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Tags : Bob the builder, green, recycle, reduce, reuse, sustainable, sustainable building, waste
Happy New Year! I have been having fun bringing in the New Year with my family. The boys are excited about the New Year because I have the day off in the middle of the week, but are not old enough to know what a year is yet. I take that back, the oldest understands birthday cakes and the he is 3 years old. That mean he has had 3 cakes. He does not understand fiscal years and dates.
Before last year, my family did a little recycling etc., but last year my New Year’s resolution was to do even more and encourage other to do the same. I have quite a few posts about recycling and how easy it is to do. Between the business and my household we have diverted tons of trash from the landfill. It was very easy to do. All of the waste that is taking to the trashcan did not have to go into the trashcan. If some of it was separated before the trashcan then is could be put into the recycling bin instead. This did not take any more energy just a decision change. We also had fun with composting. Daniel put our organic waste into the bin and tells me that he is “feeding the worms.” At the base of the bin he sees the worms and the “polies.” (His term for Roly Poly’s.)
This year, I will continue to recycle and encourage others to add a couple of other RE’s to the mix. Recycling is great, but how about reducing first. Why recycle something that should not have been wasted in the first place. The amount energy saved by recycling is great. The amount of energy not wasted by reducing can be even greater.
Green resolution #1 Reduce, then recycle
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Share on FacebookTis the day after Christmas. Whichever holiday that you celebrate during this season, we hope that you enjoyed it and the time with your family and friends.
As you are winding down from Christmas, consider what to do with all of the waste you have generated from the Holiday season. Here are a few things to do and resources to help you:
Hope you had a great holiday season and we wish you a prosperous New Year from all of us at the Hoots Group.
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I guess that re-gifting could be considered green, however re-purposing of materials can be even more fun.
I really don’t know why I go out and buy things for my sons for Christmas when they have more fun with that packaging. Look to the left. For those of you who got to enjoy Green Present wrapping 101 well here is another gem.
This weekend I had some of my family in from out of town so we celebrated Christmas with the boys a little early. They got lots of cars etc, however they spent 2x’s as much time with the box that all of the present came in. Usually they play fight, then cry, then go to time out for fighting, but within this magical box they tumbled for much longer than their typical attention span and did not complain about the physical contact with each other.
Watching my boys have fun the the box reminded me of my fun childhood as well. While my parents would like to think that all of the money they spent on the toys made me really happy, they know that the best memories were of the items that were inexpensive or actually durable.
Let’s start with durable. Durability is one of the cornerstones of sustainability. It seems like the life cycle of the toys that we get the boys is about 2 weeks if it is made out of plastic. Not that they abuse the toys, but the quality is not always there. What is even more disappointing is that most of the plastic is not labeled for recycling so I am not sure if it is plastic #1 or #2. I still have all of my Legos, Constructs and other building toys from my childhood. I plan of giving these to my sons when they are ready for them. I also remember getting tools and functional items when I was growing up (Now I see how I got into the construction industry.)
Inexpensive. Why do we have to spend so much money for the holidays? Not sure. For my extended family- we made gifts 4 out of the last 5 years and those gifts seem to be the ones best appreciated and remembered. A couple years ago we put together a compilation of family recipes and handed them out. My sister in law tells us that this recipe book recipes always get so many compliments and she in turns passes the recipes along.
This just goes to show that a box can entertain kids more than plastic toys that cannot be recycled very easily. Once the box gets worn out it can be recycled. Gifts that are made are more appreciated as well. they may take more time, but time well spent.
Next year I am just going to give the boys a pile of hangers, a new box and some yarn and let them play for days with that instead of giving them something that they will break or eventually lose. I will let you know how it works out for me. They don’t know the difference, well at least until they read this blog in 5 or years once they can read. By then, they may forgive or just thank me for the fun trash, I mean toys that I gave them to play with.
Happy Holidays.
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Dec.20,2008This post may just be for men (most women have bought and wrapped all of their gifts by now since they are more responsible). I am proud of myself. I actually bought my wife’s presents before Christmas Eve. She is going to love them. Like most men, wrapping the present is more of a chore than a joyous task. I love my wife, so I tried to put a little effort into. Selfishly, I looked for ways to not bore myself with this task so I am gave my self a little challenge- “Find a way to wrap the present in a green manner.”
Growing up I remember using fruit boxes for shipping presents and the “Sunday funnies” to wrap the presents. I don’t think that we did this to be green as much as is was a cheaper alternative.
Inspired by my past influences from my family I sought out a hybrid solution. My journey of wrapping this present inspired the beginning to at least 3 more blog posts (I will get these out over the weekend). For now, I will stay on point and not get into the sustainable mission statements (or lack thereof) of the stores that I went to to complete the mission.
The first thing that I needed was a box to put the present in. Reusing a box is very green. You do not have to recycle it because it is going to get reused! While I was at target I asked if they had one that I could reuse. Since the do their “pack down” at night all of the boxes were already compressed and ready to be recycled.
