Let's Take Care of OUR Earth!

With all the Earth hype this past week, I have done a lot of thinking on how I need to play my part on keeping the earth clean.

First of all...we need to keep our priorities straight!



All around the world many DRY landfills are being used. A dry landfill may take over 100 years to decompose... some trash FOREVER! Wet landfills decompose quicker, but the downside is that they emit toxic chemicals into the soil and the ground water that I don't want to be around. Do you? Landfills also create methane gas, which can be explosive. Researchers have excavated landfills and found items to be unchanged after YEARS of lying there! Gross! Even Hot Dogs were found intact!

Basically, a landfill is a disposal facility where wast is buried in the ground. It is often covered to look like a natural part of the environment. Sometimes it is used for agriculture. I don't want my food growing there! Not too long from now the landfills will run out and we will have to start building on these dumps! We CAN'T let this happen It is time to STOP waste!

Drink this! If we don't stop now, we'll have to!

Think about these decomposing rates:

Banana Peel: 3-4 weeks Paper Bag: 1 month
Cotton Rag: 5 months
Cardboard Box: several months to 5 years
Cigarette: 12-40 years
Fruit and Vegetables: 6 months - 2 years
Paper: 5 months to 50 years
Wool Sock: 1 year
Lumber: 10-15 years
Tinned Steel Can: 80-100 years
Aluminum Can: 200-500 years (but if recycled can be reused within 6 weeks)
Plastic Bottles: 50 - 100 years
Motor Oil: 10 - 30 years
Disposable Diapers: 500-600 years (in a dry landfill) 20 years if in the sun and rain
Plastic Bags: 1 million years
Glass: millions of years
Styrofoam: Eternity

Mostly taken from (http://www.merton.gov.uk/landfill.htm)

It seems that vegetables would decompose faster, but if they don't have any decomposing agents, the numbers aren't hard to believe. I'm never using Styrofoam again!

Did you know that recycling 1 ton of newspapers saves 12 trees, and recycling 1 ton of computer paper saves 24 trees? Think of how fast a ton is used in the workplace. Poor trees!


Ways We Can Recycle Old Items:
This website has many tips, some are cheesy but are appreciated! http://www.ccsolidwaste.org/Recycling_ideas.htm

Buy recycled paper instead of the other kind. Only 10 percent of paper in the stores are recycled because not enough people buy it.

Automotive Floor Mats (rubber/carpeted)

• Take with you when you go on a picnic. Put them on a picnic table bench if it's wet from rain or dew or on the ground if no benches are around.
• Place plastic mats under pet water/food dishes to catch spills.
• Use as a floor mat for leaky containers in the garage or basement

Baby Wipe Containers

• Use the cylindrical type with the hole at the top to dispense balls of yarn. It keeps the yarn from getting tangled
• Place to store plastic bags (also can use old tissue boxes)
  

Bags--Baggies

• DON'T USE!!! Use tupperware instead.
  
• For those of you who need your baggies, wash them out and reuse them for your next lunch.

Bags--Paper (grocery)
Use for garbage bags around the house.
Use to cover school text books.

Bags--Paper (lunch)
Don't use.
Reuse.

Bags--Plastic (grocery)
Use the plastic bags you get from stores for liners in garbage cans around your house.
Keep them in your car for garbage.

Belts
Use to tie back tree branches.
Use for tying young trees to supports.

Binders (three-ring)

• Cut out the section which has the rings on it, drill a hole through the rivets, and then screw the strip to a wall. Use to store commonly used utensils, paint brushes or your keys.
• Use for orderly storage of bank statements, credit card statements, etc.
• Print out your favorite recipes on paper and then store in a binder. (You can find them much quicker this way than searching through several cook books.

Blankets

• Keep an old one in your car for emergencies.
• Fold in half the long way, sew it together, and use it as an exercise mat. If it is not cushy enough, sew two together.
  
• Keep for use at the beach or when on a picnic.
• Take when camping so you don't destroy a good one.

Books and Magazines

• Donate books to a library.
• Sell college books directly to other students
• Use cool magazine pictures as envelopes.
• Make bath toys by cutting pictures out of a magazine and covering them with contact paper, leaving a one-half inch lip around each piece to allow it to seal. When these pieces get wet, they will stick to the bathroom tile.
• Use old magazines to make cool collages for gifts.

Bottles--Beverage (Glass)

• Use an old beach bottle as a candle holder--the wax dripping over the side will make pretty designs.
• Fill a clear glass bottle with small candies.
• Make a glass bottle into a vase.
• Make a bank.

Bottles--Beverage (Plastic)

• Fill with water and freeze. They make nice "blue ice" for coolers

Bottles--Household

• Use detergent, fabric softener or shampoo bottles filled with USED motor oil for lubricating drive chains.
• Fill glass cleaner bottles with soapy water and keep by the area in your house which has been infiltrated by ants. It is messier than traps, but safer than poison.
• Cut the top part off of a liquid laundry detergent container. Use the main part as a pooper scooper and the top portion as the pusher. Empty, rinse and reuse.

Boxes--Shoeboxes

• Use to store recipes.
• Tape the lids to the boxes, paint them bright colors, and give them to the kids for building blocks.
• Use to hold odds and ends--just paint or cover with cool paper.
• Make into a dollhouse.

Compact Discs

• Use as reflectors.
• Use as coasters.
• Place a watch in the center and hang it on the wall for a funky clock.
• Tie mono filimant fishing line to a CD and hang it in your fruit tree. It will keep the birds from eating all of the fruit.

Cookie Cutters

• Give to the kids and let them use when playing with playdogh.
• Give to kids as templates for tracing on paper.
• Children can dip in paint and then press onto paper to make art.

Crayons

• Melt old crayons together and use cookie cutters to make fun shapes for younger kids.
• Make patchwork crayons.
• Create a vase by melting different colored crayons over an old bottle. Let the wax drip randomly.
• Make creative envelope seals by dripping crayon wax onto the back of an envelope. Make a special imprint in the wax if you want.

Drink Mix Containers (those with twist-off caps)

• Use for storage of rice, pasta, etc. when camping (or at home).
• Use the large bottom portion to hold water to rinse paint brushes. Use the lid for the paint.

Envelopes

• Take envelopes which are sent by businesses (in the hopes that you will return them), place a label over the pre-printed address, write in a new address, and send it on its way.
• Use for writing notes to family members. Don't recycle until it is completely filled.
• Use for storing receipts.
• Use for storing or carrying coupons.
• Use for writing grocery lists.

Fabric Softener Sheets

• Tear the sheets in half before using in the dryer to reduce the number of sheets you use. (Carie)
  
• Use to dust your house.
• Place inside shoes at night to keep them smelling fresh.

There are SO many ideas on the website listed above! I am too tired to finish all or the ideas. What ideas do you have to help save the earth?

I almost put a picture of a dead bird that suffocated from plastic, but it was too sad