CapriSun Pouches

CapriSun has teamed up with TerraCycle to reuse the drink pouches into usable products. You can also generate money for your school by establishing a Drink Pouch Brigade. You can visit/sign-up at their website to start the brigade. According to the CapriSun box (as shown below), you can earn $0.02 per donated pouch.

Terracycle reuses the drink pouches to make them into pencil cases, bags, folders, etc. Below are the photos of what the drink pouches can be turned into.

LunchBox

Folder

Tote Bag

Backpack

If you visit the following Terracycle websites, you'll see other items made from Oreo wrappers and other items that we use everyday.
http://www.terracycle.net/bags.htm
http://www.terracycle.net/office.htm

They also accept other food wrappers like Chips Ahoy, Skittles, Starburst, Frito Lay Chip bags, etc.

Burger King uses recycled brown bags

We went to a Burger King drive-thru the other day and my kids wanted the kid's meal because they are giving away Pokemon cards. Upon reaching home, I noticed the side of Burger King's brown bags (see photo on the right). It says "Be Good To Mother Earth!" and has some tips on ways of saving energy. The bag is also made from 100% recycled paper.

As for the energy saving tips, it says:

• Turn of lights, TV, and computer when not in use.
• Help adults recycle cans, bottles, bags and newspapers.
• Don't leave water running when brushing your teeth.
• Walk or bike with your family instead of using the car.

It seems that the tips are directed for kids and it's a good thing because they can be trained early.

The bag also has an icon of a person throwing a trash in a trash bin. This promotes cleanliness and instills that trash should be properly disposed.

Please Touch Museum Recycles

Last Sunday, we went to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, PA. This museum has a lot of activities for kids (and adults) to enjoy. My kids had fun during the visit and they keep on reminding me to go back there again.

During our visit, I noticed that they have recyclable bins available throughout the place. The bins look like this and can be easily found because of their big signs.

Here's one of the bins that I found at the Carousel area.

Upon entering the museum, you will see the Liberty Arm & Torch (as shown below) at the center of the museum. This is about 40 feet tall and was made from discarded playthings.
There was also a room behind the Liberty Arm and Torch that displays miniature buildings made from used styrofoam materials (items that came from TV and appliance boxes, etc.). I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it and I checked their website but they don't have any information about it. I'm guessing that it may be a temporary exhibit.

If you are in the Philadelphia area, check out the Please Touch Museum. The kids (and adults) will surely have fun during your visit.

Being Green Bookmark

I found this bookmark one day at home and Daniel brought him from school. The "It's Easy Being GREEN!" is on one side and has easy to follow things that will make you be Green. The "Green Numbers" on the side is a multiple choice question for kids (and adults) to answer. I just scanned both sides and placed it side-by-side on the picture.

The bookmark is from Scholastic Publishing and I think it's a good thing to let kids know of how easy it is being green. The details of the bookmark is as follows:


It's Easy Being GREEN! side:
- Don't take more food than you are able to eat.
- Turn out the light when leaving a room
- Walk, rollerblade, skateboard or ride your bike when possible.
- Turn off your computer or put it in sleep mode when you aren't using it.
- Turn the water off when brushing your teeth.

GREEN NUMBERS side (try to answer these questions):
1. Number of hours a TV could be powered from the energy saved from one recycled tin can:
a. 3 b. 15 c. 1 d. 10

2. Amount of water, in gallons, that you could save each day by turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth:
a. 30 b. 5 c. 10 d. 3

3. Number of people, in millions, that could be fed by edible food that ends up in U.S. landfills each year:
a. 15 b. 6 c. 1 d. 49

4. Amount of oil, in gallons, that is saved for every ton of recycled paper:
a. 105 b. 380 c. 505 d. 240

5. Number, in millions of tons, of e-waste (TVs, computers, etc.) that Americans do not bring to recycling centers each year:
a. 15 b. 1 c. 40 d. 2


Answers:
1. a 2. c 3. d 4. b 5.d

Now that we know what the answers are, we are more aware of what we can do to help save our environment.

