I had a salon appointment this morning, so I stopped to drop off the recycling on my way - and while sorting my recycling into the different bins I found someone had dropped a few coke boxes without taking the “points” off.
SCORE!
I tore the Coke points off if them, as Stepmom saves those and gets free stuff with them. THEN, I see that someone has also dumped off their coupon inserts with their old Sunday papers.
SCORE!
I took those too!! Coupons = CASH in my pocket!!

I headed over to Stepdad’s for my Saturday visit, and we went to Super WalMart to pick up a few things he needed…(I made him tuna salad for sandwiches last weekend, and now that’s all he wants - you would have thought I cooked him a 5 course meal! He raved about my tuna sandwiches all week!! So, more tuna fish was in order)
Now, why is it that the WalMart cashiers give me the stink eye when I have my own bags?? I know Wal Mart SELLS their own re-usable bags, so they are not totally against reusing…..but I seem to always get the snippy cashier when I go. Stepdad unloads the cart on the belt, hands me the coupons, and goes to the other end with our canvas bags ( I have him trained..LOL..)….cashier starts ringing things and putting them into plastic bags…?
I gently remind her, “oh, we have our own bags, thank you”..
She looks at me and states “Well, then you will have to do your own bagging”…
“That’s fine, Stepdad is retired from Publix after 28 years - he can do that for you..”
Now the Wal Mart checkouts are not made for bagging your own - they have those roundy round deals with all the plastic bag holders so it’s easy to dump stuff in and not need a bag person.
TOO BAD. I made her place the items on the small space on top of the roundy round deal, and we bagged our own.

So Wal Mart, if you are listening - you may want to re-think your whole checkout stand and make it a little more “I’m an Eco Geek and I’m bringing my own bags” friendly!

That’s the latest term of endearment Sister has given me! That’s okay, I wear it with pride!

I got my new Sigg bottle in the mail yesterday - y’all know I do NOT buy bottled water - waste of money, plastic, oil…and probably other things. Helloooo? The water coming out of your faucet is FREE. For about $20 you can install a Pur faucet filter and you are good to go! I keep a nice glass pitcher in the fridge, and BAM - all the cool water I need to drink! My Nalgene bottle has seen better days, and I always seem to leave it in the car - so I got a Sigg aluminum bottle…of course, I got one with a cool saying on it …”NOT a plastic bottle and proud of it “..!!

I’ve noticed a LOT more people at the local recycling center when I go on weekends to make my drop offs, and I also noticed a LOT more people carryigng their own reusable bags into the grocery stores… this is a good thing…I think you all are catching on!!

If I can change ONE person’s mind in regards to reduce-reuse-recycle, I’ve done what I set out to do.

Take the Earthbound Organic Farm Conservation Quiz and get a FREE reusable shopping tote! Learn something new, AND help the earth by not taking another plastic bag when you go to the store!
**You have to score at least 9 out of 10, so read all of the question before you answer!

The gifts are wrapped and under the tree. I am officially done!!
And, while I did not get around to recycling the brown paper bags I was saving into my own gift wrap, I did use leftover wrap from years past, did NOT use any bows or ribbon, and utilized gift bags I had from years past, which I know will be re-used next year by the recipients.
I purchased a live Rosemary Tree (bush) as a decoration, and will be handing it off to my Stepmother to plant in her yard, for years of fresh herbs!
I will also be sending in all of the holiday cards I received for recycling, after Christmas the local paper will be printing addresses of organizations that need them.
So, I did try to reduce the amount of Christmas waste that comes out of my house.
EDIT: I also gave everyone their gift, inside a re-usable cloth grocery bag to encourage them to not take plastic when shopping!

And, no, not just because if where I live!
Many of you know that I am a canvas bag toting girl who is trying to reduce her carbon footprint at every turn.
Mr Fab calls me a Hippie.
I heart Al Gore…. sue me.
I went to a workshop last evening at the Brooker Creek Preserve “How to make your Holiday Green”….it was all about reducing your impact on the environment during the Holiday season….(when no one is thinking of that sort of thing).

Did you know -

The holiday add 25 MILLION TONS of garbage to our landfills?

Do you know what’s in that garbage?

7 BILLION greeting cards.
33 MILLION Christmas trees.
33,600 TONS of aluminum foil.
1,000,000 TONS of plastic packaging.

Whew!

You cannot recycle wrapping paper, tissue paper, ribbons, bows, greeting cards, styrofoam, bubble wrap, broken ornaments…..! And, a lot of them are not biodegradable!

We are giving the earth GARBAGE for Christmas, people!

So, last night…I learned ways to reduce and re-use during the holidays…I am going to share, with the hopes that you will try at least ONE of these ideas and reduce your impact this holiday season as well.

-If you are on my Christmas Card list ( and you so want to be on this list, who doesn’t want a picture of me and Snoopy in front of the tree - which Cousin affectionately calls “Cheryl’s Christmas Cleavage”!! ), you will be getting either a 100% recycled greeting, or a “seed card” - which is a card that you can bury in your yard, and in the Spring - it grows into flowers! How cool is that?

- If you are lucky enough to be on my gift list, you will be getting your gift wrapped in homemade or recycled wrapping paper, or boxes. I learned how to turn brown paper shopping bags into pretty wrap by using colored pencils and leaves and doing a “leaf print” on the bag by coloring over the leaf. A nice string of vegetable dyed raffia makes a great ribbon! (GREAT project for the kids!) I learned how to turn my used holiday cards, and old calendar pictures into a gift box, using a diagram, a little oragami skill, and lots of folding!

- If you are invited into my home (NOW you are really special!), you will see the impact when you view my tree, which is always small, but filled with love - it will be live this year, not cut, and I will then plant it in either one of our gardens here, or give to a family member with a yard to plant. (If you get a fresh cut tree, please make sure it gets to a recycling facility after the holiday, and not just thrown in the trash.)

I made my commitment, what’s yours?