YOU can be Green

If you do not need it or have a good use for it eventually, then don't buy it.

This does NOT mean that you should keep everything at the bare bones level.
It IS a good idea to keep your pantry well stocked and to keep supplies at hand for when you need them.
Besides, life is to be enjoyed - just think first.

What I am talking about here is think before you buy that new radio or those new clothes or new furniture... .
Do you really NEED new, or can you get buy with the old and maybe jazz it up to look new ?

Can it be used again ?

If not, can you find another use for it ?

Can it be disassembled and the parts be used for something else ?

So often things get throw away when they didn't deserve it.
Be inventive !
Look for ways to find some life in it and only throw something out when it cannot be recycled or if trying to save it is dangerous or unsanitary.

We are always using cast-offs from others at my Gift Shop.
We use the plastic air pillows that our neighborhood record stores gets in his packages (like bubblewrap, but they are 5x7 rectangles) by cutting off the very tops and using them when folks buy my bath teas or sachets... and my Mom uses them to wrap up her customers jewelry... purchases.
We also use left over pieces of paneling and other thin boards and cover them with scrap fabrics to make small shelves for my Hubbard Ohio Gift Shop !
If you use your imagination, almost nothing will be wasted and can be put to good use.

Then, see if it can be recycled.
These days, many kinds of material can and is being recycled.

Make sure you do your part in this.
Recycle everything you can in you own home.
Carry a bag with you so that if you are at a park or at someone's house and see that items are going into the trash instead of being recycled - rescue as much as you can out of the trash (if it is safe to do so) and let folks know that you are collecting it too so hopefully they will bring it to you instead of dumping it.

Yes, you will probably get a few strange looks and even some comments, but so what !

I wrote a little post about my vintage fabric collection which is one of the ways that I practice the 3 R's above : http://avcosa.ning.com/profiles/blogs/i-am-sewing-as-fast-as-i-can
I will repost it here because I think you have to be a member over there to read the posts.

I am sewing as fast as I can...
Posted by Diana on June 20, 2009 at 12:45pm

I have a huge stash of vintage fabrics and I am always finding more at my local flea market and auction... whether I NEED them or not.

I just can't help myself ;)

I do use it, but it must multiply on its own or something - LOL

I love making hand-sewn items with it and I make gifts for family and friends too.

I sell many of them in my online store, my B&M store and at local shows... .

The latest to find its way into my hands are a peacock blue vintage fabric and a mixed blues and white cotton vintage fabric.
I am mixing and matching these into several eye masks and neck pillows... .
I even found peacock blue stretch lace (new - to make sure the stretch will last a while) to use for the straps on the eye masks

I have a few sewn that still need to be stuffed, but I am waiting on my lavender from my garden to finish drying out.

I have several more items with my pattern drawn out, cut and pinned that still need to be sewn.

Then, I have several other items in various vintage fabrics that are already sewn and stuffed, but still need to be measured, wrapped, priced and listed.

I will have a whole room in my house dedicated to my fabrics and other crafts - hopefully by the first of the year.
We'll see how that goes - LOL - you know how plans go :)

I love wood for many reasons.
It is practical, it is renewable, it is durable, it is reusable, it is beautiful, it smells good...
And, it the way my Grandpa and I bonded.
I was my Grandpa's apprentice when I was little.
He was a recycler before they were called that.
He would remodel other people's homes or clean out their garages... and then take all of the good wood, windows, doors... home and use them to fix up his own house (the house I have now).

My first job with him was to straighten out the nails that he pulled from the old wood.
Later, I progressed to pulling them out myself and then straightening them :)
Before my hands started to fail, I made many items from wood - mostly recycled wood.
I made bookshelves, frames, and even a dog house from scrap lumber and it is a nice feeling to "Make something out of nothing." as my Grandma would say.

I love the smell of wood its feel and its look...
I do not trust my hands with a hammer much anymore, but I have a friend who has a brother in the North Carolina/Virgina area who makes cedar boxes so he cuts his own trees and uses them.
He saves the cedar shavings for me and I pay for the shipping to get it to me.
I use those fresh cedar shavings in my cedar sachets that folks like to use in their closets and dresser drawers... .

Yes, it would be cheaper to go to the pet store and buy those cedar shavings, BUT I do not know from where they came or if they were treated with anything.
Buying from my friend's brother - I am getting fresh cedar that came from his trees and was not treated, I am keeping these shavings out of a landfill, and I am making a product with them that folks want so it is a win-win situation all around.

I am happy to be continuing what my Grandparents taught me, namely to try to find a use for everything so as to waste nothing.

Organically Yours,
Diana

Many businesses are jumping on the "Green-Washing" band wagon these days, and it will get worse.

The only way I have been able to stay ahead of the fakers is too put EVERYTHING on the label and to show folks how (and why) I do things so there is no mystery - LOL

You have to really watch those labels.
These days with the big push to use ONLY the chemical and/or Latin terms for ingredients makes it very tough for the average person to know what is what - the big companies like that because that is how they can slide though the cracks of folks thinking that they are "Green" when they are not.

Green also has many meanings.

For instance, I go to several estate auction houses and can get box after box of vintage fabrics from the 50's to the 80's.
Many of them are not natural fabrics, BUT using them keeps them out of the landfills - so to me that is being "Green" - others might not agree.

We each make up our our minds as to what is "Green".
It is, like so many other things, a matter of degrees and what is "Green" today might be found to be not so much with more research in the future - who knows.

All we can do is just that - what we can do as an individual and have a hope that our efforts have meaning.

We have a whole room of good, used books and videos at our little gift shop located at 6177 Youngstown-Hubbard Road in Hubbard, Ohio.
Here is a page about our gift shop with directions and a map:
http://www.squidoo.com/Gifts-and-Collectibles-Business