Earth Day 2009 - April 22

Don't forget that Earth Day is on April 22, 2009 (Wednesday). It's a couple of weeks away from today. I have added the countdown button on this site so you can join me and the whole world count the number of days left for this monumental day.

An excerpt from Wikipedia about Earth Day:

• In September 1969 at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced that in spring 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. This is in response to the widespread environmental degradation. The 1st Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970 and over 20 million people participated that year, and Earth Day is now observed each year on April 22 by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries.

A few things you can do to help protect our planet according to the EarthDay.gov website:

Save energy

• Use ENERGY STAR products
• Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
• Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
• Have leaky air conditioning and refrigeration systems repaired.
• Use a programmable thermostat to save on heating and cooling costs when you're not home.
• Insulate your home, water heater and pipes.
• Replace incandescent light bulbs with Compact Flourescent Light bulbs. If every household in the U.S. replaced one light bulb with a CFL, it would prevent enough pollution to equal removing one million cars from the road.
  

Use less water

• Don't let the water run while shaving or brushing teeth.
• Take short showers instead of tub baths.
• Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool.
• Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
• Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine.
• Buy high-efficient plumbing fixtures & appliances.
• Repair all leaks (a leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons a day).
• Water the lawn or garden during the coolest part of the day (early morning is best).
• Water plants differently according to what they need. Check with your local extension service or nurseries for advice.
• Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only – not the street or sidewalk.
• Use soaker hoses or trickle irrigation systems for trees and shrubs.
• Keep your yard healthy - dethatch, use mulch, etc.
• Sweep outside instead of using a hose.
  

Reduce/reuse/recycle
Practice the three R's: first reduce how much you use, then reuse what you can, and then recycle the rest. Then, dispose of what's left in the most environmentally friendly way.

• Reduce:
  • Buy permanent items instead of disposables.
  • Buy and use only what you need.
  • Buy products with less packaging.
  • Buy products that use less toxic chemicals.
• Reuse:
• Repair items as much as possible.
• Use durable coffee mugs.
• Use cloth napkins or towels.
• Clean out juice bottles and use them for water.
• Use empty jars to hold leftover food.
• Reuse boxes.
• Purchase refillable pens and pencils.
• Participate in a paint collection and reuse program.
• Donate extras to people you know or to charity instead of throwing them away.
• Reuse grocery bags as trash bags.
• Recycle:
• Recycle paper (printer paper, newspapers, mail, etc.), plastic, glass bottles, cardboard, and aluminum cans. If your community doesn't collect at the curb, take them to a collection center.
• Recycle Electronics
  
• Compost food scraps, grass and other yard clippings, and dead plants.
• Close the loop - buy recycled products and products that use recycled packaging. That's what makes recycling economically possible.

For more information regarding Earth Day, visit the Earth Day Network or EarthDay.gov.

Getting Paid to Recycle - CBS News Video

I saw a video about getting paid by recycling a few months ago but cannot remember which channel I watched it. I happened to drop by the CBS website today and while there, I searched for Recycling videos and I found the video I saw before (see below).

Watch CBS Videos Online

The company that pays you to recycle is called RecycleBank. How it works is that they provide you a recycling cart where you put all the recyclable items. The cart has an embedded Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) chip on it and this is used to track the weight of your items once they are picked up. The weight is then converted into points on your RecycleBank account and you can use these points to redeem rewards on their website.

The video was shown in December 2008 and according to it, RecycleBank is being used at 15 States and expects to be grow to 20 States this year.

Are you voting for Earth with your Light Switch on March 28?

On Saturday, March 28, 2009, it will be another Earth Hour. It is as simple as switching off your lights at 8:30pm to 9:30pm (local time). My family learned about this last year and we participated. The kids enjoyed the time when we switched all our lights at 8:30pm. We even turned off a couple of our appliances (T.V. and computer).

Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007 and expanded to different cities in 2008. This year's goal is to get 1 billion people to switch their lights off.

To find out more about Earth Hour, visit the site http://www.earthhour.org/about/