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I’m getting settled into my new city and finding great things here that I will be writing about.  But today I wanted to talk about something that has been on my mind for awhile, and truthfully I’m quite scared by it.

Back in about early February I read this article about how you should never flush medication (prescription or over-the-counter) down the toilet.  The basic idea is that all this stuff that you flush down the toilet is not being treated at sewage waste treatment facilities.  That means it is entering the environment, including streams, lakes, etc..  There are also tons of studies that show how our drugs are affecting marine life.  There are fish are becoming sterile because of some of the drugs that have entered the water they live in. 

Then if you remember, in March was all the news about medications in our drinking water.  This was followed up that it was also in bottled water.  So it isn’t just marine life, but now it has become full circle and is in the water we drink.  As I said, this really scares me.
So what can I (we) do?  That same article at Earth 911 talks about take-back programs at local pharmacies.  I checked at my local Rite-aid back in February and asked the pharmacist what the best way was to dispose of medications.  He said to flush it.  Sad.  Well since then, there was all the news covering our drinking water in March, and now there are tons of resources on proper disposal. 

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (I found it through the EPA), has some very clear instructions.  They say to take unused, unneeded, or expired prescription drugs out of their original containers and throw them in the trash in an empty can or sealable bag to further ensure drugs are not diverted into the water system.  They do have an exceptions list, so please check out their website.

Also with the popularity of this topic, there are now several regional take-back programs that I’ve found with some searching online.  These were in cities like Seattle, Omaha, and several places in Canada.  Unfortunately I couldn’t find any in Cleveland, Philadelphia, or Phoenix.  But keep your eyes open, they might be coming soon to your area.  If not, reference the Office of National Drug Control Policy instructions to dispose of your prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

I know I haven’t blogged much over the past week or two since my life is being turned all around.  Within the next week we will be moving from the Cleveland area to Philadelphia, which means going away parties and packing.  At some points I don’t know which way is up, with all the changes coming about.  Once I get settled into Philadelphia, more regular blog posts will be coming.  I promise you that.

With moving, I’m coming up with some more green and economical ways of doing things.

• I went to the grocery store and liquor store this morning and didn’t buy anything.  I asked for their boxes that they were going to be throwing away.  This way I’m reusing materials that they would have been tossing into the landfill, and I get free boxes.
• Craigslist.  So I haven’t gone on there yet, but I have a few larger items I need to get rid of and plan to get on craigslist this week and sell some of this stuff.
• I’m looking for a lawn service.  I don’t know what I want or need, other than someone to mow the lawn until the house sells.  I noticed today that my neighbor, who is a bit older, also has a lawn service.  How great would it be if they did my lawn the same time they did her lawn?  Ya, it would be ideal if one of the neighborhood kids would just come do it, but I haven’t established a relationship with too many of my neighbors that have kids old enough.
• Purge, purge, purge.  You may have noticed that many of my posts over the past few months have been about me getting rid of stuff.  This was in anticipation of the move.  The less stuff we have, the less we have to move, and the less the truck is going to weigh.  This means we get a lower moving cost, but also the truck can travel more efficiently without the extra weight.  We also end up having a much neater house, which is great for a sanity check. 

Our lives our moving, but this blog will remain.  I just might be more aware of Philly amenities and big city features when it comes to being more green, but I’ll still try to keep an eye on things going on in Cleveland for all the Ohioans.  Look out for what new things I find.

Do you have chemicals around your house?  Old containers of paint, pesticides, or just random chemicals you just aren’t sure how to dispose of…

I live in Cuyahoga County and this Saturday (May 10th), they are hosting a Household Hazardous Waste Round-Up.  This allows you to bring in all those chemicals that you aren’t sure how to dispose of properly and have the county dispose of these materials in an environmentally friendly way.  They have this event twice a year, and I actually took advantage of the City of Parma’s collection this past weekend.

It is very easy to do this.  All you have to do is put these containers of chemicals in the trunk of your car.  When you pull into the site, they signal to where you need to pull into and then pop your trunk.  The staff will come out to your car and empty the materials out of your car. Then you simply pull away, taking less than five minutes.

If you have hazardous chemicals around your house, take them to be properly disposed of.  It’s not just about disposing of them in an environmentally friendly way, but also to clean out the environment you live in every day of these chemicals.  There is a reason they call them “hazardous” chemicals.  Clean up your environment and be good to the overall environment.

Do you have a large collection of “collectibles”?  I sure do, several different collections in fact.  Things just seem to accumulate over time. 

As part of cleaning out my house the past few months, I’ve decided to give up my doll collection.  When I was only 3 or 4 years old my great aunt left me her entire doll collection and over the years it was added to.  Now that I’m 28, and don’t appreciate it as much, I decided that it was time to get rid of all the dolls that I don’t truly love.  I went through all of them and pulled out the ones I truly love, less than 10 of the probably 60-100 dolls that I had.

Then I started pondering, what do I do with all those dolls that I don’t want.  I picked up the phone and called my brother to see if my niece would like to have them.  After all, it has family history and is only right that if someone in the family would like it, it should stay in the family. So I just boxed up the dolls to ship to my niece. 

What does any of this have to do with being green?  Well, the basic gist here is that just because you don’t want something, doesn’t mean no one wants it.  In this case, I took a collection of items (this could be anything you collect) that needed thinned out and see if there is someone else that you know that would like them.  People love to collect things, landfills don’t.

If you are doing some thorough spring cleaning like I am, really consider how you are getting rid of items.

So the weather has gotten much warmer here in Cleveland over the past week or two.  This makes me want to do some serious cleaning, mostly cleaning out.  I wanted to highlight here what I’ve been doing over this past weekend pertaining to my spring cleaning. 

1. Donated my old computer – I got a new laptop a few months ago and finally got rid of my old desktop.  I did this as part of April being Cuyahoga County’s Computer Round-up month.  I loaded my computer (and any spare parts I could find that I don’t need any more) into my trunk.  The way they had it setup was so nice.  I drove into this building, popped my trunk and two guys came right over and unloaded my trunk for me and put the parts in their organized piles.  Cuyahoga County will take a look at my equipment, refurbish what they can and donate it to local schools.
2. Recycled magazines – We don’t get many magazines, but the one we love is The Family Handyman.  These accumulate over time in the bathroom.  So I had my husband go through these and get rid of as many as he could part with.  Unfortunately magazines aren’t part of our curbside recycling.  However, there are tons of bins throughout the town to put all kinds of paper into.  So while I was running over to donate the computer, I stopped at a bin and recycled all the magazines.
3. Clothing donations – I went through my closet and dresser and purged a lot of clothes.  I had sweaters in there that I haven’t worn in years.  No sense in having it clutter my closet if I’m not going to wear it.  Between the clothes and some blankets in the guest bedroom closet, I filled 2 garbage bags full.  There are also tons of bins around the city (just like for paper and magazine recycling) where the bags will get dumped into and the clothes will go towards helping people that need them. 

Getting rid of these items has really helped get my house cleaned up.  I always feel better when I come home to a clean house.