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I was reading this article today on CNN about this guy in London who figured out how to build a bicycle out of cardboard.  The market is for people who don’t want to spend a lot on a bike that might get stolen and hopefully make it cheap enough so that someone won’t even want to steal the bike.  Additionally the concept would be to replace the cardboard frame every 6 months.

Now CNN has put this in a very green aspect but I’m torn on how I feel about that. Yes, making biking an affordable and secure mode of transportation helps with all the negative impacts that cars have on the environment.  However, replacing an entire bike frame every 6 months can’t be ideal either.  I realize we aren’t living in an ideal world, if we were this blog wouldn’t exist.  Perhaps this is just a step, but is it the right one?  We get away from the infamous carbon footprint, but is generating more waste better?

Just some thoughts I had on the topic today.  Not an answer or something that we can do, but perhaps something to think about as we do look at the changes we are making.

On another transportation note, and an upcoming post will feature this, I have been taking the train into work every day and loving it.  I’ve been living here for 4 weeks now and have yet to go to the gas station to fill up.  Especially nice when gas is over $4 a gallon.

I was on the phone with my mom tonight, and she had a fantastic idea.  She said she was looking for a collapsible bowl but hasn’t been able to find one.  So I did some searching and found some.

Let me back up and explain.  When you go out to dinner, the portion sizes are usually way too big.  I at least try to control my portion sizes to be healthier, but that means there are always leftovers.  Most restaurants will put those leftovers in a “nice” Styrofoam container for you to take home.  It is hard for those of us that are trying to control what we eat and be better for the environment.  This is where my mom’s idea fits in.  A collapsible bowl will easily fit into purse and can be expanded at the end of dinner to bring home those double portion sizes.

I first found a really cute set of bowls at Crate & Barrel that really weren’t that expensive.  As I thought about those, they won’t work for this particular situation because there is no lid.  However, I found that Rubbermaid is making collapsible bowls with lids.  Check out the website, they also list places where you can buy them.  Several grocery stores are listed that you can find here in Philadelphia and in Phoenix.  There are also some national chains that carry them like Target and Kmart. I also found a similar product made by Foldtuk at Target.

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.

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.