I know that grocery stores always have boxes since they have produce that is constantly going out during the day. I needed some more green team, so I went to Publix to get a box. The store manager said that I can have one of their produce boxes.
Note: I have separated the pictures from the words. Men like pictures. I have following with step by step directions for those who need words (and a little humor).
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 1. One of the associates had just emptied out this apple box and let me have it.
Step 2. The box worked as my grocery basket and I used it as my grocery bag instead of using plastic since I did not have my reusable back with me at the time.
Step 3. Even though my wife does not read my blog, I skipped a step. Not showing what is in this particular present is for now. Trust that I put something in this fruit box.
Step 4. Now I am taking 2 target bags that are already festive looking and double bagging it from both sides to mask the writing on the box.
Step 5. Now that the bags are one the box, I used a straw from by son’s drink to tie them off. It was a red straw that matched the bags perfectly. Now all I need to a card to address the present.
FYI- I did all of the wrapping outside and when I brought the present in, Sheila thought that it looked very nice. She could not even tell that I did not spend 1 cent of the packaging. Once I told her that I did she rolled her eyes, but still the initial impression was that of satisfaction. She asked me if the present was recycled also. I assured her that she will get to enjoy it’s first life cycle.
Step 6. The final step is to address the gift. I took the container from the food stand of the munchies that Anthony was eating out of and cut the sides off to make the label. Once it was cut, I folded it in half and taped it to the packaging. Again, this was from target and since everything in the store is red it matched the bags and the straw perfectly.
As you can seem it looks like a semiprofessional wrapped this present. All of reused packaging has consistent branding so it looks great underneath the tree.
In summary:
Cost of presents: (can’t disclose that yet)
Cost if wrapping: Zero dollars
Seeing Sheila’s face when she opens up the present:
Priceless
Alternative title for post: “How to wrap a present like a redneck”- However the packaging must come from Walmart and not Target. Ho Ho Ho
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Just finished writing holiday cards for all of my clients. My hand it tired, which is a good sign that many people have trusted their houses with my team. The first batch of cards is going out to all of my past clients for the past 3 years and to all current clients in different phases of design. We are very thankful to have such a good base of clients to work with.
Of course the cards were green also. The were printed on card stock that was not bleached, over 50% recycled content and were not glossy. Why green cards? Well we are trying to send a message that you can go green and not compromise on style and design. The cards have a nice organic color that did not have to be bleached and after the card is read it can be recycled easily since it is not glossy.
My wife, Sheila, picked them out and ordered them for me, otherwise she knows that they might go out in January because (like most men) I am not good at writing cards. The hardest part is getting started knowing that it will take at least 6 hours to get through them.
Happy Green holidays!
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My family and I just picked out our Christmas tree to set up in our house. They are live trees from a neighboring state, so if you could get LEED points for it, it did fall under the category locally sourced.
The first tree that my son picked out was huge! It was at least a foot taller than him. We finally settled on one a foot shorter that our ceiling.
Green tree tips:
One thing that is just as much fun is taking the tree back for it to get re-purposed. After the New Year we will take it to get ground up to make some mulch for our yard. Instead of throwing your tree away take it to a local spot that will grind it up for you and allow for you to take come other mulched trees back to your yard. If you use any tinsel in the tree, they are not able to grind it up since the tinsel is typically not biodegradable. When you take your tree back to the big box store or local recyclers make sure that it is clean.
Decorating the tree can be fun also. Instead of buying ornaments that might break and that end up as trash, try making some out of re-purposed items. Pine cones, can be decorated. Popcorn can be threaded on a string. I am not Martha Stewart so you may have to go online to get full instructions on how to have a green decoration assembly. OR, you could visit sustainable stores like this to get your holiday goods: ECO Emporium
If you plan to use lights on the tree or outside. To be green, use LED Christmas lights. They operate at a fraction of the cost of incandescent ones and will last longer as well! You can get these at any of the big box stores.
Happy Holidays.
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This last weekend we had a booth at the Enviro Expo in Atlanta, GA. It was promoting recycling and other environmentally friendly practices. I had the pleasure of speaking (the title of my presentation is listed below) and encourage people to go green.
I do have to admit that I am very disappointed in the citizens and businesses in Atlanta. Recycling is such an easy way to go green and people are either too ignorant to know how to put items in a different color container with arrows on it or they don’t care.
More often than not, when I go into a business I ask them where the recycling bin is located because I do not want to throw away metals that can be recycled. Most companies admit that they should be doing it but they don’t. I encourage all of my readers to keep up the pressure on businesses to offer recycling. It is not difficult and they should be embarrassed if they do not adher to certain sustainable findamantals.
When we started recycling at our house and our business, we were able to take at least 80% of the trash out of the waste stream. It is a very viable option and is what I consider to be common sense sustainable practices. Once I see the recycling bins on the side of the road as the dominant container and the trash bin as a 5 gallon bucket then I know that Atlanta can call themselves a green city. Until then, we have a lot of work and educating to do.
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