Tamara's Blog

GreenDimes Just Got Better

In July, I wrote about an organization called GreenDimes (see The Day Julia Went Green).  It's an organization focused on stopping junk mail, saving trees and saving water.

I recently received an email from GreenDimes with an amazing progress report on how it's going:

• Tens of thousands of households have signed up
• 1.3 million pounds of junk mail has been stopped
• Over 270,000 trees have been saved
• Over 3 million gallons of water has been saved

They're now onto stopping all unwanted postal mail for good - with a new DO-NOT-MAIL petition.

When greendimes.com launched, they were charging $36 annually. It's now a $15 one-time charge. Click here to go check out the site. Don't forget to sign up.

The Day Julia Went Green

The day was April 20, 2007. I received an email from a good friend, Julia, telling her friends and family about an organization she heard about on Oprah called greendimes. The subject line on the email was "Going Green." 

Another friend, Julie, replied to the email with "This is the *best* subject line of any email you have *ever* sent me" - to which Julia responded, "Don’t tell Tamara. I’ll be even more in the middle than ever………………"

You see, back in the day, there was this political divide between Julie, Julia and me. Julia and I swung politically right while Julie swung politically wrong left. It was all good.

Then we all took this quick online political quiz last year, and it showed that Julia wasn't as right as we originally thought and Julie wasn't as wrong left either. Those two appear to be close neighbors in the center of town - one just right of the tracks, the other just left. As for me, I seem to be the only right one left. ;)

Introducing greendimes

All that to say that Julia turned us onto a really kewl organization called greendimes. By becoming a member for $36/year (a dime a day), you can reduce your postal junk mail by up to 90%. You can also stop unwanted catalogs from being delivered to you. This, in effect, saves tons of trees and water (literally).

Check out the greendimes Web site. It keeps a running impact counter of how many pounds of junk mail have been stopped, how many trees have been planted/saved and how many gallons of water have been saved. If you become a member, this counter also shows your individual impact.

Go GREEN! (That was for you Julie.)

Do I Recycle? But, Of Course, I Live in Seattle

In case there is any confusion, Washington State is green in more ways than one. But I must admit that it wasn't until this year that I started to take recycling more seriously.

It all started with a personal rule of life I had to develop for my Fuller Masters program. [A rule of life is a set of disciplines to aid in personal transformation.] One discipline I included was care of the Earth: to become more educated about recycling and recycle even more. 

My New, Big Blue Recycling Container

Not long after I put this rule into practice, I received a pamphlet from my community saying that they were switching out our smaller recycling bins for a larger, blue recycling container on wheels. We no longer had to separate our recyclables; it all goes together now.

My new container happened to be twice the size of my 32-gallon trash can. My opportunity to "become more educated about recycling" had arrived. I had to figure out how I was going to fill this new addition to the family up faster than 4X/year.

For several years, I've had two trash cans in my kitchen-one for trash and the other for recyclables. Now that I'm "educated," I can easily fill up my recyclables can twice as fast as my trash can.

Another recycling bonus: The more you recycle, the bigger credit you receive, and the smaller your bill gets. We all win.

Seattle's New Initiative

On Tuesday, a Seattle Times article came out: Food-trash recycling at homes to be required by Seattle in '09. All single-family homes will be required to sign up for table scrap recycling by 2009. I'm telling you - we are a lean, green, recycling machine around here!

Other Ways I Recycle

Clothes. I've always been big on recycling clothes. Generally, I have the same (small) amount of clothes because if I buy 5 new pieces, then I pick out 5 "old" pieces to give to Goodwill. It keeps my closet under control and it allows me to pass on some cool pieces to others.

Books. I also have LOTS of books. As part of my new rule, I went through all my books recently, and pulled out over 100 books to donate to the Friends of Libraries U.S.A. organization. They will then be able to sell them at their biannual book sale.

So yes, I do recycle - and I am recycling more. How about you?

Meet the Conversionator, a Recycling Calculator

I found this nifty tool on the National Recycling Coalition site called the Conversionator. It is a recycling calculator that helps you measure the impact you have on the environment.

To get started, click on the Recycling Calculator image above (or go to www.getrecycling.org and click on the image). This will launch the Conversionator.

Besides the Flash animations that show you the impact of certain recyclable items, check out the links at the bottom :

• Top 10 reasons to recycle
• Top 10 items to recycle - a nice, concise list
• Resources - this launches a map so you can find out more about recycling for your state

10 Million Small Steps

Last week, I was having lunch with a coworker. As we were getting ready to pay the bill, she pulled out this small cotton bag with a small carabiner and asked if I had one. I wasn't sure what she was holding, so this is when she introduced me to the Small Steps reusable shopping bag.

Reuse is Better Than Recycling

Small Steps is a new initiative promoting a responsible alternative to plastic shopping bags. With a Small Steps bag, you no longer have to choose between "paper or plastic." As my coworker explained, "Recycling is good, but reuse is so much better." These bags are compact and come in two styles - backpack and classic side carry.

The Story Behind Small Steps

Small Steps is a group of volunteers in India who have committed to making 10 MILLION bags to give away. This initiative is providing jobs for 1000 people for 1000 days. These numbers alone are mind-blowing. 

Why are they doing it? Simply stated, this is love in action. This group wants to promote environmental consciousness and responsibility towards Mother Earth, and these bags are a simple Small Step they can take. This initiative is financed solely through donations.

There is a Small Steps ambassador in Redmond, Washington, to help bring Small Steps to the United States.

What You Can Do

You can learn more about Small Steps at http://www.smallsteps.in. You can also help in three ways:

• Use the bag - go to the Web site to request your free bag
• Spread the word - send the Web site link (or a link to this post) to family and friends
• Donate - go the Web site to provide financial support

Click here to go the Small Steps Web site now. [HT to JulieC and Vijay.]

I Am NOT the Poster Child for Recycling

But I am willing to do my part and support my community. And that's a start.

Like most of you, I have listened to the reports and read the facts about why recycling is important and what simple things we can do to help the planet. While most (if not all) will agree that we need to take care of the earth for ourselves and for future generations, how we live that out is where the discussion starts to get interesting (for some at least).

Live Earth

Last week, Al Gore pulled off the largest "ecopalooza" with the Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis event. It pulled in over 150 musical groups and over 2 billion online and offline spectators (or so they say). Do you realize that's almost 1/3 of the planet's population? And yet, some view the event a big bust. The point here is that there is A LOT of interest on the topic.

What's Coming Up

This week, I'll briefly share some of my recent "green" discussions and discoveries. Since I am not the Poster Child, it's just meant to make you aware of some neat things going on out there. Here's what's on deck:

• Tuesday: 10 Million Small Steps
• Wednesday: Meet the Conversionator, a Recycling Calculator
• Thursday: Do I Recycle?
• Friday: The Day Julia Went Green